25 Best Music Videos: 1

C'mon, how many of you didn't expect this to be it


1. Sledgehammer
Peter Gabriel

Directed by Aardman Studios (makers of Wallace and Gromit and "Chicken Run"), "Sledgehammer" is a slice of brilliance from the former Genesis frontman and brilliant madman who laid beneath a sheet of glass for 16 straight hours to get the most out of this video.

Featuring everything from pixilation, stop-motion animation, and claymation, this video was a technological marvel for its time and still proves to be awesome. It may also be the happiest music video I've ever seen. From images of life being created and blood being pumped to an over-ready chicken hatching from an egg and dancing (then splitting in two), it is a surreal celebration of anything one would like to imagine.

I think the beauty of the medium of music videos is that it has the opportuniy to push the boundaries of what music can make you feel. Watching the "Smells Like Nirvana" video gives me even more of a kick than the song does, because its a mixture of a funny song and a gag-filled, funny video. Watching the "Tonight, Tonight" video always blows me away with its old-timey simplicity in a way its sweeping song can't. "Sabotage" is a hilarious goof of a parody, "Closer" and "Death Valley 69" are beautifully and eerily uncomfortable.

"Sledgehammer" makes me smile. That's it. It doesn't make me think, it doesn't make me want to do something about the world or my life, it doesn't even make me laugh. It just makes me smile. And when it's done, sometimes I just press play and watch the whole thing over again.

25 Best Music Videos: 2

2. Praise You
Fatboy Slim

The greatest guerrila music video ever made, Richard Koufey and the Torrance Community Dance Group created a special, incredibly well-coreographed dance for Fatboy Slim's song. Performed outside of a movie theater in Westwood, California, Koufey and his troupe perform to the song, much to the chagrin of many theater patrons and the theater manager.

While Koufey and the Group are completely fictional (actually SPIKE JONZE with a rat tail and a bunch of actors), everyone else is completely real. All the people waiting to go see their movies are never in on the joke of this goofy dance troupe performing "b-boy moves" (as Jonze says at one point, in a fairly pathetic voice), some even eventually come to appreciate the group, even boo-ing when someone turns off their boombox in the middle of the song (Jonze hops onto the dance-hater immediately after the song is shut off in a moment of bizarre comedy).

It really is an absolutely joyful music video, by all means. A bunch of people goofing around for a video win over almost everyone watching them while they all dance around like morons. There are only two dances I have ever tried to recreate. One is Duckie's performance of Otis Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness" in the film "Pretty In Pink" and the other is this one. I have honestly never been able to fully complete it because Spike Jonze's fresh b-boy moves are too good (and because the spastic dancing could cause me to trip and fall on my head and die)

Alternate text: I'll tell you what I should praise: THIS VIDEO! /doink sound effect

25 Best Music Videos: 3

3. Closer
Nine Inch Nails

Silent Hill is a survival horror video game; franchised, developed and published by Konami. The town of Silent Hill manifests itself in at least three distinct parallel layers, or dimensions: a normal, populated town; a quiet, seemingly abandoned town veiled by supernaturally thick fog; and a dark and decaying town (called the "Otherworld") filled with disturbing, hellish imagery. Only the latter two layers are explored by the games' protagonists, where demonic and disfigured creatures roam the streets and buildings (appearing in greater numbers in the Otherworld). Electricity and lighting are extremely limited or nonexistent as well.

Mark Romanek's video for "Closer" elicits much of the "Otherworld"- esque town. Seemingly set in a mad scientist's lab seemingly in the 19th century (seemingly filmed from an old camera and seemingly stored in a film reel, seemingly seemingly), Trent Reznor sings (and claims to want to fornicate with us like some kind of wild beast) in a silhouette into a microphone that manages to simultaneously seem phallic and look like a tit.

After the first eroticism segment finishes, we are treated to a number of artsy-fartsy confusing images, such as a monkey on a crucifix, Reznor swirling around in the air on a suspended wire, an ox skull, and a disembodied pig head being spun around on some type of machine that looks like it was made out of an erector set.

By the end, we are treated to a suspended Reznor playing keyboard keys hung on a wall and the video closes not making any more sense than in the beginning when a heart hooked up to a chair is beating and releasing steam.

This video combines confusingly erotic imagery with confusingly confusing imagery to give a new meaning to the term "artfuck"

25 Best Music Videos: 4

4. Take On Me
a-ha

Its really, really hard to take most music videos from the 80s seriously. It's hard to be a Pitchfork-level douchey music snob and praise the artistic merit of Ric Ocasek with a fly's body or David Lee Roth doing anything ever. Sometimes shit is just meant to be fun, there doesn't need to be a deeper level of context or whatever.

This video may be the epitome of such a thing. Woman reads a comic book, hand comes out and drags her into this rotoscoped sketchy comic book world (I should take this time to mention that this may be the only time I've seen rotoscoping actually work). Then there are some angry racers who lost to the lead singer of a-ha and they want to beat him up with a pipe wrench. By the end of the video, lead singer of a-ha (who is apparently named Morten Harket, which sounds like he comes from Whoville. Morton Whoket.) has escaped from the pipe wrench fight (and the comic book) to begin breaking down and smashing reality and fiction as he shifts between real and rotoscopey.

It doesn't appear that this video exists for any other reason than to be fun and entertaining. Maybe the rest of us are just trying too hard.

25 Best Music Videos: 5

5. Once In A Lifetime
Talking Heads

David Byrne is a goddamn weirdo genius. Bespectacled and in a suit, he dances in front of a background surrounded with snow and sometimes multiple David Byrnes.

Coreographed by Toni Basil (later becoming famous with the song "Mickey"), "Once In A Lifetime" features Byrne dancing in spastic, awkward movements (seriously influenced by seizure victims) and synchronous dancing by a legion of background Byrnes, while the (talking) head Byrne gets more and more out of sync with the others. Frankly, it's a strange video because David Byrne is a strange man.

This video is a quintessential Talking Heads music video. Actively pushing a medium that is usually never pushed, it leaves you wondering what the hell you just watched.

It also

25 Best Music Videos: 6

you pronounce it "sabotage." i pronounce it "sabo-tayge."


6. Sabotage
Beastie Boys

You know what TV Land needs? Less reality shows. It also needs more 70s crime dramas. In the 70s, there was no need for forensics or snappy one-liners while putting on sunglasses and blasting "Won't Get Fooled Again." All you needed were fists, guns, a cool car, and a soundtrack so funky you could swear it was stolen from a John Holmes film.

In the video for "Sabotage," directed by Spike Jonze (this fucking guy!), the Beastie Boys pretty much recreate the gritty theatrics of a "Baretta" or "Streets of San Francisco." Armed with loaded guns, sunglasses, and rockin' 'staches, the trio is able to make the opening credits sequence for a show so good that I wish it existed.

It being a fictional show (named "Sabotage," of course), there are fictional actors (each band member). So, "Sabotage" stars:

• Sir Stewart Wallace guest-starring as himself (MCA)
• Nathan Wind as Cochise (MCA again)
• Vic Colfari as Bobby, "The Rookie" (Adrock)
• Alasondro Alegre as "The Chief" (Mike D)
• Fred Kelly as Bunny (frequent Beastie Boys collaborator DJ Hurricane)

As the rock/rap mix plays, bad guys get busted, scum gets interrogated, fists fly, chases ensue, people get their heads slammed into car hoods, and one guest-starring Englishman gets tackled into a pool. All the makings of a classic cop show. Not only that, but there was shit cut out of the video. Including knife fights, a falling-off-a-bridge scene, and MCA in ANOTHER goddamn role, this time as a kung-fu master.

Oh, also this is the only video on this list (and to my knowledge, the only video ever) to actually influence an entire scene in a film (Danny Boyle's "Trainspotting.")

25 Best Music Videos: 7

7. Rockit
Herbie Hancock

In a seemingly average suburban home lives a large (and I mean large) family of simple robots. These robots spend all day watching the same song by jazz great Herbie Hancock.

In all honesty, this video blows me away. It's a genuinely creative engineering masterpiece. With every robot moving in time with the beat (with some help from camera editing, of course), it's a brilliant synchronous...thing, I guess.

And the machines are cool, too. With everything ranging from newspaper-reading robots to robotic geese to, uh, compulsive masturbating robots (seriously, watch the robot in bed and tell me he's doing something else). The aesthetic creativity of the machines are astounding.

Also astounding is the way that robot is jacking it. Your hand is going to be so sore, dude. Now I'm going to type more words so that I don't end a post on a masturbation joke.

25 Best Music Videos: 8

8. You Might Think
The Cars

You know what? It's really hard sometimes to put in words how much I love something (reeeeaaallly hard sometimes). This is a problem I face with this video.

It's hard to explain specifically why it's so great when it utilizes incredibly outdated special effects and Ric Ocasek engaging in a series of corny visual gags.

Sometimes I feel like I'm just writing things for myself.

25 Best Music Videos: 9

9. Hot For Teacher

Van Halen

David Lee Roth is a master of cheesiness and no one, not even Diamond Dave himself, will deny this. The best of his cheese (and the cheese of a lot of 80s metal) is provided in the classic video for "Hot For Teacher."

Despite the standard bikini-clad women, "Hot For Teacher" carries a lot of interesting aspects in and of itself. The chorus of the song, for example, featuring the band all decked out in matching suits and choreographed dancing (even if Alex can't seem to dance for his life, watch him constantly fuck up during those parts) as if they were some kind of doo-wop group or something, is really great.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention Waldo. Slick-hair, huge glasses, bow tie. Waldo is the most stereotypical nerd you will ever see and his first day of school is absolutely torturous. Surrounded by hot teachers and a riotous Van Halen (both regular and child-sized, check out little Eddie's little guitar), Waldo is turned into an anxiety-ridden shell of his former self by the end of the school day. Godspeed, Waldo. Godspeed.

25 Best Music Videos: 10

10. Death Valley '69
Sonic Youth feat. Lydia Lunch

I know I talked about "Come To Daddy" being scary and all, but this video...THIS VIDEO is the most unnerving music video I have ever seen.

It's hard to tell what disturbs me the most about it. It could be the strange psychedelic imagery that I thought was only reserved for Butthole Surfers performances. It could be pin-up model Lung Leg acting like a fucking crazy person. It could be the music itself, with its freaky sound and Lydia Lunch's half-erotic, half-horrific banshee wail.

If I had to pin it on one thing, though, it would have to be the opening of the video, in which the remains of the band themselves are found in a house, presumably by some Manson-esque family who stopped by before the video started. The shots of each member's gory corpse (Lee Ranaldo's stomach is fucking slashed open, for god's sake. With guts and everything. Aaauuuuuuugh.) strewn about a filth-ridden house is just really creepy as shit.

My previous choice for number 10 was another Sonic Youth video, the one for "Kool Thing," a video featuring go-go dancers and Kim Gordon being hot as hell. I suppose this and "Kool Thing" are like polar opposites of the 60s as a decade. One a portrayal of sex and decadence, the other a twisted acid trip filled with gore and freakouts

25 Best Music Videos: 11

11. Money For Nothing
Dire Straits

When MTV premiered on August 1, 1981, the first video shown was The Buggles prophetic "Video Killed The Radio Star." But this isn't about them. This is about the Dire Straits' infamous CGI music video.

One of the first ever presentations of human beings in CGI, animation company Mainframe Studios (who went on to make Reboot) and Mark Knopfler broke animation ground with this video.

As the two blocky men of the video move those refrigerators and color TVs, a live-action music video plays occasionally behind them, comprised of Mark Knopfler playing guitar and singing while rotoscoping his headband to be made of AMAZING NEON COLORS WHOOOOAAAAAAAA!!!! Also, Sting is there singing over and over about how he wants his MTV. Christ, we get it. Just call up your local cable provider, dude.

FUN FACT: This was actually the first video shown on MTV Europe when it premiered on August 1, 1987. This video is the shining achievement of Mark Knopfler's headbanded career.

25 Best Music Videos: 12

12. Weapon of Choice
Fatboy Slim

Have I mentioned that I like Spike Jonze yet? Because I do. I really fucking do. So much.

This video was directed by him. It has Christopher Walken dancing to a Fatboy Slim song. Why should I go on? You are going to love this video anyways. Especially when Christopher Walken starts flying and shit.

Just watch it.

25 Best Music Videos: 13

13. Learn To Fly
Foo Fighters

For a guy who was in a band whose lead singer blew his head off, Dave Grohl sure is one goofy guy. Take the video for "Everlong," which has silly parodies of both "Nightmare on Elm Street" and the Evil Dead films. Also take this video (PLEASE /rimshot)

Airline cleaners (played by Jack Black and Kyle Gass, whose suits have "Kage" and "Jables" embroidered on them, natch) accidentally leave a huge pound of some drug (guessing hash) in the coffee pot and causes almost the entire plane, crew and passengers, to hallucinate like crazy. As the pilots begin breaking down and the passengers turn into animals, its up to the only people who didn't have coffee (the band, of course) to land the plane safely.

It's a crazy little music video filled with fun visuals and an insane amount of characters played by the Foo Fighters themselves, including Dave Grohl playing an effeminate flight steward and a pre-teen girl, and drummer Taylor Hawkins playing a weirdly attractive stewardess (marking the second time in a video where Hawkins plays a woman, first playing Grohl's girlfriend in the "Everlong").

25 Best Music Videos: 14

14. Buddy Holly
Weezer

Nostalgia isn't that funny. Making reference to the Transformers because old=lol doesn't actually mean it equals lol. Very few people seem to understand that. Someone like Seth MacFarlane doesn't understand. Just cut to Peter talking to Mr. T and hilarity ensues!

Its what you do with said nostalgia that can make it fun or funny or whatever you're doing with it. Spike Jonze gets it.

By placing Weezer in matching sweaters and having them play in an episode of "Happy Days," Spike is able to get his point across by having the joke be the band itself. Their music so out of place that Potsie and Ralph Malph hang their heads listening to it, but still hip enough to get Fonzie to dance.

Spike Jonze totally gets it. I guess that's why he's doing "Where The Wild Things Are."

25 Best Music Videos: 15

15. Birds
Vitalic

DOGS JUMPING IN THE AIR

DOGS JUMPING IN THE AIR

DOGS JUMPING IN THE AIR

DOGS JUMPING IN THE AIR

DOGS JUMPING IN THE AIR

25 Best Music Videos: 16

16. Tonight, Tonight
Smashing Pumpkins

If I made a comprehensive list of things I like (and not like "at the moment," but shit I'll never get tired of) two things would be "the early 20th century" and "Tom Kenny" Well, what are the odds that there is a video that combines these two things!

Directors Johnathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (directed almost all of Mr. Show's taped segments and would go on to direct "Little Miss Sunshine") made this beautiful music video that embraces the cinema of the 1890s/1900s, including a less-than-subtle tribute to Georges Melies's "A Trip To The Moon"

So the plot involves a couple (played by comedians/Mr. Show cast members/voice actors/real-life married couple Tom Kenny and Jill Talley) on a blimp ride's maiden voyage to the moon. They get too close to the moon and fall down, facing moonmen and meeting Poseidon.

You know what? I don't really have a good reason to love this music video, I just do. It looks beautiful and it brings forth my love of the 1900s. I'm not asking for much else.

25 Best Music Videos: 17

17. Enter Sandman

Metallica

Anyways, lords of thrash Metallica hit the mainstream hard with this song, as I'm sure you know. The dark melodic tune devoted to nightmares delivered the band to MTVs attention and the video helped.

A seizure-inducing horror story, the video for "Enter Sandman" regards a young boy, haunted by nightmares and the Sandman, a wrinkly old man that still haunts me sometimes. Dude's creepy, y'know?

My main concern with embedding this video is that the audio lag ruins the best part of the video. In the end, when the music begins dying down, the boy wakes up in the middle of the street with a TRUCK BARRELING DOWN TOWARDS HIS ASS. When the truck hits the boy's bed, James Hetfield comes in with a big BOOM and the music starts up again until the end.

25 Best Music Videos: 18

18. Loser
Beck

Infusing his sense of vaguely folkish, alterna-rock to a video, Beck Hansen's most famous song gets a video matching the brilliant eccentricity of both the song and artist.

Full of images ranging from Death washing a car window to people dancing in a cemetary, the whole video gives an air of some strange experimental film. A Lynchian musical, as it were. But much like David Lynch, the maddest images can bear genius in them.

Beck went on to do a bunch of crazy shit like releasing a cool funk album (my favorite of his albums), releasing a heart-crushingly sad album (done post-breakup and one of the most depressing things I've ever heard), and a guest appearance on Futurama. Beck is a crazy ol motherfucker who constantly pushes his ability into other styles of music and is pretty awesome for it.

25 Best Music Videos: 19

19. Bastards of Young
The Replacements

The epitome of aesthetic simplicity, the single shot of a stereo system playing the song is a perfect representation of the band itself, in my opinion: Entrancingly minimalist (oh god i sound like pitchfork what is wrong with me). Paul Westerberg could barely hold any notes, Bob Stinson had a serious drug problem, Tommy Stinson was roughly 14 when the first album came out and the bass was almost the same size as he was, and Chris Mars couldn't drum for his life unless he was blind stinkin drunk.

In other words, the band's power came from their limitations. Of course, much of those limitations (specifically Bob's drug problems and Chris's alcoholism) also led to their downfall.

The Replacements are underground legends who did something most indie bands never do: play with their hearts on their sleeves and openly embracing classic rock bands such as The Box Tops and Badfinger as influences.

I guess I just put this video on the list because I respect and enjoy the band so much, but I seriously think this video is a perfect example of how so much can be done with so little.

/kicks stereo

25 Best Music Videos: 20

20. I'm Impressed

They Might Be Giants

Hello, do you realize this blog's URL?

This video made my list, due in part to the great animation of paper dolls and the conceptual story line of a violent, facistic monarchy. Also, there are robuts.

All in all, it's just a really well-made video with lovely visuals and a good storyline. Oh, and its also on this list because I'm a bastard who plays favorites