10 Memorable Music Videos

Posted by Courtney

I like music videos. They’re tricky – They can enhance a song, or ruin it; they can be happy, fun, sad, scary, puzzling, topical, powerful, and, when done right, unforgettable. They’re like movies, but more expressive and a lot shorter. And I can watch them at 4 in the morning when I’m supposed to be writing term papers and looking for ways to procrastinate (which I’m totally not doing right now by writing this. Nope. Not at all.) I’ve decided to compile a list of the 10 most memorable music videos I’ve ever seen, all of which can be found on YouTube. Some of them have incredible concepts, some have great direction, and others just mean a lot to me personally. But for whatever reason, they all live up to the standard I judge all videos by. This might get long, so let’s get a-rollin!

Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim, directed by Spike Jonze

The formula for this video is simple yet ingenious: take Christopher Walken, put him in an empty hotel (with a perfectly timed elevator,) and add a danceable tune. The result? A dance routine that puts the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line to shame. But things get truly funky at about the three-minute mark, when Walken swan dives off of the second floor and elegantly flies – yes, flies – back down to the lobby. It is one of the most amazing sights I’ve ever witnessed, and that’s why it’s easily one of my 10 favorite music videos of all time.

A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More “Touch Me” by Fall Out Boy, directed by Alan Ferguson

I’m not a huge fan of Fall Out Boy, so when I first heard this ridiculously titled song on the radio, I wasn’t floored. But when I saw the video on MTV, I was instantly drawn into it. It has that short-film narrative thing that a lot of videos go for and fail at, but here it works. Pete Wentz plays a good vampire who teams up with the rest of the band to hunt down bad vampires. It’s got classic themes, but with a modern, urban twist – a majority of the vamps have contemporary personalities, either as emo kids or gangstas, while the most evil bloodsuckers are a gang of Victorian dandies. And there’s an epic street battle. I’m not sure what any of this has to do with the song, but it’s aesthetically pleasing and pretty funny. I totally love this video!

Jeremy by Pearl Jam, directed by Mark Pellington

Definitely the most chilling selection on this list, this is the only music video to ever move me to tears. The song tells the story of a young boy who goes unloved by his parents and abused by his classmates. Eventually, he decides to make all of his pain go away by shooting himself in front of his class. It’s incredibly heartrending, and the video, which contains some disturbing and controversial imagery, does not at all cheapen its poignancy – it compliments it perfectly. But I do warn anyone who hasn’t seen it before that there is a good reason for the controversy around it (which is perhaps one reason why I love it.)

Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel, directed by Stephen R. Johnson

And now for a complete deviation from Jeremy: the claymation-induced fun of Peter Gabriel! I actually stumbled upon it by accident when I was doing research for this article (all off of Wikipedia, BTDubs. I’m very professional about this.) I was looking at a list of videos that had won major MTV VMAs, and I saw that this was a huge winner in 1987, so out of curiosity I did some extra research (on YouTube. Again, super professional.) It really is a great video – five minutes of Gabriel’s head in stopmotion surrounded by random images. I’m not 100% sure what the song or the video are about (something dirty, I bet) but I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to know. It’s just cool! FUN FACT: Among the people dancing around near the end of the song were Gabriel’s two daughters, the animators, and Johnson’s girlfriend.

Here It Goes Again by OK Go, directed by Trish Sie

This is one of the defining moments of the Internet Generation. This video catapulted an indie pop band to web-stardom pretty much overnight. In a single long shot, the four band members perform a darn intricate choreographed number on eight treadmills. It’s a befuddling feat that leads viewers to a whole slew of questions: How long did they have to rehearse it? Did they get any weird injuries? Why is the bassist lip-synching the lead singer’s part? And as if having one of the most viewed videos on the web wasn’t enough, OK Go went on to perform the whole thing at the 2006 VMAs – live on TV. Take note, dear reader: this is performance art at its finest.

Black Hole Sun by Soundgraden, directed by Howard Greenhalgh

Ah, the 90s. If you can’t say anything else positive about them, you can say this: there was no better time for alternative rock to flourish in the mainstream. Soundgarden was a special band that I’m not exactly sure how to classify. Somebody on VH1’s 100 Best Songs of the 90s described them as “psychedelic grunge,” so I guess I’ll go with that. Black Hole Sun starts with some colorful scenes of people doing everyday activities with smiles on their faces, but it’s not an optimistic video. It’s more of a Doomsday proclamation that takes pleasant pictures of Suburbia and twists them into diabolical icons for Creeperstown, USA. Eventually, the sun turns into – you guessed it – a black hole which brings all of the smiley mannequin-people to their demise. It’s sinister and unsettling and downright weird, but it’s also insanely cool.

Take On Me by a-ha, directed by Steve Barron

It’s called rotoscoping, and it completely baffles me. Take On Me is a very high concept video, and the concept definitely payed off. Here we are, nearly 25 years after its creation, and people are not only still talking about it, but paying homage to it in creative ways. (How ‘bout that literal video version?) And I can tell you that the song itself gets a lot of play on the college party circuit, because even to a fickle audience who wants more rap or more techno or more indie music, it’s just an awesome song with an awesome video! (But it is annoying that a-ha doesn’t capitolize their name.)

Vogue by Madonna, directed by David Fincher

Sure, he’s an Oscar-nominated, big-shot feature film director now, but David Fincher got his start in music videos, and one of his best is Vogue. Just forget about Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – I’d argue that this Madonna video is possibly his greatest contribution to the world. Not only does it provide a vehicle for an underground dance movement (indeed called “voguing,”) but it also showcased the cone-bra, which I will never understand for the life of me. It’s reminiscent of Old Hollywood, which is awesome, and it makes me wanna dance. When was the last time Tyler Durden gave you the urge to strike a pose?

Buddy Holly by Weezer, directed by Spike Jonze

Once again, Spike Jonze delivers pure gold, this time by taking geek-rockers Weezer and putting them right in the middle of a Happy Days episode, complete with a cameo by Al. The editing is spectacular and allows the band to interact with characters from the show, there’s even a brief “commercial break,” and even the laugh track is incorporated. HIGHLIGHT: Fonzie (with the help of a body double) dancing. He’s in perfect rhythm with the song!

Thriller by Michael Jackson, directed by John Landis

It’s Thriller. Need I say more?