Musicheads turn into Videoheads: What music videos have been some of your favorites over the years?

I constantly complain about what MTV has become. It's an absolute tragedy. I watched the VMA's a few weeks ago... and I nearly hurled. I don't believe it's a generational thing either. I'm not THAT old.

Anyway... back when MTV meant something... I have great memories of my family and I eating supper and watching Remote Control. And after dinner while my dad flipped through the channels, he would stop on MTV and something like the "Thriller" video would be on. Or "Don't Worry, Be Happy", "Touch of Grey" or "Money For Nothing".

MTV was such a big deal to me growing up. I idolized people like Tabitha Soren and Kurt Loder. I used to think if I was an MTV VJ, I wanted to be just like "Kennedy". I used to keep a tape in the VCR at all times so I could tape my favorite videos.

I'd have to say my favorite video in the past couple of years has been the Fiona Apple video with Zack Galifinakis mouthing the words. Hilarious!

just about any of Kathy Mattea's stuff, from the funny [Waking Away a Winner] to the serious [Mary Did You Know]. also, Shania Twain's Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? just because it's fun and suits the song and the artist.

When I think music videos, it all boils down to Madonna's "Like a Prayer" and Guns N Roses "November Rain". To start with, they're both well crafted, compelling pop songs. Madonna, of course was the shocker, and Guns brought the over-the-top glam and melodrama. There might have been other videos that I liked better, but these two are the memorable ones. Oh, and also Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" was burnt into my fragile young mind, but not in a good way. I'll never be able to forget her, um, "wardrobe malfunction" in that clip.

I don't watch a lot of videos, but Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice video with Christopher Walken is one of my all-time favorites. It's so cool to see someone with skills that not everyone is aware of (like Walken and his tapdancing), and the choice (no pun intended!) of using a tap routine to a song like Weapon of Choice was very cool.

Hey that Jeremy Messersmith ain't bad!

Feel The Pain by Dinosaur Jr., Beautiful World by Devo, Come to Daddy by Aphex Twin, Sabotage by the Beastie Boys, oh and the anti video for Bastards of Young by the Replacements, That video for Psychotherapy by the Ramones was pretty sweet, also... I'm sure I could go on and on... Close to Me by the Cure, see..

oh! another favorite video of mine was the one for Black Planet by The Sisters of Mercy... It's just them cruising down the highway in the Monkeemobile.

I remember the Divinyls , I Touch myself for some reason, and Devo , Whip it, And I always liked to see the Guns n' Roses Videos...It's been awile since I had MTV...Its pretty cool...definetly an influence on what music is today.....Pink Floyd the WAll was a Great Video...maybe more of a Rock Opera....

Brilliant that you just mentioned "Whip It!" Tim. The man behind that video lives in the TC's. Chuck Statler went to Ohio State with Devo and helped pioneer the early art of video making. I happened to chat with him today and asked him for some of his faves...

" I would always say the best director is Chris Cunningham, anything by him strikes a chord with it's tone and tenor. I love The Avalanches "Frontier Psychiatrist" it's all samples but they act it out on stage! "

I love that song too and now I love the vid, thanks to Chuck! With all the Metallica talk this week, I also have to admit to being very impressed with their "One". The first time I came to the States in the ealry 80's I remember watching hours and hours and hours of MTV, I'd never seen anything like it before!!

Yeah.. I think Chris Cunningham did that Aphex Twin video I mentioned earlier too. so creepy. and the Bjork video with the robots. Brilliant stuff. He, Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze are easily three of the best. Tim Pope did some really great stuff for the Cure also. I'll quit monopolizing this conversation now. thanks

You have to go back and give Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" a nod, if only for the way it raised the video bar. For a whole generation it just raised expectations, and none of us of a certain age will forget those floating heads. Of course we would all soon be denying any love of Mercury and the boys when we all became punks. It seemed for a while that every time you turned around there was something new. The New Romantics did some great and cheesy stuff although I remember liking Ultravox do "Vienna" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3OaIsqtG64) which blows my street cred, as does my love of the OK Go treadmills (www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI) but maybe that's the point of videos.

I'm stickin with Johnny Cash "Hurt"...which was directed by Mark Romenek. I believe I said Anton Corbijn on the program.

Always loved the Clash's video for Rock the Casbah...the armadillo, the gas masks, the shariff & the only band that matters!

I don't watch to many videos, but I always loved the speaker thumping one from the Mats, and Public Enemy's Fight the Power.

Yo Frick...I never got sick of seeing the vid...I was just happy to see the Clash on MTV!

Here is one I never saw enough...Tom Waits, I Don't Wanna Grow Up...dig the minnie uke & the stage underneath the boothe at the lounge!

As a hormonally charged adolescent during the glory MTV days, I will never forget Duran Duran's "Girls on Film". Sooooooo HHHOOOOOTTTTTTT.

Flashforward to recent times. I haven't seen a video on MTV for 2 decades. A few years back I was in a bar in Poland with my wife and was watching MTV Europe (or something) which is just like the MTV of old. I saw a cool Smashing Pumpkins video for "Tonight" which I still remember as being awesomely bizarre. The memory of that night is still in my mind thanks to EuroMTV.

Video killed the Radio Star, sticks in my head lately, and The Clash, Rock the Casbah....good videos from the 1980's///

Pretty much any Michael Jackson video will still get me excited (favorites being Thriller, Billie Jean, Scream and They Don't Care About Us). David Fincher has done some great work for Madonna (Express Yourself and Vogue). The video for Spark by Tori Amos (directed by James Brown) is also quite excellent. Mark Romanek has done some excellent work, the fore mentioned Scream and NIN the Perfect Drug being a couple of my favorites. Tarsem Singh's video for Losing My Religion is breathtaking.

When I was in Amsterdam in 1999, MTV Europe was constantly playing the video for Skunk Anansie's excellent track You Follow Me Down. I remeber really liking the video and then getting back to the US and not ever seeing it on MTV, MTV2, VH1 or Fuse (or whatever it was called back then). Great video for a great song.

MTV has become such a wasteland. I can remember how excited I was when we finally got cable at our house when I was in the 7th grade, and sitting up until late late late watching music videos.

Wells T. nailed it earlier: Chris Cunningham, Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry were masters. There can be so much exploration in music videos, but if the VMAs are any indication, all directors want to do now is get some dancers in funky costumes and stick them in different locations. Boring! What happened to the experimentation in this format?

Anyway, off the top of my head: Blur's "Coffee and TV," Kylie Minogue's "Come Into My World," The Chemical Brothers "Let Forever Be," and Weezer's "Buddy Holly." All classics.

Sonic Youth's 'Shadow of a Doubt'
Madness 'One Step Beyond'
Mudhoney 'This Gift'

This is a little late for a comment but I agree w/Bill. I love the Clash video for Rock The Casbah. I also like the Sonic Youth video for Kool Thing and the new doomtree video for drumsticks is really great. I've watched that 25 times and it is still great.Hanna: Blur's Coffee and Tv is another great one as well as their one for Beetlebum. I also LOVE the Buddy Holly video. It's classic. The Clash's London Calling is great as well.

Art of Noise: Beatbox, Legs, and Moments in Love
Talking Heads: Road to Nowhere, And She Was
Kiss: I Love it Loud
Plasmatics: The Damned, that video (and artist) alone changed my life in so many ways

Plus tons of more many 80's pop ones, way too many to list here..

A lot seem to keep saying MTV I agree about the decline, but does anyone remember when USA Network used to have Night Flight/New Wave Theater?

also forgot about Whodini's Funy Beat, too.