Steve Barron is an Irish director and producer known for directing many pioneering and popular music videos in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of his most famous music videos include "Take On Me" by A-ha and "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson. He frequently worked with rock bands like The Culture Club, Toto, and A-ha. Barron is notable for introducing narrative elements and cinematic techniques to music videos, making them more like short films. This original style helped launch the music video genre and allowed it to gain widespread popularity.

1. Steve Barron •Born: May 4th 1956
•Nationality: Irish
•Career: Director and Producer
•First directed music video:
1979, “Strange Town” – The
Jam
•Most recent: July 2010,
“Butterfly Butterfly (The Last
Hurrah)” – A-ha
•Other work: Feature Films,
e.g. The Adventures Of
Pinocchio
•Recurring bands: Toto, The
Culture Club, A-ha and Bryan
Adams.
• Most popular video: “Take
On Me” – A-ha

2. The genre of the director
• The genre of music that Steve
Barron works with is mainly
soft/hard/alternative rock.
• The most recurring musicians that I
noticed were, The Culture Club,
Bryan Adams, Toto and A-ha. All of
which are classed as these genres.
• Each of these bands are also world
famous, each said to be the start of
new genres and eras of music, so
for a director of the music videos
for them, a lot of pressure was
placed upon him to make videos as
original or powerful as the music
and musicians themselves.
• As well as having to live up to new
eras in music, he also had to create
something special for the hit single
“Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson.
Not only must the video live up to
expectations from that of Michael
Jackson, but also be successful
enough to help the single reach its
fame.

3. Recurring themes
• Recurring themes for a music
video director tend to be subtle
within the videos. Things such
as editing techniques, colours
and styles are usually what can
be noticed about a director.
• For Steve Barron, the recurring
themes that I picked up on were
the use of colour. Each and
almost all of his music videos
(excluding “butterfly butterfly”
by A-ha) have a sort of brown
gradient to them. This may be
because his music video are
mainly 80’s and 90’s music
videos, and/or this was the “in”
thing to have, or because it is
one of his techniques.
Steve Barron Other
Don’t you want me – The Human League Never gonna give you up – Rick Astley
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson Bad – Michael Jackson
Take on me – A-ha Rio – Duran Duran

4. Recurring themes
• Another recurring theme that I picked
up on, was the use of love story
narratives in most of his music video
(Summer of 69, Africa, Take on me).
However, these may not be important
as the songs themselves talk of love.
• It can almost be said that the music
videos are more movie based as they
have a heavy narrative within them.
This could explain the change from
music video director to movie director
in the 90’s, as his music videos weren’t
long enough for Steve Barron to make
the story he wants.
However. The videos remain a success
and were good enough to ass off as a
film themselves, though very short.
Bryan Adams – Summer of 69
Kenny Loggins – Heart to Heart

5. Recurring themes…
• The final theme that I noticed with
Steve Barron’s work is originality.
Though this can hardly be stated as a
theme, I think that it is something
that is very important to point out
with this director. The reason for this
being is because his music videos are
very early in introduction of the music
videos. Without any past videos to
take inspiration from, these videos
are a real display of his ideas and
creations that he had. Good examples
of his originality is A-ha – Take on me
and Toto – Africa.
Michael Jacksons Billie Jean as well is
said to be a revolutionary music video
as it started off the life of MTV.
Toto – Africa
A-ha – Take on Me

6. In conclusion…
From looking at Steve Barron’s work, it is
clear to see that he was the beginning of a
new era for music. At the start of his music
video career in 1979, he was one of the first
in the business so it was something
different, but he managed to make
something new of it all. Moving away from
the usual codes and conventions that were
set back the to set some new ones himself.
He did this by adding narrative to his videos
and making the more movie like, appealing
to a wider audience ad making music more
mainstream on the television.
Steve Barron did well in the music video
business as he had no influences from
previous videos, but used his imagination to
use films as an influence. This could be
why his career ended as a music video
director, and moved onto feature length
films.