The Thrill isn't gone: Top 10 videos of the 80s

Finally, our top 10 list of best music videos of the 80s. (Click here to see 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 and 41-50.) While there's no real drama behind our top pick, some of the other top 10 videos might surprise you. Feel free to share your darts and laurels in the comments area.

Best videos of the 80s:

10. True Faith, New Order (view): So very, very French. Cirque du Soleil-ish long before the weird theatre troope became a household image. Directed by Philippe Decouflé, who also produced the inauguration ceremonies of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville.

9. Legs, ZZ Top (view): The best of the Texas band's "hot girls" videos also features the ultimate 80s movie theme: triumph of the nerds!

8. Money For Nothing, Dire Straits (view): The only No. 1 single for the British band; also the first video to be aired on MTV Europe. Video used then-new art form of computer animation. Sting's "I Want My MTV" crooning was an afterthought.

7. Eat It, Weird Al Yankovic (view): Weird Al probably deserves a half dozen spots on this list. However, we save his ultimate 80s parody for the top 10. Video featured many of the same actors as Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video.

6. Hungry Like The Wolf, Duran Duran (view): Filmed in Sri Lanka with one of the largest budgets at the time for a music video, this one made Duran Duran a household name.

5. Bastards of Young, The Replacements (view): The ultimate anti-MTV video. The network didn't appreciate the joke and rarely aired the video. But hardcore "music" fans, growing weary in the late 80s as MTV's cool factor started to disintegrate, consider this video their holy grail.

4. Rock It, Herbie Hancock (view): Godley & Creme, who have the #17 video, directed the video, featuring robots moving in time to the Hancock's only pop hit.

3. Take On Me, a-Ha (view): Incorporates rotoscoping special effects into dramatic storytelling; same effects revived again for the video "Sun Always Shines on TV," but the marriage of style and video is forever associated with "Take on Me."

2. Sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel (view): Swept the MTV Video Music Awards in 1987; using 3-D animation, it raised the bar for all videos that followed.

1. Thriller, Michael Jackson (view): The home video for "Making of Thriller" actually outsold the album "Thriller." Cherish it as a time capsule of the Michael Jackson in the early 80s ... before things went very, very wrong.

Personal fave: I love every one of the top 10 -- with the possible exception of "Rock It," which gave me nightmares as a kid. But Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" is truly golden. You can watch it 100 times and see something new each time. So enjoy the memories, because I doubt any videos after 1989 can compete with these 50 pieces of high art.

 

[Video images; click to enlarge]

Comments

[WOLVERBUNNY]

It was Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' that turned me onto zombies,George romero,and Tom Savini...Heh! If it weren't for him,i wouldn't be teh cereal killer i am 2day...

Also,where are all the "Fun" videos,ala Dr.Demento?
I remember two in particular:
Punk Rock Girl
and "Let's get nude" by the wallets...

[Kenny P]

Where is all the hair band videos? Motley Crue - smoking in the boys room, Poison-Nothing but a good time or fallen angle,
Def Leopard- pour some sugar on me

[razor9edge]

I'm surprised that most of the following videos did not make it into the top 50:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Boys of Summer - Don Henley

Every Breath You Take - The Police

Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer

California Girls - David Lee Roth

Smuggler's Blues - Glenn Fry

Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper

We're Not Going to Take It - Twisted Sister

Need You Tonight - INXS

Like A Virgin - Madonna

If This Is It - Huey Lewis and the News

You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon

Smooth Operator - Sade

Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benatar

Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades - Timbuk 3
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Of course, this is just my opinion -- actual milage may vary

[Wally]

Here's some I remember MTV playing when they first aired.

Saga - On The Loose
Scorpions - No One Like You
Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills
Come Dancing - The Kinks

Of course there was some punk. Who can forget Wendy O. Williams riding on top of a bus in the desert? That was...

The Plasmatics - The Damned

[Maestro Dave]

Sorry Steve...."Bastards of Young"? No, sorry, but no.

[LockBull]

As a long time fan of the Replacements, it's nice to see them at #5. I think, however, that any talk of them making the "ultimate anti-MTV" video is kinda misplaced. To me, the truth is that they probably couldn't be bothered to make a "proper" video, anyone who's ever seen them in concert can attest that they couldn't be bothered to stay upright and sober for more than a few songs. Still, somehow, I'm a fan.

This great "groundbreaking" video and 50 cents will buy them a cup of coffee.

[Greg Williams]

I personally thought "Sharp Dressed Man" was a better video than "Legs" as far as ZZ Top is concerned. Overall a fairly agreeable list.

Also, I thought "Rock It" was a fascinating video, but I'm crazy like that I guess. I saw a story on ET after it came out and they told how they used some artist's "leftovers" for the video. He had another video from that album as well I think (Autodrive?).

Hard to believe he has almost 50 albums to his credit, but it's "Future Shock" that brought him to the mainstream.

[Bassnote]

Due to personal preferences, I would switch Sledgehammer and Thriller. It is true that Sledgehammer is not his best song, but the video was revolutionary. I'm not trying to take anything away from MJ, Thriller was groundbreaking, but I'm just a fan of Gabriel's.

I love that Bastards Of Young made the top ten. It was the perfect video for the Replacements personality.

[Sluggo]

And the tune Spank the Monkey

[David Pagano]

Not to mention his lesser-known song, Salsbury Steak.

[Steve Spears]

I agree: Sledgehammer as a song is subpar. But as a video, it's sublime.

[Christina]

It's a shame that Peter Gabriel will be known for that crappy Sledgehammer song. He has so many other wonderful songs: Red Rain, Shock the Monkey, Salsbury Hill.

[Boutros]

Rock It completely freaked me the heck out. All the disembodied parts and such, moving around jerkily. I always ran to change the channel.