WAS THIS A GAME-CHANGER FOR THE MUSIC VIDEO SCENE?! First Time Hearing a-ha -Take On Me Reaction! 

Fantastic band. It took 16 weeks to draw the 3,000 drawings used in the video. The artist is Michael Patterson. He made a film as a student called Communter. The film was later used in the music video for "Train of thought", also a-ha (pronounced ah-ha). In 2019, Take on me had been played on the radio an average of 350 times a day for 35 years in the United States. You couldn't have avoided hearing it. The song was boosted by the video, but obviously stands well on its own. The sequel, The sun always shines on TV is epic!

It was revolutionary back then. They also did a Bond song: The living daylights.

The 2018 unplugged version of this song --same group--is stunning.

This song and it's video are timeless, it holds its own against anything out there. 1.8 billion views can't be wrong.

This video was ground breaking for it's time. The most well known song from A-Ha

It wasn’t digital.. Completely Hand Drawn .. Stop animation.. amazing at time .. AHA .. were an iconic band of the 80’s .. all music that era had Synth … Highly recommend.. is Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer “ .. for stop motion & creativity.. nothing like it .. ☘️💚😀👍

A-HA one of the most popular bands of the 80s (in Europe). Do yourself a favour and check out the live unplugged version (a-ha - Take On Me (Live From MTV Unplugged)) - they are great musicians (not only Synthie) and the song is pure emotion. Morten's voice is fantastic. Trust me. And, yes, the video was something special, because something like that was exceptional in the 80s 🤩

The lead singer's now grown daughter is also a singer. This video was huge in the 80s. It reminds me of junior high.

Ironically, this effect, known as rotoscope, for all it's advanced appearance, is one of the oldest 'effects' in movie making, being developed in the 1880s. Not a typo, 1880s. It is very labor intensive, tracing over each frame of the film. For this video, it took a crew of 6 16 weeks to do. It was used a lot in the in the early 1900s, but was used little as less labor intensive effects were developed in the 1930s. In the 1980s, some of us had seen this type of thing before, but for most people this was the first they had seen it.

There's another version of them doing this live unplugged on MTV when they were older. It's fantastic.

This also took off on radio but really blew up on MTV because of the video. This was considered cutting edge for the time.

They've been consistently great over the years, and recently released a (very good) new album.

Hi and thanks for reacting to A-HA and the amazing take on me video. The video was made using a technique called rotescopy which is individual hand drawings plus live action shots. I’ve been an A-HA fan for the past 37 years. In 1985 a norwegian trio of young men released a song called take on me asking the world to give them a chance luckily for them the world responded with a positive yes except the usa this is the only song A-HA are known for there. A-HA are criminally underrated they have released 11 albums of brilliant music and produced the soundtrack to most of my life. I was 16 years old in 1985 when i first discovered A-HA and take on me and i’m 54 now and still as big an A-HA fan as i was back in ‘85. One of the best things about A-HA is that their music is constantly evolving and changing. No two A-HA songs sound the same. One of my fave songs which comes later in their career is a song called Summer Moved On it’s a ballad which holds two guinness book of records. One for the longest note held during a live performance and two for the biggest crowd at a concert. The keyboard riff in take on me was written by the bands keyboard player when he was 13 years old back then it was called the juicy fruit song and the band was called Bridges A-HA’s guitarist and main songwriter was also in Bridges and that band was where Morton (A-HA’s lead singer) first met them. I hope you’ll continue to react to A-HA’s music. Thanks again and take care 😘🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ❤️🇳🇴❤️A-HA FOREVER❤️🇳🇴❤️

Morten harket the lead singer is when of the best vocalists of all time, you guys are in for a treat if you listen to more a-ha

A-ha - Mortens voice is really great. Very good compositions. I`m a big fan.

Then & now after this videoclip. History of music. I LOVE IT! GREAT REACTION, GUYS! GRETTINGS FROM SPAIN!

A-Ha is still one of my favorite groups from the 80s

There is a live unplugged version which gives the song an all new meaning

Great song, absolutely brilliant video. Game changer.

Thank you for this wonderful reaction❤ A-ha is one of the best bands ever, with a frontman who has a vocal range of 5 octaves, holds a world record for the longest held note in a pop song and has one of the best voices in the music business. A-ha has released 11 studio albums so far (the last in 2022). A-ha is incredibly versatile, they have combined everything from rock, jazz, blues to pop in their works. There are countless a-ha songs that are called masterpieces and perfect pop songs. Unfortunately they are so underrated in the USA, but the band is considered big stars all over the world with millions of records sold and countless sold-out world tours. Take On Me is their best-known song but by no means the best a-ha song. I would highly recommend a few songs from each album released. 1. 1985 (Hunting High And Low album ): * The Sun Always Shines On TV * Hunting High And Low * Living A Boys Adventure Tale 2. 1986 (Scoundrel Days album): * Scoundrel Days * I've Been Losing You * Manhattan Skyline 3. 1988 ( Stay On These Roads album): * Stay On These Roads * This Alone Is Love * The Living Daylights(this was the James Bond Theme song) * Out Of Blue Comes Green 4. 1990 ( East Of The Sun West Of The Moon album): From the 'a-ha live in NRK 1991' performances the following songs * Crying In The Rain * East Of The Sun West Of The Moon * Early Morning * Slender Frame * Sycamore Leaves and the Album version of *Rolling Thunder 5. 1993 (Memorial Beach album): * Dark Is The Night For All * Move to Memphis * Cold As Stone * Angel In The Snow * Lamb To The Slaughter * Memorial Beach 6. 2000 (Minor Earth Major Sky album): * Summer Moved On (Morten has the Guinness World Record for this song for the longest held note) * Little Black Heart * Velvet" (soundtrack from the Hollywood film One Night At McCool's) 7. 2002 (Lifelines album): * Lifelines * Forever Not Yours * Cannot Hide 8. 2005 (Analogue album): * Celice * Cosy Prison * Analogue * Make It Soon 9. 2009 (Foot Of the Mountain album): * The Bandstand * Foot Of The Mountain * Shadowside * Nothing Is Keeping You Here 10. 2015 (Cast In Steel album): *Cast In Steel * Under The Makeup * Mythomania * Giving Up The Ghost 11. 2022 (The Live Theme Album 'True North'): * I'm In * True North * You Have What It Takes * Forest For The Trees * Make Me Understand * Summer Rain

A-ha, the greatest Norwegian band of all time. "Take One Me" is a classic among classics, it's in tons of movies and tv shows, from old to recent (Stranger Things comes to mind). They have thousands of AMAZING songs, even today (they still play, last album was in 2022).

He's done some recent performances live of this, and it's still amazing

They're actually a musically prolific band.... definitely worth checking out more!

This is the tip of the iceberg. They are an amazing band!

Just as a side note, every time I see this vid I think of one of my favorite movies of the era, Altered States. It's toward the end where the hero is throwing himself against the panel borders trying to break out--pretty much like where the protagonist in the movie is doing the same in a hallway or tunnel in order to try to beat himself into returning to a modern human. Just checked wikipedia and it confirms that the scene was lifted from the movie. Anyway, always loved this song--always appreciate great vocals.

Hi from Türkiye. A-HA is a great choice.

this song was HUGE

I believe the method used to make this video is called "rotoscoping". With that method you film a scene and then artists take the film and draw over it. It's a painstaking process usually requiring several artists. There is a movie titled "Fire and Ice" (1983) that also used the method. Imagine doing it for a whole movie. The great artist Frank Frazetta led a team of artists to do it. o

The best from Norway, ever - period! ;-) No, honestly - a fantastic band!! 🤩Greetings from Sweden.

Probably the most famous synth rift from the 80’s, magne who is the keyboard player wrote that rift was only 15 when he wrote it.

This band's other big hit is The Sun Always Shines On TV, and it's amazing. Energetic driving tempo.

The video for this song was ground breaking and mind blowing when it first came out, it was phenomenal, the song itself is brilliant as well, all round a wonderful creation

I was in high school when it came out in the 80's and everyone went crazy for the video. It was the early days of MTV and Much Music here in Canada and that video was so in demand. Add to that the amazing vocals and it was a receipe for success. They are one of Norway's biggest band having sold close to a 100 million albums and singles

The technique used is called rotoscoping which had been around for decades, including integration with normal live action, with music, the best example being Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry, a cartoon mouse in Anchors Aweigh (1945). Even the "cartoonization" of people in live action had been done before. But it was groundbreaking putting it all together, its creative use and storytelling in a music video.

Back in the 80's, when mtv started up this video was played over and over. Back then this video was pretty high tech for the times. The 70's and 80's were so much fun. It is so much different now days. It's kind of sad!

There next song you could do is, The Sun Always Shines On TV.

A Ha are from Norway and Morton Harget the lead singer was every teen girls dream. Great fun band.

Michael Morse (the only MLB player to hit a grand slam without using a bat) of the Washington Nationals used Take On Me as his walk up song. As a Nats fan, glad to hear this song any time.

Pure joy. Pure music. New wave 80s! That debut album hunting high and low was and is still a gem when music for me was pure. Mabuhay!

Next A-ha tune to react to is The Sun Always Shines On TV.

Lead singer, Morten Harkett. This video is absolutely legendary and groundbreaking for its time.

Yes it’s been in a ton of movies , this version and the acoustic version feature in deadpool 2

Another song that got an award for it's music video was Peter Gabriel's video for Sledgehammer as it was all done in stop motion.

I actually tear up every time I watch this.

I had a massive crush on Morten, loved the song and him, just watched and I still do swooooooooon.

This, and Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" too, both were very creative!

It was one of a handful of videos which literally enabled MTV and VH-1 to even exist. It was so advanced and innovative for the day, that it’s still impresses me now…just as it did when it came out.

That impossible note! It still amazes..

"The Sun always Shines On TV" is another hit to check out from the same album.

Its the story ❤❤

This video, like Sledgehammer and Thriller, was a landmark in the music video world. Stunning to watch it hourly for awhile. Never got old.

This Norweigan band made musicvideo history with this one ! Epic ! Love your reactions ! 👍👍👍🇸🇪😎💕

Man, listening to you guys at the beginning of this.... you've got a fantastically DEEP rabbit hole to go down. In a way, the two of you are going to be like Alice in Wonderland with what you will find. Music evolved drastically from the mid-1960s onward, when the "Counter Culture" started to emerge in the US and UK. Canada also entered the scene, but it really started with the introduction of the "Hippy" movement (Baby Boomers, who, for all the crap they get (much of it well deserved, mind you) made some incredible music. Blues, bluegrass, soul, rock, folk songs, lyrics that spoke to the human condition, and started to include more electronic elements.... evolved and became what we had in the 1970s and 80s. The evolution continued into the early 2000s, but seemed to stagnate with the advent of Autotune. A lot of the creativity and talent seems to have been stifled. But that's my personal opinion. Maybe I'm just an "old head" (I was born in 1967) that's lost touch. But you guys have a well deeper than you know, to head down, and I'm here for it.

On Saturday, August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time, MTV was launched with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll". It was played over footage of the first Space Shuttle launch countdown of Columbia and the launch of Apollo 11.

The mtv acoustic version of take on me from the summer solstice album is mind blowing it makes it sound like an entirely different song plus the band members are a lot older then but still sound amazing. A-HA are the best band ever. The follow up to take on me is another you should definitely check out is The sun always shines on tv it’s much rockier but follows off from where the take on me finishes and i definitely recommend Summer Moved On with the two guinness books of records awards for the longest note held best watched live at the Oslo Spektram, Norway in 2010. Take care and i hope you’ll continue to react to more A-HA. 😘🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ❤️🇳🇴❤️A-HA FOREVER❤️🇳🇴❤️

MTV video of the year..Got hourly rotation airplay for about 18 months! a great song with some great visuals(Looks awesome on the big screen even today!) Props to the artist..Collect comic books myself, only seen a few that can do it all with just black and white so effectively. Between this and Micheal Jackon's Thriller, it did raise the banner..Everybody got into making the videos more showy productions..

Fun to watch again, a Norwegian band, one of our greatest! Still going strong! Check the latest album “True North “ from 2022.

This is arguably the best song of the 80s.

Best music video ever🙂

one of the songs and videos that defined the '80s. unfortunately, it was so popular they kind of became a 1-hit wonder in the USA. they had a minor hit with The Sun Always Shines On TV, and then again with the James Bond theme, The Living Daylights, but their careers continued on for multiple decades with hit after hit, album after album all around the world... just not here. If you want to keep digging into this fantasic band, there's lots here for you to discover. One of my personal favs is The Swing Of Things, off their second album, Scoundrel Days. The guitarist, Paul, wrote it with his wife in mind, and it articulates the moment he realized he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. "Oh when she glows in the dark and I'm weak by the sight, of this breaktaking beauty in which I can hide. Oh, there's a world out there of people I fear, but given time... I'll get into the swing of things. Yes, when she glows in the dark and I'm struck by the sight... I know that I'll need this for the rest of my life...". Morten sings this up into a crescendo for that last line and it puts a lump in my throat everytime I hear it. Any man that's ever had this epiphany knows exactly how this feels...

Actually it’s 1.8 billion views, it gets on average 5 million views each week and has done so for the last 3 years.

The greatest band from Norway. Hi, boys! Morten, Magne and Paal.

10 year old me loved this back in 1985 when this song first came out the video was ahead of it's time. 48 year old me still loves this song and video.

MTV played this video all the time, paved the way for them to have so many views and made the song popular

Great song and great video....I love the 80's.

here in the UK and Europe this was a smash hit at the time, excellent sound and great video

The unplugged version of this song that came out a few years ago is amazing.

I so loved this video back then. I just had my second baby when this came out. Kept me entertained raising this little ones.

What I wish for you Phil & Sam - be sitting in front of the TV at 10 years old (that was my age) on August 2, 1981 at midnight watching MTV come on the air for the first time like the rest of us. The moon man landed, planted the MTV flag, "Ladies & gemtleman this is Rock & Roll" & "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles was the first video to come on. It didn't matter if the video cost 10 dollars to make & was cheesy as hell (yet the perfect synthetic song) like Flock Of Seagulls "I Ran" or a full length masterpiece like MJ "Thriller" - we were in for them all!

This song is forever on my playlist.

Its one of the most played and lauded MTV videos of all time. Simple as that. This was the height of New Wave.

This music video was decades ahead of its time and it one of the most iconic songs from my childhood in the 80s!

Many people who watched MTV back in the day would say wit was overplayed. I really loved it!❤❤ Great reaction! Love those 80’s!!❤❤❤

One of my favorite songs.. the unplugged is really cool..

Norwegian band a-ha only had about 1-2 hits in the US, but they were HUGE in Europe, South America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand. Morten Harket had one of the best pop voices, insane range. This isn't their best song by far (cool video though!) Please react to Hunting High and Low, Stay on these Roads, I've been losing you, The Living Daylights (they did the Bond theme, theres a new 4K video, not really 4K but good sound), Lifelines, Forever not Yours, Early Morning, The Blood that moves the Body etc, and of course The Sun always Shines on TV, which is a follow up video to Take on Me (but the other mentioned songs are better). If you keep on doing a-ha reactions, you'll get hundreds of Portuguese comments (Brazil loves them too) 🙂

First time I saw this was watching MTV for the first time and have never forgot it. Always loved this song & video.

Gotta love that Yamaha DX7 keyboard. It's also used on "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins and "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin for the 1986 Top Gun movie soundtrack. So iconic.

A fantastic song and a revolutionary, innovative music video from a band from Norway! I live in Sweden, the neighboring country in Scandinavia here in Europe. So great that you chose this to react to….I am 60 years old and experienced the groundbreaking era of MTV in the 80s.

Great reaction!! Yes, this was a game changer as far as videos went (much like Michael Jackson's Thriller). It came at a time when MTV(US)/MuchMusic (Canada) were exploding, so popularity was definitely bolstered by video play! (and IMHO, it still stands as a fantastic video achievement!) The song itself is incredible (as is most of a-ha's catalogue). Others have mentioned - you should check the 2016 Live Unplugged version of this song - it's amazing how the same words feel completely different when given the acoustic treatment! HIGHLY recommend: The Sun Always Shines On TV (a continuation of this song kinda), Manhattan Skyline, Lifelines, Hunting High And Low, Stay On These Roads, Summer Moved On, Scoundrel Days...that's for starters!! You won't regret it! Cheers.

The singer is in his 60s. He still looks like a supermodel and he can still hit that high note.

Now that you've watched this, you should watch the live unplugged version they did just a few years ago, called "a-ha - Take On Me (Live From MTV Unplugged)". It's beautiful. It was featured in the theatrical release of Deadpool 2.

To date, one of the most innovative music videos, and still blows me away... for this time period. The UK produced a lot of inventive ways to present artistry in music whether it's experimenting with sounds in the studio or playing with visual art like this. Watch the sequel too, "The Sun Always Shines On T.V.". Good pick guys!

Video from back when MTV had music videos. A masterpiece for that time and would be nowadays!

The 🐐 of music videos.

Great music, video and great vocals.

The live unplugged version is amazing to watch

Remember this coming out in mid 80's. Something unique with the drawings. Norways finest

No 1 in UK many many years ago when I was a young lad, still sounds good today, great post

There is an unplugged version done just a few years ago for an MTV session - plus on the Masked Singer, Viking sang this. It was the lead singer for Aha who sang it. I believe it was the first time the original singer sang their own song on the show.

This is the 2nd greatest music video of all time.

This was from an era where pop videos, supported the music, the songs came out on the radio, then followed with video. The 80s was the pop era

You should definitely follow this up with "The Sun Always Shines on TV"! It continues on from this video. Sam was pretty close. It's a blend of "animation" and "animatics", which is a series of drawings put together in a slideshow format.

They won some awards for the video

Imagine working for a record label and spotting that guy with those looks on stage with that voice..I mean that's just gold. This is a great song, but America from my experience on this planet only basically heard this song and probably just thought they were a one-hit wonder. They made a ton of great songs. Just a fantastic band.

Video was incredible for its time, I remember it well

Like a miniature movie, illustration is supreme for the times.

Eighties synth-pop is fire!

Favourite pop song as a child of the 80s!!

It was one of the top 50 most popular videos on MTV

This song came out in 1985 and it was groundbreaking. My favourite song in. 80s. This from a Queen fan