Dan Hartman - Second Nature

JUL 01 1985 · 12:00

Dan Hartman - Second Nature (1985) Director: Edd Griles Era: Mid-Decade MTV Pop Boom (1985) - Peak mainstream MTV rotation era defined by narrative-driven, street-level concept videos and polished pop-soul crossover aesthetics on MCA Records. High curatorial value as a confirmed-director, fully documented artifact from the mid-1985 MTV pop mainstream, representing the intersection of disco-era legacy artistry and MTV-era visual storytelling. Directed by Edd Griles at the apex of his MTV period, immediately following his VMA-nominated 'Time After Time', the video is a textbook example of his community-narrative approach applied to a pop-soul crossover context. Preserves street-fashion, multicultural casting, and urban location aesthetics of mid-decade New York-area production. Context: Released in early 1985 as the fourth and final single from Dan Hartman's album I Can Dream About You (MCA Records, 1984), 'Second Nature' arrived during peak MTV saturation of the mid-decade pop-soul crossover moment. Hartman, a veteran of the disco era via 'Instant Replay' (1978) and 'Relight My Fire' (1979), had successfully reinvented himself as a mainstream pop artist. The song reached No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted for 12 weeks, with Billboard critic Brian Chin describing it as 'bouncy neo-Motown.' The video's community-ensemble street narrative reflects a broader mid-80s MTV trend toward inclusive, celebratory visual storytelling emphasizing American urban multiculturalism. Director notes: Directed for production companies Fusion Films and OCC Enterprises, per IMDB. The video was released in May 1985 according to IMDB. The concept centers on a watermelon truck crash drawing together a diverse cross-section of urban community members, around whom Hartman performs the song, a community-ensemble narrative approach consistent with Griles's documented preference for story-driven, character-populated clips. The IMDB page lists a runtime of 4 minutes, aligning with the LP version of the track (3:56–4:11 across release variants).