Synopsis

The Human League perform "Empire State Human" in a stark, highly stylized studio setting. The trio appear against a dark background as a roaming fisheye camera distorts their figures and movement. Flashing red and white lights, projected images, and abrupt changes in scale give the performance a futuristic, disorienting quality. Rather than illustrating the song's story literally, the video turns its fascination with growth, size, and ambition into a playful piece of electronic visual experimentation.

Factoids & Trivia

• The promo was made in 1979, during the original Human League lineup of Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware, and Ian Craig Marsh.

• Its visual language reflects the group's early interest in combining electronic music with experimental film and video techniques. The fisheye lens and stark lighting make the performers appear to expand and contract within the frame.

• "Empire State Human" was the only single released from the band's debut album, "Reproduction." Its first release in October 1979 failed to chart.

• Virgin reissued the single in 1980, when it reached No. 62 on the UK Singles Chart.

• The video was later included in the band's home-video compilations, helping preserve a rare document of the pre-"Dare" Human League.

• The song's lyrics use physical size as a metaphor for power and ambition, moving from human scale toward skyscrapers, pyramids, and an imagined superhuman stature.