At first glance, the video for Al Jarreau’s 1984 single “After All” seems simple enough. Jarreau sings on a soundstage “rooftop” while a pair of dancers interpret the song’s romantic inclinations through movement, eventually winding up in a position to “consummate” the relationship Jarreau is describing. There’s no plot, no animation, no special effects that couldn’t have been created with a paintbrush and a fog machine.

A simple, low-budget video, right? Perhaps even amateurish, if viewed in the context of many of the other clips of its year, from the Cars’ “You Might Think” to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” not to mention videos by pop-oriented black artists such as Lionel Richie’s “Hello” or Prince’s “When Doves Cry.”

It’s tempting to guess that little money or effort was expended on “After All” because Jarreau was not being marketed particularly strongly by his record label, Warner Bros. — or perhaps because he was being marketed to African-Americans rather than a white audience, and presumably artists targeting the R&B charts would have received smaller video budgets than their pop counterparts.

Certain facts undermine such a guess. First, “After All” was the lead single from Jarreau’s High Crime album, the follow-up to two Top 15 albums that each produced a Top 25 pop single. Second, “After All” was (let’s face it) a pretty goddamned exquisite, but completely colorblind ballad co-written by pop uber-songwriter/producer David Foster, who was then riding high on a pair of bestselling albums by Chicago. Third, the video for Jarreau’s previous album-leading single, “Mornin’,” had been a big-budget extravaganza setting Jarreau within an elaborate cartoon world.

And finally, is that male dancer white? (more…)