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The 100 Greatest Music Videos

From Adele to ZZ Top — our ranked list of the best music videos of all time

Photo illustration by Griffin Lotz. Images using in illustration via Scanrail/Adobe Stock; Youtube

In the wee hours of August 1st, 1981, someone flipping through their channels might have come across the image of a rocket blasting into space. The familiar sight of Neil Armstrong exiting his lunar module and walking on the moon would fill the TV screen. And then they’d hear a voiceover, with all the smooth patter of an FM disc jockey: “Ladies and gentlemen, rock & roll.” Cue power chords, and a flag with a network logo — something called MTV — that rapidly changed colors and patterns. This wasn’t a news channel; it was “Music Television.” If they kept tuning in, they’d see clips and hear VJs talk about bringing you the latest in music videos. At this point, viewers might have a few questions, like: Is this like a radio station on TV? What is a “VJ”? And what the hell is a “music video”?

A year later, no one was asking that last question. Virtually everyone knew what a music video was, and they wanted their MTV. The network revolutionized the music industry, inspired a multitude of copycat programming, made many careers, and broke more than a few. Entire genres and subgenres — from hip-hop to grunge to boy-band pop to nu metal — became part of the mainstream. The format proved so durable that when MTV decided to switch things up and devote its air time to game shows, reality TV, and scripted series, thus shutting down the primary pipeline for these promos, artists still kept making them. The internet soon stepped in to fill the void. Four decades after the channel’s launch and long after it stopped playing them, music videos still complement songs, create mythologies, and cause chatter and controversy. We no longer want our MTV. We continue to want our music videos.

In honor of MTV’s 40th anniversary, we’ve decided to rank the top 100 music videos of all time. You’ll notice some significant changes from the last time we did this. (Yes, Michael Jackson is on here. No, “Thriller” is not.) A few pre-date the channel; several have never played on MTV at all. But all of these picks are perfect examples of how pairing sound and vision created an entire artistic vocabulary, gave us a handful of miniature-movie masterpieces, and changed how we heard (and saw) music. From Adele’s “Hello” to ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” — these are the videos that continue to thrill us, delight us, disturb us, and remind us just how much you can do in three to four minutes with a song, a camera, a concept, a pose, some mood lighting, and an iconic hand gesture or two.

From Rolling Stone US

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14

A-ha, “Take on Me”

The scene: a lonely girl sits in a diner, reading her comic book, about the adventures of the dashing Norwegian synth-pop trio A-ha. But the young woman (played by the singer’s real-life girlfriend) is shocked when the comic-book hero winks at her, then lures her into his pencil-sketch cartoon world. The lovers romp in the land of rotoscoped animation, until they get chased by wrench-toting bad guys. Finally, the singer bravely fights to escape the cartoon and join her in the flesh-and-blood world. Directed by Steve Barron (of “Billie Jean” fame), “Take on Me” remains a music video milestone — a dazzling technical achievement that never gets old. Sad footnote: A-ha did a bummer sequel, “The Sun Always Shines on TV,” where the couple break up and he goes back to his comic book. Totally unrelated fact: A-ha never had another U.S. hit. —R.S.

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13

Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

The tapping Converse All-Star hightop. The punk cheerleaders with anarchy symbols on their uniforms. Kurt Cobain’s striped tee, worn over a long-sleeve shirt. Those opening chords, the unruly teens, that build-up from quiet to deafening and unhinged. Director Samuel Bayer swears that Nirvana, the trio from Seattle that no one at Geffen Records expected to do much in regards to their major-label debut, picked him to helm the video for the opening track off 1991’s Nevermind because he had the worst reel out of all the candidates. “[He] wanted to do all this story, narrative stuff,” Nirvana’s soundman Craig Montgomery is quoted as saying in the seminal grunge history Everybody Loves Our Town. “Kurt just wanted to have the band playing and kids going nuts.” Grainy and grimy-looking, Bayer’s pep-rally-run-amuck video ends with one of the most ecstatic examples of mosh-pit liberation ever. It’s cliché to say “and the rest is history.” But it’s impossible to underestimate the sea change that happened once “Smells Like Teen Spirit” took over the radio, and, after a premiere on 120 Minutes, MTV decided to add the clip into heavy rotation. The single was already garnering buzz for Nirvana. But the video caused everything to go nuclear for the group, helped sell the notion of alternative rock to the masses, and officially ushered in the Grunge Era. Here we are now. Entertain us. —D.F.

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12

Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”

Beyoncé nearly made the impossible attainable when she dedicated the “Single Ladies” video to three minutes and 18 seconds of pure choreography, in your face and plain as day, with only two dancers by her side. See, performing at Beyoncé’s capacity is unrealistic for most of us, but when “Single Ladies” dropped, so did YouTube dance tutorials and presentations of the material from ordinary dancers. You can so easily pause, rewind, and pay attention to Beyoncé’s moves that everyone learned some of them, from Justin Timberlake on Saturday Night Live to President Barack Obama at an inaugural concert. —M.C.

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11

George Michael, “Freedom ’90”

George Michael’s Listen Without Prejudice era was all about tearing down the public’s previous conceptions of his work — including his reputation as a charismatic, aggressively heterosexual MTV heartthrob. In that respect, the video for “Freedom! ‘90” leaves hardly any room for interpretation, with Michael bringing back the rock & roll iconography from his “Faith” video — leather jacket, jukebox, guitar — only to have it literally burst into flames. But that’s not what everyone remembers about “Freedom! ‘90.” Directed by David Fincher, in what would be one of two breakout projects for him in 1990 along with Madonna’s “Vogue,” the video takes the ballsiest possible route and leaves Michael himself entirely offscreen, replacing him with five of the most famous supermodels in the world (Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Tatjana Patitz), who lip-sync to the song in a diamond-hued London warehouse. Pompous? Yes. But, anchored by Michael’s lyrics — which hint at a personal coming-out for him as much as a professional one — ”Freedom! ‘90” transformed into a complete artistic statement, the kind that still feels rare in the world of music videos. —C.S.

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10

Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean”

“Billie Jean” was the video that shocked the world — a revelation of how far the art form could go. It showcased Michael Jackson at the moment when he could glide on air, dancing on a light-up sidewalk in an homage to the musical An American in Paris. His voice, his face, his body all seem haunted by something otherworldly. He’s so fragile until he starts to dance — which is when he suddenly makes anything seem possible.MTV had a long history of playing edgy, uncategorizable black artists from around the globe: Peter Tosh, Grace Jones, Joan Armatrading, Phil Lynott, Tina Turner, that guy Prince. Yet there was no precedent for a video this radical from such a huge star. “Billie Jean” became an overnight MTV sensation and stayed in constant rotation for years. (An exec at MJ’s label made the unconvincing claim he coerced MTV into playing it, but the channel always insisted they rushed it onto the air, and the evidence seems to back them up.) His follow-up, “Beat It,” was equally stunning, innovative, classic; both videos still cast that spell, no matter how horrifying the story got later. And “Thriller” was the big-budgeted, 13-minute epic that was treated as an event, though it’s really just a John Landis ego trip with not enough music and not enough Michael. But “Billie Jean” is the one. It still defines music video at its peak of cultural and emotional impact. —R.S.

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9

Guns N’ Roses, “November Rain”

During the making of “November Rain,” somebody asked Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum what his role was. “I don’t know, man,” he replies. “You have to ask Ax. This whole video is in his mind.” That’s not entirely true — Axl Rose had loosely based the clip on “Without You,” a short story by pal Del James. But the clip feels like a fever dream: Rose stages a wedding for then-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour, best man Slash forgets the rings, best bassist Duff McKagan produces them on his leather-gloved pinkie, Slash shreds in a churchyard, they all yuk it up at a reception, the reception is rained out(!), and inexplicably Seymour’s character dies. In the clip’s most melodramatic scene, Seymour tosses her bouquet to the wedding guests and the flowers land on her own coffin. None of it makes much sense and it doesn’t have to, since it evokes the song’s mood, continued in GN’R’s “Estranged” video. “‘November Rain’ is a song about not wanting to be in a state of having to deal with unrequited love,” Rose once said. “‘Estranged’ is acknowledging [that state] and being there and having to figure out what the fuck to do.” —K.G.

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8

Peter Gabriel, “Sledgehammer”

“I’m not sure [‘Sledgehammer’] would have been as big a hit … without the video,” Peter Gabriel told Rolling Stone in 1987. “I think [the clip] had a sense both of humor and of fun, neither of which were particularly associated with me.” Although Gabriel loved surrealism (just look up his Genesis costumes), the “Sledgehammer” video overflowed with rare whimsy from the singer. He even managed to smile throughout the excruciatingly slow stop-motion shoot, which found steam trains chugging in front of his face, happy bumper cars tussling his cotton-candy hair, a Giuseppe Arcimboldo tribute (fruit shaped like Gabriel’s face singing), Claymation sledgehammers bashing an Adam out of his head, and of course two supermarket chickens dancing (animated by the same folks who later made Chicken Run). Somehow director Stephen Johnson shot everything in a week’s time. The clip went on to win nine VMAs, including Video of the Year, and, according to Gabriel’s website, it’s the most-aired video in MTV’s history. —K.G.

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7

D’Angelo, “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)”

As famous one-shots go, there’s the Copa entrance in Goodfellas, Danny riding his tricycle down the halls of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, and this — a doctor’s-office-close examination of D’Angelo’s glistening naked body in the eye-popping, breath-stopping 2000 video for the juggernaut track off his sophomore album, Voodoo. Starting a whisper away from the back of the singer’s head, directors Paul Hunter and Dominique Trenier slowly trace the contours of his hair, his ears, and his face, before spending the remaining three minutes and 30 seconds objectifying the ever-living shit out of his insanely chiseled torso. (Is this the entire reason men’s magazines became fixated on telling guys how to get V-shaped abs?) The concept is at once a creative shrug and a stroke of genius: In truth, the song — an ode to Prince layered with raw, tender vocals and almost filthy grooves — does all the work. What better way to mirror its intimacy than to strip down its maker and let him move us. —M.F.

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6

Beastie Boys, “Sabotage”

Whhhooooaaaa!!!! Seventies nostalgia saturated pop culture in the 1990s: Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, That ’70s Show, everything by the Black Crowes, and, of course, the Beastie Boys’ groovy “Sabotage” video. Fashioned like the opening credits of a vintage primetime TV series, the clip features the trio living out their by cop-drama fantasies wearing fake mustaches, aviators, and ill-fitting Me Decade duds; jumping an old sedan with a cherry light over a hill and leaping between buildings; and taking a doughnut break in between interrogating perps. “We all watched VHS videotapes of Streets of San Francisco and other shows,” Mike D once said, “and we were like, ‘That would be awesome, if we could actually pull off our own version of that.’” They pulled it off by really getting into it: MCA plays two roles (“Sir Stewart Wallace as Himself” and “Nathan Wind as Cochese”), while Ad-Rock portrays “Vic Colfari as Bobby, ‘The Rookie,’” and Mike D calls shots as “Alasondro Alegré as ‘The Chief.’” It’s goofy fun, and it perfectly complements the group’s punk-rap screamathon so well that it inspired Danny Boyle’s “Lust for Life” chase intro in Trainspotting. —K.G.

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5

New Order, “The Perfect Kiss”

“When you’re filming a band or an artist,” Jonathan Demme said, “you aspire to, and ideally become part of the band.” The director was talking about Stop Making Sense, but he might have been referring to his 1985 clip for New Order’s “Perfect Kiss” as well. The Manchester quartet would specialize in music videos that veered from faux-verité (that Arthur Baker–assisted, downtown-NYC disco romp in “Confusion”) to abstract AF (the attack-of-the-screen-savers imagery of “Bizarre Love Triangle”). For this highlight of the group’s 1985 album, Low-Life, Demme had them set up in their studio and play the track live. That’s it. Bernard Sumner looks like he might throw up before he starts his vocal track. Peter Hook attacks his bass strings as if they insulted his mom. Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert look at something below the frame with the intense concentration of math students solving an equation while the clock runs out. (They’re playing synthesizers.) The camera, meanwhile, gets right in their faces — Demme makes for a pesky, perseverant fifth member. Clocking in at a whopping 10 minutes, it’s a masterpiece of physical exertion and performance-capturing: a volley of fingers moving over fretboards and tapping keyboards, drumsticks hitting pads and cowbells, Sumner’s head tilted toward his mic. Arguably the most humanistic American filmmaker of the 1980s, Demme never lets you forget that there are people playing this song. The sound is synthesized, but the act of watching four people make that sound gives it soul. And no matter how many times you see that Joy Division poster behind Sumner’s head, it still brings a tear to your eye. —D.F.

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4

Childish Gambino, “This Is America”

It starts with a man playing a guitar, and a gunshot — then the music video that launched a thousand think pieces turns a warehouse space into a vaudeville stage, a riot-in-progress, and a waking nightmare. Donald Glover’s musical alter ego Childish Gambino struts, shuffles, and shimmies his way through a tableau of dancing kids, angry cops, and scenes of both social unrest and unfettered black joy. References to everything from viral dance videos to the 2015 shooting in a Charleston church, minstrelsy to Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” car dance, collide into each other, and given the way director Hiro Murai fills each frame with lots of moving parts and background business, it’s a clip that rewards dozens of viewings. But the gut-punch impact remains no matter how many times you see it. “The video is really a confluence of tone changes,” Murai told The New York Times. “Obviously we’re dealing with very provocative images, so it’s a total tightrope walk.”And in the middle of all this is Gambino, wandering from scene to scene in nothing but tight gray slacks, wearily stopping to light up a joint when he’s not shooting people or dancing up a storm. “It was important to have D. shirtless, because it’s like, yeah, that’s how we dance,” producer and Gambino collaborator Ibra Ake noted. “That’s like your uncle in Nigeria who drinks Harp. … That’s expressing yourself. Our goal [was] normalizing blackness.” All of this in four minutes, plus a semiotics-filled state of the nation that ends with the singer running desperately for his life, because, well … this is America. You can pick from almost four centuries’ worth of reasons as to why.—D.F.

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3

Madonna, “Vogue”

Hands, hands. Face. Body. “Come on, vogue” — Madonna commands it, and the world listened. Voguing was an outlandish, nonviolent way of “fighting” in New York’s queer, underground ballroom culture — and was often more athletic, involving contortions and martial arts influences. (See: Jennie Livingston’s landmark documentary Paris Is Burning.) But in the video — Madonna’s third collaboration with director David Fincher, following on the heels of the equally exhilarating “Express Yourself” — the dance was a refined form of feminist posturing and a statement of sexual defiance. “We cut this thing together as quickly as we could,” recalls Fincher. “We shot the video in, like, 16 hours, that was it. She got on the plane and went on her world tour.” The video was choreographed by classically trained dancer José Gutierrez and his best friend Luis Camacho, both members of the House of Extravaganza and two of the seven male dancers who’d also join her on the legendary Blonde Ambition tour. Although accusations of appropriation have plagued Madonna ever since, there’s no denying that she successfully elevated ballroom to the mainstream, creating a global fanbase. We can never forget to thank the blonde bombshell’s iconic video for inspiring countless queer kids to “strike a pose.” —J.P.

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2

Johnny Cash, “Hurt”

The way director Mark Romanek tells it, the emotional backbone of his music video for Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” — the Man in Black’s last major appearance on film — was purely accidental. Romanek was concerned, initially, that scenes of a 71-year-old Cash performing the somber Nine Inch Nails cover in his home, surrounded by a still life of rotting fruit and flowers, wouldn’t be enough to carry a full story. For B-roll, the director and his crew visited the derelict House of Cash museum, where curators lent the filmmakers a swath of archival footage from Cash’s life. On a whim, Romanek’s editor Robert Duffy dropped a clip of a young Johnny Cash riding a steam train into the rough cut. “We got chills running up our spine,” Romanek would recall later. “There was something about the juxtaposition of Johnny as a young, vibrant man, and Johnny near the end of his life.” Cash would be dead seven months later, but he left the last word on his own mortality with “Hurt.” Trent Reznor observed that as soon as he watched Romanek’s video, “It really, then, wasn’t my song anymore.” —C.S.

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1

Beyoncé, “Formation”

If Beyoncé’s self-titled visual album established her as one of the greatest artists of all time, her surprise-released “Formation” video (and ensuing album Lemonade) marked her as one of the most important. She partnered with directer Melina Matsoukas, who culled inspiration from the likes of Maya Angelou, Octavia Butler, and Toni Morrison in a striking commentary on significant moments in black American history. In under five minutes, Beyoncé moves from a plantation-style house where the black denizens are the masters not the slaves to the top of a sinking police car. Notably, she released the video in the first week of Black History Month 2016, the day in between what would’ve been Trayvon Martin’s and Sandra Bland’s birthdays. Days later, she would perform the song at the Super Bowl, surrounded by dancers in outfits inspired by the Black Panthers. “I wanted to show — this is black people,” Matsoukas told The New Yorker. “We triumph, we suffer, we’re drowning, we’re being beaten, we’re dancing, we’re eating, and we’re still here.” —B.S.