The Human League — (Keep Feeling) Fascination

JUL 01 1983 · 12:00

The Human League — (Keep Feeling) Fascination (1983) Director: Steve Barron Era: New Wave / Second British Invasion (1983) - Peak MTV era synth-pop, bridging post-punk electronic experimentation with transatlantic mainstream chart dominance during the early years of cable music television High curatorial value as a documented, director-confirmed example of conceptual pre-CGI location transformation in music video production, executed by one of the defining directors of the MTV era at the precise moment of the Second British Invasion's commercial apex. The video's cartographic concept, practical environmental art direction, and deliberate performance-legitimacy strategy for US audiences make it a rich primary source for multiple research disciplines including media studies, urban history, pop culture, and gender studies. Context: Released on 15 April 1983 as a non-album single, '(Keep Feeling) Fascination' arrived during the height of the Second British Invasion, when British synth-pop acts dominated US Billboard charts via heavy MTV rotation. The track peaked at #2 in the UK and #8 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while reaching #1 on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart — the band's first US dance chart number one. It was designated 'Red' under the Human League's own labelling system distinguishing dance tracks from pop singles, and was produced by Martin Rushent in what would be his final collaboration with the band for seven years. The video's use of large-scale environmental transformation in a deprived East London neighbourhood slated for demolition gives the production an inadvertent document of early 1980s urban regeneration and Docklands redevelopment, layering a conceptual pop artwork over a vanishing working-class London streetscape. Director notes: Barron conceived and directed the video, building its central concept around a 'You Are Here' red dot on a map. To realise this pre-CGI concept, the entire exterior of a real occupied terraced house at First Avenue, London E13 (junction of 1st and 3rd Avenue, a semi-derelict area of Newham due for demolition as part of the Docklands redevelopment) and the surrounding street — including a nearby Austin 1800 car — were painted entirely in orange/red. The house reportedly remained occupied by a family during filming of the external scenes. The band's interior performance scenes were filmed separately in a studio, not in the actual house. The video is notable for departing from the Human League's prior video approach: unusually, the band are seen playing instruments as if in a live performance, a deliberate strategy to counter perceptions in the US market. The house and street reportedly remained painted until demolition in mid-1983. This video was directed two years before Barron's iconic rotoscoped video for A-ha's 'Take On Me' (1985), and forms part of his sustained creative partnership with The Human League in the early 1980s.