Blondie — Heart Of Glass

JUL 01 1979 · 12:00

Blondie — Heart Of Glass (1979) Director: Stanley Dorfman Era: New Wave / Disco Crossover Era (1979) - A pivotal transitional moment bridging NYC punk/new wave with mainstream disco, captured at the apex of Studio 54 culture and the birth of the promotional music video as an art form. Tier 1 historical artifact. One of the most culturally significant music videos of the pre-MTV era, documenting Blondie's genre-crossing breakthrough in a format that itself stands at the inflection point between television performance clip and the autonomous music video. The combination of a Grammy Hall of Fame song, a foundational director (Dorfman, co-creator of Top of the Pops), documented Stephen Sprouse fashion, and a 1979 production date places this squarely among the essential primary sources for any study of late-1970s popular music visual culture. Context: Released in January 1979, 'Heart of Glass' captured Blondie at the precise cultural fault line between New York's CBGB punk underground and mainstream commercial pop. The song — produced with a Roland CR-78 drum machine in one of the earliest uses of the device in popular music — blended disco's four-on-the-floor pulse with new wave's angular sensibility, provoking accusations of sell-out from the band's punk peers while simultaneously propelling them to number one in the US, UK, Australia, and several other markets. The video's nightclub setting and warm, intimate cinematography directly evokes the Studio 54 era at its cultural zenith. Directed by Stanley Dorfman, a BBC veteran who co-created Top of the Pops, the clip exemplifies the pre-MTV promotional video tradition: performance-forward, minimally constructed, reliant on the performer's charisma rather than cinematic spectacle. Director notes: Directed in 1979. The video presents Blondie performing 'Heart of Glass' in a nightclub setting, opening with New York City night exterior footage before moving inside. The video alternates between close-ups of Debbie Harry lip-syncing and wider mid-distance shots of the full band. Harry wears a silver asymmetrical dress designed by Stephen Sprouse. Wikipedia notes that contrary to popular belief, the location was not Studio 54, though a shot of the club's exterior appears. The video premiered on the morning television program Good Morning America. Dorfman's background co-directing Top of the Pops — where performance-based promotional clips were standard — directly informed the straightforward, single-venue, performance-document aesthetic employed here.