SongWriting

As selected by the Songfacts community, these are the Top 10 Music Videos of All Time. Some brought us eye-popping special effects, others were so unexpected we had to watch it over and over. All were wildly innovative and entertaining.

10. Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai (Jonathan Glazer)

According to director Jonathan Glazer, "In the video, the four walls move on a stationary grey floor with no detail, to give the illusion that the floor is moving. In several shots, chairs or couches are fixed to the walls so that they appear to be standing still, when in fact they are moving. In other shots chairs remain stationary on the floor, but the illusion is such that they appear to be moving. The moving walls were not completely rigid and can be seen in some shots to wiggle slightly."

At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, "Virtual Insanity" won four awards out of ten nominations, including Best Video of the Year and Breakthrough Video. ~ MindCrime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMMQqE9x6i4


9. Buddy Holly - Weezer (Spike Jonze)

Directed by the Avant-garde Spike Jonze, the video for "Buddy Holly" cleverly incorporates shots of Weezer playing on the original Happy Days' Al's Drive-In set into clips from various episodes of the show itself, making it seem like Weezer was right at home with Richie and the Fonz. The video entertained viewers throughout 1995 and cemented the then-new Weezer's place as a band to watch, while being both a sharp commentary on pop culture, and pure fun. ~ ryansgirl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiIC5qcXeNU


8. Take on Me - a-ha (Steve Barron)

A young woman gets sucked into a comic book while in a café, and America is introduced to a new wave band from Norway. This video put A-ha on the map with heavy rotation on MTV. Alas, the band was only a one-hit wonder here in the States, but the video lives on.

It's one of the most successful uses of rotoscoping, where live images are traced frame-by-frame, in this case with a pencil-sketch look. Since then, the look has been used far less successfully in Charles Schwab commercials and in the dreadful movie A Scanner Darkly. ~ Jenny


7. Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim (Spike Jonze)
What would be cooler than taking an actor who's famous for a certain style of character and letting him perform in a completely new way?
Director Spike Jonze lets Christopher Walken, who is known for his serious acting, perform a solo dance routine through an empty hotel lobby.

This video brought Jonze 6 MTV video music awards, and Walken a whole new fanbase. ~ Farin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMZwZiU0kKs


6. Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel (Stephen R. Johnson)

Probably my all-time favorite video, "Sledgehammer" is a celebration of modern animation. Award winning animators The Brothers Quay used claymation, pixilation, and stop motion to give life to a plethora of normally inanimate objects. Never mind the technical stuff, the video is just fascinating and entertaining from beginning to end, from the model train encircling Gabriel's head, to the dancing chickens, to the singing fruit sculptures. The filming of the Gabriel stills for the video required him to lie under glass for 16 hours. The ending features Johnson and Gabriel's friends and family, the entire team of animators and a whole slew of ever-shifting furniture. It's all fascinating and fun, and impossible to look away from.

The technical stuff, of course, is important. This video has plenty to offer. In 1987 it won nine MTV Music Video awards. Nine. That record held for 21 years. I am apparently not the only person to love this video, MTV says it is the most played video in the history of the station, and is considered MTV's #1 animated video of all time. ~ Lucky (nominated by Crazy Don)


5. Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan (D. A. Pennebaker)

The original clip was actually the opening of the film Don't Look Back, a documentary on Bob Dylan's first tour of England in 1965, directed by D.A. Pennebaker. Bob Dylan wrote out the cue cards himself, intentionally using puns and misspelled words. This video is simple, yet brilliant.

INXS paid homage to (OK, stole) the idea in their video for "Mediate." ~ Laurie


4. Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (Jeff Stein)

When VH1 became so popular in the '80s, this was one of the first videos that I absolutely loved, and still love watching it to this day. It was Dave Stewart's idea - look for him on top of the mushroom.

Here's what Songfacts has to say about the video:

"The video used an Alice In Wonderland theme, which was Stewart's idea - it reflected how he felt coming to Los Angeles. It was directed by Jeff Stein, who used a black-and-white tiled background and oversized, elaborate costumes, starring Tom Petty as the Mad Hatter. Stewart appears in the beginning of the video playing the sitar on a giant mushroom. At the end, the girl becomes a cake and is eaten by the band, something that caused enough of a stir that they created a version where she doesn't get eaten. The video was a huge hit on MTV, helping introduce Petty to a younger audience and building anticipation for his next videos." (Read the Songfacts interview with Dave Stewart.) ~ Laurie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5H0wUo37RY


3. You Might Think - The Cars (Alex Weil)

At the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna writhed around on the stage floor in a wedding dress looking for all the world like a labradoodle in heat. Unfortunately, that is what people tend to remember best about that inaugural awards show.

What people should have taken away from it (and the more highly evolved of us did) was the ridiculous intellect behind the production of the Best Video of the Year winner, The Cars' "You Might Think."

The Adam of its species, this video revolutionized visual effects and paved the way for computer graphics in music videos. Most notably, however, may be the fact that it trounced Michael Jackson's (otherwise) equally revolutionary video for "Thriller." That alone advocates the creativity with which this video de-flowered virgin territory.

Fans of Cars music were once dubbed the "thinking person's music." While that may be true, the video for "You Might Think," along with its bouncy tune and (albeit weirdly acceptable-at-the-time) thematic stalkerish sensibility, toed the line of oh so many taboos. While the storyline of shape-changing-cartoon-Ocasek-pursuing-gorgeous-model is a riot, for those students of psychology who care to think about it, the insanity inherent within should be disturbing.

Yet, somehow it's not. It's just fun.

The effects may be considered archaic by today's LOTR standards, but "You Might Think" was the stand-alone masterpiece of the early ages. There's no getting past that.

And if you aren't familiar with it yet, get there. It can't be said any more clearly than that. ~ Shawna and MindCrime
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1erh9_you-might-thinkythe-cars_fun


2. Money For Nothing - Dire Straits (Steve Barron)

"Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits was possibly the first video I ever watched on MTV.

The illustration of the video to match the lyrics was perfect. It was the second computer generated music video shown on MTV, and the first video shown on MTV Europe.

The somewhat comical moving men seemed almost life-like. Even by today's standards, I think this video could be considered as ranking among one of the best. ~ Lea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehl_VQuKRTc


1. Thriller - Michael Jackson (John Landis)

The video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller" is consistently on the top of any "Best Video" list for a reason...it really is the best! Say what you want about Mr. Jackson now, but at the time of the video's release, he could do no wrong. At 14 minutes, it is one of the longest videos to be produced. At a cost of almost half a million dollars, it was the most expensive video ever made up to that point. It incorporated acting scenes along with the song. The special effects at that time were unparalleled. There are so many iconic features of the video, from Jackson's red and black jacket to the zombified dance moves of the creatures to the ghoulish inclusion of Vincent Price's rap and laugh.

In short, "Thriller" absolutely belongs on the top of this list. It is easily the most groundbreaking and identifiable video of all time. ~ Tenacious_Peaches
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8


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