Many notable individuals appear in the video. David Bowie's longtime guitarist and songwriting partner Carlos Alomar, future Hall & Oates/Roger Waters guitarist G.E. Smith, guitarist Steve Love are members of Bowie's band. Actress Khandi Alexander plays a choreographer. May Pang, wife of longtime David Bowie producer Tony Visconti and ex-wife of John Lennon (who co-wrote Bowie's 1975 hit "Fame") and early MTV VJ Alan Hunter, also appear.
Guitarist G.E. Smith, who later played guitar for Hall & Oates and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, was asked by David Bowie to appear in the video after meeting him and liking his odd look.
The references to the "goon squad" in the lyrics prompted theories that the song concerned fascism. However, Bowie played down this interpretation. Biographer David Buckley believed the song "poked fun at the banality of the dance-floor and the style fascists" of the New Romantic movement.
Khandi Alexander's debut.