Steps - Deeper Shade Of Blue

APR 03 2000 · 12:00

Steps - Deeper Shade Of Blue (2000) Director: Carolyn Corben & Harvey Bertram-Brown (The New Renaissance) Era: UK Pop Maximalism (2000) - Late-era British bubblegum pop meets millennial club-futurism; peak of the post-Spice Girls pop factory era defined by high-concept, high-budget music video production for chart-driven acts. High curatorial value as a precisely dateable artefact of peak UK pop maximalism, documenting the stylistic ambitions of a major chart act at a genre-transitional moment. The confirmed two-day production timeline, named production company, and dual-director credit make this an unusually well-documented example of late-90s UK pop video production practice. The video's futurist latex aesthetic and alter-ego concept make it a strong visual comparator for contemporaneous club-crossover productions. The rapid editing pace (1.55s avg shot length) and high scene density (148 cuts) provide quantifiable benchmarks for choreography-locked MTV-era editing conventions. Context: Released 3 April 2000 as the fourth single from Steps' second studio album Steptacular, 'Deeper Shade of Blue' represents a calculated artistic pivot for the group, moving from line-dance novelty pop toward Euro house club music. The track entered the UK Singles Chart at number four, cementing Steps as a credible crossover act bridging pop and dance floor audiences at the height of the UK pop boom. Critically, the song has been described as 'a total mood-piece' whose 'thumping club beat creates a brooding darkness quite unlike anything Steps had attempted before.' The video's futurist latex aesthetic and alter-ego concept aligned the group visually with the club-fashion vocabulary of the era, distancing them from their earlier wholesome image at a moment when the UK pop landscape was shifting toward darker, more electronic sounds. The production was completed in two days in January 2000, a compressed schedule typical of the era's high-volume pop video pipeline. Director notes: The video was filmed on 18–19 January 2000, with camera work by Simon Coull and produced by Baby Picture Co. The concept features each member of Steps transformed into a mysterious darker alter-ego, reflecting the song's themes of emotional darkness. The group wears co-ordinated blue and red latex uniforms with red latex gloves for dance sequences, with female members also wearing blue latex hats. The alter-ego device was used to visualise the brooding, club-oriented departure in tone from the group's earlier output. The video was later re-used in the 2022 Steps 'Platinum Megamix' compilation video, where Bertram-Brown and Corben are credited separately for the 'Deeper Shade of Blue' segment.