In the video, (an homage to the ‘Take Off With Us’ scene from Bob Fosse’s film All That Jazz) Abdul and a group of super sexy dancers writhe around on the floor and on scaffolding in various states of undress while some conservative business-types watch in horror. The song, a synth-heavy minor key warning to women everywhere against wrongdoing men, is deliriously catchy, but it was its controversial video that triggered its rise to success and solidified Abdul’s stature as a pop icon. Straight Up was followed by another US no.1, the sweet Forever Your Girl, but it was the album’s third single, Cold Hearted, that kicked Abdul’s career into overdrive and solidified her American imperial phase of eight consecutive top ten hits (including five no.1s). The song became a huge no.1 hit in the States and top 5 hit in the UK. For the album’s next single, Straight Up, they created a stunning black and white video that highlighted Abdul’s spectacular dancing and her razor-sharp cheekbones. Abdul and the label, however, weren’t ready to give up on the project.
The first single, Knocked Out was a moderate chart hit in the US, but the follow-up (It’s Just) The Way That You Love Me was an outright bomb. The resulting album, Forever Your Girl, was released in 1988, but took almost a year to take off. In 1987, eager to break out on her own, she recorded a singing demo, and her famous friends and dance skills helped her land a deal with Virgin records.
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While it helped that Abdul was a brilliant dancer and choreographer and knew how to pick a catchy song, it’s hard to imagine her becoming a star or her hits becoming the smashes they were without the accompanying amazing and innovative videos.Ībdul’s rise to fame is a familiar tale: success first as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers, followed by a stint as a choreographer for Hollywood films such as Big and Coming to America and then, most famously, a run as the dance muse and video cohort of Janet Jackson during her Control period (check Abdul out as one of the sassy backup girls in the video for Nasty – the hair is really quite amazing). Like her chart contemporaries Duran Duran and Janet Jackson, among many others, Abdul used videos not merely to promote her records, but really to create a 360 degree pop experience for listeners. Never known for her vocal prowess or her instrumental stylings, Abdul was first and foremost amongst a group of 80s artists whose success on the pop charts was shaped by and dependent on the rise of MTV and the growing influence of music videos on the musical tastes of pop fans. If you believe the Buggles, video may have killed the radio star, but for superstar Paula Abdul the opposite was true.
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