Nothing distinguishes music artists from one another more than the uniqueness of their videos. Of course, while different songs often repeat content and themes, the video expressions differ. Aside from being an effective marketing tool, artists use music videos to gain attention and create a memorable visual experience.
The origins of music videos trace as far back as the 1920s, but there was a resurgence in the 1980s. This could partly be because of the music channel MTV (Music Television), which debuted in 1980, and the growing fashion industry where everyone was interested in being as colorful as they could be. Rightly so, the 1980s produced some of the best music videos of all time, ranging from Hip Hop to Heavy Metal to Soul Music.
The 10 Best Music Videos from the 1980s
Of all the chefs-d’oeuvre of music videos produced in the 1980s, here are the best 10 music videos. Enjoy!
10. 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.
9. 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.
8. 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.
7. 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.
6. 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.
5. 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.
4. 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.
3. 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.”
2. 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.
1. 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.
In conclusion
The music videos on this list reflect a series of entertaining videos that were not just the best of their time; their relevance and popularity extend beyond their time. Some of the music videos displayed a high sense of fashion, which was a dominating idea during the time of their creation. Others on the list employed a storytelling technique to convey the content to the audience. Few of them displayed the strong political incidents that dominated the 1980s. Earning an innumerable number of awards and ratings altogether, the videos were entertaining, informative, and descriptive of the incidents in the 1980s.
Author: Chris Ingledue
Contact: email
Bio: I am the founder and owner of Wheeljack’s Lab pop Culture and Toy Shop. My vision has always been to reunite customers with their favorite childhood toys and pop culture, triggering fond memories, and reigniting their imaginations. Every day, I work in the “lab” where it’s Christmas 365 days a year. I scour the internet, like when we had the Sears Catalog of yesteryear, for the next great treasure. Then, I await the arrival of the postman as if he were Santa Claus himself and helping collectors worldwide with their own versions of Christmas. Every day as a vintage toy buyer is an absolute joy!