The Cars — Dangerous Type

JUL 01 1979 · 12:00

The Cars — Dangerous Type (1979) Director: Gerald V. Casale Era: New Wave Genesis (1979) - Post-punk transition era; synth-inflected rock groups leveraged televised performance clips as proto-music-videos in an era before dedicated video channels existed Extremely high. This clip is a double-layered historical artifact: a primary document of The Cars' 1979 Candy-O performance era AND a verified piece of MTV's founding broadcast canon (94th video aired on launch day). Its low-brightness, warm-tungsten aesthetic and slow editorial rhythm are quantitatively distinct from the high-contrast, fast-cut videos that would define MTV's mid-1980s aesthetic, making it a crucial baseline reference for the medium's visual evolution. Context: Recorded during The Cars' Candy-O touring cycle in September 1979, this performance-clip is a primary document of the American new wave movement at its commercial apex. The Cars occupied a unique liminal position between post-punk austerity and mainstream arena rock, deploying synthesizer textures and streamlined arrangements that anticipated the coming MTV era. Captured on NBC's 'The Midnight Special' — a late-night variety institution — the clip reflects the pre-MTV mechanism by which rock acts built visual identity through televised performance rather than purpose-built video production. Its subsequent use as one of the 116 videos aired on MTV's inaugural August 1, 1981 broadcast canonizes it as a genuine founding artifact of music video culture. 'Dangerous Type' itself, the closing track from Candy-O, was never released as a conventional single yet became one of the band's most recognizable tracks, exemplifying The Cars' strategy of album-oriented depth over pure commercialism. Director notes: IMVDb attributes directorial credit for 'Dangerous Type' to Gerald V. Casale, consistent with his documented working relationship with The Cars in this period (he directed their 'Touch and Go' and 'Panorama' videos ca. 1980). However, IMVDb's own credits page for this video notes no formal crew credits are logged, and at least one archival blog ('Through the Shattered Lens') lists the director as unknown. The footage is definitively sourced from The Cars' live performance on NBC's 'The Midnight Special,' broadcast September 28, 1979 from Burbank, CA, where The Cars hosted and performed 'Dangerous Type,' 'Let's Go,' 'Moving in Stereo,' 'Candy-O,' 'Got a Lot on My Head,' and 'Night Spots.' This clip was notably the 94th video aired on MTV's inaugural broadcast day, August 1, 1981. As a broadcast television performance capture rather than a purpose-built promotional video, formal directorial credit likely belongs to The Midnight Special's in-house television director, not a standalone music video director. Casale's attribution may reflect his broader Cars video work being conflated with this clip in aggregator databases.