The Dutch version of Top of the Pops was absolutely wild
A vast YouTube archive reveals the weird, wonderful and sometimes genius parallel universe of TopPop – the Netherlands’ anything-goes answer to Top of the Pops.
Think of a band, any band, so long as they had an international chart hit in the 1970s or 80s. There is a pretty good chance that band lip-synced that song on the Dutch music television show TopPop. There is an even better chance that the performance in question is incredibly bloody weird.
The Dutch answer to the UK’s Top of the Pops was broadcast from 1970 to 1988, featuring the latest hits from both domestic and international artists. Since few international acts included the Netherlands on their tour schedules, filming of a lot of the international performances was outsourced to studios in the US or UK. Across the board, little to no creative boundaries appear to have been put in place.
The official TopPop YouTube channel hosts more than a thousand (and still growing) performances which run the spectrum from pure class to utter depravity. Almost all of them feature one or more of the following: bizarre or inappropriate stage props, creative green screen techniques, appallingly lackluster attempts at pretending to play an instrument, unjustifiably bad fashion, strangely hypnotic dance routines… In other words it is a digital treasure trove containing some of the greatest and most creative music videos from a time before music videos were even a thing.
Please enjoy the following examples.
Lindsey Buckingham – ‘Trouble’ (1982)
A strong contender for the surliest and most reluctant performance ever recorded for TopPop as Fleetwood Mac genius Lindsey Buckingham suffers his way through solo hit ‘Trouble’, unconvincingly miming the song’s flamenco guitar flourishes on an electric guitar. The only other person in the studio who cared less about their job appears to be in charge of the lighting.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/music/09-11...solutely-wild/