'Scuse my lamentable ignorance, but what are VDOs? Some kind of new- fangled sexual disease? Well, I could tell you about my warts, but I'm sure you'd rather not know.

John, not sure if yer kidn, but I think VDO means video.

Thanks, neuromancer. I apologise for my idiocy. Must have been the alcohol.

I think it was the warts.

I always liked "Love My Way" by the Pysch Furs.

"The Perfect Kiss" -- New Order Anything by Duran Duran through 1982, but especially "Rio" "Unfinished Sympathy" -- Massive Attack "Enjoy the Silence" -- Depeche Mode "Vogue" -- Madonna "A Lover Spurned" -- Marc Almond (I just *knew* it was a Pierre et Gilles production from the first frame and I was *RIGHT* -- have they done any other videos?) "Tainted Love" -- Coil "Wild Thing" -- Tone-Loc. Simple, effective. "Take On Me" -- a-ha. Of course.

...and a Tim Pope frenzy: "Bedsitter," "Torch," "Soul Inside" -- Soft Cell "Close to Me," "Just Like Heaven," "Lovesong," "Never Enough" -- the Cure

I'd mention more recent videos if my five-year enforced break from cable from 1992 to 1997 effectively killed the MTV habit. My noble exception will be all the Tool videos, having recently gotten the DVD collection of that.

Since it came up in the companion thread, I'd have to mark up "No Rain" by Blind Mellon. Goddamn that thing was the video equiv. of a sickly but insidious pop hook. The technoid post apocalyptic feel of "California Love" was great. Obviously, "Bastards of the Young" by the 'Mats. "Like a Prayer" from Madonna. "Invisible Touch" from Genesis. (am I saying that to be a jerk or because I really mean it? I can't tell anymore). etc.

I particularly like the video for 'Sabotage'(Beastie Boys) - for whatever reason I still find it quite amusing, even though the song itself has aged less well.

I can't remember many VDOs to be honest. But when I was a youngster I did love the VDO for Prince's "Kiss". By God, he was so cool, so beautiful in those days. He was my first *Pop Love*, and then he lost it so completely, so utterly and lamentably. No pop star has quite fallen from grace as dramatically as the AFKAP.

Any video by Massive Attack

This answer is all too convenient - "and yet it is not". But I really do have to mention

THE QUEEN IS DEAD

!!!

chapterhouse 'mesmerise' where they just lounge on inflatable rafts in a pool filled with models.

Vogue. Faster. California Love.

There are no other videos.

There's only one anwser: Rez by Underworld. Runner-up's: Donkey Rhubarb and those Cunningham vids by Aphex Twin, The Shield by Biosphere.

That Neubaten one with the Minotaur in the bog sounds awesome , better than the Dull Historical Society's dodgy sheep epic @@@@@:)

Is early Traci Lords stuff over-rated or what ?

I seem to love all the videos everyone else here seems to hate...the ones with the really trashy, melodramatic over-the-top moments that don't really show up much anymore in videos.

The entire video output of Guns and Roses was fabulous. Especially November Rain -- it has everything: weddings, death, celebrity cameos by VJs and mountaintop guitar solos. What more could you want?

Pat Benatar - Love is A Battlefield. I love how she scares away the thugs with her dancing. It is scary, but arguably not that scary.

Madonna - Borderline. Ever since the day I saw this video I have had the urge to spray paint sports cars.

Duran Duran - Rio.

There are tons of others (I watched way too much mtv as a child) but I should stop there before I destroy my cred even further. ;-)

Hey, I mentioned "Rio" as well, don't give me that 'liking all the ones others hate' nonsense! ;-) Though I will admit mentioning that Pat Benatar video is pretty bold.

Oh, I LOVE 80s videos just for what you said, Nicole: the trashy, nonsensical, over-the-topness of it all. I mean, WHY are Duran Duran running through the jungle and violently throwing around tables in restaurants in "Hungry Like The Wolf"? WHY are Men Without Hats singing "Safety Dance" with a dwarf and an odd blonde girl in a medieval village (and on that note, why is the guy singing the song so seriously, almost ANGRILY?)? WHY are Dexy's Midnight Runners dressed like hicks in "Come On Eileen"? Why does Adam Ant wear psuedo- French revolutionary clothing?

These are good questions but the best question is WHY do bands today not do any of this? That's why a video like California Love is so great, or Rock DJ, it's just a senseless, hi-tech mindfuck and really that's what a video should do (in general).

Which is that Celine Dion video set in a castle, featuring her a floaty white dress hiding in curtains and a ghost motorcyclist riding down the staircase and then falling over in a terrible accident? I may be confusing the latter part with the Puff Daddy video, but I don't think so.

Anyway, that's probably the best VDO (has anyone used the abbreviation ever before? Is it a PRML SCRM thing?).

My more serious answer is the Chemical Brothers' Let Forever Be which is just astonishing. I'd love to see that in a cinema.

Generally innovative, but especially enthralling for the way in which it melds video and film, an effect previously associated with BBC sitcoms like Porridge (inside - video; outside - film. can anyone explain this phenomenon to me?).

Nick! That phenomenon has fascinated me for years! It remains a total mystery though.

And word on that Chemical Bros video, a true work of art.

"All that I Wanted" by Belfegore

Yes! The Belfegore video! Directed by the guy who did "Close To the Edit" for Art of Noise. Good call.

Surely Porridge was filmed too early to be on video. Isn't it more like inside = studio; outside = dodgy outside broadcast?

I should add, if it's not already clear to everyone, that I haven't the faintest idea what I'm on about.

gold soundz by pavement, hands down. band in santa suits eating oreos and running around with toy bows and arrows tyring to shoot a dead chicken. i only saw it once, so details are vague, but there is no doubt in my mind that it was the finest combination of video and sound ever produced. truly sublime.

Anything from The Immaculate Collection (the only actual music video I own), any G'N'R video, "Baby One More Time" (when she does The Move in the hallway is still the greatest moment in video history) or "Sometimes" (the best Gap commercial ever) or "Oops!…I Did It Again" or "Stronger" or the Pepsi commercial (I'd buy a Britney video in a second), "One More Time", "Independant Women Pt. 1", Josie - "Three Small Words". I used to like videos for the artistry or whatever but now I just watch 'em for the broads. Actually, since MTV and VH1 stopped playing more than 8 seconds of videos at a time, I've been pretty much overjoyed by anything. Even a Tortoise video would be great, because it'd make it all the more obvious how silly listening to them is.

Weird thing about the "Gold Soundz" video -- it was filmed here in Irvine about three minutes' walk (less, actually) from where I'm typing right now at work.

Hmmm, there's plenty. I'll echo the 80s thing, be it "Love is a Battlefield" or "Hungry like the Wolf", mainly because they hit me at an age when that stuff made an impression. David Lee Roth's "Just a Gigolo" and "California Girls" also, for their vivid colour and oddball cast.

But really there's only one answer to this question, an 80s video so outstandingly bad that it could've only been made by a 70s relic, and in the audacity of its awfulness it is indeed the GREATEST VIDEO EVER MADE... Rod Stewart, "Tonight's the Night."

Runner-up: Whitesnake, "Here I Go Again" - Tawny Kitean's splits on the car bonnet was/is startling and really quite life-affirming.

1. Hopkins, you make me laugh out loud, you really do.

2. What's bold about mentioning Pat Benatar? I LOVE that video, and the song itself.

3. I'd love to see that Chapterhouse video. For the band, I mean. Not the models.

Tim - video has been around since the 60s for professional use, I think (U-matic standard?).

It's really weird to me how people think they don't notice the difference between video and film. It's actually glaringly obivous and I reckon people just don't think about it. Not to do with definition - a crappy 8mm film is still looks quite different.

Apparently the latest generation of digital filming techniques blur the whole issue (I went to see 'A One And A Two' last night and later found out it hadn't touched celluloid) but I don't understand all that business.

"night of the living baseheads"

"owner of a lonely heart"

"viva forever"

the aqua one on the pirate ship

'My more serious answer is the Chemical Brothers' Let Forever Be which is just astonishing. I'd love to see that in a cinema.'

You can, in May, at the NFT. Five programmes all of music, er, VDOs. Unmissable.

OK, my top ten, that I can think of:

1. Radiohead "Just" (Thraves) 2. Lucas "Lucas With The Lid Off" (Gondry) 3. Suede "The Wild Ones" (Greenhalgh) 4. Smashing Pumpkins "Ava Adore" (Dom & Nick) 5. Cibo Matto "Sugar Water" (Gondry) 6. Foo Fighters "Walking After You" (Rolston) 7. Massive Attack "Protection" (Gondry) 8. Nine Inch Nails "Closer" (Romanek) 9. D'Angelo "Untitled" (Hunter/Trenier) 10. Pulp "A Little Soul" (Hammer & Tongs)

Radiohead videos are generally great, aside from the not one, but two horrible videos that they made for High and Dry. Oh, and Pablo Honey videos are so hilariously awful in a way that could induce nightmares in the very young. So I'll make Radiohead videos a search and destroy.
Search: Just, Street Spirit, No Surprises, Pyramid Song, Motion Picture Soundtrack, Karma Police, Paranoid Android
Destroy: UK and US versions of High and Dry, Stop Whispering, Pop is Dead, Anyone Can Play Guitar, wobbly Grant Gee shot live videos for Optimistic
Bjork videos I used to think were pretty good, but only a few of them still seem good now. And "All is Full of Love" is absolutely brilliant.
I remember being absolutely entranced by Sonic Youth's Little Trouble Girl, and Portishead's Only You. UNKLE's Rabbit in Your Headlights is fabulous. Though I despise the Pumpkins, I love Tonight, Tonight. Let Forever Be is fascinating to watch.
I don't watch TV anymore, though. Haven't seen any recent videos. And it's not as if they show videos on MTV anyway.
Kind of a follow up question though, do you buy compilations of artists' videos if they're made available? I have Radiohead's 7 Television Commercials, Bjork's Volumen, and a Tori Amos video that was a misguided gift. She has not one good video to her name.

None of my answers will be up-to-date and my memory isn't so great...

The Cutter (Echo and the Bunnymen) - on account of Ian McCulloch in that polo shirt; don't remember the narrative that well, but it's bound to be interesting in the way that all videos from the eighties were

Birthday (the Sugarcubes) - on account of how innocent Bjork seemed then and I think there's a part where she pushes back her hair and her singing was more amateurish, in a good way

Our House (Madness) - nice air guitar (or was there a prop?) segment

Twisterella (Ride) - you can dance alone!

I'd have to nominate the first series of Mirrorball (uk documentaries about video directors) -

Chris Cunningham, in particular, Bjork's 'All is full of Love'. Androids getting it on, restrained enough to genuinely tittilate. An up-to-date realisation of genderless eroticism music has been suggesting for decades - eg Kraftwerk's Computer Love. Now someone remake Ghost in the Shell like this (did I mention he's had a Neuromancer adaptation on the backburner for 2 years, apparently he's cracking on with it now). The Windowlicker promo could never come any where near the song, but acquits it's self as a soft-porn Booty spoof.

Anything by Michel Gandry - his blend of lo-res, stagecraft and motion control, has a cunning simplicity, the trickery deftly concealed. I admire everything he's done with Bjork - particularly Hyperballad and Bachelorette. 'Around the World' is one of the few videos that makes me turn the TV off and dance (ever noticed how the video follows the music shot for shot; the different sounds each represented by the groups of dancers.) And the 'Sugar/Water' track, a split-screen visual palindrome that demands repeated viewing (Nice video. Shame about the song). His first feature, produced by Spike Jonze, is being unveiled at cannes as we speak.

Mike Mills - 'All I need' - Air - A documentary narrative about 'real' couple in love. Ambitious, but apt. Shynola - Quannum - 'I changed my mind' - iconic, yet expressive, there's no end to the empathy I have for droids in distress. And the French duo behind Cassius '1999'. Also, I haven't seen the One More Time promo, can it be as bad ILM makes out.

From the 80s - 'Can you feel it' - Jacksons, the size of skyscrapers, slo-mo with psychedelic reverb on the skyline. Extra- ordinary.

"Like a Prayer" from Madonna because no matter how hard she tried later in her life, that video had already broken every taboo that needed to be broken.

I still love watching Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' proto-video. Just waiting to see how and when he turns each placard.

Nick - I am fairly certain that "Yi-Yi" was shot on film.

The video for "Let Forever Be" by The Chemical Brothers is really amazing. It must have taken a warped mind indeed to come up with that video. I can't stop playing it over and over because its just so cool. The video is just so cool, I can't get over it! The transition between the girl's real world and the trippy effect/dancer world is awesome, and then the worlds start to merge as the girl finds things from the trippy world coming into her life, and the look she gets on her face when she's at the cosmetics store counter is just cool. Every second of that video was planned out, and it reminds me of someone on an acid trip, shifting to and from her alternate reality, unable to distinguish what's normal, and becoming worried when she is unable to tell what is a fantasy and what is real. Classic acid trip, although she doesn't look like a user. I can't get over how amazingly trippy that video is, and anyone who downloads it or whatever, I guarantee you will be tripped out for weeks. Awesome.

Let Forever Be is great, but I have a soft spot for all most of the Chemicals' videos, from Leave Home to Out Of Control, but particularly Setting Sun. Also Sabotage reminds me of Spike Jonez' great video for Praise You, and that one reminds me of the video for Gangsta Trippin' and...

A problem here is that all these are videos for music I really like, and I do have to admit that with the sound off, some of them would lose their sheen. So, scrap all that except Let Forever Be and Out Of Control.

The Radiohead videos are great, and thank you whoever mentioned Take On Me. I'm quite impressed with the video for U2's Elevation actually, it's quite smart, and keeps on the whole Good Bono/Bad Bono thing that they've been doing for years. More great videos later, no doubt. For now, some arsing.

Me and Keef were heckling MTV one day when the video for a song by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion came on. We'd been doing that thing where we see some extra who looks vaguely familiar in a video and go "Good to see Kofi Annan still getting the work" or some such. So there was a lot of that in this video, but in between the band playing there were scenes of a bank robbery and the robbers escaping on foot. Which didn't seem to have anything to do with the band singing their song, and looked like it was a song from the soundtrack from some film or other that we hadn't seen. So we looked at the robbers, and tried to figure out who they reminded us of. It took us nearly the length of the video to figure out that they were the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and the people miming and throwing shapes to the song in the rest of the video _were_ Winona Ryder, Giovanni Ribisi and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

I've never seen the whole video for Massive Attacks' Daydreaming, but I have heard that it literally follows on from Unfinished Sympathy, in that Shara Nelson walks up some stairs, sits down, and sings away to herself while Daddy G and 3D have a bit of a natter.

re: Daydreaming vid, that's the 'Safe from Harm' video your talking about. 'Daydreaming' video is b&w affair which is a bit famous for the utterly shite hat 3D wears. By Zeus what was he thinking!

Belfegore.."All that I wanted"..gets my vote..even though I have not seen it in...15 years.LOL

"Safety Dance" and Dead or Alive's "Brand New Lover."

My new favorite...Enrique Iglesias, "Hero". Possibly the most hammy and overwrought acting in a video evah, especially from Jennifer Love Hewitt and a particularly smarmy looking Mickey Rourke.

And I love how Mickey Rourke is supposed to have been beating Enrique with a tire jack, yet all he has to show for it at the end is bloody knuckles a couple of small scratches on his face.

Ooh, ooh, what about No Te Ames by Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony? Surely that's better than Hero - I mean, Hero is pretty fantastic, with all the violence and hamminess and Mickey Rourke, but No Te Ames has Jennifer Lopez sobbing hysterically and Marc Anthony dramatically dying in a pool of his own sickness sweat while they cling to each other dramatically, as if Jennifer isn't smothering little Marc anyhow. And the clothing - are they supposed to be some sort of peasants? Now there's a video, more videos should be like that.

Also, they should be like Lincoln Park's Crawling, with goth girls in glass cages and that one geeky guy who speaks angrily about his confidence right into the camera.

Ooh, ooh, what about No Te Ames by Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony?

I've never seen it -- I've seen maybe 5 videos on mtv in the past couple months. Sounds brilliant, though.

You should really keep your eye out for it, not that it's been shown more than once cos it was so ridiculous. MTV doesn't show brilliant things like that more than once.

Jesus, you would think that someone on this board would have nominated something by David Bowie. "Ashes to Ashes"? "Fashion"? "China Girl"? "Blue Jean"?

C'mon, folks!

Ashes to Ashes is the best video evah. I have already gone on about it in an over the top fashion on ILE, but it has pierrott costumes, astronauts and Steven Strange. Only a coldhearted bastard could not clutch this video to their heart and adore it forever.

All of DB's 80's videos are pretty entertaining, but Blue Jean gets extra points for showing Right Said Fred rocking out...

David Bowie's video output wasn't half as good or inexplicable as Duran Duran's. And what about "Come On Eileen"? Why were Dexy's in hick clothing wandering the streets? What'd that have to do with anything?

I like them both, but Duran Duran have edge solely on the sheer volume of wonderfully daft videos. Wild Boys? A View to a Kill? And these were only their minor league-rs...

But they never did wear a pierrot costume. :-(

Kevin Rowland has always believed that starting a fashion trend was urgent and key, but it has never really taken off. For shame.

I just think it's high time we all started dressing like that again. Ascots and purple and those things that Adam Ant wore = classic.

Arr! I'm a king of the wild frontier! AND a pirate!

But are you a dandy highwayman? That is the question of the day...

I know I am.

Stand and deliver! Your money or your life! *huh*

Just remember that even though you fool your soul, your conscience wil be MINE. MWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! ARRR!

Steve Strange showed up at his American record release party at some downtown NY club on a camel. I was so bummed that I missed it.

I am shocked beyond all belief... I mean, does no one remember:

WHAAAT AAARRRE YOOU GOIIING TO DOOO WITH YOOOOOORRR LIIIIIFFFEEE?"

"I wanna rock! "

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

TWISTED SISTER fer cryin' out loud. "We're Not Gonna Take it"

Other honorable mentions:

• Van Halen "Hot For Teacher" (WALDO! Noone remembers WALDO?)
• Tall Dwarfs ALL OF THEM! But especially "Turning Brown and Torn In Two"
• Golden Shower "Video Computer System" (Italian electronic duo doing great Atari 2600 based video)
• The Smiths "The Queen Is Dead" (Go, Derek! Glad someone mentioned it)
• New Order "Bizarre Love Triangle"
• They Might Be Giants "Ana Ng"
• Art Of Noise "Close (To The Edit)"
• Aphex Twin "Windowlicker"
• Sonic Youth "Teenage Riot"
• The Fall "There's A Ghost In My House"
• Black Flag "Slip It In" (great low budj comedy)
• His Name Is Alive "Are We Still Married?" (by Brothers Quay)
• Negativland "David, Where Are My Cigarettes?"

― Brian MacDonald, Wednesday, 7 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh shit

You feel strongly about those videos then, don't you?

YES

I

do

"come on over" christina aguilera. there's just this one little shake of her tushy she does in those diagonal big check trews (lace up down the side, you'll note!). > i blush & look away <

You are such a superfreak.

when you get here i have incense, wine & candles, i'm such a freaky girl! (the kind you don't take home to mother) anyone see the episode of the A team w/ rick james? that was swell ! (always good to see a crack addict / wifebeater rehabilitated on behalf of a novelty single)

We're not calling "Superfreak" a novelty, are we?

I am convinced that you are some other regular's alterego, you know.

i am calling "superfreak" a "novelty" single because of mister james' rather unusual idea of using rhyming words on top of a rhythmical background to demonstrate his unique "mouthsinging" skills. that & the thigh boots (is that where jessie out of team rocket got the idea???). and albeit, yes "snoom" is "drunk" for "pseudonym" (like you can't tell what my real name is from my email address) no i am not an alias. oh, self esteeem.... plummeting....

Team Rocket sucks ass, why do they even care about Pikachu? He's an awful pokemon, he's like a wussy baby pokemon that refuses to grow up. I'd be all over, like, the ghost mind controlling pokemon, not Pikachu. Are they just obsessing about him cos he's the cutest? That's not the way to win a war, you know. And that hair! Jesse should have a talk with Tuxedo Mask, he has some flash style.

hey, like they're just working for the man (their boss gives me the creeps). jigglypuff is the best pokemon. i like to fantasise about screwing the wee little pikachu critter, though - i get what most guys seem to get out of that "hit me baby one more time" video - oh - such innocence! (minus christpher lambert facials). thunderbolt attack NOW!! oooooh! also for greatest video Madness' "baggy trousers" holy shit! saxophone player in the air! he must be in the x-men or something !

saxaphone attack NOW!

Whoa there. Deactivate those Wonder Twin powers, Gleek.

No one's mentioned "Come to Daddy" yet? You people. That video gives me the chills (in the best possible way, of course). And the little Richard Jameses running around are almost cute. Cuter than the female Richard Jameses in "Windowlicker", for damn sure.