Future Tense

Cyberspace Looks Pretty Menacing in This Japanese Music Video From 1989

If you’ve always had a hunch that cyberspace is a lot like Freddy Krueger’s basement, then you’d be right! At least according to this 1989 music video by Japanese pop star Anri. The song is “Groove A Go Go” (rediscovered by io9) but the theme is all the scary things lurking in the digital world.

The woman in the video does some awesomely clicky typing on an old-skool keyboard (that doesn’t have labels on the keys) and then puts on some sleek sunglasses that transport her into the cyber world. Then as she’s casually waking up on the floor of cyberspace, she notices that she’s being pursued by an evil avatar. We’ve all been there, right?

The digital world is industrial, steamy, and generally filled with pipes. It’s kind of set up as a circuit diagram that the video protagonist navigates as she searches for a place to hang out. Eventually she finds her friends in a club and dances with a guy who turns out to be the evil avatar. But this time she hits “return” and defeats him! Stand up for yourself, ladies.

If nothing else, “Groove A Go Go” definitively shows the influence of smooth jazz on the Internet.