Of all the neon-dystopia music videos that came out after Blade Runner, my favorite is probably 1983’s “Magnetic” by Earth Wind & Fire. It’s the year 2051, and despite the “Plenty Through Technology” posters everywhere, people live in a neon-tinged squalor, with only giant nightclubs and dancing street vendors to keep them pacified. Raver-cops keep order by wielding glowsticks mercilessly. But the biggest instrument of social control is some kind of gladiator combat, in which the government’s plexiglass shield-bearing champion always wins… until now.
