Having grown up in the rural midwest during the '80s, most of the era's notorious cultural trends and fads bypassed my radar completely. I never grew accustomed to the fashions and such that people nowadays look back upon and chuckle at, the result of being surrounded by more denim overalls than popped collars for the bulk of my childhood. Thus, my double takes are especially fierce when a strange artifact like 1984's The Cars: Heartbeat City presents itself, giving yours truly the kind of charge anthropologists must receive upon dusting off some puzzling new aspect of an old civilization. My brain jumps at the chance to ponder the reasoning that led to what's on the screen, an opportunity that this unique production provides, in addition to some quality tunes from its time. But no matter how often myself or others harp about its more ridiculous moments, Heartbeat City is still one awesome accomplishment, an artistic enterprise bursting with variety that has a blast playing with all the visual techniques and styles at its fingertips.

The concept of a video jukebox is so ingeniously appealing, it's a wonder it never caught on very widely. With a little assistance from some fresh-faced outfit called MTV, the music video's prominence soared as the '80s pressed on -- and one band sought to take the medium one step further. The Cars (comprised of Rick Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, Greg Hawkes, Elliot Easton, and David Robinson) had the notion to assemble the videos for a handful of their top tunes and, with some new wraparound material, offer them together in a single package. Enter Heartbeat City, a compilation in which footage of the band hanging out in a futuristic bar (tucked away in a giant woman's purse, of course) is used as a springboard for buzzing through a selection of their more popular tracks. But lest they be pigeonholed into leaning on a single look, the Cars have brought their catalogue to life via videos of varying tones and budgets; "Hello Again" (overseen by Andy Warhol himself) incorporates snippets shot in crude Super 8, while "Magic" boasts the standard coat of showbiz polish. Whether it's a peppy piece of pop or a slow-paced ballad, telling where the band will go or show us next is easier said than done.

For as frequently as Heartbeat City leaves your mouth agape at the sight of content once seen as but decidedly no longer cutting-edge, its capacity to entertain thrives all the same. It's easy to laugh yourself silly at the shockingly dated green screen effects, but that the Cars tried out all the innovations and experimented with all the tones that they did is damn impressive. Not only does it show initiative and the desire to shirk an aesthetic comfort zone, it also keeps the format from growing stale...which, clocking in at 48 minutes, Heartbeat City never gets the chance to. Eight videos in total are included here (plus a behind-the-scenes feature about "Hello Again"), a nicely curated line-up of content that makes the viewing and listening experience consistently fresh. We get somber songs like "Drive" and livelier numbers like "You Might Think," with their respective videos (be they low-tech or generously-budgeted) effectively reflecting the styles they're aiming for. With the exception of "Panorama" being a little on the forgettable side, this is a pretty solid, best-of overview of the Cars and the music that topped many an '80s chart. What doesn't click at all, however, is what we see in between each tune. The need to make the interstitial material abstract in nature is perfectly understandable, but in addition to introducing each new track with no real ceremony, the scenario quickly gets repetitive; it takes talent to make a robot bartender zapping up drinks for customers over and over boring as sin.

Love or despise the '80s, The Cars: Heartbeat City is a bizarrely fun little treat from one of the decade's more interesting pop groups. The synthesized sounds, the pastel color scheme, and the chintzy effects all amount to an endeavor that you'd normally greet with sarcastic derision...if the whole thing weren't so infectiously fun. Heartbeat City may be flashy and over-the-top, but it's also a pretty groovy time.

(The Cars: Heartbeat City is available on DVD from the Warner Archive Collection at: http://www.wbshop.com)