The Rose

Created in 1980 by Kendra Hunter and Diana Barbour, The Rose is one of the earliest created fan vids. Kendra and Diana debuted The Rose, along with 15 other vids, at ZebraCon. (The Archive hosts another of those original vids, the slash vid, Kiss You All Over.) Kendra and Diana separated their vids on two different VCR tapes, and listed them as either gen or slash, but included The Rose on both tapes as they felt the vid was open to viewers’ interpretation.

 From Fanlore: Due to the technical limitations of the time (VTRs without flying eraseheads) or the ability to make edits to the tape without also distorting the audio, any clip used in a song vid had to run without interruption or cuts. Many fans who are used to more modern vids with faster editing have said the internal timing of the clip, which matches each line of the lyrics to an eerie degree, in connection with Bette Midler’s emotional song, still has the power to affect them decades later.

 The vid had a powerful effect on the early fandom. The song, The Rose, became a group singalong at the end of every ZebraCon. It was also the inspiration for the title of Linda McGee’s first zine, “The Lucky and the Strong,” which is a line from the song.