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| Enjoy the nightmares. |
20. U2 - With or Without You (1987)
I suppose “a band performing its song” isn’t the most interesting music video concept – as nearly every other music video (most of them forgettable) was a fairly straight up “this is the band performing its song” type of video. But I suppose this one rises above the others to make the top 20 because it’s a little more “artsy” than the others. It uses moody lighting, strong chiaroscuro contrasts (see, I paid attention in art history, thanks Carravagio!), slow motion, slow fades of one shot to another, and overlays of two recordings at once. It has flashing light walls in the background, shaky cam shots, slight blurring of motion, and most importantly… the pony tail. Man there is so much U2 pony tail in this video. The pony tail never had it so good as in 1987. Anyway yeah… a band performing their song but the visuals certainly upped the game here.
19. Police – “Every Breath You Take” (1983)
Similar to the above – another band performing its song in black and white. But this music video won MTV cinematography awards, and you can’t deny that it certainly has an interesting and memorable look. Yep, like I said it’s mainly black-and-white and shows the band playing, accompanied by a piano and string section. There is also often a brightly-lit huge window in the background. And rather than playing a regular bass guitar, Sting is playing a fancy upright bass like you’d see in an orchestra (hence, you know, the string section). That interesting cinematography being said… I can’t help but admit that the video is… well… a little boring. Visually cool. But yeah, not enough to get it further than 19.
18. Aerosmith – “Janie's Got A Gun” (1989)
You’ve probably heard of David Fincher. He has dozens of Academy Award nominations and his films have earned over $2.1 billion dollars at the box office. Seven. Fight Club. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Gone Girl. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Social Network. Well, he started off directing music videos, and to say that “Janie’s Got A Gun” looks “cinematic” and “like a movie” would be an understatement because it is indeed a little 5-minute epic. About what? Well, a girl s molested by her dad. So she shoots him, and then there is a brief manhunt as they zip up daddy in a body bag and try to find her. But rather than being angry cops who find a dangerous fugitive it’s more like a “there there, you need to be put in a warm blanket” type of fugitive capture. Oh, and the mom in the video is Miss Scarlet from the cinematic masterpiece Clue. Still, weird subject matter considering that Aerosmith already had a song called “Uncle Salty” that was essentially about the same theme. You’d think Steven Tyler might have some sort of obsession with… *reads news*… oh. Oh my. Let’s move on.
17. Genesis – “Land of Confusion” (1986)
If “nightmare inducing” counts as “memorable,” than yes… this was a memorable music video. You might recall this video for its use of very weird, fucked up-looking puppets – including puppets of the members of Genesis as well as a Ronald Regan who pees himself so much that he like floods the world or something. Pretty accurate Regan, actually. So yeah… creepy as hell. Perhaps this video wouldn’t have existed without the earlier Herbie Hancock “Rockit” music video which also featured super-creepy robotic puppets, but honestly I didn’t really remember that music video until I was doing research. Do I remember the Land of Confusion music video? In every nightmare I have, yes.
16. Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me” (1987 / 1988)
An even less interesting subset of the “band playing its song” type of music video is the “concert music video,” where the band is rocking out some arena. Waaaay overdone, especially with the hair metal bands. So let’s talk about why I’m ranking this one. First and foremost, there were actually TWO music videos for "Pour Some Sugar on Me." One is a non-memorable one with a wrecking ball taking apart an old Irish estate. The other one is the “concert video” which is exactly the video you are thinking about, and which came out after this song became a hit (but before it became the official anthem of strippers?). So why does this make the cut as being more iconic than others? It just was. Because it was so, so much. Def Leppard was so much. The hair. The laser lights. The 80’s-ness. When this video came out people likely didn’t know you could describe an entire decade with just one music video, but if you could it might be this one.
15. Guns N' Roses – “Sweet Child o' Mine” (1987)
You might think “isn’t this ANOTHER concert music video?” No! It’s actually not. The video isn’t them actually playing “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” it’s the band PRACTICING and GETTING READY to perform the song, which is an interesting and unique enough twist that no video that I can think of did before it, and which seems sort of timeless and obvious today. Hence it has a bit of a “this is a video about making a video” vibe. The same impressive cinematography we get in the Police and U2 videos I mentioned above also applies here: grainy black and white footage, super high contrast, etc). And visually, this breakthough song was the first time most people actually SAW what Guns N’ Roses looked liked and it must have blown people’s minds. People watched this video and were like “who and what the fuck is this?!” I just wish the band would be smart enough to not put their girlfriends in the music videos. They had to know this would end up poorly.
14. INXS - “Need You Tonight / Mediate” (1987)
Interestingly, INXS decided to take two of their songs from their 1987 Album “Kick” and merge them into a single music video rather than releasing two videos. That was an interesting enough choice on its own to make me consider it for the rankings, but re-watching the video itself I do recall how memorable it was. The mix of the black and white with the color (I’m sure Schinder’s List stole the idea from this, right?). The grainy, cut-up 35mm footage. The tossing of the cue cards in what was a tribute to Bob Dylan's “Subterranean Homesick Blues” (but at the time I had no idea, and I though this was all INXS’s thing). I forgot that these two different iconic INXS music videos were actually ONE music video. Also, can I just say WOW how handsome was Michael Hutchence? Look at that dude.
13. Run DMC (featuring Aerosmith) – “Walk This Way” (1986)
Certainly an iconic video. Run DMC was becoming more and more popular and successful... but rap still wasn’t quite mainstream enough for most of the white suburb kids yet. Aerosmith was a famous band that used to sell out arenas, but by the mid-80s they were a drugged-up has-been joke of a band. Somehow the two coming together gave BOTH of them what they needed. Run DMC (and rap in general) exploded to mainstream approval and Aerosmith once again found themselves relevant and launched a comeback that lasted for another 15 years. The music video obviously contributed enormously to the success of the whole thing, with the set-up being Run DMC and Aerosmith playing two opposite concerts on different sides of a wall until the wall is “broken through” and rock and rap come to merge with one another. A historic moment in music. Enough so that I’m saying it’s the 13th greatest music video of the 80s. But if we can be honest… beyond the impact of that cultural moment and how much of a paradigm shift it was for music… the video itself is… well… you know… sort of just okay.
12. The Beastie Boys – “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” (1986)
Speaking of making rap music go mainstream in 1986 (and also speaking of finding a way to make white suburbs kids like it), here the Beastie Boys played a helping hand. A very memorable and funny music video that’s often quite literal between the lyrics and what’s happening (but that’s not necessarily a bad thing). Throwing a party while the parents are out of the house, sticking that finger in the dog’s face and shouting “IF YOU DON’T CUT THAT HAIR!” The throwing away of the best porno mag. The dad and his hypocritical smoking habits. Ah, memories. This video might have just been at the height of MTV. I feel like 86-87 has to be the MOST MTVish of MTV’s years before it stopped being so MTVish. Plus I want to point out that videos like Will Smith’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand” would never have existed without this one coming first.
11. Billy Idol – “White Wedding (Pt 1)” (1982)
Billy Idol did the dumb “Guns N’ Roses thing” by putting his girlfriend in the video here (although maybe that statement should be reversed because this video came out several years before GNR). While in 2023 the idea of a music video about a “goth wedding” might sound sort of “eh, okay, it’s been done before,” …well guess what! In 1982 it HADN’T been done before. Lots of memorable stuff here. The high saturation (like all my Instagram photos), the girls in the tight leather shaking their asses (long before Sir Mix a Lot), ye olde classic cars, motorcycles crashing through stained glass, people hammering nails in coffins to the beat of the song, Billy Idol pretending he’s the Mummy for a few seconds (I’m still confused by this), unnecessary amounts of candles, Idol blowing smoke from his mouth as he sings, a wedding guest list with freaks and art majors on one side and boring normies on the other, Idol slicing his bride’s finger open with the wedding ring, kitchens with exploding toasters, and so on. Also, yes, the title above is correct. Technically the name of this music video (and the corresponding song) is “White Wedding (Pt 1)” even though Billy Idol’s self-titled 1982 album only had the one part on it. The “Part 2” was the single’s B-side and is not featured in the music video. So it’s really a song cut into two parts, although only one part is the memorable one.
Oh, and speaking of dividing things up into two parts…
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