25 Years Ago Today: Karma Chameleon by Culture Club

I'm painfully aware that this year is my 25th high school class reunion. Yes, I'm from the infamous class of 1984, a banner year for music, thanks to MTV. Most of the music of the day is painfully dated today--though not all--but it is recorded in great detail. 1984 may have been the first year that every hit song had a video. MTV (born in 1981) no longer had to take just every video handed to them, they could pick and choose.



And they made a lot of stars far bigger than they ever would have been otherwise. Many acts, like Duran Duran, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Pat Benatar may never have been quite as big without music video. No group was powered by video more than Culture Club. Boy George's gender-bending antics hit at exactly the right time, and his group's colorful videos set the tone for many videos (and popular trends) for the middle of the decade.

George O'Dowd (Boy's real name) has fallen on hard times of late. So, it is nice to remember the happier days, in fact of exactly 25 years ago, when Boy George and Culture Club hit #1 on the Billboard charts with Karma Chameleon. It is not--in my opinion--the best of his or their songs, but it is likely the most remembered.