The 1990s were not just the foundational year for synthetic pop, New wave, and Hair Metal; it was the golden generation of pop music. Though uncharacterized by very flashy and colorful videos, the golden age made up for the color with innovations, science, and a content-filled video.
It is no surprise that a survey conducted by a giant digital music broadcaster, Music Choice, found that one in three people prefers to sing along to music from the era of synthetic pop. The survey, which was the most prominent music survey in Europe, confirmed that the most popular music decade was the 1980s and 1990s. Even among Millennials, music giants like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Guns N’ Roses, Bjork and Nirvana were familiar names.
Like the video made in the 1990s, the lyrics were reference points and inspirations for contemporary pop stars and celebrities.
Presenting our list of the Top 20 Music Videos from the 1980s to the 1990s!
20. Genesis: Land of Confusion (1986)
This video is one of the most played music videos of the 1980s on MTV. It featured both real life and caricatured versions of the band members and other characters like Ronald Reagan, Benito Mussolini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Mikhail Gorbachev, Muammar Gaddafi, and many more. This video won multiple awards but lost a couple to “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel, formerly Genesis’ lead singer.
Displaying Ronald Reagan in a superman suit rallying around the streets while strong dictators like Gaddafi and Mussolini addressed the crowd. The video regularly received airtime in the 1980s, more than any other song video. “Land of Confusion” was genuinely appealing and displayed the cold war era with caricatured images. The video won the 1987 Grammy for the best concept music video. Phil Collins labeled the song as a political song describing the mess the world found itself. Though Genesis has been known for using puppets in earlier songs, its use in “Land of Confusion” was simple. When Paul Flattery and Jim Yukich opted for the video style, they might not have imagined the length of its effect on people of different generations.
19. INXS: Need You Tonight / Mediate (1987)
This video combines two songs from the INXS album Kick. While the production merged the videos, “Need You Tonight” can be easily differentiated from “Mediate”. “Mediate” was a tribute to Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues. Meanwhile, “Need You Tonight” created a unique visual style by photocopying of individual frames and extracting them for visual effects. This video won five MTV Video Music Awards, including the 1988 video of the year, and ranked 21st on MTV’s 100 greatest videos of all time. The video was unarguably the best song video in 1987.
18. Bruce Springsteen: Born in the U. S. A (1984)
John Sayles, a renowned filmmaker, directed this music video. This video consists of Springsteen and The E Street Band performing “Born in the U.S.A” at a different concert. Displaying the working-class Americans’ situations at the time, the video was a satirical expression of the present working relationship in the United States at that time. Audiences have also declared that the song’s lyrics and theme are antiwar. Undoubtedly, the relevance of the song transcends the limits of time.
17. Guns N’ Roses: Sweet Child o’ Mine (1988)
This video stands out with its choice to film in black and white. It depicts the band rehearsing together at Huntington Park, surrounded by their family members, girlfriends, and crew members. The success of this video also helped propel the song to success on mainstream radio.
In an interview with the New York radio show, Rose admitted that the video was meant to portray a woman carrying a baby into a foreign land, only to realize that the baby was dead, and she was carrying a body filled with heroin. Rose intended to display the theme of drug trafficking, but the record label rejected the concept.
Guns N’ Rose’s video was a masterpiece and a high idea with about 1.2 billion videos on YouTube. There was so much to the video that needed one in seven people worldwide to have viewed the video. National dailies and different ratings highly rated this song’s music video.
16. ZZ Top: Legs (1984)
This is a music video with a strong message. It shows the story of a lady who was a little unfortunate. She met a lot of bullying. Then the Eliminator Girls came to her rescue, restored her self-esteem, and paraded her with her fully restored confidence. The storyline gave the music video meaning, and its happy ending made the fairytale more appealing. The video won the 1984 MTV video music award for best group video. The music video director, Tim Newman, received nominations for various awards following the storyline. The video experienced huge commercial success, and it was the best music video produced in 1984.
15. Bon Jovi: Wanted Dead or Alive (1987)
Derek M. Allen decided to shoot this music video in black and. The exciting thing about this video was how it was a collection of footage from the band’s World Tour for that year, showing many cities and a lot of concerts. With the video’s background reflecting its age of creation, the men showing off the fashion that built people’s interest in music videos in the 1980s, “Wanted Dead or Alive” was a masterpiece and a high commercial success. More than four decades after its production, Ben Jovi’s video is still an outstanding piece that has kept its relevance for many years.
14. Def Leppard: Pour Some Sugar on Me, version 2 (1988)
Def Leppard produced two different music videos for this song. The first shows the group performing in a home as a team of women worked to demolish the building. This was the video shot way before the song became a hit.
The second version of the video, however, shows the band performs the song live. It had a long intro, but it is worth the hype. The video ranked second on the VHI’s top 100 songs of the 80s in 2006, reflecting the effect of Leppard’s intelligence in creating the video. If you need a song with a well-carved video to refresh your memories, “Pour Some Sugar on Me” is the right video to enjoy.
13. Dire Straits: Money for Nothing (1985)
Here is another animation that shocked the 1980s – Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair created the video. The highlight of the video must be the stage footage of Dire Straits performing. Dire Strait’s “money for nothing” was the first video that MTV Europe aired during their launch on August 1, 1987. That popularity backed the relevance attached to the unique video. Apart from being the most commercially successful video of Dire Straits, the song video won the 1986 MTV MUSIC VIDEO awards. The video also won the best music video and best group video in 1986.
Though critics made claims of homophobic contents against the video, it was not enough to stop the video’s growing influence. The video legacy was so huge that the animators founded a computer animation studio, which became known as “Mainframe studio.”
12. Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer (1986)
Peter Gabriel made a masterpiece with this one, winning a record-setting nine MTV Music Video Awards and the best music video at the Brits award in 1987. The highlight of the video must be the headless chickens dancing. Although it was not the first-time that a music video used animations, Gabriel found a way to make his video special, which he credited to a lot of demanding work during the shoot. Ranked second in a list of 100 greatest pop videos of all time by Channel 4, Gabriel’s innovative video was beyond his time expectations.
11. Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983)
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is the best music video of all time. Apart from being the most expensive music video in the 1980s, it combines the genuineness of one of the best movie producers in John Landis and Jackson’s talent.
At the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, “Thriller” won awards for viewers’ choice, best overall performance, and best choreography. It also received a nomination for best concept video, best male video, and video of the year. The video won many awards throughout the decade.
The production decided to make this video like a horror film, and the Zombie Dance led by Michael himself must be the highlight of the video. Thriller was the first music video inducted into the National Film Industry. Different polls and music sites named this song’s video as the greatest video of all time.
10. George Michael – Freedom [1990]
Michael’s relationship with the camera has grown sour. In his words, “At some point in your career, the situation between yourself and the camera reverses. For a certain number of years, you court it, and you need it. But it needs you more and it is a bit like a relationship. The minute that happens, it turns you off … and it does feel like it is taking something from you.”
Michael decided to have a video without his face shown, though that was not the first video of such a model. The video for “Freedom” showed five models who were lip-syncing the song. Directed by David Fincher, another icon at producing videos in the 90s, the video became fans’ favorite and earned a lot of recognition.
9. Blind Melon — No Rain [1992]
The video for Blind Melon’s “No Rain” is another masterpiece directed by Samuel Bayer. Often credited with the best videos of the 90s, Bayer did not fall short of his standard. The video featured a young dancer wearing a bee costume. She stops often dancing for people willing to watch her dance as her means of expressing her loneliness.
Since the release of the video, different music shows have invited the “bee girl” character to display her dance steps.
8. Nine Inch Nails – Closer [1994]
“Closer” was the song that had a tremendous impact on the American band Nine Inch Nails’ career. The video combines the elements of religion, sexuality, animal cruelty, politics, and terror. In a 2006 poll by VHI, audiences voted “Closer” as the number one in a list of 20 most excellent music videos of all time.
7. Beastie Boys – Sabotage [1994]
Ranked 19 on the VHI’s rank of 100 greatest songs of the 90s, Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” was a video directed by Spike Jonze. The video took the form of a 1970 style police show with each of the band members playing the protagonist’s role. When the MTV aired the video, the band edited out some of the scenes due to the network’s policy that prevented them from displaying dangerous activities and scenes. MTV nominated “Sabotage” for video of the year, best group video, breakthrough video, best direction in a video, and viewer’s choice awards. Though the video lost all five awards, its impact was tremendous. Later, the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards recognized the video as the winner of the best video (that should have won a Moonman) category.
6. Bjork — All is Full of Love [1999]
Not every artist uses music video as a pure marketing tool. Some artists find it an opportunity to display their creativity and find the rhythm for their artistic expressions. Bjork was an example of an artist who simply wanted to push their videos beyond human behavior. Through her use of sci-fi characters, she displayed this to illustrate her expressions in the “All Is Full of Love” video. Chris Cunningham directed the video, who Bjork completely entrusted with the video and robots and 3d animations. The video was highly decorated, winning the jury prize at Artfutura in 1999, Fantasporto’s best video in 2000. During the 2000 International Monitor Awards, the video won the best 3d animation music video and the best short-form music video awards at the 42nd Grammy Awards. MTV2 ranked it as the best music video award ever. The video also earned a place in Time’s 30 best music videos of all time.
Bjork’s video will easily make any list of the best music videos of all time.
5. Nirvana — Smells Like Teen Spirit [1991]
American rock band Nirvana experienced massive advancement in the music industry after releasing the “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The song topped the charts in the music industry of different countries across the world. Samuel Bayer’s directorial debut was this music video. The video took the form of a school concert, which ends in a riot. Jonathan Kaplan’s 1979 movie titled ” Over the Edge” inspired the riot scene. Furthermore, due to the students’ association with anarchist symbology, Kurt Cobain severely edited a scene that displayed a teacher who became restrained to a basketball pole.
The song video won Nirvana the best new artist and best alternative group awards at the MTV video music awards. The video also earned a place in the Guinness book of records as the most played video on MTV Europe. In 1999, MTV ranked the video as the third greatest music video of all time.
By 2020, the video has about 1.1 billion views on YouTube. Just like the song, the video earned a place among the “evergreen” videos.
4. Madonna – Vogue [1990]
Could there be a list of songs or videos made in the 1990s without the presence of Madonna? David Fincher directed the video “Vogue”, whose idea of the song video was for Madonna to present a picture of one enjoying herself on the dance floor. Inspired by Vogue dancers, Madonna’s curiosity led her to the sound factory that introduced her to “vogueing.”
In the song’s video, Madonna and her dancers vogue to different choreographed dance moves. The video won three awards at the MTV video music awards, including the best direction, best editing, and best cinematography. MTV later ranked the music video as the second greatest music video of all time.
In 2009, “Vogue” became Madonna’s fourth music video to reach over 100 million views, making her the first female to achieve such feat in the music industry. Rolling Stone later called the song the 28th best music video ever made. Of all categories of music, no one can ever overlook Madonna.
3. Michael and Janet Jackson – Scream [1995]
The two members of the Jackson family were part of the greatest pop artists of all time. Fans claim that Michael Jackson wrote the song “Scream” in response to allegations of child abuse. However, this was beyond a message to a particular sect or group. The song combined pop, R&B, Electro Rock, Dance-pop, and funk, but it was the most captivating video.
The music video won three MTV music video awards and backed it up with a Grammy award for the best music video.
VHI also placed the song video as number nine on the list of 100 greatest music videos of all time. The song video also earned a place in the Guinness book of records as the most expensive music video, with about $7million used in creating the video. The video generated an argument over who performed better in the video between the Jacksons, but why not? They were the two of the prominent faces of hip-hop in a decade.
2. Pearl Jam – Jeremy [1991]
Eddie Vedder’s association with Chris Cuffaro, a renowned photographer, gave birth to the music video for Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy”. Vedder had to sell all his furniture and take out a loan to finance the video. With the help of veteran music director Mark Pellington and editor Bruce Ashley for the sounds, images, and graphics, Jeremy became a fantastic music video. Since the video did not often show the other band members, Vedder was the face of the unique song video.
The video won four MTV video music awards in 1993, including best video of the year, best group video, best metal/hard rock video, and best direction.
Beyond the entertainment and the accolades received, Pearl Jam released the video on YouTube for the national gun violence awareness day. “Jeremy” was beyond an ordinary music video. It appealed to everyone in society.
1. Guns N’ Roses — November Rain [1992]
There was no better way to open the decade than Guns N’ Rose’s “November Rain” in 1991. The video showed Rose getting married to his girlfriend, whose death he later mourned at the closing stages of the 9 minutes video. The video credited the short story titled “Without You” by Del James as the source of inspiration.
By 1992, a year after the video’s creation, it was already the fifth most expensive video ever, though it later dropped to 21 after two decades. “November Rain” was the first video made before YouTube to surpass one billion views. Also, it was the first music video from the 1990s to hit over a billion YouTube streams. The music video was very colorful considering the time of its release. The energy and passion were also on a different level.
Rose may have thought he was right when he said, “Nothing lasts forever, even the cold November rain,” but the legacy of his music video lingers on, even after decades of its release.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, ratings are often subjective. However, it is difficult to argue that the list of songs on this list would not make any list of top music videos created in the 1990s. The directors and the artists remained popular even among millennials who watched the music videos on YouTube.
Author: Chris Ingledue
Contact: email
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