Geekscape’s 20 Best Music Videos From When MTV Played Music Videos

I was a kid in the 1980s and a teenager in the 1990s, so I recall the glory days of MTV, when they would actually play music, and stay on the cutting edge of rock. And, even though I didn’t have cable TV, and I often scoffed at the self-indulgent broodiness of grunge rock, I still appreciated that bands had a visual outlet for their songs. As I aged, and MTV started to jettison their actual music videos in favor of crap reality TV shows, I started to realize what a vital and gorgeous medium the music video was. Sweet, scary, creative abstract short films to go with the song. Simple. Brilliant.

The concept of a performance film goes all the way back to the early days of sound in cinema (I’ve seen Cab Calloway music videos), and, to a degree, they still persist today, albeit in online venues. I often wish that music videos would recapture the cache they once had, and bands would release records and videos all at once, but I know the music industry has mutated a bit over the last few years to make room for the now-dominant video game market.

Since I didn’t have cable as a kid, my discovery of some of the great music videos has been through online venues, and, thanks to the vast music knowledge of my wife, I have now been exposed to some of them. I offer, by way of remembering and as an introduction, the 20 following music videos. I know there are hundreds of greats, and I haven’t necessarily seen all the best I possibly could, so this article will also serve as an opening to a conversation about the best; I wholeheartedly encourage you to share some of your favorites as well. I should be seeing them too, right?

 

Sledge Hammer

by: Peter Gabriel

directed by: Stephen R. Johnson

Often called the greatest music video of all time. And for good reason.

 

Losing My Religion

by: R.E.M.

directed by: Tarsem

Before he was making gorgeous and weird feature films, Tarsem made equally groundbreaking music videos, including this one for R.E.M.

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Take on Me

by: a-ha

directed by: Steve Barron

Inspired by comics, featuring some geat animation, and, you must admit it to yourself, a dancey earworm of epic proportions.

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Close (To the Edit)

by: Art of Noise

directed by: Zbigniew Rybczyński

This largely unknown New Wave band smash up a bunch of stuff. A little girl stands in for the lead singer. This was one of the first huge music video hits that largely launched MTV. It is great. It is historical.

 

Frontier Psychiatrist

by: The Avalanches

directed by: Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire

Watch, and be converted. That boy needs therapy.

 

Sabotage

by: The Beastie Boys

directed by: Spike Jonze

Loud, pumping, awesome. And re-imagined as a cheap ’70s cop show.

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The Damned

by: The Plasmatics

directed by: Rod Swenson

If the sight of Wendy O. Williams driving a bus through a wall of TVs doesn’t make your heart explode out of your chest, then you’re not human. Wendy was one of the awesomest human beings to have ever lived. She could have eaten Chuck Norris with her vagina. This is awoman who cahinsawed cars regularly on stage.

 

Money for Nothing

by: Dire Straits

directed by: Steve Barron

Reportedly based on a conversation overheard at a bustop, this is a song I always find myself rocking out to. It was one of the earlier examples of computer animation.

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Pork and Beans

by: Weezer

directed by: Mathew Cullen

 Weezer has made some excellent vidoes in their day (“Buddy Holly” features them singing with the cast of “Happy Days,” and “Keep Fishin’” impeccably includes The Muppets.), but their most significant is probably their “Pork and Beans,” which openly acknowledges the movement of music videos online by featuring dozens of recent YouTube videos. It’s turning the internet in on itself.

 

Here it Goes Again

by: OK Go

directed by: Trish Sie

 I admire videos with dancing, and I admire videos where the band does their own dancing. OK Go has an impeccably rehearses and orchestrated dance number, in a single static take, on a set of treadmills.

 

One

by: Metallica

directed by: Bill Pop and Michael Salomon

 A dark, disturbing song about wartime violence, the music video is long, hurtful, and contains footage from “Johnny Got His Gun,” one of the most damning antiwar stories of all.

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California

by: Wax

directed by: Spike Jonze

 Beavis: “Butt-Head. I’m only gonna tell you this once. If you touch that remote, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

  

Ana Ng

by: They Might Be Giants

directed by: Adam Bernstein

 Reportedly, this was the first music video that had not actual lip-sync to the song. A thrilling song with fun, strange poetic lyrics, and best capturing the feeling of the band.

 

Bastards of Young

by: The Replacements

directed by: Ted Leo

Subverting the ideas of the music video, The Replacements decided to let the music to speak largely for itself but showing us nothing more than a stereo.

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Just

by: Radiohead

directed by: Jamie Thraves

They groove in an apartment above, while a man below lays down on the sidewalk and refuses to rise. Why won’t he get up?

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 Weapon of Choice

by: Fatboy Slim

directed by: Spike Jonze 

No words. Just watch Christopher Walken dancing alone in the Los Angeles Marriott.

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Windowlicker

by: Aphex Twin

directed by: Chris Cunningham

 A pair of gangstas talk trash, and try to pick up so hos. They swear a lot. They chat up some ladies, but are interrupted by the superlong limousine of Aphex Twin, who charms the ladies with nothing but his creepy, creepy smile. Then the women turn into Aphex Twin. Eek. Hilarious and fucking terrifying.

 

Rock DJ

by: Robbie Williams

directed by: Vaughan Arnell

Robbie Willaims, surrounded by women, trying to get the attentuion of the hot DJ. The women, inexplicably, ignore him (his is, after all, sex on legs). He ends up stripping. Nothing. Then he gets all the way nekkid. Still nothing. Then, in a bout of legitimate nightmare fuel, he strips his skin, then his muscles. Only then, do the ladies take notice.

 

State of Shock

by: Harvey Leeds

directed by: Harvey Leeds

The version of Michael Jackson’s “State of Shock” by a producer who couldn’t afford Michael, the music, any actual cameras, dancers, or instruments. The funniest damn thing I’ve ever seen.

 

Thriller

by: Michael Jackson

directed by: John Landis 

A classic. Hands down.

 

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