Styx — The Best Of Times

JUL 01 1981 · 12:00

Styx — The Best Of Times (1981) Director: Jerry Kramer Era: MTV Genesis Era (1981) - Pre-MTV launch performance video produced as a forward-thinking promotional artifact; shot before the network's August 1981 debut and became an early rotation staple High-tier archival value as a confirmed pre-MTV production that directly shaped the early rotation catalog of the network. The video's extreme low-key brightness (44/255), static motion score (3.80), and single-day co-production with two sibling videos make it a unique technical and cultural artifact. Its director, Jerry Kramer, went on to become one of the defining figures of 1980s music video production via Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, lending this early work additional retrospective significance as the origin point of a major directorial career. Context: Released as the lead single from Paradise Theatre (A&M Records, January 19, 1981), The Best of Times arrived at a pivotal inflection point in rock music's relationship with visual media. Styx's decision to produce multiple videos in a single day was highly unusual for American acts of the era, when the music video format was still nascent in the US. The gamble proved prescient: MTV launched eight months later and placed the video in heavy rotation, transforming Paradise Theatre into the band's commercially peak album at over 3 million US copies sold. The video's theatrical darkness and spotlight staging visually encode the album's concept — the rise and fall of Chicago's Paradise Theatre — and Dennis DeYoung's piano performance grounds the ballad in the kind of grandiose emotional sincerity that defined arena rock's mainstream dominance circa 1981. Director notes: Kramer directed The Best of Times as part of a single-day production session in which Styx shot three music videos simultaneously — The Best of Times, Rockin' the Paradise, and Too Much Time On My Hands — with band members wearing the same costumes throughout. This cost-efficient, forward-looking strategy was atypical for American rock acts in late 1980/early 1981, predating MTV's August 1981 launch by roughly eight months. When MTV launched, all three videos entered early rotation and are credited with sustaining the commercial momentum of Paradise Theatre, which eventually sold over 3 million copies in the US. The video features Dennis DeYoung at a piano under a spotlight, with the band performing on a darkened stage — a staging choice that mirrors the theatrical, concept-driven nature of the Paradise Theatre album. Kramer's direction privileges slow, static framing and spotlight drama over kinetic editing, matching the ballad's contemplative tone.