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Top 10 Greatest Music Videos of the 80s
By admin | January 11, 2010
Thirty years ago, God saw fit to drag us through the 80s. So, to help us through these tough years of Reagan, we invented and viewed some of the greatest short films ever made: 80s music videos. Here are the top 10 objectively determined by a list I made while waiting for my number to be called at the DMV. If you have the misguided idea that you know of better 80s videos than these, feel free to reveal your ignorance by commenting below.
10. “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats
“Safety Dance” is a protest against bouncers stopping people from “pogoing,” also known as slam dancing, at the clubs. Apparently, this was popular among New Wave folks.
9. “Take on Me” by A-Ha
“Take on Me” was made using rotoscoping, in which live performances are traced over frame-by-frame to make them look life-like. The final scene is based on the movie Altered States.
8. “We Built This City” by Starship
Blender magazine contributor Russ Heller would later set a record for listening to “We Built This City” on repeat for 24 hours straight.
7. “Pass the Dutchie” by Musical Youth
“Pass the Dutchie” was filmed along the Thames in London and was one of the first videos by black artists to get play on MTV.
6. “It’s My Life” by Talk Talk
“It’s My Life” is basically a statement against lip-synching. That is why the lead singer doesn’t move his lips at all and there is animated crap over his mouth. But, hey, how about that nature footage?
5. “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco
This is one of those videos that tries to make classical music cool for a modern audience. Unfortunately, 80s songs are never “cool” unless they are sampled in hip-hop tracks.
4. “Land of Confusion” by Genesis
After Phil Collins saw himself caricaturized as a puppet on the show Spitting Image, he commissioned the creators to do a whole slew of celebrities. The Ronald Reagan puppet was controversial because it portrayed the President as physically and cognitively inept. (He was.)
3. “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits
Dire Straits was against music videos, but MTV talked them into doing “Money for Nothing.” It was one of the first appearances of computer-animated humans.
2. “Little Girls” by Oingo Boingo
This is one of the creepiest videos you will ever see. You can see why Tim Burton tapped Danny Elfman, the brains of Oingo Boingo, to do the Beetlejuice soundtrack.
1. “Rockit” by Herbie Hancock
“Rockit” cleaned up at the MTV VMAs in ‘84 at which Herbie Hancock’s performance inspired the turntablist movement. You can spot Hancock on the TV in the video.
Topics: Top X Lists | 10 Comments »
January 11th, 2010 at 11:38 am
No ‘Sledgehammer’ by Peter Gabriel??
And a Starship song generally regarded as one of the worst songs ever in your Best list??
FAIL. MASSIVE FAIL.
January 11th, 2010 at 11:54 am
ahhhhh, you might want to mention Duran Duran. they revolutionized the music/video industry, ya’ know.
January 11th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
“through the tough years of Reagan”??? Seemed like paradise compared to the Obama year(s).
January 11th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
The current spate of MJ necro is pretty sad but having acknowledged that the vid for “Billie Jean” was a massive thing at the time. And stands up ok too. Then there was the epic quantities of money that went to the thriller film clip.
Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” was 1987 and is still a clip that would take a catchy song and make it a hit today.
Some other songs made big by videos:
INXS’s Need you tonight.
Pink Floyd’s Learning to Fly (was it a hit?)
Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting & Running up that hill.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:13 am
How can you even fucking say “The 80′S” without at least subconsciously associating a DEVO HAT!!
“Whip It!” MADE Mtv.
You are a disappointment, a big disappointment.
Your mother agreed when I mentioned this post at breakfast.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:28 am
A. 80’s music was way better than most of the beta crap that is being played today.
B. Ronald Reagan was not physically and cognitively inept and was also not a socialist.
C. #9 is the only cool “video” on the list. As mentioned in comments above, Sledgehammer was better than all but #9.
Beta Libtard Failure
January 16th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Just wondering how many drugs you used before making this list? Jeesh. Crap list.
January 18th, 2010 at 3:01 am
classic 80s videos…
Billy Idol – Rebel yell
Peter Gabriel – Shock the monkey
Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer
English Beat – Save It For Later
Devo – Whip it
Devo – Satisfaction
Van Halen – Hot for Teacher
Clash – Rock the Casbah
MJ – Billy Jean
Duran Duran – Rio
Adam Ant – Goody Two Shoes
Dire Straits – Money for Nothing
U2 – New Years Day
Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star
Madonna – Like a Virgin
Missing Persons – Words
Stray Cats – Rock this Town
Police – Every Little thing She Does Is magic
Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime
Pretenders – Middle of the Road
Cars – Shake It Up
Cars – You Might think
Cars – Magic
I could go on and on… I wasn’t necessarily into all of those songs, but they were definitely on the heavy rotation.
I gotta ask… We Built this City? Really?
January 28th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
This list sucks. Any music videos list, ESPECIALLY from the 1980’s without Thriller is not worth even looking at.
Thriller has to be on there.
March 11th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
I really think it’s about time for some serious long-term experiments in 24-hour-single-song-repeat-listening.
Hypothesis: long-term damage to quality of life increasing exponentially in severity based on number of 24-hour periods spent listening to only one song.