Starship — Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

JUL 01 1987 · 12:00

Starship — Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now (1987) Director: Michael Gottlieb Era: Mid-Late 1980s Arena Pop / Synth-Rock Era (1987) - Peak MTV era of cinematic soundtrack tie-in videos; power ballad dominance, high-gloss production, and cross-promotional synergy between film and music industries. High curatorial value as a defining artifact of the 1987 Hollywood-MTV nexus. The video is a primary document of the era's cross-promotional machinery, the power ballad's visual conventions, and Starship's commercial peak. Its Oscar-nominated song, #1 chart status across multiple countries, and direct integration with a theatrical film make it an essential reference for researchers of 1980s pop culture, music video history, and soundtrack marketing. Context: Released in early 1987 as the theme to the romantic comedy Mannequin, 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now' exemplifies the peak of Hollywood-MTV cross-promotional synergy. The music video functions simultaneously as a standalone band performance piece and a promotional trailer for the film, intercutting original footage with movie clips. The song reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 on April 4, 1987, topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks, and became the second-best-selling UK single of 1987. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 60th Academy Awards and was songwriter Diane Warren's first #1 hit. The video captures the late-80s mainstream pop-rock moment when Starship — evolved from the countercultural Jefferson Airplane — had fully pivoted to polished, radio-friendly arena pop. Director notes: Multiple sources — including FilmAffinity, Songfacts, and the IMDB filming/production credits subpage for the music video — attribute direction of this video to Michael Gottlieb, who also directed the Mannequin (1987) feature film to which the song serves as the theme. The video integrates footage from the film with original band performance footage shot in a complementary aesthetic. Note: IMDB's primary music video title page lists David Mallet as director, creating a sourced conflict. Given that three independent sources credit Gottlieb and the video is a direct promotional tie-in for his film, Gottlieb is the more likely attributed director, but the discrepancy is unresolved in publicly available records.