Product Details

• Actors: VH1-Pop Up Video
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony
• VHS Release Date: June 29, 1999
• Run Time: 65 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0738920320
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,189 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

At its best, VH-1's Pop Up Video achieves a canny balance between comedy, music, and documentary, "re-purposing" old MTV chestnuts through a layered stream of short text bites that pop, both visually and audibly, on top of the video clip at hand. Parenthetical factoids, random pop cultural connections, rock star career gossip, and ironic juxtapositions of world history at the time of the clip's original release afford a Greek chorus for viewers with short attention spans.

Thus, Robert Palmer's sultry, stone-faced "band" of Stepford supermodels sways through "Addicted to Love" while the viewer learns of the video director's goal of invoking kabuki through the choice of makeup and Palmer's love of alcohol; statistics on employment and gender alternate with Donna Summer's own career moves atop "She Works Hard for the Money"; and Sammy Hagar's moving violations and willingness to smuggle Ferraris across the Canadian border garnish "I Can't Drive 55." The tension between the well-worn video images and these pithy diversions, as well as the graphic style for the text balloons that appear, mimic computer and Internet information presentation-–it's a midi-tech evocation of interactivity, but the interaction is between the screen action and the program's writers, excluding the viewer.

As broadcast programming, Pop Up Video has been a deserved hit, not least of all for its welcome irreverence, which embraces a willingness to poke fun at the show's own MTV origins. This first long-form anthology is more problematic, however. Some exclusive new footage filtering 1980s historical events through "pop up" commentary does afford mordant context, but interviews with the show's writers, explaining how they researched each clip, ironically offer too much information: these talking head segments are redundant at best. More pointedly, the ‘80s timeframe has prompted a perverse emphasis on forgettable kitsch; nostalgia is short-lived when confronted with Night Ranger, Poison, or the Fixx, although historic clips from the Buggles and Peter Gabriel have weathered well. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Yearning to see pop-up video, May 7, 2009

By	D. AMADORI - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've always enjoyed the few pop-up videos i've seen in the past and was delighted to see (on VH1 classics) they had 2 pop-up video lists. I watched a couple and decided I wouldn't watch them all at once so I would have something to look forward to in the following days. Then I found to my great disappointment the videos would no longer play! I then had the idea that there might be a pop-up video dvd on Amazon.com, and there was! This dvd has 11 pop-up videos on it and comments from the people that put the pop-ups on them. However, even though they say they picked the best videos, I think they picked the worst. what's with all the English videos on here? I will hope to find a way to see the many American videos I haven't seen.

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy or Fall, January 29, 2005

By	B. Lovian "blovian" (United States) - See all my reviews

Great videos; the popups are a fascinating complement. "Stand or Fall" is the best gem in here. It wasn't a huge hit, but the song and video are both powerful. I only wish VH-1 would release more "pop up" collections!

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is music or noise?, January 17, 2004

By	"ale2964" (Italy) - See all my reviews

There are pop up audio and i can't hear music :-(