Gary Numan: Cars (1979 Music Video) User Reviews

Only in it for the song

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 7/10 · 22 September 2016]

Gary Numan's massive #1 hit "Cars" was something out of this world with its unusual sound carried by heavy synthesizers, powerful drum beat and Numan's peculiar voice chanting a simply lyric that seems to reveal plenty of things. It takes you to somewhere. The video clip is half way there. Numan's careless persona is out of this world, somber yet confident enough to make some dance moves.

I'm not hard on this clip due to the magnificent song, one of my favorite and also because the video was made pre-MTV, so the makers of it couldn't get an interesting concept and it was way before the spectacular creations that came in the years to come. Numan and band performing the song, images carried with corny kaleidoscope-like effects and superimposed images is just silly nowadays. Sure, it got it fair share of views back in the day, heavy airplay but now it's just humorlessly strange. Works as curiosity. 7/10

The engine is stuttering

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 6 March 2019]

Here we have the music video for the song Cars by Gary Numan. This was released back in 1979, so it has its 40th anniversary this year already and to show you how young Numan was at that point let me add that he turned 60 last year. It runs for under 4 minutes and was directed by Derek Burbidge, who is also a bit of a star if you take a look at how many times he worked with some all-time great like The Police, AC/DC, Eurythmics, Queen and others. But this music video here was probably not his brightest moment. I still remember reading about how iconing and inspiring this was for many other music artists in years to come afterwards and that is fine I guess, but to me it did not really leave a lasting impact. Admittedly, I am not too big on the song either or on Numan's vocie, so maybe it is still better to check this song out with the music video than just the record, but overall it feels too much like style over substance for me and I give it a thumbs-down. I suggest you watch something else instead. There are so many superior songs from the 1970s. And music videos. Only go for this one if you really love the genre. I am baffled by how popular it is still today 4 decades after the original release. But yeah for 1979, it is not a failure I guess, but also not good enough to me for a positive recommendation.