Here in Australia, there’s a late night TV show which has been running for literally decades called ‘RAGE’. Every night, in the twilight hours they play music videos on repeat, spanning all the way back since the dawn of time.

I’ve discovered some really great artists just by watching that show, but in recent months they seem hell bent on constantly playing hipster bands with animal names – which is mildly frustrating. But it did get me thinking, if I had to put together a top 10 list of the best music videos of all time – who would I pick, why would I choose them and how on earth would I narrow it down?

Well ladies and gentlemen, here’s my selection! (It’s not in any particular order) I’m sure there’s lots of room for debate and you’re probably going to see this list and think “Well, he hasn’t included such and such” which I guess should be inspiration enough for you to make your own right? :p

Enjoy!

1. Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal

In terms of video clips that are instant classics, few can match Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’ which at 9 minutes in length, was a mini movie itself (the footage having been lifted straight from his major film ‘Moonwalker’) although I could quite easily have included “Thriller” obviously!

There is just so much to like in the video, the epic opening scene with the nickel flying across the room into the jukebox, the heady mix of mafia meets theatre with truly some of the most innovative choreographing you’re every likely to see.

Who can forget that mesmerizing scene, where he leans forward at that impossible angle (it was later revealed he was able to do this by locking his shoes into the floor) and don’t even get me started on the ‘moonwalk’ – a move that captured the imagination of millions. It was the stuff of dreams, nobody had ever pulled off a move which literally caused people to go mental. I remember seeing it and totally being spellbounded as a kid.

‘Smooth Criminal’ then, a music video, that would surely make most people’s top 10 list, not only for the fantastic song itself, but the moves, the story and those simply iconic dance scenes that generations of kids & adults will forever cherish and remember.

—————————————————————————————————————–

2. Daft Punk – Around The World

“Around the World” by the French electronic music duo Daft Punk was one of those tracks that instantly turned heads. In an era where dance music was merging somewhere between the end of happy hardcore, drum n bass & breakbeat – along came a song which was totally different, mixing funk, a little bit of house and a vocal effect few had heard before. It that didn’t get you attention, the video itself was directed by visionary Michel Gondry and choreographed by Blanca Li.

Amongst other colourful characters it features robots, athletes, synchronized swimmers, skeleton and mummies – all dancing in unison around a cirlcular platform. According to Gondry’s notes the “robots represent the singing robot voice; the physicality and small-minded rapidity of the athletes symbolizes the ascending/descending bass guitar; the femininity of the swimmgers represents the high-pitched keyboard; the “itchy” skeletons serve for the guitars; the mummies represent the drum machine.”

He goes on to note that “I was sick to see choreography being mistreated in videos like filler with fast cutting and fast editing, really shallow. I don’t think choreography should be shot in close-ups.”

The end result? A video which is fun, irreverent and makes you want to get up and dance, just like the song itself. Mission accomplished.

—————————————————————————————————————–
3. Gun N Roses – Paradise City

At the time this video was released, there genuinely wasn’t a bigger rock band on the planet. Released on 1987′s “Appetite For Destruction” album it’s the only song on the record to actually use a synthesizer. According to lead guitarist Slash, the song itself was written in the back of a rental van as they were on their way back from playing a gig in San Francisco –which isn’t bad considering it’s probably one of the most recognizable rock anthems of the past 20 years.

The video itself is simply live footage of the band performing “Paradise City” at Giants Stadium in New Jersey whilst they were touring with Aerosmith – I’ll leave it up to you decide who has the bigger legacy.  There’s even a dash of Nazi propaganda include in the video, roughly 4 minutes in Axl Rose is wearing a World War 2 Nazi officer cap and a stage pass which bears the SS eagle – then again, controversy never was far away from Axl Rose.  Amazing voice all the same.

So there you have, one of the last true great rock n roll bands, literally at the peak of their powers and commanding the stage in such a way that really has never been done since, even Freddy Mercury would surely have been proud.

—————————————————————————————————————–

4. HURTS – Wonderful Life

HURTS are a realitively new band and new entry on my list.

Hailing from Manchester in the UK the duo of singer Theo Hutchcraft & musician Adam Anderson released their debut album ‘Happiness’ in September 2010. It actually turned into my album of the year, such were the glorious synth pop delights on offer (think Pet Shop Boys meets New Order).

But it actually all started with this video, for their song “Wonderful Life.” There’s a clear nod to the past (see Robert Palmer – Simply Irresistible) and also a modern update to the stylish posings of Duran Duran, Bowie and Pet Shop Boys. Add in a healthy of dose of warm synth lines and a voice which is both crystal clear and soaring and you have one of the breakthrough video clips of last year.

Sharp, slick, high class and incredible track to top it all off – and just think, this is only their debut…

—————————————————————————————————————–

5. She Wants Revenge – Take The World

I’ve mentioned my love for independent band She Wants Revenge previously, they’ve been one of my favourite artists of the 00’s simply because they’re constantly tweaking, evolving and expanding their sound. There’s no better example of this, than with their new video ‘Take The World’.

It’s concrete proof that you don’t need to have a big budget to make a great video. Interestingly enough, it’s also the directorial debut of Adam Bravin (one half of the band). He’s set about producing an elegant and classy video, complimenting a song which grows and morphs with repeated listens.

It would easily have blown out into some pretentious, slow-motion 7 minute ode to his girlfriend, but he handled the subject with grace and tact. Plus the guy clearly has got a very similar to taste to me in girls, so extra hat tip for that one.

—————————————————————————————————————–

6. Marilyn Manson – The Fight Song

I had tremendous difficulty in trying to pick one of my favorite videos by Marilyn Manson – not just because his is literally my favorite artist of all time, but because the majority of his music clips could make a top ten list on their own. After much thought, I’ve opted out of picking Coma White, Disposable Teens, The Dope Show, Beautiful People, Tourniquet, The Nobodies, Don’t Like The Drugs But The Drugs Like Me, This Is The New Shit – all of which could easily have been included and settled for something a little unconventional.

I’ve chosen ‘The Fight Song’ taken from his most expansive & diverse record ‘Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)’ which was released way back in 2001 in the wake of all the Columbine shootings.

The song title is a pun on high school and college football team anthems known as ‘Fight Songs’. The track is partly a post-Columbine statement disparaging mainstream America’s own glorification of violence among its youth. I think we can all agree that football is simultaneously one of the most violent sports and one of America’s greatest obsessions….

So it’s no surprise that the clip itself is set around a violent game of high school football between two fictional teams, “Holy Wood” (composed of jocks in white football attire) and “Death Valley” (composed of goths and social outcasts in black football attire) and whilst he’s clearly pandering to his audience – there’s no denying the delivery here is both potent and venomous at times.

“I’m trying to show that sports as well as music can be seen as violent, so I chose a traditional black vs white, good vs evil them for the video.” Stated Marilyn Manson.

The song with its heavy as hell drums & walls of guitars – literally evokes a sense of chaos, so any music video would need to capture and bring to life that sense of aggression in a very direct & visual form.

Thankfully they do, and it works wonderfully here.

With rain drizzling down, the slow motion action scenes, the band causing havoc onstage and rebellious teens having one big riotous showdown. There’s even a bit of subliminal messaging going on, at 2.14 the video briefly replaces the scuffling football players with people fighting with police riot squads.

“The death of one is a tragedy. The death of a million is just a statistic!” screams Marilyn Manson

Intense video, tremendous impact, killer track, subliminal social commentary and a healthy dose of controversy – what more do you need?

—————————————————————————————————————–

7. Kanye West – POWER

I remember the first time I watch POWER by Kanye West, I was literally blown away. I hadn’t seen a music video like that, probably since Michael Jackson’s ‘Remember The Time’ which was equally as theatrical and surreal.

I happen to think Mr. West is genuinely talented, both as a producer and artist in his own right – but I’m always pretty much convinced the guy is a total ego-manic as well.

Those two notions are not better personified within the ‘POWER’ video (a track which will be referenced for years to come) set to footage of the man himself playing a God-like character surrounded by religious imagery. If the world’s most renowned & prolific painter of all time Michelangelo, was given months to play with the very best video editing equipment money good by – he’d probably come up with something along these lines.

There’s few music videos these days that instantly cause you to sit up and take notice, but credit to Kanye West and his team, they totally hit it out of the park with this one.

Utterly spectacular.

—————————————————————————————————————–

8. Stomacher – Untitled/Dark Divider

I actually know very little about “Stomacher” except that they have pretty awful band name and yet wrote a beautiful song called ‘Dark Divider’. Photographer Sean Stiegemeier shot this HD time-lapsed video over the course of a year while traveling to Prague, Japan, Banff, Utah, Oregon, California and more with the band –sounds like a good gig if you ask me!

The results are astounding, in fact if ever there was an example of the perfect visuals to set to the perfect track – then this would be it.

Magical stuff.

—————————————————————————————————————–

9. Massive Attack – Atlas Air

There’s not much to say about Massive Attack that you probably haven’t heard already. They are unquestionably the pioneering force behind the rise of the trip-hop sound, which fuses dark hip-hop, soulful cinematic melodies & dub grooves into its own unique genre. During the 90’s they paved the way for other artists influential like Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, Beth Orton & even Tricky (who himself was a Massive Attack alumnus).

Their most mainstream record, which most people will still have carefully stashed away in their now dusty CD collection was called “Mezzanine’ released in 1998 to 5 star reviews globally. It’s one of the few records that even to this day, I can listen to the entire way through and never feel compelled to skip a track.

Even now they continue to lead, innovate and operate on a higher intellectual level than most dance outfits these days – their latest clip for “Atlas Air” taken from 2010’s Heligoland record is proof of that. In fact, I’ve yet to see an animated video so stylized and sleek – it’s literally eye-candy overload. With it’s released they’ve raised the bar for visual effects & animation to a level few will match.

There’s clearly a vast array of hidden meanings and metaphors flicking around in the background, as the main character of a giant robot rabbit tears through post-apocalyptic landscapes and cities, the military and police tireless trying to hunt him.

The track itself, whilst not instant, slow uncoils and unfurls until it climaxes into a blizzard of whirling synths & spare drum loops and whilst you probably can’t dance to it, by that point you’re well aware that you’re experiencing something vastly superior to 99% of everything else out there in dance land right now.

Massive Attack and Atlas Air, a visual and audio treat, operating on an entirely different level.

—————————————————————————————————————–

10. The Prodigy – Smack My Bitch Up

The Prodigy are another institution in my childhood music collection. I vividly remember actually when “Firestarter” was aired on TV and thousands of parents rang in the following day calling for it to be banned, on the grounds that it was going to create an army of arsonists in schools all across the UK.

Watching the video back now, it seems quite tame, but at the time when I was 14 – I thought it was the most controversial and cool video ever. Keith Flint with his head shaved into two horns and my parents raising their eye-brows at me as I declare them my new band and that “I want to be like that.” I even went as Keith Flint to a highschool stage production called “Pop Mime” where you dressed up as your favorite band and mimed to their song. People went as Oasis or The Spice Girls, but there I was, hair spray red, gelled to the max into two horns leaping around pretending I was “the firestarter.”

But in truth the REAL video everyone should have been talking about was “Smack My Bitch Up” released on 17 November 1997. It was the third and final single from the album The Fat of the Land after “Firestarter” and “Breathe” had laid waste to the pop scene. It was controversial from the get go, purely based on the name. The band defended the song, saying that the lyrics were being misinterpreted as misogynistic and the song actually meant “…doing anything intensely…”

It’s easily one of the biggest dance anthems for anyone born in the 90s – play that at any festival and the entire place erupts. The video for “Smack My Bitch Up” was thought to be so extreme that it was largely ignored by mainstream media at the time and was only air well into the twilight hours.

It was directed by Swedish music video director Jonas Åkerlund and depicts a night out in the city filmed from a first-person perspective, portraying drinking and driving, snorting cocaine, violence, vandalism, nudity and sex. The unedited version also includes a staged a hit and run incident, plus a genuine scene of heroin use. The protagonist takes a stripper home and has sex with her. As the stripper leaves with her things, the protagonist glances in the mirror and well……..there in lies the epic twist at the very end!

Phenomenal band, a true anthem and a video which dared to show your parents what you REALLY get up to a Friday night.

—————————————————————————————————————–

Honorable Mention: Aphex Twin – Come To Daddy

Ah Aphex Twin (aka Richard D James) how could I forget? I couldn’t leave this one out now could I?

As a video Aphex Twin – ‘Come To Daddy’, defies explanation at times.

Infamous director Chris Cunningham was the visionary behind camera for ‘Come To Daddy’. It was actually filmed on the same council estate where Stanley Kubrick shot many scenes in A Clockwork Orange.

It’s rampant with bizarre and unsettling imagery, set against a grimy industrial setting. There’s old ladies being screamed at by demons, urinating animals, small freaky children who all bear James’ grinning face running around in abandoned buildings wreaking havoc and chasing people into cars. None of it makes much sense, but it is at times a quite genuinely terrifying experience and at the very least certainly disturbing.

The song is equally unsettling but it really is nothing in comparison to the video. It’s 6 minutes of pure tension – just make sure you watch it with the lights on…

————————————————————–

Honorable Mention: Basement Jaxx – Where’s Your Head At?

And finally, whilst we’re on the subject of disturbing videos – there’s Basement Jaxx’s classic “Where’s Your Head At” video clip – which actually is almost as well-known as the song. It was taken from their second album ‘Rooty’ and realistically is another one of those epic festival anthems up their with Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’. They actually sample Gary Numan’s “M.E.” and “This Wreckage” frequently in the song – it’s good seeing the godfather of electro continue to spread his influence.

I can’t even begin to fathom where the concept of this video came from, but I do know it’s awesome. When I first saw it, I thought it was just another dance track, when suddenly the video shifts gear and whizzes off into this some really offbeat territory.

The video starts out with a British man entering an undisclosed location (“the armpit of nowhere” as he calls it) to meet up with a man who claims to have “the latest thing in pop music”. It turns out the “latest thing in pop music” is actually an experiment where musicians’ brains are being transferred to monkeys! And thus commences 4 minutes of monkey’s with human faces playing instruements in a science lab, before the suddenly start tearing up the equipment and causing general havoc.

It’s a uniquie clip, because it’s just totally left of centre and out of the box. It wasn’t aiming to be controversial or even scary – but it succeeds in genuinely making you sit up and take notice because it’s just so random at times. The first thing I thought when I saw it was “W.T.F.” and basically, I instantly wanted to watch it again.

To me, it’s a real cult classic because the took some risks and lets face it, it’s a great concept. Plus I reckon it would still scare the hell out of the odd kid or two haha.

Hope you enjoyed my list, love to hear your suggestions!



Follow @alexwain

The Prodigy did a recent interview, going through track-by-track about their new record “Invaders Must Die” their best since Fat Of The Land in 1996. Watch it below, its really insightful and if you want to listen to more tracks from the album itself, just click here

If you can’t see the video below, follow this link

Hope you like,
Alex

Omen

What do you think?
Alex