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

My #1, which was always going to go to Björk.

OK boomers...

I don't think actual baby boomers care about videos. I remember a 1987 letter to the editor in Rolling Stone begging Crosby Stills Nash and Young not to make a video for their reunion album, like it was the ultimate sellout. "We could see you just fine from the fiftieth row".

probs my favourite björk vid

stunning

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-19.jpg

19. “Don't Come Around Here No More,” Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (1985)
88 points/11 votes
Director: Jeff Stein

Never understood the big deal about this one.

It's a very effective and creepy production of Alice!

Petty, like Cobain, was such a great music video presence because he was so subtly funny at undercutting the whole form.

Or, his attitude was "you and I both know I'm a weird-looking dude who probably shouldn't be doing this, but let's have some fun with it."

“Ashes To Ashes” yeah I remember seeing this when I was maybe 4 or so? one of the first music videos i remember
really impactful. i loved the weird colors & the “clown man”… but it was also a bit scary too

Sorry for the delay--another tie.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-17b.jpg

17. “West End Girls,” Pet Shop Boys (1985)
90 points/9 votes
Director: Andy Morahan & Eric Watson

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-17a.jpg

17. “Protection,” Massive Attack (1994)
90 points/9 votes
Director: Michel Gondry

The best scene: harlequine Major Tom impassively enduring his mom's babbling on their beach walk.

...and he lets you know it's going to go on forever - the addiction, the shame, the chords and the piano notes circling endlessly...

west end girls seems distinctly average.

the Massive Attack video that sticks in my memory is “Be Thankful for What You Got” but mostly bc naked lady lol

they had a lot of great videos though! we were hashtag blessed by good content from them!

I like ‘West End Girls’ more now than I did at the time, partly for nostalgia for that aspect of London which has by and large been cleaned away and capturing the thrill, glamour and danger of the city to a provincial lad.

Also Chris Lowe’s little dance always makes me smile

West End Girls was at least distinct enough that they could parody it on Flight of the Conchords 20-some years later.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-16.jpg

16. “Bachelorette,” Björk (1994)
96 points/7 votes
Director: Michel Gondry

My #4 - not Gondry's most visually compelling but fun practical effects and a clever and trippy story.

huh i thought this was a lock for top ten. seems all the big video artists got vote-split into the teens tho

I haven't seen Bachelorette since the 90s but it was the Bjork I voted for.

Not to digress but seeing Godley & Creme's name up there made me think a "worst music videos" poll would be entertaining (their "Cry" would be on my list).

I think I gave Bjork three votes and Gondry four or five? Not “Bachelorette” tho.

... "cry" a "worst music video"???? excuse me? xp

i nearly voted for yes' "leave it"

I found “Cry”… unsettling as a kid

I voted for Cry even though it wasn't in the nominations!

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-15.jpg

165 “Cloudbusting,” Kate Bush (1985)
97 points/10 votes
Director: Julian Doyle

I thought that the Cloudbusting video was loosely based on Wilhelm Reich, today I learned it (and the lyrics) are all true - the yo-yo, the cloudbuster, the government officials and the arrest.

American MTV didn't even give the Kate Bush videos with movie stars in them much play.

looking at my ballot just hoping "smalltown boy" places

so many little joys in the protection vid

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-14.jpg

14. “Around the World,” Daft Punk (1997)
100 points/9 votes
Director: Michel Gondry

Sorry, I've had something here to attend to, but I'm finished. I'll probably just carry on and finish today.

Ppl not actually poptimists when it comes to videos I see.

more like auteurists

15th for "Cloudbusting," not 165--attention divided.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-12.jpg

12. “Nothing Compares 2 U,” Sinead O'Connor (1990)
107 points/12 votes
Director: John Maybury

is there a tie for 12 or did we miss 13

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-13.jpg

13. “Drop,” Pharcyde (1995)
104 points/9 votes
Director: Spike Jonze

Fuck, sorry...I've been trying to deal with something here.

I love Pharcyde's "Frontline," and looked into the video--very interesting and conceptual for the first half, then something I didn't feel comfortable voting for. Love "Nothing Compares," another one I showed to students every year, although I didn't vote for it. Surely the greatest video homage to a famous film.

Homage to what film?

I've always assumed The Passion of Joan of Arc--maybe I'm reading too much into it.

The Passion of Joan of Arc?

That wasn't questioning you, sorry, it was an answer to the previous. But I don't know if it's an intentional homage.

I was about to guess that one, but honestly the connection had never occurred to me before now

Googled the two together and found this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ivsoYJ3qs

https://phildellio.tripod.com/video-11.jpg

11. “Sledgehammer,” Peter Gabriel (1986)
111 points/11 votes
Director: Stephen R. Johnson

iirc this topped vh1s all time poll in the early 2000s
happy to be corrected if wrong