The Best 80s Music Videos
Ranked #2,352 in Music, #66,925 overall
The 80s saw the birth of the music video... and boy, was some of it strange!
It's a bit odd to think that the first true generation of music videos are only about 25-35 years old. In some ways, it's both not so long ago and also a very distant past. Time-wise, not so long. Technologically and broadcast-wise, you've come a long way, baby! Depending on your age, these 80s music videos will either be really funny "old" videos, or some great flashbacks!
Music Video Lens Guide
- Video of the Year 1984 - YOU MIGHT THINK
- Get a Guide to the 80s
- DON'T LOSE MY NUMBER
- Video of the Year 1985 - BOYS OF SUMMER
- B & White Style
- Take Your Music Videos With You
- Video of the Year 1986 - MONEY FOR NOTHING
- Sounds of the 80s
- TAKE ON ME
- Video of the Year 1987 - SLEDGEHAMMER
- 80s Music Video Links
- Duran Duran and Russell Mulcahy
- Video of the Year 1988 - NEED YOU TONIGHT/MEDIATE
- THRILLER
- Video of the Year 1989 - THIS NOTE'S FOR YOU
- What was your favorite 80s music video?
Video of the Year 1984 - YOU MIGHT THINK
by the Cars from their album "Heartbeat City"
MTV launched in 1981 and in 1984, the very first MTV Video Music Awards were held in New York's Radio City Music Hall. The winner of Video Of The Year that first year was the Cars, with the cutting-edge effects of "You Might Think" from their top album "Heartbeat City."
curated content from YouTube
Get a Guide to the 80s
Totally Awesome 80s: A Lexicon of the Music, Videos, Movies, TV Shows, Stars, and Trends of that Decadent Decade
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DON'T LOSE MY NUMBER
Phil Collins "No Jacket Required"
This video spoofed how you had to come up with a good concept for your video. The single storyline was about a musician trying to find a director for his video, with bits of the song done in the various concepts that each director pitched to Collins.
The various suggestions become even more video-referential, spoofing popular movies of the time as well as other popular music videos. The vignettes are a Western, a take on the Road Warrior, an imitation of the look of "Every Breath You Take," a demo of a potential dance number, a pitch for a castle seige, a send-up of David Lee Roth's "California Girls" video, a Shogun/ninja interpretation, and a spoof of the Cars' video "You Might Think." The video then ends with repeated takes of Collins saying "so, how does it end?"
The various suggestions become even more video-referential, spoofing popular movies of the time as well as other popular music videos. The vignettes are a Western, a take on the Road Warrior, an imitation of the look of "Every Breath You Take," a demo of a potential dance number, a pitch for a castle seige, a send-up of David Lee Roth's "California Girls" video, a Shogun/ninja interpretation, and a spoof of the Cars' video "You Might Think." The video then ends with repeated takes of Collins saying "so, how does it end?"
curated content from YouTube
Take Your Music Videos With You
portable music video players
If there was one thing that really was missing from the 80s, it was a way to take your music videos with you. I'm glad to say, times have changed...
Sounds of the 80s
Check out my favorite songs! I've handpicked these MP3s from Amazon. Take a listen. If you like, you can click to buy them on Amazon.
TAKE ON ME
a-ha
This is the song that reminds me of the boy I dated the summer before I left for college. ...sigh...
curated content from YouTube
Video of the Year 1987 - SLEDGEHAMMER
by Peter Gabriel from his album "So"
This video and the animation in it broke new and old special effects ground, winning a record nine Video Music Awards, and it put a little British animation house named Aardman on the map. You may know Aardman Animation as the home of Nick Park's creations Wallace & Gromit.
curated content from YouTube
80s Music Video Links
polls, lists, sites and more
- AskMen.com - '80 music videos
- The videos were chosen based on various factors including technological innovation, commercial success, resiliency, quality of the song, how strongly it impacted the video industry in later years, as well as how large of a role it played in the breakthrough of the band. While many individual videos met some of these criteria, the following ten scored the highest averages.
- I've stared straight into the sun: 10 Best 80's Music Videos
- Ahh the 80's, full of experimental synthesized music, power ballads, and shitty hair. Like Huey Lewis, I too wish I could bring back the 80's. Now we can revisit it for a bit with the top 10 80's music videos (based upon 80's movies which makes for great cameos).
- Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish: Best '80s Video Nominee
- If you were gay and young in the 1980s, the pop music was a form of emancipation and revelation.
- MTV Video Music Awards, 1984-89
- Listings of MTV Video Award winners by year and award for the 1980s. They don't list earlier than 1984, as that was the year the awards started.
Duran Duran and Russell Mulcahy
Australian video director Russell Mulcahy wound up making eleven videos with British band Duran Duran. Shot in exotic locales with body painted-models, and taking inspiration from hit 80s movies, these videos were what really broke the band into the American market and made music video the hot art form of the day.
curated content from YouTube
THRILLER
Michael Jackson "Thriller"
This was the first ever epic video. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was conceived of as a take-off of the movies "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" and "An American Werewolf In London." Movie director John Landis was hired to helm the 14 minute extended video, with a movie bumpers surrounding the song itself. It cost an unprecedented $800,000 at the time.
It's now almost 30 years old and still inspires others with its distinctive dance choreography. Check out a few fanciful recreations, as done by inmates of a prison or what at first appears to be random patrons on public transit.
It's now almost 30 years old and still inspires others with its distinctive dance choreography. Check out a few fanciful recreations, as done by inmates of a prison or what at first appears to be random patrons on public transit.
curated content from YouTube
Video of the Year 1989 - THIS NOTE'S FOR YOU
by Neil Young
Neil made a great statement about the commercialization of music with this hilarious send-up of the rampant sponsorship of pop music of the day.
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What was your favorite 80s music video?
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Cinnamonbite
Oct 25, 2011 @ 7:14 pm | delete
- Just 1? Ok, Queensryche, "Gonna Get Close To You," because to this day, NO ONE can walk like Chris DeGarmo. Plus the lighting is perfect.
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ellagis
Jun 14, 2011 @ 1:56 am | delete
- what a walk along "memory lane"!!! It's so funny to see them again, so young and "eighties"!!!! thank you for your choice! :)
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Get your 80s video fix!
Pure '80s DVD: Video Idols
Amazon Price: $9.98 (as of 02/17/2012)
Have an 80s video marathon!
![Pure '80s: The Ultimate DVD Box [Region 1]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5122WXNW30L._SL160_.jpg)
Pure '80s: The Ultimate DVD Box [Region 1]
Amazon Price: $29.63 (as of 02/17/2012)
