You may not know that the first few months of rage where they only showed the artist name and not the song title was a hangover from the music clip show "Videodisc" which appeared just before the ABC 6pm news in the capital cities (outside the capitals, the ABC showed 5-6 mins of regional news instead of Videodisc).

Videodisc ran from about 1980 to 1985 if I remember correctly. What was interesting about it, apart from the fact that they only showed the artist title, was that it was simulcast on JJJ FM. Back then clips were not in stereo, so the ABC re-striped the clips with stereo soundtrack - but often the album or single release was different to that on the video, so then the ABC would RE-EDIT the clip to match! Can you believe it! If someone did that these days they would be sued for violating artistic integrity. Even if the song version was the same, they usually re-edited the clip anyway.

I remember seeing Split Enz "Six Months In a Leaky Boat" complete with the "Pioneer" intro, but the clip was re-edited, jumbling the scenes. Another favourite of Videodisc was Duncan Browne's "Wild Places" which they overlaid the admittedly very boring video of him just standing there singing, being pawed by a lady wearing a leopard skin leotard, with random space footage from the 70s, pictures of stars and rockets taking off. This clip was also often used as a "filler" between programmes in the early 80s if anything finished early.

Regarding the rage song title typefaces used over the years, you may be fascinated to know:

1987: Typeface: Bureau Grotesque Three Seven (large) - artist only, no song title.
1987-1991: Bureau Grotesque Three Seven (large) - artist and song title.
1991-2000: Grotesque No 9 (small) - artist and song title.
2001 onwards: MN Eurostile Medium - artist and song title.

Time for a typeface change??

This isn't accurate at all. Rage changed font in early 1994 to MN Eurostile after experimenting with various fonts briefly in late '93. For a short time - maybe even just one weekend - Rage played all the clips (at least in the top 50) with both artist and title in lower-case with only caps beginning each word. The font was smaller and tidier than the Grotesque No 9 (small) but they never stuck with it, whatever it was called. After 1994, the font was gradually softened after its first year as being quite bold and boxy. I seem to remember it was shadowed by quite a thick black line. The next major change was in 1997 for a number of months when they dropped the black shadow all together making the titles almost invisible on videos with very white backgrounds. That lasted for a while (til early 1998) and since then it has remained largely the same. Oh yeah, and in 1998 the Mardi Gras special featured a rainbow coloured super!

Videodisc was taken off air by too many complaints from older people, who were annoyed by the pop music before the 7pm news. It was replaced by a similar 5 minute music filler called 'Take 5', which didn't last much longer.

With further research, I agree it wasn't 1991. But neither was it 1994.

For example, Clouds' single "Say It" was released in September 1992, and my rage recording of it that month has the title in Grotesque No 9. Falling Joys' single "Breakaway" was released in October 1993, and the typeface was MN Eurostile. So the change was some time between those two dates. I'll look at more of my old recordings to nail down the month.

But there is no doubt Eurostile came in before 1994, so you are not accurate either.

The typeface shadowing/non-shadowing is not a typeface change.

mentioning the shadowing of the titles was just a detail to add to the discussion about how the rage font has been altered over time.

I agree that in late 1993 Rage had started using Eurostile, but only inconsistently. For instance in Feb. 1994, they ran a Pet Shop Boys special and the videos were supered with the old 'Grotesque 9 small' font. I have recordings of two videos from a 'new releases' night from one week in March '94, (Blur's 'Girls & Boys' and Bjork's 'Violently Happy') with MN Eurostile fonts, and I consider this to be the first program in which NM Eurostile was adopted for good. The closest in date to this was a previous recording from late Feb of NIN's 'March Of The Pigs' and it has the former 'Grotesque' style still in use. As for when they first changed fonts, it was late 1993, but as I mentioned before, it was only randomly. The change was not consistent until the following year.

Anybody else have a memory of this?

Without reading all of this thread yet, Rage definitely changed font in early 1994. I've got clips recorded from January 1994 with a different font to what they were using in May. Around April/May-ish 1994, they changed the top 50 lay-out too, so that it read something like:

No.45 MELODIE MC
Dum Da Dum


Rage also moved to a smaller font than the original huge writing some time in late 1989. I've got a top 50 from November 1989 with the smaller writing.

Leigh is correct in that Rage briefly experimented with using lower case for both artist and title. There was a New Release show (remember those? 2-4am Friday morning) from July 1994 where I've got clips recorded with this lower case font. One I specifically remember is like this:

Haddaway
Rock My Heart

Now I've read the whole thread... I've uploaded my copy of The Clouds' 'Say It' to youtube, recorded on the 3rd January 1993 show (a couple of months after it fell out of the top 60):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47qy2tDk5P8


I'm not up with the names of any of the fonts (other than Times New Roman and Arial, ha ha), but here's some other clips I've uploaded from Rage with different fonts.

I noted the date on my videos recorded from rage from 1996, but can figure out the other weeks by seeing what was in the chart then.

Kylie Mole 'So Excellent' (19th or 26th November 1988, large font with delayed title appearing after artist)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2g9NYF4rn4

Yazz 'Where Has All the Love Gone?' (large coloured font, probably June-July 1989, don't know for sure as I acquired it through a trade):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NrDkan3GLk

Boxcar 'Gas Stop (Who Do You Think You Are)' (smaller font, probably Dec 1990 or Jan 1991, not certain as I acquired through a trade):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGMst9siMGY

World Famous Supreme Team Show 'Operaa House' (6th April 1991)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K4iCDk9gAA

Freaked Out Flower Children (11th January 1992)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b49eAShZALA

1927 'Scars' (21st November 1992):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsVrS_p_a-Y

Efua 'Down Is the Drop' (14th January 1994)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E__PO7FGX0

The Sharp 'Alone Like Me' (2nd Jul 1994, new font and new top 50 no. artist/title layout)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2rwalws-F0

Strike 'Free At Last' (18th November 1995, this may be the 'barely visible on white' font Leigh was referring to)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0KjfwBfqjk


Then there's this weird font I only remember seeing once (and maybe only on this video?) from 24th April 1993:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8bEcXU5ufw

Also, just for interest, here's a clip of AB Logic's 'AB Logic' from 11th September 1993 that Rage initially supered as Neneh Cherry's 'Man Child' (sic) It's not corrected until 1:10 into the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueQAmhCwHBI

I've got a copy of version 2 of Bananarama's 'I Want You Back' video (not the one they aired in 2010, but the one where they wear wigs during the verses) recorded from Rage, that I acquired through a trade, which only has the artist name. As this track was released as a single in Australia in May 1988, presumably rage were also still doing the 'artist name only' thing (at least for videos not in the top 50), at least occasionally, in 1988.

Now I see this, I am sure the Things of Stone & Wood video was from the first Rage ep where they began experimenting with a new font. At that stage i was watching rage all the time and I do remember this quite clearly. In the TOP 50 that week they played a few clips with the new font (I also have a copy of 'Rock This Boat' from that episode as well as some others from that night.)

I think Nathan you have solved the issue here. The first episode rage began trying a new font was in April 1993.

However, I still maintain that it wasn't until March 1994 that they finally stuck with NM Eurostile full-time.

Nice, but I reckon my copy of this clip is better (no JJJ logo or scrolling info!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jORe3tvS-DY

I would be really impressed if you had a high quality, non-"New Release" play of Clouds "Boy Of Air". My copy, after professional digital processing on a really terrible, noisy and ghosty third-generation VHS tape is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4Vt0EZIlEQ


I've got a clean copy of this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRj8TzdyBVM


I am pretty sure that typeface is Univers Next Black Condensed. And now I see it, it has jogged my memory that I have seen that before. But you are right, it was not for very long. Possibly only one night.