Jeez, when anyone asks me this question, one video springs instantly to mind. I guess it must be just me.
The best video of all time is Don’t Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty. If I were him I would wear that top hat at all times. It’s also a great song, and I love the part when Alice the cake is sliced up and passed out to all the freaks.
Honorable mention: Silent Running by Mike and the Mechanics.
Anything by Cyndi Lauper is also good.
That’s right, I haven’t watched a music video since 1989! So what!
Whoops, I just remembered that I have watched a couple of music videos within the past decade, and I really liked Two Become One, by the Spice Girls. It even made me like the song.
I didn’t know there was a music-video-sized version of it, but the movie Baby Snakes features quite a bit of claymation in that style. It’s available on DVD, by the way.
My favorites:
A second for Weapon of Choice Fucking An Animal - GWAR Breathe - Prodigy Dope Hat - Marilyn Manson Girl U Want - Devo (the Devo music video DVD is in the mail! Whee!) Amerika - Rammstein
*Don’t Come Around Here No More * by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. When I was in Cleveland in January I had a day to kill and went to the rock and roll hall of fame. They had the giant top hat under glass. I thought that was so cool.
*Take on me * A-Ha and **ZZ Top’s ** Sharp Dressed Man round out the list. IIRC That was the introduction of the coupe. (also at the RRHoF)
Yes I’m a child of the 80’s and stopped watching MTV around 1988. Mostly due to a commitment to Uncle Sam.
I like a lot of the ones mentioned here: “Weapon of Choice,” “Everybody Hurts,” “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” and the Gorillaz videos. (And I was five in 1989, so I saw most of these long after the fact.)
Two of my favorites not mentioned are Walkie Talkie Man by Steriogram and Losing My Religion by REM. You can watch both videos at the links provided. The Steriogram one features a stop-motion animated knitted, giant bodyguard. It is so fantastically awesome.
There’s a music video by Metallica that features a woman dressed as a snake and bunch of different mythological creatures. I can’t remember the song title, but that video had some of the best costuming I’d ever seen in a music video.
The video for Star Guitar by the Chemical Brothers just knocked Weapon of Choice out of the top spot. The bit that gets me is that I actually watched the whole video and thought “Hmm, that was something,” before I understood what was going on in it. (In my defense, I was watching it online, and the sound didn’t sync with the video too well.) Now that I get the gimmick, I have absolutely no idea how he made the video.
Other favorites: It’s Oh So Quiet by Bjork/Spike Jonze I Miss You by Bjork/John K. Bachelorette by Bjork/Michel Gondry One More Time by Daft Punk/Leiji Matsumoto Around the World by Daft Punk/Michel Gondry Fell In Love With a Girl by The White Stripes/Michel Gondry Body Movin’ by The Beastie Boys (although I like the version of the song on the album a lot better than the one in the video)
“And She Was” by Talking Heads
“Love for Sale” by Talking Heads
“The Wall - Live at Berlin” by David Waters. So much better than the movie, it really gives you the sense of what Pink Floyd was trying to convey to the world. Very under-rated and unappreciated in its time. This one is a real sleeper that will become a must see classic.
I like the original, the one that popped the MTV cork:
Buggles-Video Killed the Radio Star and… in no particular order:
Twisted Sister-I Wanna Rock
Was, Not Was-Dance the Dinosaur
Paula Abdul-Straight Up
Peter Gabriel-Sledgehammer
Back when one of my old fogie buddies and I were talking about how there’s nothing new on video… You must understand, we meant nothing new in the sense of the cutting-edge, rebellious feel that original videos had… We came across one that made us smile. I remember not the band, or even the song, but in essence, the video begins with one of the members of the band talking about the budget that they got from the record company to make their video. They then get a few cameras, and go out on the streets and spend the money on such things as: New clothes and a haircut for a homeless man, a bunch of t-shirts for anyone who wants them, an impromptu skate-party (where the skaters jump over the band’s van a few times), and it all culminates with them taking wads of cash and just throwing it off a rooftop to people.
It wasn’t art, but dangit, if I had that kinda money for a video, it’s probably what I’d want to do with it!
