Follow TV Tropes

Following

Music / Total Eclipse of the Heart

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/total_9.png
"Turn around..."

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is a 1983 song by Bonnie Tyler. While the song is a Silly Love Song, the video is quite different. It can be seen here.

The song is the Trope Namer for Total Eclipse of the Plot.


"Total Eclipse of the Tropes":

  • Animal Motif: Doves appear for no explained reason.
  • Boarding School of Horrors: Well, boarding school of weirdness, at least.
  • Dramatic Wind: It might be easier to find shots where there isn't a wind machine directed at Bonnie.
  • The '80s: The music video consists of just about every single 80s music video tropes.
  • Glowing Eyes: Some of the students, one of whom can fly, literalizing the hook "Turn around bright eyes."
  • Greaser Delinquents: Some students dance around dressed like this.
  • Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: Twofold:
    • Lyrics-wise: The singer refers to the presence of her lover's "love like a shadow" over her; that she is "always in the dark"; and they "are giving off sparks". In the final verses, she sings about how "there was light in [her] life", but "now there's only love in the dark".
    • In the music video, light sources (the moon, illuminated rooms, the literal "bright eyes") are contrasted with the dark elements (the silhouettes, the darkened hallways, even the nocturnal setting).
  • Ninja: Some appear in the video.
  • Random Events Plot: Stuff just happens, and no explanation is ever offered.
  • Rule of Cool: Downplayed, but, it's as good an explanation as any for what is happening here.
  • Selective Obliviousness: It isn't until Bonnie encounters the one boy at the end with Glowing Eyes that she gets a sense that something is wrong.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Some boys making a toast with what is clearly wine.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Ninjas in a school! Also about 90% of the video, like the angel guy who cops a feel towards the end.
  • Winged Humanoid: A boy has large wings.


Top