Kim Carnes — Abadabadango

JUL 01 1985 · 12:00

Kim Carnes — Abadabadango (1985) Director: Russell Mulcahy Era: Mid-Decade MTV Synth-Pop Era (1985) - Peak period of electronic pop crossover, when synth-pop aesthetics dominated MTV programming and female artists began co-producing major label albums. High. This video is a documented artifact of an under-researched intersection: the first synth-pop album produced by a woman, directed by the man who made the first video ever played on MTV, rendered in stark black-and-white minimalism within the most visually flamboyant moment in music video history. Its rarity, the confirmed Mulcahy attribution, and Carnes' own commentary on its intentional aesthetic simplicity make it a primary source document for multiple research threads in 1980s music video and gender-in-production scholarship. Context: Released in August 1985 as the second single from 'Barking at Airplanes' (EMI America), the video arrived at a pivotal moment in Kim Carnes' career and in the broader arc of synth-pop's commercial dominance. The album, co-produced by Carnes and Bill Cuomo, has been documented by Nashville Scene as the first synth-pop album produced by a woman — a landmark that went largely unacknowledged at the time. The song peaked at #67 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending four weeks on the chart, following the album's lead single 'Crazy in the Night' which reached #15. The choice to shoot the video in stark black and white with minimal production apparatus represented a conscious aesthetic pivot by Carnes, who described the approach as a rejection of the visually overcrowded promo clips common in the era. Directed by Russell Mulcahy at the height of his music video powers — he had already directed the first video ever aired on MTV — the clip's restraint stands in deliberate contrast to Mulcahy's more maximalist output of the period. Director notes: IMVDb credits Russell Mulcahy as director of the 'Abadabadango' video (1985). Wikipedia and the Duran Duran fan wiki both list Kim Carnes among Mulcahy's notable music video collaborators. Kim Carnes herself commented on the video in a PopMatters interview, noting its deliberate simplicity and striking black-and-white lighting, describing it as a departure from the more chaotic visual approach of her earlier promo clips. IMDB records the video as black and white with a runtime of approximately 4 minutes, released August 1985 in the United States. The video's restrained, performance-focused aesthetic aligns with Mulcahy's documented capacity to work in modes of controlled minimalism alongside his better-known maximalist productions. The single was the second release from the album 'Barking at Airplanes' (EMI America, May 1985), co-produced by Kim Carnes and Bill Cuomo, and noted by Nashville Scene as the first synth-pop album produced by a woman.