If you had to pick one song that epitomizes the music of the 1980′s, you couldn’t do much better than Jump, by Van Halen. The first single from their 1984 album (appropriately titled) 1984, Jump nearly perfectly blends the two genres of music most associated with that decade: synth-driven pop and “arena”-style metal. And with their hair big and blow-dried and wearing their best brightly-colored, shiny costumes, could the band look and more 1980′s for the song’s video?
Beyond the hair and the costumes, the video was typical of those being put out by most hard rock bands at the time. The band simply plays their song in a straightforward manner on stage at a mock concert. Van Halen’s energetic performance (where they’re clearly enjoying themselves), however, makes the video a cut above most of its ilk. It was nominated for 3 MTV Video Awards, and won in the ‘best stage performance’ category.
Opening with a rolling synth line, Jump may well be Van Halen’s most instantly recognizable song. It is certainly the band’s most successful, their only single to top the Billboard Hot 100. It also comes in at #155 on the 1991 Firecracker 500 and #87 on the 1996 list. For all that, however, hard rock purists often have a bone to pick with the song, as it may have been a factor in splitting off frontman David Lee Roth from the group.
Jump’s heavy use of synthesizers (unusual for the usually more guitar-oriented Van Halen) signaled a stylistic change for the band, away from classic hard rock toward a more pop-rock, radio-oriented sound. Roth was unhappy with the change, and told Eddie Van Halen so. This only increased tensions between Roth and Van Halen, who had been taking a more and more active role in leading the band. The stylistic disagreement became emblematic of their power struggle that ultimately led to Roth’s departure in April of 1985. Nevertheless, Roth did contribute to the creation of Jump, providing the lyrics and directing the video, and years later it would be the encore performance at every Van Halen concert of Roth’s most recent reunion tour.
The Kansas City Chiefs waited until 5:00 PM to fire Herm Edwards yesterday, and if they are smart, will hire Mike Shanahan that was fired from the Denver Broncos. I’m pretty sure Kansas City would then have a pretty good advantage against a division rival if KC hired Shanahan. In fact, if Jerry Jones knew what he was doing, he’d hire Shanahan and get a coach in Dallas that could issue some discipline to a spoiled lot of players that are the Dallas Cowboys. But then that wouldn’t work because Jerry needs a coach that he can push around and lets Jerry have major coaching input for his team. The Cowboys could use something besides the status quo in terms of weak coaches. Probably Herm Edwards would be just a fit in Dallas.
