Martha, My Dear: ILM's All-Time Video-Poll Results Thread

There were more votes for old-school, early MTV videos than I expected.

- many voters would have grown up on them
- younger voters here probably have a more historical perspective than their peers
- there were fewer videos then and everyone saw the same ones, whereas the viewership of later videos probably split along genre/fan lines

All of that, and a lot of people past a certain age just completely lost interest in them, even if they maintained an interest in the music. I saw new videos out of necessity: when I made my mad scramble at the end of each year to get a year-end list together, I caught up via YouTube (I rarely stream). I'd always see good ones, and few made my list.

I have no idea whether they retain any marketing importance right now (or if they did pre-COVID). Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Selena Gomez did not get a vote in this poll--they didn't even get a single nomination between them.

Björk! Björk! Björk! Björk!

^^^ he believes in beauty

xxp Real lack of taste when no one appreciates boob rockets

Björk! did extremely well, but I think I have a different conception of beauty (the thing I look for most in a video). I was able to lift a couple of images I liked, but with two of the three, it was a challenge. Beauty to me is the Fresh Prince's "Summertime" video, which got almost nothing in the way of votes.

Fresh Prince's "Summertime"

shit, should've voted for that

Did not vote for this, as I am not an informed voter and all of my picks would have been from the years 1988-1996. Still very much excited for this roll out. Preemptive thank you to all who organized.

I really wanted to join in with this, have loved the idea of a video poll since it was first proposed years ago, but circumstances just meant I couldn't get up the energy to root around and watch stuff. Will follow along with the results, though.

^ this plus it seemed like a huge undertaking and there is a lot going on in life at the moment. my ballot would have been all 80s anyways with the addition of Spoon's "Inside Out."

will enjoy the rollout and the work put in

I have an ongoing playlist on YT of my favorite music videos of all time here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTeVyV-FXsF93y3AyJh9lEJefAO6QCo7c

summertime was a late cut for me

are we really only rolling out 40 of these??

the p-funk poll rolled out 150 songs lol

I just wouldn't have the time or the energy. And even though 45 people voted, being an all-time poll, the votes are typically scattered far and wide at a certain point--which is just beyond #40. There's one video that got 2 votes and just finished out of the Top 40. Inside, one video got 4, nothing else less than 5, moving up to a high of 19 (not the #1, though).

I have an ongoing playlist on YT of my favorite music videos of all time here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTeVyV-FXsF93y3AyJh9lEJefAO6QCo7c

― kurt schwitterz

Aha - "Nolan Thomas - Yo' Little Brother"! I was trying so hard to remember the name of this one so I could vote for it, and there it is on your list. Was it even nommed?

I also feel robbed by the fact that this video was not part of childhood.

Maybe after the initial rollout, Clem or viborg could post some additional 'Bubbling Under' vids?

"Yo Little Brother" is the best sequel to "Let the Music Play" possible.

(xpost) Just working on a list for #41-100 now. I was actually wrong--almost all the videos in the #41-60 range got 5 or 6 votes, just not as many points.

Our family had a well-worn recording of Friday Night Videos from 1984 that's burned into my brain and remains classic to this day. 'Yo Little Brother', 'Rockit', ZZ Top's 'TV Dinners', etc. It was largely weird and creepy stuff and I loved it so! I should poll those specific videos some other time.

Oh and naturally I forgot to vote in this poll. Drat.

I voted despite very provincial and scattershot knowledge — didn’t have cable growing up and still probably haven’t seen a lot of things that were ubiquitous; the first three Directors Label DVDs established canon for me (and I’m guessing will be well represented). I watched maybe 20 noms I hadn’t seen and did vote for a few of them, plus various faves old and new discovered mostly on YouTube.

Get this: my parents didn't get cable until 2000. Growing up, I depended on Friday Night Videos and my friends.

"Yo Little Brother" is the best sequel to "Let the Music Play" possible.

“Yo’ Little Brother" is great fun tho, I’d never heard (of) it before

Night Tracks on TBS was often more fun to watch than MTV in the '80s. They played much more dance music and black music. It came on at midnight Friday and Saturday nights and ran all night. I remember parties when we would just put that on and it was great entertainment.

that would be “Give Me Tonight”, no need to look further

― celebrating ten years of constant posting (breastcrawl)

I don't consider "Let The Music Play" and "Give Me Tonight" separate singles: same fabulous electrogroove.

Where does "Do You Wanna Get Away" fit in? I guess the groove is less electro and more straightforward, but there's still some freestyle elements.

"Do You..." is closer to period dance music.

It's definitely my least favorite of the three

yep, formula running down

Shannon was so big in Miami that LTMP's third single earned airplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSaOxK_kTKU

I hope nobody minds this digression, but the Shannon talk reminds me that Miami had a freestyle station before the legendary Power 96, namely WHQT Hot 105. That was where you heard Shannon in 1985 (I was a high school listener). In about the summer of 1986 the two stations traded formats, with Power 96 assuming the freestyle sovereignty all the way to the end of the era.

I have some physio at 10:40, but I'll post the first couple before I leave--I'll pick up again around 11:30.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-40.jpg

40. “Jocko Homo,” Devo (1977)
56 points/6 votes
Director: Chuck Statler

Images were much harder for me this time than with previous polls I've done. Neil Young and Yo La Tengo were easy. The two film polls (discounting an early one, when I didn't put any thought into them), road films and political films, even when I hadn't seen something, I had a reasonably good sense of the film to pick something that worked. (I remember not having a clue about the John Landis film Into the Night--that was the rare exception.)

There are a lot of videos among these 40 I'd never seen before. And--I'll say stuff like this periodically, and it's never directed at people who voted for them--there are a number I don't like. So I'm sure with some of them, if it's a video you love, you won't care for the image; I'll have missed whatever it is that makes the video memorable for you. (I would skim those videos quickly, but I didn't have the patience to watch them all.)

i kinda dig that they're gonna be thumbnails with youtube UI included

I hope nobody minds this digression, but the Shannon talk reminds me that Miami had a freestyle station before the legendary Power 96, namely WHQT Hot 105. That was where you heard Shannon in 1985 (I was a high school listener). In about the summer of 1986 the two stations traded formats, with Power 96 assuming the freestyle sovereignty all the way to the end of the era.

― Josefa,

Excellent post. Hot 105 exists as the adult R&B station; these days I occasionally tune in for the quiet storm show.

(xpost) That was something that looked good to me, and I figure 97% of video viewing now happens on YouTube anyway; the two have basically verged. (I have one Vimeo image for the one Björk video I couldn't get on YouTube here.)

And, of course, not cropping that stuff out was easier, and also keeps the original ratio there.

Verged = merged...

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-39.jpg

39. “When I’m with You,” Sparks (1979)
57 points/4 votes/one #1 vote
Director: Brian Grant

Devo restoration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk1DNzg0LWs

sorry i'm bad at remember how not to embed lol

I suppose the first two define the earliest days of video--be as weird as possible. I very much doubt that Brian Grant and Chuck Statler, when they directed these, ever thought anyone would be looking up their names in 2022.

(Not a big Devo fan, but I did vote for "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize," primarily because of how much I love the song.)

Back in an hour.

Ah, sorry I missed that--that version looks much cleaner. (The not-clean version does look more primitive, though, which is apropos.)

i hadn't seen either of these but they're fantastic, particularly the sparks video

Damn, I meant to include non-embedded links in the info...I'll start doing that when I get back.

i didn't realize i'd seen the music video for "jocko homo," but now i'm realizing that i saw it as part of a short film called 'devo-lution,' which i saw during college at an ann arbor film festival. it's an incredible amount of fun, and the "jocko homo" part is definitely the highlight. would've voted for it if i'd known it was a free-standing video

Shannon was so big in Miami that LTMP's _third_ single earned airplay.

📹

I hope nobody minds this digression, but the Shannon talk reminds me…

seeing Sparks tomorrow, never seen this before. thanks, Clemenza!

"Jocko Homo" was one of the first videos I saw as a kid, probably on the pioneering CityTV program The New Music, which predated MTV. It's amazingly grotesque, even from the perspective of the 70s, but I prefer the faster album version of the song too much to vote for this version.
Though I'm a Sparks fan, I hadn't heard "When I'm With You" till this year. I voted for it just for Ron's smile.

I forgot about the Sparks ventriloquist video. It's a bummer how much 80s Russel Mael looks like Tucker Carlson.

Thanks, apparently I completely forgot to add November rain which is a top 3 for me.

you:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/aa/62/63/aa62635e5e738f0201b122f0386c9fab.gif

Haha yup

as for which use your illusion video is superior, i think i was put here on this earth to advocate for music videos featuring heavy cgi dolphin content

it also starts off making you believe it's a concert video! but it absolutely isn't! it just grows increasingly bizarre! and i love that

I suppose I was born to advocate for drunk Axl in the graveyard blizzard, bottle in one hand gun in the other
https://i.gifer.com/YIJx.gif

ok so i accidentally posted my ballot in the voting thread, here it is for posterity

my ballot. hastily assembled after a perusal of the noms list. obv many things i forgot, but the only one i left out that would've been in my top ten is the pharcyde's "drop."

ranked
Wu-Tang Clan - Triumph
Madonna - Vogue
Janet Jackson - When I Think Of You
David Bowie - Blackstar
Missy Elliott - The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
Busta Rhymes ‎- Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Don't Come Around Here No More
Hot Chip - I Feel Better
Bat for Lashes - What's a Girl to Do?
UGK - International Players Anthem (I Choose You)

unranked
2 Chainz - Birthday Song
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Beyoncé - Formation
Björk - Human Behaviour
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time
Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion - W.A.P.
Danny Brown - Grown Up
Dmx - Ruff Ryders Anthem
Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment - Sunday Candy
E-40 - Tell Me When to Go
Fiona Apple - Criminal
George Michael - Freedom! '90
Ice Cube - It Was a Good Day
Jay-Z - 99 Problems
Kanye West - All Falls Down
Kendrick Lamar - Alright
King Von - Took Her to the O
Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing)
Mariah Carey - Fantasy (Remix) ft. Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Mclusky - Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues
Michael Jackson - Beat It
Nine Inch Nails - Closer
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Notorious B.I.G. - Mo Money Mo Problems
Outkast - Hey Ya!
Radiohead - Just
Rolling Stones - Waiting on a Friend
Rosalía - Malamente
Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
Slick Rick - Children's Story
Soul II Soul - Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)
Tears for Fears - Head Over Heels
Van Halen - Hot for Teacher
Weird Al Yankovic - White and Nerdy
White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl
Young Dolph - Get Paid
ZZ Top - Rough Boy

you and i def had some crossover

you picked a lot that i cut, like that ludacris video and yonkers

Unranked list

5 UNLISTED:

Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta
Madonna - Open Your Heart
Annie Lennox - Walking onBroken Glass
Madonna - Like a Prayer
Yo La Tengo - From a Motel 6

45 Main List (unranked)

2Pac + Dre - California love
A- Ha Take On Me
Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist
beastie Boys - sabotage
beyoncé - formation
bjork - all is full of love
blink 182- all the small things
chris sisal - wicked game
Dire Straits - Money for Nothing
Dre - nuthin but a g thang
duran duran - hungry like the wolf
Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy
Garbage - Queer
George Michael - Freedom! '90
George Michael - Too Funky
Ice Cube - It Was a Good Day
Jay-Z - 99 Problems
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Talk About the Blues
Kylie Minogue - Love at First Sight
Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
Lonely Island - Ras Trent
Madonna - Vogue
Meat Loaf - I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)
Missy Elliott - The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
Nine Inch Nails - Closer
Notorious B.I.G. - Mo Money Mo Problems
Ol' Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy Ya
Paula Abdul - Straight Up
Pavement - Range Life
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
Prince & the Revolution - When Doves Cry
Replacements - Bastards of Young
Robert Palmer - Addicted to Love
Roots - Don’t Say Nuthin’
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight
Snoop Dogg - Gin & Juice
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Mary Jane's Last Dance
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Don't Come Around Here No More
Tool - Sober
Van Halen - Hot for Teacher
Wax - California
Weird Al Yankovic - Fat
ZZ Top - Legs

just rewatched 2pac/scarface 'smile' and was curious who directed it.

Paul Hunter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hunter_(director)

forgot about usher 'my way'. also that black eyed peas 'joints and jams' was a fav of mine at that time.

paul hunter videography genuinely ridiculous

truly. we shoulda just polled him and hype williams videos.

Forgot another early one that I really enjoy: the Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash, though there are a few variants. It got a restoration that looked awesome when I saw it at MoMA's program celebrating the Stones' 50th anniversary, but I don't think it was officially made available for home viewing outside of its usage in the so-so Crossfire Hurricane documentary. The only place I can find it online is on Facebook, though you don't need an account to view it.

My unranked ballot:

Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love
Yo La Tengo - I'll Be Around
A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation
Ann Steel - My Time
Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy
Autechre - Gantz Graf
Beck - Deadweight
Björk - Human Behaviour
Björk - Triumph of a Heart
Cabaret Voltaire - Sensoria
Carly Simon - Why
Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be
Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
Cibo Matto - Sugar Water
Cléo - Les Fauves
Cure - Close to Me
Daft Punk - Around the World
De La Soul - A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays
Deee-Lite - Groove Is in the Heart
Fall - Eat Y'Self Fitter
France Gall - Laisse tomber les filles
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights (trees version)
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights (trails version)
Kraftwerk - Musique Non-Stop
Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World
Lio - Sage Comme Une Image
Lucas - Lucas with the Lid Off
Madonna - Frozen
Mick Jagger - Memo from Turner
Moloko - The Flipside
Pet Shop Boys - Heart
Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
Portishead - Only You
Roisin Murphy - Overpowered
Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin - 69 année érotique
Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot - Bonnie and Clyde
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Spellbound
Sparks - When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way’?
Sparks - When I'm With You
Talking Heads - Love for Sale
Tears for Fears - Head Over Heels
Todd Terje - Inspector Norse
Moloko - Fun for Me
Oneohtrix Point Never - Problem Areas
Boards of Canada - Everything You Do Is a Balloon
Trans-X - Living on Video
Ronika - Wiyoo
Stice - Ollygoshawda
Scott Walker - Epizootics!

Thanks Clemenza, Viborg, anyone else with a role, co-voters! A sign of a comprehensive and significant poll is that some people are a bit miffed with the results. (If it wasn't comprehensive they wouldn't have heard of it; if it wasn't significant they wouldn't have cared.)

I will probably go through all of the top 100 at some point in the next month. Grateful that an all time video list finally happened here, and just as I was hoping, the stuff I haven't seen yet (so far) is all really bizarre and interesting. I wouldn't call a lot of these worthy of an all time list, but for me that's not really the point.

I totally forgot about that Hot Chip video. But it also reminds me of the Beach House video with Ray Wise that I was so sure would place.

I know the song, and I figure I must have seen some of the video at some point, but the revelation of the poll for me was "Unfinished Sympathy".

I was a #1 vote for "Sabotage" btw, didn't see the email. Given that my son makes me play him that video over and over again, it definitely has legs.

I feel like I could make a separate list of "movie scenes that I wish could be music videos."

Andy Warhol's Vinyl for Martha Reeves & The Vandellas' "Nowhere to Run"

James Benning's 11 x 14 for Bob Dylan's "Black Diamond Bay" (two scenes actually)

Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and GoodFellas for "Then He Kissed Me," "Mickey's Monkey," "What Is Life," "Jumping Jack Flash," "Atlantis" and probably many others

Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising for "He's a Rebel"

etc.

"Subterranean Homesick Blues" in this list is one example.
I feel like part of the attraction of scenes like that is that they're not independent works; the songs come in, blend with the movie and leave. Watching them on their own feels like it's inflating them somehow.

I've written a book on the subject (pop music in films), and my interest in the two subjects is connected I'm sure. (Another voter has also written a book on the subject...I won't link to his without checking.)

But then Kenneth Anger's use of the Paris Sisters' "Dream Lover" in Kustom Kar Kommandos strikes me as a special case because it's not an excerpt from the film, it's the entire film. I didn't vote for it bc I was trying to honor the distinction between that and videos that were made to promote a record, but I guess that is the principal difference between that and, say, Bruce Conner's film for "Mongoloid" by Devo.

the subterranean “video” has surely been seen by far more people than the entirety of don’t look back, and certainly passes the iconicity test (based on how often it’s been parodied and imitated)

it’s a bit different from scenes from narrative films that prominently use a song

To me, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" works fine as a (legitimate) standalone video. If Don't Look Back didn't exist, but MTV had existed in 1965, I could see where Dylan would have come up with exactly the same thing as his idea of what a video should look like.

(The "Like a Rolling Stone" video that I voted for, which was probably done six or seven years ago, I would love to know the extent of Dylan's involvement with that. Other than commissioning and ultimately approving it, my guess is nil--I just can't imagine him coming up with anything like what materialized.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2af69xt0VKE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gib916jJW1o

I think Bob Roberts came out before "Subterranean" became an "official" video, so I vaguely remember being thrilled just to see the Don't Look Back sequence referenced. (Didn't care for the film at the time, got better when I watched it years later.) Looking at it now, it's just weird that the women look like the Robert Palmer women--reference overload.

Bob Roberts did it a few years after INXS iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUQDzj6R3p4

The Maxell advert is one of the best TV adverts of all time. There’s another one which uses Desmond Dekker’s ‘Israelites’ along same lines to diminishing returns.

That would be this, then. As with “Into The Valley”, I could never hear the track the same way again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KShjB5jyjM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lucero

realized while watching the video for the odb remix of "woo-hah got you all in check" that i love this dude's work, always creative if on a more modest level than say a hype williams, sucks he died so young. tha alkaholiks video he did ("the next level") is pretty much as good as "'93 til infinity"

oh yeah thats a good videography. he loved him some contrast.

kush is a GREAT video

this one too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5xJBKVGTGs

always loved the song/video for xzibit's "paparazzi"

xp lol

this is making me want to do a poll for just hip-hop music videos

would participate

after i finished my ballot i made a youtube playlist of it, then i had the bright idea to expand it to 100 places, so here's the finished product:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlRIBtlBJdQ_IZV5yzhr1MnbzHhjbes9-

pretty proud of it, very rewarding project! i've wanted to do something like this since youtube first came into existence and now a majority of the videos have hd upgrades

that link doesn't work because of the weird hyphen at the end, so here's the real link:

brad's all-time top 100 favorite music videos ever

Good selecting. I'm happy anyone else has seen and loves "Y Control."

nice brad! lots of crossover with my favs

Totally forgot something I'm almost certain I would have voted for: Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard." I think it was made a couple of years after Graceland; it starts with Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. When Mickey Mantle shows up, it's as sublime a moment as Paul McCartney in "They Don't Know"--obviously Paul Simon's dream as a kid, to be pitching to Mickey Mantle, and suddenly there he is. Near the end, another sports icon.

I didn't vote in the Broadcast poll, because I really only remember (and love) "Echo's Answer," but I wish I'd known about this for the video poll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yEz1eZmUco

AV Club predictably making some eye rolling choices. https://www.avclub.com/50-greatest-music-videos-ranked-1850820669/slides/52

Very quickly scanning, but yeah. If you could generate a Masterpiece Theatre equivalent of a greatest-videos list, this would be it. (Which is not to imply that most of the famous ones here are boring but good--they're boring and bad.)