If you close your eyes and think of 1984, you probably hear a very specific synthesizer hook. It’s bouncy. It’s clean. It feels like neon lights and optimistic futurism. That’s the sound of What Is Love by Howard Jones, a track that defined a massive chunk of the decade’s sonic identity. But here’s the thing—while most people just remember it as a catchy radio hit, there’s a weird, deep philosophical core to it that most pop songs today wouldn't dare touch.
Howard Jones wasn't just another guy with a mullet and a Roland Jupiter-8. He was basically a one-man band trying to bridge the gap between human emotion and cold, calculated machinery. When "What Is Love" climbed to number two on the UK Singles Chart and broke the top 40 in the US, it wasn’t just because of the catchy chorus. It was because the song asked a question that, honestly, nobody had a great answer for then, and we still don’t now.
Is love a physical thing? A chemical reaction? Or just a social contract we all signed without reading the fine print?
The Philosophy Behind the Synth
Most 80s love songs were about heartbreak or wanting to get with someone. They were simple. Jones took a different path. He was heavily influenced by Eastern philosophy and a sort of Buddhist-lite mindfulness, which is why the lyrics of What Is Love by Howard Jones feel more like a therapy session than a club banger.
"Does anybody love anybody anyway?"
That’s a heavy line for a song that people were dancing to in leg warmers. He’s questioning the very nature of affection. He’s asking if the thing we call "love" is actually just a selfish projection of our own needs. It’s a bit cynical if you think about it too long, but the music is so bright that you almost don't notice the existential crisis happening in the lyrics.
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The production itself was a marvel for its time. Working with producer Rupert Hine, Jones used layers of digital and analog synths to create a soundscape that felt full but also strangely intimate. It wasn’t the wall-of-sound approach used by some of his contemporaries. It was precise. Every "ping" and "whoosh" had a place. This wasn't accidental. Jones was a classically trained pianist, and he treated his synthesizers like an orchestra.
That Iconic Video and the Mime
You can't talk about this song without mentioning the music video. It’s peak 80s. You’ve got Howard wandering around Paris, looking slightly confused, while a mime—played by Jed Hoile—follows him around.
It sounds ridiculous. In some ways, it is. But the mime represented the "unspoken" parts of communication. Love is often about what we don't say, or what we can't express through words alone. Having a silent figure mimicking Jones’s movements was a literal representation of the song's internal struggle.
Jed Hoile wasn't just a random extra, either. He was a frequent collaborator who helped Jones translate the abstract concepts in his head into something visual. This was the era of MTV, where a song wasn't just a song—it was a brand. The visual of the "Everyman" in the baggy suit and the spiky hair made Jones relatable. He wasn't a sex symbol like Simon Le Bon; he was the smart guy in the back of the class who happened to have a stack of expensive keyboards.
Technical Mastery: The Gear That Made the Sound
For the gearheads, What Is Love by Howard Jones is a masterclass in early MIDI integration. Jones was an early adopter of the Sequential Circuits Prophet-T8 and the Roland Juno-60.
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The bassline is a specific point of pride for synth enthusiasts. It has this "rubbery" texture that drives the track forward without being aggressive. If you listen closely, the song doesn't actually have a traditional drum kit sound. It’s all programmed, yet it swings. It has a groove that feels human. That’s a hard trick to pull off when you’re dealing with early 80s sequencers that wanted everything to be perfectly on the grid.
- The "Whose" and "Hows":
- Main synth lead: Often attributed to the Roland Jupiter-8.
- Bass: A combination of Moog and Roland textures.
- Percussion: Simmons electronic drums mixed with programmed LinnDrum patterns.
The layering was incredibly dense. In interviews, Jones has talked about how he would spend hours tweaking a single patch to get the "emotional" resonance right. He didn't want the tech to overshadow the message. He wanted the tech to be the message.
Why the Song Refuses to Die
In the last decade, we’ve seen a massive resurgence of 80s aesthetics. From Stranger Things to the "Synthwave" genre on YouTube, everyone is chasing that 1984 vibe. But most of it is just surface-level. They get the reverb right, but they miss the soul.
What Is Love by Howard Jones persists because it captures a very specific type of loneliness. It’s the loneliness of being surrounded by people and technology but still feeling disconnected. In 2026, that’s more relevant than it was forty years ago. We are more connected than ever, yet we’re still asking if anybody loves anybody anyway.
The song has been sampled, covered, and featured in countless commercials. It’s become shorthand for "thoughtful 80s." It’s the song you play when you want to feel nostalgic but you also want to feel like you’re thinking about something important.
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A Legacy of Positivity
One of the most interesting things about Howard Jones is that he actually practiced what he preached. Unlike many rock stars of the era who were burning out on various substances, Jones was focused on "positive" pop. He wanted to write songs that helped people cope with their lives.
"What Is Love" is part of a trilogy of hits—alongside "New Song" and "Hide and Seek"—that basically functioned as a self-help guide for the synth generation. It told kids that it was okay to be different, okay to be questioning, and okay to be confused about their feelings.
Critics at the time were sometimes harsh. They called it "tofu pop"—soft and without substance. But looking back, those critics were mostly wrong. The substance was there; it just wasn't loud or angry. It was quiet, reflective, and incredibly well-crafted.
Actionable Takeaways for the Modern Listener
If you’re revisiting this track or discovering it for the first time, don't just let it play in the background while you’re doing dishes. Give it a real listen.
- Analyze the lyrics as a poem. Strip away the catchy synth-pop and just read the words. It’s a surprisingly deep meditation on the ego.
- Listen for the "spaces" in the mix. Notice how Jones leaves room for the melody to breathe. It’s a lesson in "less is more" production.
- Watch the live performances. Check out his 1984 performance at the Hammersmith Odeon. Seeing one guy manage all those machines in a pre-laptop era is genuinely impressive. It shows the sheer sweat and effort that went into making "electronic" music feel alive.
- Compare it to modern pop. Notice the lack of "autotune" or heavy dynamic range compression. There’s a natural rise and fall in the vocal performance that gives it an authentic, human feel.
The real magic of What Is Love by Howard Jones isn't in the synthesizers or the hair. It’s in the vulnerability. It takes a lot of guts to stand on a stage in front of thousands of people and ask if love is actually real. Howard Jones did it, and he did it with a melody that won't leave your head for days.
To truly understand the song, you have to look past the neon. Recognize that it’s a song about the human condition, wrapped in the shiny plastic of 1980s pop culture. It’s a reminder that even in a world of machines, the most important questions are the ones only humans can ask.
To get the most out of your Howard Jones experience, start by listening to the Human's Lib album in its entirety. It provides the necessary context for where his head was at during the recording of this specific track. Pay close attention to the track "Hide and Seek" immediately afterward to see how he handles similar themes with a much darker, more ambient tone.