The Cars
"You Might Think" won the inaugural MTV Video of the Year award in 1984, beating Michael Jackson's "Thriller," a 14-minute film with professional cast and Academy Award-winning makeup effects. The Cars won because industry voters were seeking innovation in the medium itself, not borrowed cinema. Director Jeff Stein was so confident the Cars would lose that he was asleep in the audience when the award was announced. The production company that made the video shut down entirely for months to complete it, then refused to hand over the finished tape without additional payment.
In our deep dive into You Might Think, we trace the song from the Boston radio scene that built The Cars to the music video that changed what the medium could look like, and what it reveals about a band that understood the era they were in.
