these are the musical short films that
distinguish themselves from all the rest
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be counting down our picks for the top
ten decade defining music videos of all
time
does it work let me work it put my thing
down flip it and reverse it for this
list as a recap of all of the lists in
the series focusing on individual
decades we’re putting a bigger emphasis
on those music videos that have both
stood the test of time and best connote
that era
my contrast within a given decade we
looked at the most dominating entries
within that more specific time frame but
that may not have necessarily retained
their popularity and residents today
number ten sledgehammer Peter Gabriel
it has been labeled as the most played
music video in MTV history and the
channel itself ranked sledgehammer as
the fourth greatest music video ever
made the praise heaped up on to our
runner-up was unprecedented with
claymation pixelation and stop-motion
techniques all provided by the people
who would go on to create Wallace &
Gromit
it’s an unbridled celebration of all
things animation
a picture of the progress I was being
made in the 80s the video for
sledgehammer really hits on something
good
number nine hey-yah outcast
you all doubt
with so many iconic moments in its own
right it’s amazing to think that the
video for hey-yah was actually inspired
by another milestone moment in music
history the film presents outcasts as
they revel within an artificial American
invasion of Great Britain you got a
phone you think you’ve got it
but got it don’t get it
it’s a parody of some famous footage of
the Beatles performing on The Ed
Sullivan Show in 1964 amid their
original British Invasion
with boards of screaming fainting fans
quick before them Andre 3000 and big boy
had really hit it big with this record
number eight November rain guns and
roses
I can see in the
an epic record in need of an epic
accompaniment November rain sure got
that in terms of narrative and story
there are a few videos to match it
Axel Rose takes the lead role as he
marries and then mourns a character
played by his then girlfriend Stephanie
Seymour
but arguably it’s a lead guitar slash
who’s the star of this show his two
solos are immensely impressive
particularly the first filmed outside of
the church and captured by swooping
shots achieved using helicopters
nothing lasts forever but we’ll gladly
watch this film a few times over
number seven baby one more time Britney
Spears as a general rule be and then I
woke up and it was all a dream line
doesn’t work too well but for Britney
Spears debut record it really really did
films fidgeting her way through the last
few seconds of the school day the venn
teen singer takes us on a well
choreographed and well costumed tour of
the school itself its corridors and
gymnasium in particular
a daydream sequence which quickly proved
a dream come true for everyone involved
with her Act in 1998 Britney arrived and
with this video the whole world knew
about it i relieved with her room number
6 the real Slim Shady Eminem y’all act
like you never seen a white person
before what jaws on the floor like panic
Tommy just burst in the dorms this one
arrived at the beginning of the new
millennium sending one hell of a
precedent for the years that followed
Eminem was fast establishing himself as
one of the most influential artists of
his era in 2000 winged mammal well some
of his cannibals other people open like
animals but if we can drop dead animals
and antelopes that is the reason that a
man and another man can elope with this
song these lyrics and his video it’s not
difficult to see why the short film is a
hectic hell-raising mashup of everything
that’s parentally advisory about this
record pick me here next to Britney
Spears scene a gaggle never better win
sweet chair so I can sit next to Carson
Daly and Fred Durst here more you oh boy
she gave Cooper it’s four and a half
minutes of celeb bashing sex slaving
bleach-blonde ding brilliance Slim Shady
we salute you real shady all you other
slim Shady’s are just imitating so won’t
the real Slim Shady please stand up
stand up
number five money for nothing dire
straits yo-yos that’s the way you do it
play take eternal news TV one of the
first computer animated features ever
made especially in terms of music
dire straits money for nothing almost
didn’t make it onto MTV at all
cuz in case you
lead singer Mark Knopfler was
unenthusiastic about music videos in
general believing that they’d attracted
attention away from the performance
itself but video director Steve Barron
eventually brought knopfler around
and the film picked up video of the year
at the third MTV VMAs in 1986 it looks
almost primitive now but it was
pioneering then
just
whooping Gangnam style Gangnam star
number four Gangnam style psy majumdar
sorrow on hinga jogging yoga as in the
late 2000s and throughout the 2010s
a music video only really makes it big
if and when it goes viral and Gangnam
style certainly did that
whooping Cottenham star come them start
with over two billion YouTube views it
smashed all previous World Records and
established itself as the defining video
of its time you’d ever see put me on
moon from the multi pooling yocha size
balance between suiting up and getting
down took the whole world by storm
so put your bow tie on and go bananas
because sometimes it’s just the best
possible idea whooping Cottenham star
member 3 smells like teen spirit nirvana
in terms of decade defining acts Nirvana
are a no-brainer for the 1990s smells
like teen spirit is probably their most
popular record and it’s video epitomizes
a lot of what they were about
unadulterated uncompromising
unapologetic carnage this highschool
moshpit was the first film directed by
now legendary music video Asst Samuel
Bayer who has since highlighted Kurt
Cobain striking lack of vanity in
comparison to other acts
the singer just wanted something genuine
and got something that had us all
jumping around the room even the clips
iconic janitor couldn’t keep himself
from bouncing along
number two take on me aha legendary
music video director Steve Barron is the
creative force behind our second-place
finisher
yeah
this iconic aha clip is actually the
second video shot for take on me and
besides the after mentioned dire straits
win it dominated the 1986 MTV Video
Music Awards the film follows an
unsuspecting comic book reader as she
becomes a literal part of the pages that
she’s reading
it’s pencil sketch animation meets
live-action film and it all looks
remarkably effortless
before we reveal our top pick here are a
few honorable mentions
number one thriller Michael Jackson it’s
opposed to me our winner is way more
than the average music video with a
running time of over 13 minutes there’s
probably nothing to match thriller in
all of history let alone just the 80s
the Michael Jackson anthem merged
filmmaking with music like nothing else
before it and is often described as the
most influential example of its format a
midnight hour is close at hand creatures
crawl in search of blood efforts were
even made for it to be considered for an
Oscar nomination that’s how much it
transcends its contemporaries we might
have listed Jackson’s beat it in today’s
top 10 but this record beats that and
everything else
so do you agree with our list which
video didn’t forget
for more thrilling toptenz published
daily be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com
distinguish themselves from all the rest
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be counting down our picks for the top
ten decade defining music videos of all
time
does it work let me work it put my thing
down flip it and reverse it for this
list as a recap of all of the lists in
the series focusing on individual
decades we’re putting a bigger emphasis
on those music videos that have both
stood the test of time and best connote
that era
my contrast within a given decade we
looked at the most dominating entries
within that more specific time frame but
that may not have necessarily retained
their popularity and residents today
number ten sledgehammer Peter Gabriel
it has been labeled as the most played
music video in MTV history and the
channel itself ranked sledgehammer as
the fourth greatest music video ever
made the praise heaped up on to our
runner-up was unprecedented with
claymation pixelation and stop-motion
techniques all provided by the people
who would go on to create Wallace &
Gromit
it’s an unbridled celebration of all
things animation
a picture of the progress I was being
made in the 80s the video for
sledgehammer really hits on something
good
number nine hey-yah outcast
you all doubt
with so many iconic moments in its own
right it’s amazing to think that the
video for hey-yah was actually inspired
by another milestone moment in music
history the film presents outcasts as
they revel within an artificial American
invasion of Great Britain you got a
phone you think you’ve got it
but got it don’t get it
it’s a parody of some famous footage of
the Beatles performing on The Ed
Sullivan Show in 1964 amid their
original British Invasion
with boards of screaming fainting fans
quick before them Andre 3000 and big boy
had really hit it big with this record
number eight November rain guns and
roses
I can see in the
an epic record in need of an epic
accompaniment November rain sure got
that in terms of narrative and story
there are a few videos to match it
Axel Rose takes the lead role as he
marries and then mourns a character
played by his then girlfriend Stephanie
Seymour
but arguably it’s a lead guitar slash
who’s the star of this show his two
solos are immensely impressive
particularly the first filmed outside of
the church and captured by swooping
shots achieved using helicopters
nothing lasts forever but we’ll gladly
watch this film a few times over
number seven baby one more time Britney
Spears as a general rule be and then I
woke up and it was all a dream line
doesn’t work too well but for Britney
Spears debut record it really really did
films fidgeting her way through the last
few seconds of the school day the venn
teen singer takes us on a well
choreographed and well costumed tour of
the school itself its corridors and
gymnasium in particular
a daydream sequence which quickly proved
a dream come true for everyone involved
with her Act in 1998 Britney arrived and
with this video the whole world knew
about it i relieved with her room number
6 the real Slim Shady Eminem y’all act
like you never seen a white person
before what jaws on the floor like panic
Tommy just burst in the dorms this one
arrived at the beginning of the new
millennium sending one hell of a
precedent for the years that followed
Eminem was fast establishing himself as
one of the most influential artists of
his era in 2000 winged mammal well some
of his cannibals other people open like
animals but if we can drop dead animals
and antelopes that is the reason that a
man and another man can elope with this
song these lyrics and his video it’s not
difficult to see why the short film is a
hectic hell-raising mashup of everything
that’s parentally advisory about this
record pick me here next to Britney
Spears scene a gaggle never better win
sweet chair so I can sit next to Carson
Daly and Fred Durst here more you oh boy
she gave Cooper it’s four and a half
minutes of celeb bashing sex slaving
bleach-blonde ding brilliance Slim Shady
we salute you real shady all you other
slim Shady’s are just imitating so won’t
the real Slim Shady please stand up
stand up
number five money for nothing dire
straits yo-yos that’s the way you do it
play take eternal news TV one of the
first computer animated features ever
made especially in terms of music
dire straits money for nothing almost
didn’t make it onto MTV at all
cuz in case you
lead singer Mark Knopfler was
unenthusiastic about music videos in
general believing that they’d attracted
attention away from the performance
itself but video director Steve Barron
eventually brought knopfler around
and the film picked up video of the year
at the third MTV VMAs in 1986 it looks
almost primitive now but it was
pioneering then
just
whooping Gangnam style Gangnam star
number four Gangnam style psy majumdar
sorrow on hinga jogging yoga as in the
late 2000s and throughout the 2010s
a music video only really makes it big
if and when it goes viral and Gangnam
style certainly did that
whooping Cottenham star come them start
with over two billion YouTube views it
smashed all previous World Records and
established itself as the defining video
of its time you’d ever see put me on
moon from the multi pooling yocha size
balance between suiting up and getting
down took the whole world by storm
so put your bow tie on and go bananas
because sometimes it’s just the best
possible idea whooping Cottenham star
member 3 smells like teen spirit nirvana
in terms of decade defining acts Nirvana
are a no-brainer for the 1990s smells
like teen spirit is probably their most
popular record and it’s video epitomizes
a lot of what they were about
unadulterated uncompromising
unapologetic carnage this highschool
moshpit was the first film directed by
now legendary music video Asst Samuel
Bayer who has since highlighted Kurt
Cobain striking lack of vanity in
comparison to other acts
the singer just wanted something genuine
and got something that had us all
jumping around the room even the clips
iconic janitor couldn’t keep himself
from bouncing along
number two take on me aha legendary
music video director Steve Barron is the
creative force behind our second-place
finisher
yeah
this iconic aha clip is actually the
second video shot for take on me and
besides the after mentioned dire straits
win it dominated the 1986 MTV Video
Music Awards the film follows an
unsuspecting comic book reader as she
becomes a literal part of the pages that
she’s reading
it’s pencil sketch animation meets
live-action film and it all looks
remarkably effortless
before we reveal our top pick here are a
few honorable mentions
number one thriller Michael Jackson it’s
opposed to me our winner is way more
than the average music video with a
running time of over 13 minutes there’s
probably nothing to match thriller in
all of history let alone just the 80s
the Michael Jackson anthem merged
filmmaking with music like nothing else
before it and is often described as the
most influential example of its format a
midnight hour is close at hand creatures
crawl in search of blood efforts were
even made for it to be considered for an
Oscar nomination that’s how much it
transcends its contemporaries we might
have listed Jackson’s beat it in today’s
top 10 but this record beats that and
everything else
so do you agree with our list which
video didn’t forget
for more thrilling toptenz published
daily be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com
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