Rock Band is a Spanish DVD available from Netflix. It features a variety of music videos from bands that were produced during the 1980s. While the selection of videos is decent, there were a few problems with the DVD itself.

First of all, the menus are impossible to navigate unless you speak Spanish – I got it through trial and error. The quality of the video is not that good. It could have been remastered and made much clearer. With some of the videos, it doesn’t matter. Instead, it gives Rock Band an almost nostalgic feel to it when thinking about watching these videos on MTV in the 1980s (ack, did I really use the word “nostalgic” when talking about the 1980s???) Other times, though, it really interferes with being able to see the artist clearly. This is especially the case with It’s My Life by Talk Talk.

I have no complaints about the sound, which is pretty good. Also, the stupid Rock Band 80’s insignia in the upper right corner has to go. I don’t need the title banner for each song but others might, and thankfully it disappears early on into each song.

Many of the videos are performance or concert footage. The videos of this era reflected the newness of the medium and there were cool effects thrown in for the heck of it just due to their popularity at that time. There were images put in just because the artists or director thought it made the video look artsy and edgy.

Playlist:

” Reflex – Duran Duran
” Walking on Sunshine – Katrina & the Waves
” Centerfold – J. Geils Band
” Modern Love – David Bowie
” It’s My Life – Talk Talk
” She Blinded Me With Science – Thomas Dolby
” Lust for Life – Iggy Pop
” Assassing – Marillion
” Ride Like the Wind – Saxon
” Love Action – Human League
” Eyes of a Stranger – Queensryche
” Kick It In – Simple Minds
” A Message to You Rudy – Specials
” Geno – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
” Wild Youth – Generation X
” My Sharona – The Knack
” The Whole of the Moon – The Waterboys

Most of the selections were pretty interesting. I question why Love Action was chosen by the Human League instead of one of their more well-known songs such as Don’t You Want Me or Human. The same holds true for the songs from Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Simple Minds. I really liked seeing Centerfold again. For some people who might not realize that Lust For Life was a song before it was on the cruise commercials, it’s nice this was included, although seeing Iggy Pop shirtless did nothing for me.

For the price of this DVD as an import, it’s definitely not worth purchasing, especially with the quality and some of the song selections. There are other music DVDs available from this era that do a better job of collecting the songs together and presenting them, and now you can find the videos on YouTube.