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Jheri Curl June: Midnight Star's "No Parking on the Dance Floor"

Today's Jheri Curl June entry is the title track from Midnight Star's 1983 album No Parking on the Dance Floor. It has all the necessary ingredients of a classic jheri-curl track: a squealing synth line, bass that pops like crazy, and a camp-as-hell introduction that threatens, "if you don't get a move on that body, I'll be forced to give you a ticket--so get...WITH IT!" Plus, impossible as it might sound, the video is even better:

It's one of those great '80s videos that take the concept of the song and make it blissfully, absurdly literal. So a traffic jam turns into an impromptu dance party, with the nine members of Midnight Star--whose own spectrum of jheri-curl lengths and shapes is right up there with that of Jesse Johnson's Revue--serving as funky pied pipers, leading frustrated drivers to step out of their cars and join the fun. Then, at 1:35...is that...is that Prince? Well, no, of course not, though they sure took pains to make it look that way. But this is one party that doesn't even need a random breakdancing Prince-alike to make it awesome. Midnight Star, I'll get stuck in traffic with you any time.

Check out the Jheri Curl June Spotify playlist after the jump!

Jheri Curl June: Jesse Johnson's "Be Your Man"

Jesse Johnson's birthday was Sunday, so this is a little bit of a belated birthday tribute. "Be Your Man," from Jesse Johnson's 1985 debut solo album Jesse Johnson's Revue, is quintessential Minneapolis jheri curl funk: the pounding drum machine beat, heavy bassline, glossy synth "horns" (which he calls out in a James Brown-esque band leader style), and of course, the tiny funky guitar noodling.

The video showcases Jesse as basically the dark-skinned, pink version of Prince. Plus, together Jesse Johnson's group exhibit six variations of jheri curl shapes:

Check back tomorrow for another song, and remember to follow along with the Jheri Curl June Spotify playlist (after the jump).

Introduction to Jheri Curl June

Ola Ray in a 1980 commercial for "Classy Curl"; photo stolen from the Huffington Post

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new form of predominantly African American popular music began to take shape. Rooted in soul and funk music, but largely stripped of those genres' grit; with elements of rock and disco, and at least one eye forever resting on potential radio play; the loosely-defined style has gone by a variety of names, including post-disco, pop/funk, and the maddeningly nondescript "urban." But Callie and I have always preferred to call it "jheri curl music."

Jheri curl music is not necessarily music made by artists sporting the once-trendy hairstyle invented by hairdresser Robert William "Jheri" Redding--though obviously there is a good amount of overlap. Instead, we see it as music that embodies the properties of the jheri curl itself. Jheri curl, whether the hair or the music, is an intrinsically hybrid style: somewhere between Black and white, kinky and straight, silky and dry. It's fussy and high-maintenance. And, like the Jheri curl parody "Soul Glo" in John Landis' 1988 comedy Coming to America, it leaves a greasy residue on everything it touches. Not all R&B from the early to mid-'80s qualifies as jheri curl; but when you hear that telltale sign--usually a particular kind of muted guitar, clean slapped bass, or synthesizer squeal--you will recognize it instantly for what it is.