Boy George — Don't Take My Mind On Trip

JUL 01 1989 · 12:00

Boy George — Don't Take My Mind On Trip (1989) Director: Daniel Kleinman Era: Late New Pop / New Jack Swing Crossover Era (1989) - A transitional moment when British post-punk pop icons embraced American R&B production, bridging the flamboyant mid-80s with the emerging New Jack Swing sound dominating late-decade charts. High curatorial value as a documented intersection of British post-New Pop identity and American New Jack Swing production, directed by a filmmaker who would become one of the UK's most decorated directors. Serves as a concrete example of late-80s transatlantic pop genre negotiation, and represents one of Daniel Kleinman's final major music video commissions before his transition to advertising and Bond title work. The rapid editing tempo and warm theatrical palette are period-authentic markers of analogue late-80s UK promo craft. Context: Released in February/March 1989, this video captures Boy George at a commercially pressured crossroads: his label Virgin Records, having shelved the UK release of his previous album 'Tense Nervous Headache', pushed this Teddy Riley and Gene Griffin-produced track as a commercial lifeline. The song represents the UK pop industry's aggressive absorption of American New Jack Swing — a genre then reshaping the R&B and pop mainstream through artists like Bobby Brown and Keith Sweat. Boy George's androgynous theatricality, rooted in the early-80s New Romantic and post-punk scenes, is here filtered through a glossier, rhythm-forward American production aesthetic, making the video a rare cultural document of transatlantic genre negotiation. The track reached the US R&B Top 5, underlining how UK pop figures could leverage New Jack Swing credibility in American markets even as the genre remained novel in Britain. Director notes: Directed in early 1989 for Boy George's single released on Virgin Records in February/March 1989. The single was taken from the album 'Boyfriend' (released as 'High Hat' in North America) and was produced by Teddy Riley and Gene Griffin — a production pairing arranged by Virgin's head of Black Music Sharon Heyward. The track reached the UK Singles Chart and performed on the US R&B chart. Kleinman directed this video at the peak of his UK music promo output, the same year he also directed the James Bond-inspired video for Gladys Knight's 'Licence to Kill', which subsequently led to his appointment as the James Bond title sequence designer from GoldenEye (1995) onward. The rapid editorial pace of the video (1.62s avg shot length, 148 scene changes) is consistent with Kleinman's rhythmically aggressive cutting style documented across his late-80s promo work.