The Music Video Mini-List

[brundlefly]

My list, orphans in either red or blue (links I don't think were mentioned upthread):

1. Björk, "Bachelorette" (Gondry)
2. The Geraldine Fibbers, "California Tuffy" (Bozulich)
3. Michael Jackson, "Thriller" (Landis)
4. Nine Inch Nails, "Closer" (Romanek)
5. Aphex Twin, "Come to Daddy" (Cunningham)
6. Carly Rae Jepsen, "Call Me Maybe (Chatroulette Version)"(Kardynal)
7. Fatboy Slim, "Praise You" (Jonze)
8. Missy Elliott, "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" (Williams)
9. Laurie Anderson, "O Superman" (Anderson)
10. Peter Gabriel, "Sledgehammer" (Stephen R. Johnson)
11. Grimes, "Oblivion" (Grimes and Emily Kai Bock)
12. Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (Pennebaker)
13. Hall & Oates, "She's Gone" (John Oates' sister)
14. The Replacements, "Bastards of Young" (?)
15. R.E.M., "Imitation of Life" (Jennings)
16. A-ha, "Take on Me" (Barron)
17. Elvis Costello, "Accidents Will Happen" (Jankel and Morton)
18. Beyoncé, "Countdown" (Beyoncé and Adria Petty)
19. Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar, "Never Catch Me" (Murai)
20. The Avalanches, "Since I Left You" (Blue Source)
21. Jamiroquai, "Virtual Insanity" (Glazer)
22. Battles, "Atlas"(Saccenti)
23. Nine Inch Nails, "March of the Pigs" (Christopherson)
24. Sinead O'Connor, "Nothing Compares 2 U" (Maybury)
25. Arcade Fire, "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)(Rocka-fire Explosion Version)"(Creative Engineering)

The ranking is sometimes less a ranking than a bunch of juxtapositions I liked. Maybe it's a VJ playlist. And while I wound up with fewer orphans than I thought I might -- there goes all my indie cred -- I consciously leaned into some undeniables.

I voted for "Cirrus" and was *this* close to voting for that Shrift video

As I recall, Cirrus got a few votes, and it was only reluctantly left off my list. (I ended up with forty something videos to sort through, nearly half of which were discoveries from this thread.) Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Great video!

This is a great, great video and was the hardest cut -- especially since one of the things I wanted to include was how the internet has changed how music and videos get digested. I don't know if I agree with that one t-shirt in the "D.A.N.C.E." video that says for a few seconds, "Internet killed the video stars," but it definitely has shown the different ways we interact with them. The Chaturbate vid I wrote about earlier. I tried to squeeze the video for Svantana's "Workin' in a Cocktail Bar" remix of "Don't You Want Me" in there a half-dozen ways, but it lost out to the nostalgia-ridden Showbiz Pizza Parlor take on Arcade Fire, which too perfectly captures the strong mixed feelings I have about those exercises and that band. It's why I went for Jonze's proto-Improv Everywhere "Praise You" instead of his others (I limited myself to one/director), and it's the excuse I used to include that apathy-drenched Hall & Oates vid, which never saw release until YouTube.

I think in the end, the only thing wrong with "Cirrus" is that it's not "cows & cows & cows".

[BenoitRouilly]

I think in the end, the only thing wrong with "Cirrus" is that it's not "cows & cows & cows".

I would have voted for it if it was a MV...
But my favourite non-MV of Cyriak is Cycles

I'm also suprised Weapon of Choice was only orphan in this vote... I thought it was a winner, and was on my runner-up shortlist.

And I don't remember who stumbled upon a MV from Mongolia on YT's sidebar suggestions, here's the song I got (by the same way) a while back :The HU which is pretty good. (in the YT comments someone says for a country of 3 million people, it's pretty good to reach 30 million views... or something to that effect.)

[domino harvey]

Weapon of Choice is like a lot of other Spike Jonze videos, in that its innovation starts and stops with its initial idea and doesn’t really do anything with it

[brundlefly]

Weapon of Choice is like a lot of other Spike Jonze videos, in that its innovation starts and stops with its initial idea and doesn’t really do anything with it

I'm a fan of the ones that make their single idea captivating. I think the format lends itself to that, and it's harder to do than it looks.

But if I wanted to vote for one where someone does a little dancing on an escalator, I think I'd pick this DANIELS' vid for "My Machines" by Battles ft. Gary Numan over WoC.

[zedz]

Weapon of Choice is like a lot of other Spike Jonze videos, in that its innovation starts and stops with its initial idea and doesn’t really do anything with it

I found this a common complaint with a lot of (potentially great) videos, and it’s something that really distinguishes Gondry from a lot of his peers. He’ll take a wacky concept and then build on it throughout the film, or layer in (insane) extra technical complications, or incorporate a narrative.

[colinr0380]

Sorry, I'll get onto the Horror Redux list in time but I just had a fun evening with some 90s nostalgia for Babylon Zoo's Spaceman, and you cannot get much more mid-90s than that! This was a big 'one hit wonder' song that hit just at the right time that The X-Files was taking off on television and that whole Roswell 'alien autopsy' video was garnering headlines on a slow news day. The actual song itself starts off electronically trippy then turns into a very 90s standard, kind of Nirvana-style grunge piece for the majority of the song. It works quite well, though it is quite a tonal shift to get used to. Inevitably the bookending electronic voiced opening section became the big hit after it was used in a Levis Jeans commercial in late 1995.

And since that electronic hook was the thing that most connected to people Samplesonic, who did cut ups of everything from the Protect and Survive voice over (with "Protect and Survive in '95") to dance versions of theme tunes of children's characters of Mr Benn and such, got their hands on it and completely obliterated even that catchy electronic hook into a pounding beat, with a video that throws a lot of UFO imagery at the audience in similarly abrasive, potentially epilepsy inducing flashes. It is definitely an acquired taste, but its an interesting example of a song getting filleted for parts in all sorts of ways from literally commercial reasons to getting transformed into almost an avant garde 'noise' piece.

[zedz]

Babylon Zoo

Now, there's a name I never thought I'd hear again.

[colinr0380]

And to make it even more an artefact of the 90s Jas Mann's other claim to fame was when he was 'interviewed' on Brass Eye!

"To say Jas Mann is to say the man who is totally Babylon Zoo. He's the chung wit, the biff-buff and the puff pastry hangman..."

I often wonder whether Morris is cheekily alluding to the Levis jeans advert (along with pricking Jas Mann's ego) in his "And maybe you were born with a few more jeans than the rest of us" sign off!

[thirtyframesasecond]

I always liked the grungey verses rather than the pitched up vocal chorus. When driving, I tend to listen to cheap service station purchased CDs (I like background music, but not music I really enjoy/would want to focus on!) - I have this awesome 90s 3x CD that has this and some other classics; some good (White Town), some less so (Jimmy Nail!)

[colinr0380]

Crocodile Shoes presumably, which I seem to remember was tying into a BBC TV series that Nail was starring in. I don't particularly like that song, but being trapped on a bus on a school trip to France with a group of kids raucously singing the chorus of it off key for five hours straight will do that to you!

[thirtyframesasecond]

Crocodile Shoes presumably, which I seem to remember was tying into a BBC TV series that Nail was starring in. I don't particularly like that song, but being trapped on a bus on a school trip to France with a group of kids raucously singing the chorus of it off key for five hours straight will do that to you!

Ain't No Doubt - which was Nail going for a smooth R&B type sound. I never watched Crocodile Shoes but Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout wrote the songs so they can't have been bad.

[Lowry_Sam]

I rushed to put my list together since I was going away on vacation the day after it was due. A few seconds after sending I realized a few that I had wanted to include probably more than a few that I had put on, but just didn't have time to revise the list. I've also watched a few now that, while I still remember fondly think are surpassed by others I either forgot about or just neglected to write down. And now after being refreshed on how the points worked, I probably would have spent less time giving props to videos I a was more likely to use to fill out the rest of my list if needed, rather than arguing for those that I was most likely to vote for.

1 Pink Floyd Money [Wayne Isham, 1973] So many videos from the 80s on borrowed heavily (even using footage from) Koyanisqatsi, but this video predates the movie by almost a decade & very likely was its inspiration.The video is not only clever in contrasting shots of the wealthy elite with those who mine the gold & diamonds they hoard, it also contrasts shots in the first world (London & NY the financial centers of the world at the time) w/ the developing world (esp. South Africa). To add to that, the video's use of footage of the record being pressed (and stacks of them being blown up) adds a post modern take on the song's success & the irony that it became such a hit & source of money for the band too. Brilliant & hasn't lost a bit of its relevance.

2 Elvis Costello & The Attractions Watching The Detectives [?, 1977?] Lots of videos in the 80s used existing footage (stock, NASA, old films...), however this video was made before MTV aired, so compiling scenes from old detective/noir films to fit to the lyrics in the song was much more difficult then (for both finding the footage as well as editing it together to fit the lyrics). With internet & software doing this is certainly easier today, however I can't think of many examples that match its cleverness.

3 New Order World (The Price Of Love) [Baillie Walsh, 1993] If there's one video on my list that I wished I could have done myself it would be this one. I would have done it in one take, starting from underneath the water coming out onto the beach & following the rest of the video in one take as a sort of hommage to the famous one-take scene in the beginning of I Am Cuba. But, even in 4 takes, it's pretty impressive for 1993 & not only ties a better narrative together than many one-takes, but also fits the song lyrics much better, making it much more rewatchable than many one-takes that wear out their gimmick.

4 Pulp This Is Hardcore [Doug Nichol, 1998] For me, this video evokes the romance that film captures over its audience better than any other video w/ all original footage.

5 David Bowie Boys Keep Swinging [David Mallet, 1979] No other artist had as many videos that predate MTV's launch air on MTV with as much recluarity as David Bowie. Ashes To Ashes and Fashion probably received the most MTV airplay in its incipient days. But this one probably broke the most ground as it is the first video featuring the (male) artist in drag. But, the video is more than just a gender-bending gimmick as many later videos would do (ie. Arrowsmith's Dude Looks Like A Lady).

6 Elvis Costello & The Attractions Accidents Will Happen [Annabel Jankel & Rocky Morton, 1978] MOMA inducted this video into its collection & its clear why. Decades later this experimental animation suits the songs' lyrics well while laying open interpretation to the viewer. I haven't seen many animated videos since that I like as much.

7 Apex Twin Windowlicker. [Chris Cunningham, 1999] When this came out I thought this was the greatest video of all time. The critique of rap music's misogyny wrapped up in an hommage to The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg & Michael Jackson was so far out in leftfield that many didn't know what to make of it when it was released. Then Come To Daddy was released & I liked it just as much. Since people were clamoring over the latter I voted for the former, since I felt both are pretty equal in their genius. I guess the strategy worked as they tied, though unfortunately not in the top 10.

8 Bjork All Is Full Of Love [Chris Cunningham, 1999] Another work of genius from the new era of video artists brought on by the electronic music craze of the late 90s. Nice to see artists advance the art of video making during this time period (which seems to be the most heavily represented on the final list) rather than just throw together a slick run through of lip-syncing to the song perhaps in an exotic locale to promote record sales, as in the early days of MTV.

9 Leftfield w/ Afrika Bambaata Afrika Shox [Chris Cunningham, 1999] Another 90s electronica gem that didn't just peddle a message in a pedantic manner as many an 80s video, but rather hinted at a narrative through the use of the song's lyrics & visual imagery.

10 Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated [Bill Fishman, 1988] While Hall & Oates may have done it 1st in the 70s w/ She's Gone & The Replacements became most famous for doing it after signing to a major record label, the Ramones' piss take on making a video to promote a song not only makes it eminently clear they couldn't give a f***, but it is also the most entertaining & eminently rewatchable of the "We Don't Give A Fuck" music videos, not to mention that it fits the song's lyrics the best too.

11 Pete Shelley Homosapien While gender-bending musical artists may have been all the rage in the early days of MTV, one thing MTV did not do is air any video with an explicitly gay message. Even when Smalltown Boy was released it would be relegated to late night hours on American MTV. However, when MTV first came on the air, this gem was inexplicably played w/ regularity during all hours. It wasn't a hit on the US pop charts & the video itself was much more abstract than almost all videos of the time.......and then of course there's the lyrics, which the MTV execs must have not taken any notice too, otherwise they would have not played it. Pete Shelley's coy, yet cold delivery of the lyrics, along with the scientific approach to the subject certainly helped to get this one past the US censors (though it was banned from radio airplay on the BBC because of its lyrics).

12 Pet Shop Boys It's Alright[Eric Watson, 1989] Not sure why I chose this over all other PSB videos. This was the heyday of slickly produced b&w videos of the mid 80s to early 90s, video versions of Calvin Klein underwear ads. However, this one tied together an impetus to be socially relevant without any political diatribe in a novel way: 2 gay men posing with a multi-cultural group of babies crooning over the state of affairs in the world & pining for a hopeful outcome for their future....30 years later it may appear naive to some, but it is still touching even if we haven't progressed all that much since the song was released.

13 Paul Simon The Boy In The Bubble [Jim Blashfield, 1986] I was compelled by this visual presentation that juxtaposes live action w/ animation in a much more integrated manner than those videos that feature live action & animation as coexisting together. It also fits the song lyrics quite well, though in rewatching it I wonder if I still like it as much because of advancements in video technology, so it could get bumped next time, but I love the song so I don't regret including it.

14 Queen I Want To Break Free [David Mallet, 1984] I was weighing which one of the heavyweights from MTVs heyday to include (Money For Nothing, Girls On Film (Uncensored), Thriller...) & because of the recent Freddie Mercury biopic, opted for this one, as I also think it is the must playful of the bunch & still very rewatchable.

15 Moby Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? [Filipe Alçada, Hotessa Laurence, and Susi Wilkinson, 1999] Didn't get a chance to scour through my collection on DVD, but this one stands out from memory for being emotionally engaging, well-suited to the lyrics & yet quite simple at the same time, though I could have just as easily substituted Mistake for this one.

16 Soft Cell Frustration [Tim Pope, 1982] It's hard for me to say which of the videos from the (1st ever) video album Non-Stop Exotic Video Showthat launched Tim Pope's career as a video artist I would chose here.The Tainted Love video was quite daring & would certainly fit here too, but I've always had a soft spot for this one given the songs lyrics.

17 Fatboy Slim Weapon Of Choice I put this one on remembering it fondly, however in rewatching it, it seems that its technical feat doesn't quite contain the wow factor it once had when it was first released, which can be a downside to later videos that are certainly much slicker than older videos, but perhaps a bit more gimmicky too. I could see this one easily getting replaced with another....but surprisingly no one else chose it too.

18 Laurie Anderson O Superman Here's another that I loved at the time, particularly for its simplicity & that it was ahead of its time, but could possibly be supplanted with another next go round.

19 Tool Prison Sex [Adam Jones, 1993] I always enjoyed this one much more than NIN's Closer video, which came out a little later & in the same goth/metal vein, but which proved to be much more popular. The stop motion animation evokes The Brothers Quay, but is quite well suited to the song (which I didn't particularly like, but I could never stop watching the video).

20 Stan Ridgway Drive, She Said [Andrew Doucette, 1986] This mini-noir fits the songs' lyrics extremely well, however it does seem to rely heavily on knowing the lyrics to enjoy, so it could also get easily bumped next go round.

21 Massive Attack Live With Me [Jonathan Glazer, 2006] Without revisiting all of their videos this one stood out in my memory. While I remember the video for Protection, it just didn't have the same impact on me when it was released as this one did.

22 The Fall Cruiser's Creek [?, 1985] Caught this one on one of the late night alternative music video shows back in the day & it has never left me for whatever inexplicable reason. It's just oddball enough to catch you're attention without being completely alienating....just like The Fall's music.

23 Pet Shop Boys Heart [Jack Bond, 1982] PSB's hommage to Nosferatu w/ cameo by Ian Mckellan would edge out Kate Bush's Cloudbursting [Julian Doyle & Terry Gilliam, 1985 & starring Donald Sutherland] as my favorite of the mid 80s mini-film-in-a-video-w/-a-cameo-by-a-famous-actor genre.

24 Frankie Goes To Hollywood Two Tribes (Desctructo Mix) [Godley & Creme, 1984] Surely somthing from the ZTT/Trevor Horn/Godley & Creme stable deserves mention here & for me this particular version of the video is the cream of the crop, both for its use of existing film & the excellent way it visualizes the lyrics without being too literal. 80s & the consolidation of the reign of global neoliberalism all summed up in a single video.

25 Rolling Stones Undercover Of The Night [Julien Temple, 1983] The only memorable Stones video probably because its the only video in which they don't just play before the camera. Two versions exist & I chose the uncensored version as it is the only video I can think of from the era that tackles the issue of the US' endless meddling in Central & South America....and yet it was a pop hit. Hard to think of that happening today.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Did Glazer direct Live With Me? I really like the song. Terry Callier has a fantastic voice and it syncs up well with the ravaged, hopelessness of the video.

[flyonthewall2983]

1 Pink Floyd Money [Wayne Isham, 1973] So many videos from the 80s on borrowed heavily (even using footage from) Koyanisqatsi, but this video predates the movie by almost a decade & very likely was its inspiration.The video is not only clever in contrasting shots of the wealthy elite with those who mine the gold & diamonds they hoard, it also contrasts shots in the first world (London & NY the financial centers of the world at the time) w/ the developing world (esp. South Africa). To add to that, the video's use of footage of the record being pressed (and stacks of them being blown up) adds a post modern take on the song's success & the irony that it became such a hit & source of money for the band too. Brilliant & hasn't lost a bit of its relevance.

I don't know who exactly directed it, but pretty sure it wasn't Isham. The band had films made for Dark Side of the Moon, once the album became very successful and their stage show took on bigger dimensions to include things like screen films. A mix of live-action stuff like this, and animation.

This clip, which they used in concert a few times in the 90's for the song, is quite funny.

[Lowry_Sam]

I don't know who exactly directed it, but pretty sure it wasn't Isham. The band had films made for Dark Side of the Moon, once the album became very successful and their stage show took on bigger dimensions to include things like screen films.

I'm inclined to agree with you. His next credited video isn't until 1984 (Howard Jones), a lot of his video credits are tied to live concerts, & there doesn't seem to be another video on his resume that comes anything close to this (Motley Crue Girls! Girls! Girls!, The Psychedelic Furs Pretty In Pink ('86), Bon Jovi Livin' On A Prayer, Michael Jackson You Are Not Alone. He has a few Pink Floyd video credits (for older songs) in 1988-1989 which look to be related to a concert tour, so maybe the IMDB credit is a mistake, certainly wouldn't be their first. Speaking of which, does anyone know of a more reliable source for music video credits (particularly director) than IMDB?

Did Glazer direct Live With Me? I really like the song. Terry Callier has a fantastic voice and it syncs up well with the ravaged, hopelessness of the video.

The song was a new single (not on any previous album) attached to their greatest hits collection (which I picked up as the limited edition version included the dvd with all their videos including this one). I also got this from IMDB & since it's more recent I assume it's correct (I don't have the dvd with me at the moment but can verify when I get home).
Thoughts on the results:

MOST POPULAR DIRECTORS
or
By what order of magnitude did Michel Gondry defeat the competition?

Just factoring in the qualifying votes (though I doubt that including the orphans would paint a different picture), eight directors gained multiple votes:

1. Michel Gondry (9 videos, 583 points)
2. Chris Cunningham (5 videos, 213 points)
3. Spike Jonze (5 videos, 122 points)

Mixed feelings here. While I (usually) prefer Gondry's videos to Jonze's, for me Cunningham is the true genius & a bit disappointed that his second place finishing is so far behind,particularly given that I didn't vote for a single Gondry & voted for 3 of Cunningham's (and probably would have included a fourth - Come To Daddy, which I didn't put on the list because I already voted for 3 & it seemed that many more people were going to be voting for this one over Windowlicker, before voting for my favorite Gondry - which I'm not really sure what it would be).

5. Annabel Jankel & Rocky Morton (2 videos, 56 votes)

Glad to see this too despite that one of my early MTV faves (Chaz Jankel Questionnaire, former percussionist for Ian Dury & The Blockheads & brother to Annabel) not being among them, though admittedly I was probably only going to use this fill out my list in the event that I had empty slots. The idea of the video is nice & it fits the music well, but the graphics on the other 2 have held up better over time.

6. Jarvis Cocker (2 videos, 52 points)

He is widely credited for Aphex Twin's On video, but IMDB credit's Pulp's This Is Hardcore to Doug Nichol, unless there's another in there he's credited for (?)

Surprised to see no Tim Pope or Anton Corbijn on the list, though admittedly the latter's videos largely seemed to fulfill the purpose of the music video quite well but never usually elevated the end product to much more than its intended commercial purpose.

Also surprised to see no Radiohead, Moby, PSB, Sigur Ros, David Bowie, Weird Al, & only 1 video from Bjork, Madonna & Massive Attack (not the one I was expecting). I guess having such few voters & a number of artists w/ several compelling video choices affected this.

9=. Bachelorette – Bjork (Michel Gondry 1997) 59

Forgot how good this one is, this probably would be my favorite Gondry, but glad to see it do so well without my vote.

2. Come Into My World - Kylie Minogue (Michel Gondry 2002) 118
5. Imitation Of Life - R.E.M. (Hammer & Tongs 2001) 93

Also glad to see these do well without my voting for them, but I was anticipating this given the discussion of them.

3. Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel (Stephen Johnson 1987 )105

I loved Peter Gabriel's solo music up until the So album came out. Much like the popularity of The Talking Heads' Speaking In Tongues (and Burning Down The House in particular), it dampened my enthusiasm for the artist, so I didn't think much of his videos from this period as they were ubiquitous. I guess on a technical level they rise above much of that era's videos, however because they were played so often, I began to find them a bit annoying.

6. Thriller - Michael Jackson (John Landis 1983) 91

This is even moreso true for this one. I can remember all the hype surrounding this one's "World Premier" on MTV, then being played every 2 or 3 hours at the top of the hour & MTV posting the schedule of when it would be aired next after every couple of videos. A week after it was released, I was already tired of it.

Didn't get a chance to explore 90s - later videos more thoroughly, but that era is what seems to predominate the results. The use of innovative videos really seemed to tie into the electronica music craze of that era. Later videos (ie. Past decade) may be much more technically skilled & precisely crafted, but often seem to lose some of the creativity & experimentation from this era.

Some titles I regretfully forgot or left off:

I wanted to pick one Yello video, as I think their videos, while very sparse & made on a very minimal budget, hold up very well today. Amazing what a little bit of colored lighting can do. But I couldn't decide between I Love You, Bostitch Pinball Cha Cha, & so I ended up with none of them.

I also wanted to pick a Madonna video, but not Vogue. My choice would have been for one of her most controversial videos, either Like A Prayer or Justify My Love, with the latter receiving almost as much hype as Thriller upon its release (with the uncensored version only airing during late hours & a tamer version during the day), but also ending up not including either as the controversial nature that surrounded them hasn't really continued to today.

Ministry's Just One Fix [Gus Van Sant, 1992] was bumped off because it just contained too much band footage, though it contained some William Burroughs footage & was filmed around the same time as Words Of Advice For Young People & Thanksgiving Prayer, the latter of which I like best, but isn't a music video.

I wanted to include at least one from either Kraftwerk (The Robots or more likely my vote would have gone to The Model), Devo (Whip It! or Freedom Of Choice), The Residents (my choice would have been for Third Reich, not Hello Skinny!) or Negativland (Guns) as they embody the marriage of music & video of the avant garde of the time, but again just couldn't select one that was both representative & transcended the others in its creative genius. But then after I submitted my list, Youtube's algorithms pointed me to Devo's Beautiful World, which will surely be on my list next time despite being yet another 80s video using stock footage.

2 Classic 80s videos that I wanted to cram in somehow but just couldn't bump anything off for them:
Rockwell Somebody's Watching You Paranoia around being surveilled seems even more relevant today than it did in the 80s and the video's use of a camera to surveil the song's narrator raise this one above other 80s standards, but just couldn't fit it in. Olivia Newton John Physical Despite containing all the elements of your standard 80s video: lip-synching to the camera, a few visual jokes, soft-shot cinematography...., this one just shines above the others for being the zeitgeist of the era, while its camp sensibility loses none of its humor.

...and despite promoting them, I failed to include Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) or Sensoria, only the latter of which would have made a difference & will probably bump something for them next time.

[flyonthewall2983]

I don't know who exactly directed it, but pretty sure it wasn't Isham. The band had films made for Dark Side of the Moon, once the album became very successful and their stage show took on bigger dimensions to include things like screen films.

I'm inclined to agree with you. His next credited video isn't until 1984 (Howard Jones), a lot of his video credits are tied to live concerts, & there doesn't seem to be another video on his resume that comes anything close to this (Motley Crue Girls! Girls! Girls!, The Psychedelic Furs Pretty In Pink ('86), Bon Jovi Livin' On A Prayer, Michael Jackson You Are Not Alone. He has a few Pink Floyd video credits (for older songs) in 1988-1989 which look to be related to a concert tour, so maybe the IMDB credit is a mistake, certainly wouldn't be their first. Speaking of which, does anyone know of a more reliable source for music video credits (particularly director) than IMDB?

He directed their 1988 concert film Delicate Sound of Thunder. He also would have been 16 in 1974, when those films were originally made. Pretty sure it would have been Storm Thorgerson or someone at Hipgnosis (who also did the band's artwork and several of their later videos).

[thirtyframesasecond]

Re: Lowry_Sam - rather than re-edit your post....

Pope and Corbijn have made loads of great videos. I had Red Guitar / Dr Mabuse in my list, but thought about It's No Good (Depeche Mode) and Seven Seas (Echo...)

I don't love the Sledgehammer video; prefer Shock The Monkey tbh, but I do love So as an album. Something in the Lanois production in the mid to late 80s that sounds amazing.

And The Robots was my no.1 video.

[flyonthewall2983]

I never had the love for "Sledgehammer" either. The video at least, the song is great. It must have been a shock to hear him do an up-tempo R&B track when it came out.

[zedz]

6. Jarvis Cocker (2 videos, 52 points)

He is widely credited for Aphex Twin's On video, but IMDB credit's Pulp's This Is Hardcore to Doug Nichol, unless there's another in there he's credited for (?)

When I looked up 'This Is Hardcore' on imdb, this was the only 1998 result that came up:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5076232/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

When I type in "doug nichol this is hardcore" I get:
No results found for "doug nichol this is hardcore"

I'm probably wrong, but can you provide a link?

[Black Hat]

Another 1980s shout I'd like to give is to Bronski Beat's remarkable Smalltown Boy, directed by Bernard Rose, which still seemed strikingly progressive and realistic as a narrative when I first saw it in the early 2000s and I imagine was even more harrowing when it was actually released.

Yeah this is a great one. A big issue with videos, including ones many of you have shared, is that it's supposed to be a 'music video' and regardless of how cool looking these videos are so many of them have nothing to do with the song or in the case of Nick Cave's 'Into My Arms' posted earlier stand in direct opposition to the song.

At a certain point everybody posting their favs with little pause to consider the last five posts containing a hundred videos became tediously overwhelming for me so I dipped out of the thread and forgot to submit a list.

I'm sure they're others if I thought about it, but the one music video I didn't see mentioned anywhere that jumps out in glaring omission which surprises me given how cinematic it is, how many genres it steals from, would be Golden Earring's Twilight Zone. Song and video still hold up too 35 years later which should give it bonus points. It belongs near the top of any best ever music video list

[Lowry_Sam]

I'm probably wrong, but can you provide a link?

Pulp: This Is Harcore is what came up first for me using the IMDB app.

Speaking of cinematic videos matching songs lyrics. I had also neglected to vote for any of Weird Al's videos, though they do this quite well. However, if I were to vote for a novelty song, I would probably chose Julie Brown Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun over any of Weird Al's, as it was made in a day & age when school shootings weren't a thing & is now even more of a novelty because of that.

I also neglected to chose one of my 2 favorite Sigur Ros videos, unable to decide between Svefn-g-englar, their most life-affirming video, or Viðrar vel til loftárása, their most heart-wrenching video.

[zedz]

Bizarre. I get that on the app too, but not on the website. Jarvis Cocker is a fraud!

[Roger Ryan]

I never had the love for "Sledgehammer" either. The video at least, the song is great. It must have been a shock to hear him do an up-tempo R&B track when it came out.

For me, it was a bit disappointing coming after two truly great, largely experimental, albums...but not as disappointing as Queen's Hot Space! I found the blatant sexual metaphors of "Sledgehammer" a little much as well, but then found that aspect pleasingly subversive after how much radio/MTV play the song got. Despite Lanois' considerable talent as producer, So immediately sounded like trite 80s production upon release (whereas the production of the previous Gabriel records sounded timeless). In the end, the album had one great song ("In Your Eyes") and a few other good ones, but the long-awaited follow-up Us is where Gabriel returned to his previous standard of quality.

But since this thread is about videos...yes, the videos for So were accomplished and quite innovative.

[Rayon Vert]

25 Rolling Stones Undercover Of The Night [Julien Temple, 1983] The only memorable Stones video probably because its the only video in which they don't just play before the camera.

That's just not true (both statements in fact!). Most their videos has them performing to some degree, but plenty bring in a lot of other things besides, and sometimes altogether. Anybody Seen My Baby, Love Is Strong, Ride Em on Down, Sex Drive, Saint of Me, Like a Rolling Stone, are some that come to mind. The other two videos, also Temple-directed, from the 1983 Undecover album are also cases in point, and arguably equally memorable. If Undercover of the Night is the political thriller, She Was Hot is the raunchy (and amusing) sex comedy (with the great Anita Morris), and Too Much Blood the horror film, also fitting the lyrics to that song. All three videos have a seedy, grimy feel that fits the tone of that album.

[colinr0380]

Another travelling video - Happiness by Goldfrapp which gets around voting for isolated sequences from musical films by being a version of Bobby Van's Take Me To Broadway sequence from the 50s version of Small Town Girl.

This is great and rather serendipitous: the Are Sounds Electrik YouTube channel is on a roll lately in the interesting to pair together Rodeo Star and the video featuring a swimsuit competition for Miss World (with lots of great "oh, I've just noticed you" turns to camera, every possible video transition effect in the book, and the camera itself relentlessly panning and picking out the person incongruously standing in their swimsuit in the environment, like it is Gaspar Noe's camera trying to find a light fitting to dive into in Enter The Void! I just want at one point them to accidentally zoom in to a surprised Chinese gardener and throw up a "6.5464" score as he gazes into the camera in shock!), but the channel has just put out a new electronic music video using the Bobby Van footage! The mid-point reversal works really well, almost as if the character is neatly and tidily putting all of the objects that he tampered with back into its right place (including stopping the bird cage bouncing around), before dusting his hands off at a job well done!

EDIT: And here's one using Kin-dza-dza!