Split Enz — History Never Repeats

JUL 01 1981 · 12:00

Split Enz — History Never Repeats (1981) Director: Noel Crombie Era: New Wave / Post-Punk Transition Era (1981) - The year MTV launched; New Zealand art-pop crosses into international consciousness via an early-rotation clip built around theatrical performance and bold visual identity Exceptional. This is a primary historical artifact from the first day of the music video broadcast era, directed by the band's own visual auteur, and representing the first non-American/British act in MTV rotation. Its moderate brightness, theatrical saturation, and slow editorial pace make it visually distinctive within the MTV launch canon. Essential for any archive documenting the origins of music television, New Zealand pop history, or the intersection of costume design and moving image. Context: Released in March 1981, 'History Never Repeats' arrived at the precise inflection point between the punk/new wave upheaval and the dawn of the music video age. Split Enz — regarded as the first New Zealand band to achieve significant international recognition — embodied an art-rock theatricality that predated and in many ways anticipated MTV's visual appetite. The song, written by Neil Finn while on tour in Perth, thematically mirrors the band's own forward momentum: a refusal to repeat past forms. Its placement as one of the first dozen videos ever broadcast on MTV gave Split Enz a global platform no Australasian act had previously commanded, even as the song failed to cross over to American radio. In 2001, APRA members voted it the 57th-best New Zealand song of the 20th century, cementing its canonical status in antipodean pop history. Director notes: Crombie directed 'History Never Repeats' in 1981, the same year it was released as the second single from the album Waiata (released as Corroboree in Australia). The video holds extraordinary historical significance: it was among the very first videos played when MTV launched on 1 August 1981 — confirmed as the 12th video broadcast. It was also the first music video by a non-American and non-British act to receive MTV airplay and was placed in heavy rotation, though the song did not chart in the United States due to limited radio crossover. As the band's in-house visual auteur, Crombie's direction reflects his deep familiarity with Split Enz's theatrical identity — he had already designed the costumes worn in the clip and was responsible for the band's entire visual language. The clip is a document of band-directed visual self-representation rather than an external commercial commission.