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

Sorry for the delay--another tie.

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

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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.

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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!

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

Another one I never got. I was working in a record store at the time, and our assistant manager was a fanatical fan--played So or Invisible Touch or Mike & the Mechanics seemingly every time he was on cash (or would walk around the store air-drumming to them). Nice guy, but that didn't help.

The 11th song got 111 points from 11 voters.

11th video, I mean.

I should have voted but anything but Top 3 for Sledgehammer is a travesty

otm

a TRAIN goes through his EARS u guys

There's only two videos I'd even hear a CASE for being better than Sledgehammer and they're probably on their way

There's basically 8 videos left that I'm gonna see and be like "come on, you guys"

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10. “Come Into My World,” Kylie Minogue (2002)
113 points/8 votes
Director: Michel Gondry

come on, you guys