10 Best Music Videos

10. Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity
Without the illusion of the video, this song would have been lost among the strata of techno-dance songs that pollute the world. I am not a fan of the music, but the video with Jamiroquai dancing with the room and furniture moving draws the eye to the screen. It’s sort of one of those videos that make you sit there and wonder how they did that.

9. Korn - Freak on the Leash
The magic bullet and the animation forced rock fans to take notice of Korn. It’s one of the first videos to mix reality and animation. It has the standard band shot performing in a room that appears to have been shot up in a gun battle. Everytime you watch this video you see something different and new.

8. Weezer - Buddy Holly
This video could have easily sucked. Anytime you try to mix contemporary music with iconic television there is a risk it will come off lame. This, however, was intentionally cheesy as the boys played on the set of Happy Days. How can you go wrong with someone as cool as the Fonz.

7. Dire Straits - Money for Nothing
This video is like watching the TRON and realizing at one point that people actually thought that the computer world would turn out that way. It has the cool animation with workers singing the song. The occassional cuts to Knopfler playing guitar with bright colors highlighting that is a quant way to add the band to the video.

6. Eminem - My Name Is
Establishing cred and persona in rap music is more important than it ever was with rock. Eminem broke onto the scene with this video. It created his tough persona and his ability to be comical at even his own expense. It thrust him to top of the music industry for about a five year stretch.

5. Herbie Hancock - Rockit
The mechanical theme is perfect for the progressive interests of the artist. This was made when videos were made to push envelope on what art was and how music could be interpreted by video. It also has an infectious tune and a lot of little cool things going on.

4. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
I think I once heard this video described as the “Pep Assembly” from hell. This was the song of a generation and the video hit that feeling out of the park. Placing it in a high gym with stripper cheerleaders and angy youth was paramount to the grunge movement. There’s also the weird janitor dancing throughout that seems like it should mean something.

3. Metallica - One
The first time I saw this video was in history class. I think that shows it’s importance and it’s relevance in time. The use of the movie “Johnny Got His Gun” haunt the music and the lyrics creating a full experience not reach by many other videos.

2. Beastie Boys - Sabotage
The Beastie Boys were sold on this concept and they played the parts of detectives to the max. This is like a short movie vignette with action and comedy all wrapped in an entertaining stew. More importantly, they used the perfect song to fit the concept.

1. Michael Jackson - Thriller
I hate giving this creep any credit but he single handly put music videos on the map with this one. It was a pop song with video that gave a lot to look at. It had a small plot combined with dancing and drama. It’s a serious attempt at art without making the content too serious.

Honorable mention
Foo Fighters - Big Me
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
Peter Gabriel - Sledge Hammer
Blink 182 - What’s My Age Again?
Nickleback - Rockstar
George Harrison - Got My Mind Set On You
Pearl Jam - Jeremy