There was a time when a song and a video went hand in hand. Bands put serious creative energy into capturing their music in the visual form. The 80's and 90's were the golden years for this, given that MTV and Much Music still primarily featured videos, today however the main video outlet is the internet. Even today many artists use the video as a creative medium, however, I feel some are trying too hard. Anyway, more about that later. Here are 10 great songs with 10 great videos.
1. "Toes Across The Floor" - Blind Melon
Fuck anyone who thinks Blind Melon were a one-hit wonder. With "No Rain" they were just getting warm. "Toes Across The Floor" is a mind blowing song that features a simple yet awesome video. The band is featured performing, but also look for them colliding with the video's hero about half way through.
2. "Human Behavior" - Bjork
Iceland's Bjork has had many wonderful videos. "Human Behavior" always gave me this creepy vibe. Something about a muppet bear stalking a human on a tiny paper mache planet. Something...
3. "Wraith Pinned To The Mist" - Of Montreal
Yeah, I know that title should be longer, but I can't be arsed to look up it's entire name right now. With today's modern advances i'm sure it's much easier to do an animated video in this day and age, but it's all about execution. This video's happy/psychotic theme fits the song perfectly.
4. "Sabotage" - Beastie Boys
One of Spike Jonze's first videos...he'd go on to do works for Fatboy Slim, Weezer and even directed Three Kings. This is why people get into bands and make videos, to do cool shit like this! Yeah it looks low-budget, but thats the point. Sadly lightning has not struck twice for the Boys, subsequent videos were kinda "Meh".
5. "Freak On A Leash" - Korn
You knew I had to include this one. To this day this video is still being imitated. Just goes to show it's impact after point of entry.
6. "Here It Goes Again" - Ok Go!
Simple, affordable, absolutely sublime. This video took Youtube by storm and made everyone want to try their hand at the viral world. I think it's the coreography that makes this video. Again, OK Go have since tried to continuously up stage themselves with bigger and more elaborate videos. Trying way too hard in my opinion. Their latest attempt was a re-hash of the Muppet Show theme song...which ended up an unbearable, pretentious and often confusing mess. A well, back to the good ol' days.
7. "Existentialism On Prom Night" - Straylight Run
Again, nothing too fancy here. Just a cool concept and a fantastic song. Short, sweet, knew it complete.
8. "Do The Evolution" - Pearl Jam
When I first saw this video, before I even heard Yield, I thought it was KMFDM. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be Pearl Jam, one of my favourite bands!! But wait a minute...Pearl Jam got sick of making videos after 1992's "Jeremy" and stopped! Well, they don't actually appear in this video as it was fully animated by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane...thanks for playing!
9. "Smooth Criminal" - Michael Jackson
This was the coolest shit video of all time when I was a little guy. So many sweet dance/fight moves, the song was stellar and that tilt at the end was a mind blow. I miss Michael Jackson's true song writing talent. And this cat can dance!
10. "Rabbit In Your Headlights" - Unkle
The best video ever made, to this day. You will watch the whole thing.
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