Ross' columns: Top 30 Music Videos

Back in early 2017, when I was teaching Film Studies, I did a full day focusing on music videos as a means of disseminating art video to the masses.

For our purposes, and definitions, a music video is a video created specifically to showcase a song, so segments of musicals, concerts, and the like, are not under consideration. Here, then, is a list of my Top 30 Music Videos.

Quick warning: Some of these are NSFW. But not our first, an honorable mention:

Honorable Mention: Multiple SIDosis – Sid Laverents

An amusing little story, and song ('Nola', for the curious). The one-man show is sufficiently notable to be inducted in the National Film Registry.

1. Hurt – Johnny Cash

This incredibly moving portrayal comes at the end of Cash's life. The cover of a Nine Inch Nails track, Cash turns the reflective into the sublime.

2. It’s a Hit – Rilo Kiley

A peculiar, mixed media, tragic arc plays out in this little video. With a clear pro-LGBT, and anti-GW Bush, message, Rilo Kiley provide a glimpse of the early aughts that, with some more attention, with hopefully be recognized as a music video for the ages.

3. Subterranean Homesick Blues – Bob Dylan

Ever-innovative, the lyricist extraordinaire created this video in 1967, as a forerunner to the whole music video genre. Filmed by the acclaimed DA Pennebaker, it is still amusing, and unique, all these years later.

4. Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden

I can't claim to be a huge Soundgarden fan, but this is still my favorite music video of the 1990s. It has a message, is subversive, uses surrealism and juxtaposition to disorient and draw in the viewer: quintessentially of the decade.

5. This is America – Childish Gambino

The last video to have this level of cultural cache was likely Beyonce's stroll with a baseball bat (notably ripped from Pipilotti Rist). In a relatively dry spell for music videos Childish Gambino was able to revive interest and artistic merit to the field.

6. Thriller – Michael Jackson

It is long, and we may know it by heart. But on rewatching it becomes evident that it is a masterpiece, and worthy of the accolades (including being the only modern music video in the National Film Registry).

7. Wizard of Meh – DJ Pogo

Absurdly simple, and endlessly rewatchable. DJ Pogo is known for his remarkable remixes of pop forms, but by putting himself in front of the camera, and allowing expressions to convey the choppiness instead of film clips, he broke new ground in a tradition at least as old as Sinead O'Connor.

8. Frontier Psychiatrist – Avalanches

This video has long been heralded as one of the strangest in the catalogue. It takes the opposite approach to Pogo's remix, by instead envisioning what a stage would look like if you actually tried to perform a remix live, instead of with samples.

9. Complete History of the Soviet Union Arranged to Melody of Tetris – Pig With the Face of a Boy

Of the made-for-YouTube videos, this is my favorite. It combines modern video design with a goofy, informative, narrative - a clever concept, well executed.

10. Me and Mister Wolf – Real Tuesday Weld

Wonderful, and full of allusions to classic cartoons (the eye comes from Duck Dodgers, and there's lots of Betty Boop, especially Bimbo's Initiation). More than a pleasing homage to the Fleischer era, it's got a good narrative in its own right.

11. Tonight Tonight – Smashing Pumpkins

Speaking of homages, The Smashing Pumpkins went even further back in time with this love-letter to Melies (note the name of the ship at the end). The entire aesthetic they popularized with Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness reaches its apex in this vid.

12. Weapon of Choice – Fatboy Slim

I think people may forget how much of this video is not Christopher Walken's amazing dancing. And, while no where near my favorite Fatboy Slim track, it's still a lot of fun.

13. Knights of Cydonia – Muse

Making fun of genres is popular, but none do it as well, that I'm aware of, as this video. The sci-fi spaghetti western, backed by a kick-ass crescendo of rock, is a delight.

14. Humanism Redux / A Short Film By Spike Jonze – Jon Batiste and Stay Human

Spike Jonze makes his second appearance as a director (the first being Weapon of Choice). This minor-key rendition of The Late Show's theme is a favorite, as is the gentle, bizarre, film that accompanies it.

15. Loser – Beck

Another 90s classic. Beck's free-from-meaning stream of words allows for a series of visuals that share oblique motifs and set a visual style for a lot of imitators.

16. Jim Henson vs. Stan Lee – Epic Rap Battles of History

This is my favorite ERB, but it stands in, essentially, for all of them. The YouTube series created some of the best music videos of the past ten years.

17. Bad Romance – Lady Gaga

Of Lady Gaga's music videos, I think this will be her classic. Striking visuals, clear narrative, and arguably her best song, all come together to clinch its place.

18. Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Now infamous for its real tears, lead singer Karen O sings a song about loss - and her boyfriend didn't show up for the video shoot (at least, not for the first three hours. Jerk.). It's small scale belies the musical ability on stage.

19. Bitter Sweet Symphony – The Verve

Who, when watching this, didn't want to be as badass as Ashcroft walking down the street? My favorite (and I suspect many others') of the 90s British resurgence.

20. Feel Good Inc – Gorrilaz

With an intriguing in media res narrative, we see the Gorrilaz, years after fighting zombie apes, it a state of decadence. The phenomenal track backing the animation makes this well-loved video a classic.

21. Source – Fever the Ghost

Not a well-known band, or song: still this little animation is tremendous fun.

22. Do You Want to Date My Avatar – The Guild

Probably more famous than the Felicia Day show it was supposed to advertise, The Guild's music video is still funny after all these years.

23. Royals – Postmodern Jukebox feat. Puddles Pity Party

Continuing the made for YouTube theme, Postmodern Jukebox's best cover is the weird and wonderful Puddles Pity Party singing a Lorde cover.

24. We No Speak Americano – Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP

Remember this song? It has a cute 1920s-style music video that accompanies it.

25. Wraith Pinned to the Mist – of Montreal

Remember the sound and aesthetic of 2005? This video is that.

26. Tribute – Tenacious D

Goofy Jack Black silliness, a legitimately great song, and decent production values.

27. Without Me – Eminem

Of the Eminem catalogue, this is the most memorable, to my mind - when he could still just play around, be crass, and show off his skills without having the weight of a 'Rap God'.