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

Snakester's 10 BEST Music Videos

edit: Song titles are now links to videos on YouTube

10. Here I Go Again - Whitesnake: This video pretty much became the staple of hard rock. Sexy woman dancing provocatively. 20 years later people still talk about it, that is staying power.

9. Fell In Love With A Girl - The White Stripes: I am a sucker for Lego's. This was a cool video and must have took some time to continuously build the models and shoot them so they were in time with the song. He was probably glad the song was only 2 1/2 minutes long.

8. Take On Me - A-Ha: It was cutting edge for the time and still looks cool today unlike some other 80's videos. It took an otherwise sappy song and gave it a little extra staying power.

7. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand: I was mesmerized the first moment I saw this video. They took some Monty Python type cutout animation and made a bunch of random images fit the beat of the song, add to the lyrics and just be visually engaging. I still could watch this over & over and find little pieces in there I didn't notice before.

6. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles: The Beatles were early pioneers in the ideas of music videos. Once they quit touring, the realized they could just make short videos to send to the states with their new singles to help promote them. It seems to have turned out to be a good idea. This one is visually stunning still today and really captured their image & the mood of the song very well.

5. Hurt - Johnny Cash: Probably more painful than the lyrics is watching the old man sing them. The direction is amazing. The scene with Johnny hanging his head at the table with June looking down on him from the stairs. Almost too much perspective. Add in some old footage of John walking around his old house and performing in his prime, and you ended up with a masterpiece.

4. No Rain - Blind Melon: The bee girl became a sensation and probably fell into the childhood star syndrome too. Good message in the video that was lacking during the early 90s.

3. Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan: Simple and to the point, that was how Dylan delivered a lot of his messages. This one is important because I see its influences or just flat out being copied still today. Anytime you see a video with someone pulling cards out to highlight the lyrics comes back to this one.

2. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana: This video put an image together with the sound of the grunge movement. The chaos happening in the gym was something the youth of the country could relate too. It wasn't too over the top and yet pushed it just enough to stand out and make the point.

1. Thriller - Micheal Jackson: I have come to terms a little bit with Micheal's legacy even after all he has done to screw it up (see upcoming worst list). This is the end all, be all of music videos. Actually you could probably classify it as a short musical. Everyone in the world knows the Thriller dance. This is what music videos were supposed to be: hot dance moves, an engaging story, good visuals and most of all representative of the song. Despite all else, nothing can take back this video and really the whole Thriller album which I am no longer ashamed to admit is an amazing piece of work. Heck, Billy Jean almost made it onto this list as well. But I didn't want to go crazy.


Honorable Mention:
Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz
One - Metallica
Whip It - Devo
Tonight, Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins
Video Killed The Radio Star - The Buggles