Most Memorable Greatest Music Videos 98 - 88

Out of the 100 greatest music video's there are many very memorable videos, which have influenced the way that music videos are made today. All these videos bring something different to the history of the music video and many have used completely diffrent methods to make the video individual and unique.

98.. Smalltown Boy - Bronski Beats (1984)

This music video is a very significant video in the history of the music video. The video features a gay man tht moves to a new city for a new life, you see this through the opening shot on the train tracks. However, in this new city he is discriminated due to his sexually. Throughout this video, he is very shy as he keeps himself to himself and keeps his head down to show this. In this end of the video, he is walking in an alley and it approached by a group of guys. in the next shot he arrives to his house with his mum answering the door accompanied by a policeman, as he was beaten up by the group because of his sexually, resulting in him moving back to his howtown. The impact of the video was stronger in 1984 when the video was released as non straight sexually was not accepted in society as much as it is in modern society. 

96. 21 Seconds - So Solid Crew (2001)

This video is by a British rap group called the So Solid Crew. The song is called 21 Seconds and in the song each memeber has 21 seconds to introduce themselves, as the group was new and this video would hopefully by their breakthrough, which it was. In the song there is a repeated line "I got 21 seconds to go", which is why the song plays on each member having 21 seconds. This video also had good special effects for a music video at the time as each member would have a special 'power', as some would have the power of fire or wind. In terms of a black british hip hop group this video was very big for the culture on British hip Hop. 

95. My Favourite Game - The Cardigans (1998) 

This video is just about a woman driving dangerously, the reason for this in the music is not made clear but the song is about her failing love affair. The video had three different endings, and the directors did not know which to use. In one ending she dies, in one she gets up from the crash and is fine, and one where she gets her head cut off from the car crash. The directors decided to go for the comical ending where she has the car crash and gets up fine, but then gets hit with the rock which might of killed her or knocked her out. This music video had a very high budget due to all the stunts that took place in the video taking the total cost of the video to £220,000. There was also much controversy surrounding the video due to the blood and violence throughout the video, also because MTV feared that this video would encourage teenagers to drive reckless, so the video was initially banned from many music video TV programmes. 

92. Rock It - Herbie Hancock (1983)

The music video for Herbie Hancock's song 'Rock It', is also a very significant song and video. Herbie Hancock was originally a jazz musician, but in this sound he was one of the first people to experiment with hip hop sounds, such as scratching of a turntable. In this video there are many different machines and sculptures that are moving around and doing repeated actions, making the video very creepy to the viewer. Since in this song there is no lyrics, the video is almost synced with the song such as the scratching of the turntable is synced up by the video to seem as if things are being quickly repeated and cycled as a scratching does. Hancock being a black musician, in the early 80's found it very difficult to get his videos including himself on MTV as MTV refused to play music videos with black artists in them. Herbie is rarely seen through this video and when he is seen it is through a TV within the music video. This was the only way that he could get his music videos on MTV. However this music video was banned in Britain due to scenes of sex by the dummies was being shown, such as a dummy masturbating in the bed.

88. I Want Love - Elton John (2001)

The music video for Elton John's song I Want Love was very significant for one reason and that was the shock that Robert Downey Jr was the one lip syncing the song. Robert Downey Jr is the only one in this video as he walks from room to room in a large house. At this point in his life Robert Downey was a rehabilitation from use of cocaine. This meant that Robert Downey could use his personal issues to portray real emotions throughout the video. The whole video is recorded in one whole shot so it took many times for Robert to get the part completely right, to get a compelling performance.