As difficult as it is to believe now - considering the dearth of music videos on TV these days - there was a 15 or 20 year span when music videos were HUGE business and an integral part of music. There were many artists who may never have been as popular as they were without music videos. While some videos were nothing more than glorified concert clips, other videos were big budget, motion picture quality affairs that may or may not have had anything to do with the song lyrics. Seeing as how music videos are essentially now an relic of days gone by, I figure it's a good time for my list of the Top 20 Music Videos of all time.
While the list is understandably focused on videos from the 1980s, I've sprinkled in a few gems from the 1990s as well. Here we go...
20. "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran (1983) - Filmed in Sri Lanka, the video has an Indiana Jones-type vibe with the band running about in a crowded town and then in the jungle. Few bands took advantage of the music video to greater effect than Duran Duran and this video is a perfect example of why. Combining exotic locations with the movie star looks of the band, the video helped propel the song into the Top 5 on the Billboard charts. https://youtu.be/oJL-lCzEXgI
While the list is understandably focused on videos from the 1980s, I've sprinkled in a few gems from the 1990s as well. Here we go...
20. "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran (1983) - Filmed in Sri Lanka, the video has an Indiana Jones-type vibe with the band running about in a crowded town and then in the jungle. Few bands took advantage of the music video to greater effect than Duran Duran and this video is a perfect example of why. Combining exotic locations with the movie star looks of the band, the video helped propel the song into the Top 5 on the Billboard charts. https://youtu.be/oJL-lCzEXgI
19. "Wrapped Around Your Finger" by The Police (1983) - A maze of candlesticks in a dark room with Sting dancing around them in slow motion. Directed by Godley & Crème (who also directed their two previous videos, "Every Breath You Take" and "Synchronicity II"), the video was actually filmed and performed at a faster speed and then slowed down for playback, resulting in the slow motion action in the film. It matches the ethereal vibe of the song, making it particularly memorable. https://youtu.be/svWINSRhQU0
18. "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley (1984) - Shot in black-and-white, it's a French New Wave-inspired gem that features the main character at the video at three different ages (boy, adult, middle-aged man) reminiscing about past relationships. To this day, whenever I hear this song, I mentally picture the black-and-white video. The video won "Video of the Year" at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards. https://youtu.be/672F2t5dVeY
17. "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday (1985) - A perfect example of how a music video can reinforce the story of a song and help increase that song's popularity. The video, which visually told the story in support of the lyrics about an abusive relationship, was a perfect example of what made MTV great back in its nascent years. A well-made, creative video that helps to bring more exposure to a terrific song. Who can forget when Aimee Mann takes of her hat during a performance at Carnegie Hall, revealing spiky hair and a rat tail when she slowly sings louder and louder? https://youtu.be/uejh-bHa4To
16. "Big Me" by Foo Fighters (1996) - A spoof of the corny Mentos commercials of the mid-1990s - they were "Footos" in the video- it's a funny, tongue-in-cheek video that probably hasn't aged as well as one would think, since those Mentos commercials have vanished from TV. Part of the charm of the video relies upon the viewer being familiar with the aforementioned Mentos commercials. Still, it was definitely memorable at the time and showed the creative attitude of the band toward music videos, something that will lead to another Foo Fighters entry later on in this countdown. The video was nominated for "Video of the Year" at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, but it didn't win.
https://youtu.be/pLdJQFTnZfA
15. "Right Now" by Van Halen (1992) - A well executed idea that supported the content of the lyrics, the video features a number of phrases on the screen that reference both issues within the band and the lyrics as well as social issues going on at the time. It was one of those videos you had to actually watch a couple of times to fully catch everything. While that Sammy Hagar years of Van Halen are sometimes maligned by critics and hard rock devotees, this video was the best one the band ever did. It won "Video of the Year" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. https://youtu.be/SeJfcW03hF0
14. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (1991) - A high school pep rally concert that devolves into chaos and anarchy, the video was a perfect match for the song and it helped introduce grunge music in general and Nirvana in particular to the music world at large. In 4 and a half minutes, the band blew up the music world and put a fork in the hair bands that were so prevalent in the late 1980s, both with their sound and the gritty, cathartic video that accompanied it. It was nominated for "Video of the Year" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, but it lost out to the #15 video on this list. https://youtu.be/hTWKbfoikeg
13. "Beat It" by Michael Jackson (1983) - Few artists mastered the art of the music video better than Michael Jackson and this is the first of his three entries on this list. This was the video that introduced the mass choreography that became a hallmark of Jackson's later videos. A sort of "West Side Story" street fight scenario that doubles as a plea that violence is not the answer. This song and video helped establish Jackson as the "King of Pop" and blur the lines between pop, R&B and rock. https://youtu.be/oRdxUFDoQe0
12. "Buddy Holly" by Weezer (1994) - One of the great videos from my college years, this one uses computer animation and camera trickery to insert the band into a scene from "Happy Days", where they are playing at Arnold's Drive-In. The band is dressed in '50s garb to fit in and it even features Fonzie dancing to the band's music. Given the song's lyrics referencing 1950s stars Buddy Holly and Mary Tyler Moore, it ties everything together. It was unique and different and helped make the song a huge hit. https://youtu.be/kemivUKb4f4
11. "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel (1986) - A chaotic mixture of Claymation, pixilation and stop-motion animation (not to mention some certain bodily fluids under a microscope), it was a unique combination of animation and life action shots of Gabriel singing. The award-winning video (it was Video of the Year at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards) was part of the reason that the song became Gabriel's biggest U.S. hit. Always known for strange videos ("Big Time" and "Shock the Monkey" are other examples), this was his most successful and most enduring. https://youtu.be/OJWJE0x7T4Q
15. "Right Now" by Van Halen (1992) - A well executed idea that supported the content of the lyrics, the video features a number of phrases on the screen that reference both issues within the band and the lyrics as well as social issues going on at the time. It was one of those videos you had to actually watch a couple of times to fully catch everything. While that Sammy Hagar years of Van Halen are sometimes maligned by critics and hard rock devotees, this video was the best one the band ever did. It won "Video of the Year" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. https://youtu.be/SeJfcW03hF0
14. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (1991) - A high school pep rally concert that devolves into chaos and anarchy, the video was a perfect match for the song and it helped introduce grunge music in general and Nirvana in particular to the music world at large. In 4 and a half minutes, the band blew up the music world and put a fork in the hair bands that were so prevalent in the late 1980s, both with their sound and the gritty, cathartic video that accompanied it. It was nominated for "Video of the Year" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, but it lost out to the #15 video on this list. https://youtu.be/hTWKbfoikeg
13. "Beat It" by Michael Jackson (1983) - Few artists mastered the art of the music video better than Michael Jackson and this is the first of his three entries on this list. This was the video that introduced the mass choreography that became a hallmark of Jackson's later videos. A sort of "West Side Story" street fight scenario that doubles as a plea that violence is not the answer. This song and video helped establish Jackson as the "King of Pop" and blur the lines between pop, R&B and rock. https://youtu.be/oRdxUFDoQe0
12. "Buddy Holly" by Weezer (1994) - One of the great videos from my college years, this one uses computer animation and camera trickery to insert the band into a scene from "Happy Days", where they are playing at Arnold's Drive-In. The band is dressed in '50s garb to fit in and it even features Fonzie dancing to the band's music. Given the song's lyrics referencing 1950s stars Buddy Holly and Mary Tyler Moore, it ties everything together. It was unique and different and helped make the song a huge hit. https://youtu.be/kemivUKb4f4
11. "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel (1986) - A chaotic mixture of Claymation, pixilation and stop-motion animation (not to mention some certain bodily fluids under a microscope), it was a unique combination of animation and life action shots of Gabriel singing. The award-winning video (it was Video of the Year at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards) was part of the reason that the song became Gabriel's biggest U.S. hit. Always known for strange videos ("Big Time" and "Shock the Monkey" are other examples), this was his most successful and most enduring. https://youtu.be/OJWJE0x7T4Q
10. "Hot for Teacher" by Van Halen (1984) - The last single (and, consequently, last video) by Van Halen's original lineup, it's probably what you'd expect for a song about having a crush on your teacher. It introduces the nerdy kid Waldo as well as the "band members" as school kids and as adults. It involves attractive "teachers" parading around beauty pageant style in swimsuits, complete with the sashes that, instead of featuring their state or country, feature the subjects they teach. It also features the band members dancing around in matching suits under a disco ball. It's funny - albeit certainly misogynistic - and it ended the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen with a bang. Seeing as how I'm married to a teacher, I sometimes think of this as my theme song. :) https://youtu.be/6M4_Ommfvv0
9. "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam (1992) - One of the hallmarks of grunge music and the so-called "Seattle Sound" of the early 1990s was downcast lyrics and subject matter. This song, which is about a boy who was picked on in at school and ultimately gets his "revenge" by killing himself with a gun in front of the class and his teacher. It was inspired by a real life incident and the video, which includes a montage of insults hurled, still frame pictures and live action to create a collage of images in support of the lyrics and meaning of the song. MTV's editing of the gun from the climactic image led to the frequent misinterpretation that Jeremy had killed his classmates rather than himself. Regardless, it was a very powerful statement where the video deftly reinforces the content of the lyrics. The controversy surrounding the video was one of the reasons Pearl Jam stopped making music videos after this one. "Try to erase this from the blackboard..." https://youtu.be/MS91knuzoOA
8. "Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters (1999) - The second entry for Foo Fighters - and the third entry overall for Dave Grohl - this is the most recent video to make the list. Directed by the same team that did the #16 video, this one is another humorous spoof, this time of those cheesy 1970s-era disaster movies. It features the band members each playing several roles, with Grohl appearing in no fewer than 6 roles (as a pilot, as a flight attendant, as an overweight middle-aged woman, as a teenage girl, an FBI agent and as himself). It's a madcap, slapstick feast that ends with Grohl and fellow band members having to "learn to fly" and land an airplane after the actual pilots pass out from spiked coffee. The video also features Tenacious D (including Jack Black) in cameo appearances as the mechanics who spike the coffee. The video even won a Grammy for "Best Short Form Music Video." https://youtu.be/1VQ_3sBZEm0
7. "Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (1985) - The video is themed around Alice in Wonderland, with Petty filling the role of The Mad Hatter. Toward the end of the video, Alice is turned into a cake that is eaten by the other characters in the video. It's all a little weird, but it's also very well done to the point where I can't hear the song today without thinking of the video. https://youtu.be/h0JvF9vpqx8
6. "Land of Confusion" by Genesis (1986) - A scathing criticism of the Cold War and some of the world leaders at the time, this video features caricature puppets to back up the lyrics and help convey the story they tell. In addition to caricature puppets of the three band members, it also features caricature puppet versions of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev and Moamar Khaddafi, among other world leaders, as well as a number of celebrities who were newsworthy in the 1980s, including Pope John Paul II, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Michael Jackson and Madonna. While young people watching the video may be lost because they may not be familiar with the real life people of whom the puppets are caricatures, it was definitely a timely skewer back in the 1980s. It was unique and very well executed - no other video looked quite like it before or after. https://youtu.be/Yq7FKO5DlV0
5. "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson (1983) - This is the music video that put MTV on the map and helped propel the still relatively new cable channel into the stratosphere while also propelling Jackson's Thriller album to be the best selling album of all time. While the song's lyrics deal with an overzealous fan who claims to have given birth to Jackson's child, the video is more about paparazzi following Jackson around. Who can forget the tiles lighting up as Jackson walks on them? Or the freeze frame of Jackson on his toes? Or the inexplicable (and soon to be oft imitated) single white glove? The video was groundbreaking both for the technology and artistry involved but also because it was the first video by an African American artist to be played regularly on MTV. This is Jackson's 2nd appearance on this list but (spoiler alert) it won't be his last. https://youtu.be/Zi_XLOBDo_Y
4. "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits (1985) - One of the first music videos to use computer animation, it probably seems primitive and cheesy to your kids if they watched it today. However, when it was released in 1985, it was cutting edge. The animation in the video essentially supports the lyrics telling the story of an appliance repairman complaining about musicians who get "money for nothing, chicks for free." The video won "Video of the Year" at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards. The song became Dire Straits' biggest hit due, in large part, to the memorable video. Kudos to the band for working the early '80s MTV slogan "I want my MTV" into the song and video. https://youtu.be/wTP2RUD_cL0
3. "You Might Think" by The Cars (1984) - Another of the first music videos to use computer animation, one could argue that this video set the stage for some of the catchy videos to follow, such as the #4 and #11 videos on this list. It features miniature versions of the band members performing on a bar of soap and in a medicine cabinet, while versions of lead singer Ric Ocasek appear as everything from King Kong to lipstick to a bee to a insect drilling on a girl's teeth. This video won the first ever "Video of the Year" at the MTV Video Music Awards and, helped in large part by the video, it became the band's first ever #1 hit. https://youtu.be/3dOx510kyOs
2. "Take On Me" by a-ha (1985) - Arguably the most innovative short form music video ever made, it uses rotoscoping - a combination of pencil sketch animation and live action clips. The two are combined to create surreal scenes in which the characters are pulled between real life and scenes from a comic book. The story of the video is a sort of romantic/fantasy/action movie involving racing motorcycles, bad guys and, of course, the budding romance between the singer and a pretty girl. After pulling her into the comic book world, he eventually escapes and comes to join her in the real, human world. To this day, the video is a huge hit, reaching more than one billion views on YouTube after it was re-mastered and re-released earlier this year. While a-ha has had numerous hit songs in Europe, this was their only top 10 hit in the U.S. (it hit #1) and the incredible video is undoubtedly a large reason for that. https://youtu.be/djV11Xbc914
1. "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (1983) - Admit it. You just KNEW this was going to be #1, right? It's certainly no surprise as it is the most famous music video of all time. It's actually more of a mini horror film that just a simple music video. Regardless, so much about is iconic, from the choreographed zombie dance to the famed red leather jacket that Jackson wears. The video was such a big deal that MTV would announce in advance the next time they would play it, which resulted in record-breaking viewership. In an age where DVR didn't exist and VCRs were not yet in vogue, every airing of "Thriller" became appointment viewing and the video became a sensation. It was such a sensation that a "making of" documentary was created and MTV and Showtime collectively paid more than $500,000 (the equivalent of $1.4 million in today's dollars) for the rights to broadcast it. Decades after the video was released, the choreography has become a pop culture trend, appearing in several movies and TV shows over the years. It is - quite simply - the biggest music video of all time. https://youtu.be/sOnqjkJTMaA
Honorable Mention: "Big Time" by Peter Gabriel (1986); "The Red Strokes" by Garth Brooks (1994); "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes (1983); "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden (1994)
