Top 10 Music Videos

Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel

“Pete, we want you to lay under a sheet of glass for sixteen hours while we mess around with bits of Play-Doh. You up for it?” LONG PAUSE. “Er...yeah ok.” Such was the scene just before this epic went into production. The stop motion photography was produced by Aardman Animations, creators of Creature Comforts and of course, Wallace and Gromit. Always near the top of best video charts, it won a record nine MTV VMA awards in 1987. Best bit: The egg hatching into dancing chickens is cracking, Gromit. Sorry.

Take on Me by A-Ha

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

This was the one that started it all. In the mid 1970s, while the style of the time was music videos simply featuring a band playing their instruments, Queen busted out with this extravagant video to accompany their outrageous and influential song. The music video as people knew it was to change forever as a result, and bands began to make clips that told a story. And if anyone had any doubt that Queen was a band that likes a bit of an extravaganza, this rock opera video would have put their misconceptions to rest.

Thriller by Michael Jackson

Not content to just make another music video, Michael Jackson made a film. Complete with zombies, werewolves, mummies and a cast of finely choreographed horror-feature dance moves, Thriller was THE music video of the 1980s, and it positioned Michael Jackson as more than just another pop singer. This was the beginning of Michael the over-the-top man of extravaganza, but despite the increasing budgets over the following years he never made a video quite this amazing again.

Hurt

An unlikely cover by Johnny Cash, this song was originally recorded by Nine Inch Nails in 1994. Cash’s recording in 2003 and the accompanying video are heartbreaking and poignant, as he takes the song and makes it sound as though it was written just for him. The video is incredibly moving, as the elderly Cash looks back on the heartache and tragedy of his life rendered in memorable and famous images for the audience, and tells us “you can have it all…. my empire of dirt.”

Deeper Underground – Jamiroquai

I still talk about this video now, despite the fact that it’s twelve years old. Featuring a 3D cinema experience that Avatar can only dream of (and some brilliantly retro glasses) this masterpiece’s chief attractions are the New York cabs and attack helicopters that fly directly at Jay Kay’s head. Despite these minor distractions, he still manages to perform his trademark moves and sadly survives without even compromising the angle of his hat. Interesting fact: There is a version of this video where the flooding is not caused by Godzilla but a clumsy man smashing a large aquarium.

“Losing My Religion” – R.E.M.

Black Or White – Michael Jackson

Wot no Thriller? Yes, I know ‘Black Or White’ has a frankly disturbing scene of MacCaulay Culkin miming a rap but this one really is a true classic. Picture the scene: It’s 1991 and aside from Tony Hart, nobody knows what Morphing is. Suddenly, Jacko releases his latest epic and it’s all anyone can talk about. In a video which uses a sledgehammer to thump home the message of equality, that end sequence is certainly a high point. Could it be a meaningful, visual statement that we are truly all the same? Perhaps. Does it show the ultimate futility of racial disharmony? Probably. Is it just a really cool effect? Definitely.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Before Lee Evans ever got his sweaty hands on it, Bohemian Rhapsody was already a visual stunner. Four musicians on the top of the game, cutting edge special effects and the hair, oh the hair! Not until McFly, nineteen years later would such a hirsute bunch have an impact – and these were the days when rockers had to take two bottles into the shower. Finding time between lathers, rinses and repeats they managed to combine an exciting live performance with a baffling segment which reminds me of the time my Dad got an odd new lens for his camera.

Buddy Holly – Weezer

If you could star in any TV show, what would it be? Top Gear? The Holiday Programme? Kelly Brook’s All Nude Trampoline Marathon? (I may have imagined that one.) Well the Weezer boys lived their dream when they were seamlessly dropped into Arnold’s Diner. All of the Happy Days gang were there – including those bizarre women who flocked to the Fonz, whenever he clicked his fingers. Clearly they had severe self-esteem issues but who cares? Their skirts were above the knee and the top buttons of their knitted cardigans were undone. Altogether now, “Goodbye grey skies, hello blue...”