MTV, back when it was still 'music television,' created the video music awards to celebrate the top mini-clips. Videos are more popular than ever (albeit on places like YouTube, not MTV) - and the savviest stars, yes, we are talking about Beyonce, turn a simple video release into a cross-cultural event. Even Taylor Swift did that this week with a worldwide live webcast of her new video, 'Shake it Off.'
So for the latest VMAs, airing live this Sunday, we decided to cheer the 10 best music videos of all time:
10) RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, 'GIVE IT AWAY' (1991)
More homoerotic than a Calvin Klein ad, the 'Give It Away' video features the well-muscled funk-rockers, stroking themselves, implicitly pawing each other (through the wonders of editing), and shimmering in silver. It's visually rhythmic, architecturally impressive and hot. What's not to like?
9) JOHNNY CASH, 'HURT' (2002)
Mark Romenek's moving, and pained, piece for a then 70-year-old Johnny Cash - shot the year before he died - showed him surrounded by memories of his distant past. For maximum poignancy, the antique images are strewn around as rotting totems, decaying in the harsh light of the present.
8) WHITE STRIPES, 'FELL IN LOVE WITH A GIRL' (2002)
Michele Gondry went loco with Legos for this hilarious, adorable, and oddly subversive clip. The director created an entire story line out of the little plastic toy blocks, animated to intensify the song's depiction of a jittery, witty, and deeply quirky kind of love.
7) BEYONCE, 'SINGLE LADIES' (2008)
A Minimalist masterpiece, Jake Nava's clip keeps the camera on the money: It focuses entirely on Beyonce in a body suit and high-heels (backed by two mirror-image dancers). The way Queen Bey gyrates here transcends her role as sex symbol to represent female power at its most triumphant.
6) PETER GABRIEL, 'SLEDGEHAMMER' (1986)
The winner of more MTV Moon Men - 10 - than any clip in history, Stephen R. Johnson's vision presents the song as a stop-action animation fantasia. It bursts with enough visual puns and animated absurdities to delight and surprise, even after scores of views.
5) NIRVANA, 'SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT' (1991)
Samuel Bayer nailed the dank, angry vision of grunge-revolutionary Kurt Cobain in the band's breakthrough short. Set in a high school gym, the video turns the idea of jock conformity inside out. Here, the cheerleaders boost the cause of insurrection, while the band brings its cultural revolt to a head.
4) DON HENLEY, 'BOYS OF SUMMER' (1984)
Star movie director David Fincher showed his early talent in this stunning black and white short for the wan Henley hit. Fincher created an ideal depiction of nostalgia gone morose. The clip looks every bit as sad and beautiful as the song sounds.
3) TALKING HEADS, 'ROAD TO NOWHERE' (1985)
Under the co-direction of Stephen R. Johnson and top Head David Byrne, 'Road To Nowhere' offered a wry twist on existential dread. Here, we see the band age, and the life cycle spiral, in a smartly observed, amusingly detailed, dance of futility.
2) MADONNA, 'LIKE A PRAYER' (1989)
This may be the most insane video ever made (a compliment), True to her character, Madonna aimed to offend everyone she possibly could with this fast-moving clip. Directed by Mary Lambert, the short includes a scene of the star having sex with a saint in a church (bonus: he's black). But the killer scene finds Madonna writhing around erotically in a field of KKK-style burning crosses. Who but Madge would think to use one of the most potent symbols of evil in American history as ideal back-lighting?
1) MICHAEL JACKSON, 'BEAT IT' (1983)
Sorry, but 'Thriller' isn't the King of Pop's greatest clip. It's just his longest. 'Beat It,' directed by Bob Giraldi, broke real ground when it appeared in Jackson's big year, 1983. It did so through its fully fleshed-out plot (a 'West Side Story' scenario, involving some real life gang members) as well as for the then-unheard of use synched sound. (Remember that clacky opening garage door towards the clip's start?). But it's the final, swaying choreography that makes the clip endure. It gave Jackson and his dancers a magical sense of movement.
jfarber@nydailynews.com
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, August 23, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
0 comments "MTV VMAs 2014: From Michael Jackson to Beyonce, the Top 10 music videos of ..."
Post a Comment