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'Once in a Lifetime' by the Talking Heads
The Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” video is so odd, so ’80s, so David Byrne, you can’t look away. Thirty years later, it’s still an iconic video for a band that was never commercially successful or had huge radio hits. But when MTV debuted a year after its 1980 release, “Once in a Lifetime” became one of its most rotated and popular clips, giving many music fans their first look at Byrne’s brilliant bizarreness. In the video, the singer dances around like a demented marionette, jerking his -
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Best Music Videos of All Time
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'Nothing Compares To You' by Sinead O'Connor
Nothing Compares 2 U
It’s one of the simplest music-video concepts ever: a closeup of elfin Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor, sporting a crew cut and a black turtleneck, singing directly to the camera. It’s also the most heartbreaking. Written by Prince, the song is a lover’s lament. -
'Buddy Holly' by Weezer
Buddy Holly
One of the most creative music videos of the ’90s, Spike Jonze’s take on Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” transports Rivers Cuomo & co. onto an episode of the 1970s sitcom Happy Days. The band plays a show at (where else?) Arnold’s for Richie, the Fonz and the rest of the gang. -
'Weapon of Choice' by Fatboy Slim
Weapon of Choice
When actor Christopher Walken trained as a music-theater dancer, he surely couldn’t have imagined that he’d one day be putting his delicate skills to use at an L.A. hotel on behalf of a British DJ and musician. But that’s exactly what went down, thanks to Spike Jonze, who rented out a Marriott and instructed Walken to dance and fly around the building. -
'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga
Bad Romance
The video for “Bad Romance,” the first single off Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster, revealed a darker side of Gaga not seen before its release in November 2009. Sure, there had been glimpses — most notably in her video for “Paparazzi,” from her previous album — but in “Bad Romance,” she brought out her claws. Literally. Gaga’s iconic claw gestures can be traced back to this video. -
'We Used to Wait/The Wilderness Downtown' by Arcade Fire
'We Used to Wait'Arcade Fire released an album, The Suburbs, that defined the directionless childhood of a generation. So it’s fitting that the band created a music video that is as interactive as the world in which that generation now lives. Set to the song “We Used to Wait” and produced by Chris Milk, “The Wilderness Downtown”, the first HTML5 music video (click on the link for the full experience), lets viewers set their own childhood neighborhood as the backdrop to a teenager as he runs through the streets a -
'Runaway' by Kanye West
Runaway
Now that music videos are primarily watched online, artists find themselves freed from the constraints of the traditional three-minute short. The past year has seen the debut of the personalized, interactive music video and the return of minimovies that are much longer than the songs they accompany. The best example of this is Kanye West’s “Runaway,” a 35-min. film written and directed by West.
