Video History

20 Iconic Videos
From 2012 back to pre-80s, with iconic
videos from the likes of Madonna, Queen,
Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé and
Britney Spears.

Psy
Gangnam Style (2012)
O This video was astonishingly popular and stuck around for
a very long time. What made this video stick was the
dance; everyone was doing the Gangnam Style moves at
parties and everyone was singing along to the chorus
because that was the only lyrics they knew. I think that
makes it fair to say that in this case, the music video made
the song and made it so popular. This video was the first
ever YouTube video to reach 1 billion views and just
recently, his YouTube channel has exceeded a monstrous 3
billion views. The video in general is bright, colourful, flashy
and is so close to being tacky and bad but it scrapes
through as packed full of action (explosions), costumes and
wacky dancers and routines.

Gotye ft. Kimbra
Somebody That I Used To Know
(2011)

Gotye ft. Kimbra
Somebody That I Used To Know
(2011)
O A single reason as to why this video was so incredibly
popular, is to many, unknown. It was simple, it was basic, it
was a man named Gotye lip-syncing in the nude whilst
gradually being painted into the background as ‘Somebody
That I Used To Know’. It’s all the video is and I believe that
the message of being blurred into the background was lost
slightly – I know of many people that have only just
understood that. I think in this case, the song made the
video and not the other way around. The shot is the same
mid shot throughout apart from a few CU’s into the painting
process.

Sia
Clap Your Hands (2010)
O I’m a big fan of this video and it’s ambition and creativity.
The artist Sia often uses very imaginative themes in her
video (before she has used puppetry and shadow theatre).
In this video her face appears in various small puppets like
the koala bear in the last slide. She lip-syncs as two or
three of the characters but some of them are being
humorous and acting out little scenes instead. The back
drop is black to make the near neon colours stand out
more. The use of UV looking colours is very effective and all
of the costumes are amazing which surpass the basic
sceneries. I think the video makes the song (I have the
video on my iPod, not the song) but both are equally good.

Lady Gaga
Bad Romance(2009)
O This was a major video when it came out and was a real
breakthrough for Lady Gaga, whose videos up until this
point had been a mil form of her personality. In Bad
Romance, money was clearly no issue with wacky
costumes, big dance routines and a general theme that
was a bit ‘out there’. This was an introduction to her
personality and her style as an artist. It was a statement
video. It stuck in people’s minds and no-one could get the
song out of their head. It’s hard to know whether one made
the other but Bad Romance was key for the artist and vital
in the new genre of videos without narrative but a strong
visual anyway.

Beyoncé
Single Ladies (2008)
O Possibly the most simplistic video in years. This black and
white video is shot in one place with two dancers either
side of Beyoncé. The costumes are black leotards and
heels and the entire video is the three women performing a
dance routine. This was probably a case of the video being
so popular that the song did well too. Everyone was doing
what moves they could from the Single Ladies routine. A
very simple video that was known even among artists in the
same business as the best video of that year, at least.
http://youtu.be/NUHQpCM7yyY

Feist
1234(2007)
O Feist is an artist that tends to go unnoticed but in 2007, her
colourful and cheerful video for 1234 became a huge hit. It
shows a group of
around 50 people all
dressed in block colours
(purple, green etc). It’s
brightly coloured and
shows Feist lip-syncing
throughout and them all
joining in a dance routine that is oh-so-simple. They play
with perspective but really it is just a nice, gentle, basic
music video. It would seem that less is more. NB: This is
one of my favourite videos of all time and well worth a look.

OK Go
Here it Goes Again (2006)

OK Go
Here it Goes Again (2006)
O Here we have again this ‘home-made’ feel to a video in
which the 4 members of the band (there are no extras) line
up 8 treadmills against a grey background. They are not
extraordinarily dressed and nothing else happens in the
video. This video essentially went viral as the band weren’t
that well-known and this video was, simply, genius. The
idea has been remade many times, even in adverts
appearing on the television. This video always seems to me
like 4 guys messing about and then having an excellent
result to then film. It would seem this way and that no
choreographer was necessary – if you look you can see
them nearly falling over on several occasions.

Gorillaz
Feel Good Inc. (2005)

Gorillaz
Feel Good Inc.(2005)
O The first animated video on my list – but not on theirs. The
Gorillaz only use animation in their music videos with the
exception of a human face in one video. Even though it’s
animated, this video has the animated forms of the band
members lip-syncing and playing the instruments in time.
Something that many modern videos don’t bother with. This
video has a strong corporate identity along with the album
artwork and the general image of the band. These colours
and animated characters stick throughout all videos and
album covers.
‘Dirty Harry’ ‘Clint Eastwood’ ‘DARE’

Britney Spears
Toxic(2004)
O Britney Spears is one of the biggest names in music videos
because everyone she makes is a hit. Britney dons more
than three different personas or characters in this video, all
in different sets, different costumes and make-up and all
with their own separate narrative that seem to interlink at
the end. Something should probably be said about Mulvey’s
male gaze when it comes to the outfits we see and the
random shots to females dancing in underwear. However
this is very much to Spears’ style and she regularly stole
the show and inspired generations of imitators and
wannabes all wearing outfits from videos like Toxic.

Outkast
Hey Ya (2003)
O Everyone born in the 90s or 00s knows the dance move to
this track (my first ringtone on a flip phone). They know it
from the video. It’s a really simple video with the idea that
the band Outkast is playing to a live TV audience and they
end up getting the TV audience to all shakes their hands
(“shake it like a Polaroid picture”) with them, thus creating
this dance move we all know. There’s a strong high school
theme which can be found in this album and in other
videos such as “Roses” but does not extend past this
album – presumably a fashion change resulting in a band
image change. There’s also a really strong colour theme
(green) which has been put in all over the place to keep the
theme going. Lastly the theme found only in their
costumes; jockeys.

Fatboy Slim
Weapon Of Choice (2000)

Fatboy Slim
Weapon Of Choice (2000)
O Weapon of Choice can frequently be found in ‘Best Video’
lists and is a classic. It features the ever exciting and
unexpected celebrity cameo from actor Christopher Walken.
It’s really quite simple – Christopher Walken is alone in a
hotel-looking building before he begins to dance and
proceed to get so into it he begins flying around the room
whilst dancing (all in a suit of course). As it’s a Fatboy Slim
track we never see the DJ or singer, as per usual. In terms
of which made which here, the video and song go hand in
hand on this one.

Daft Punk
Around The World (1997)

Daft Punk
Around The World (1997)
O Around the World is one of my personal favourites. One
room, around 30 people in costume performing a very
simple dance routine in a circle at different levels of height.
Around the world and around the circle the dancers go. The
song is one lyric repeated over and over and the video is
the same moves over and over but it works and is so good.
This one is all about the video.

Jamiroquai
Virtual Insanity (1996)

Jamiroquai
Virtual Insanity (1996)
O Virtual Insanity is one of those videos I remember watching
when I was younger and wondering how they did it. As an
older, A-level Media Studies student I can see that it was
really a simple thing to do. Jamiroquai and a basic room
and three-wall structure stay put (perhaps slightly held up
from above) whilst a treadmill like floor moves around
forcing him to move around and dance whilst lip-syncing
instead of standing still. Given that I can only think of the
music to ‘Love Fool’ by Jamiroquai and can’t actually sing or
picture the lyric ‘Virtual Insanity’, I’d say the video won this
round.

Madonna
Vogue (1990)
O Voted the 6th best music video of all time (no pressure), this
video has been recreated over and over again and not just
by amateurs, such recreations have appeared in televisions
shows like Glee others, it earns it’s ‘iconic’ level. This black
and white video is the epitome of glamour and the era that
ended the 80s and began the 90s. This was a piece of
excellence in terms of editing – each cut and each shot
was cut and placed perfectly in time to the beat. This is a
great video to watch but was extremely high budget and
focuses on glamour, props and costume, but the result is
magnificent.

Peter Gabriel
Sledgehammer (1987)

Peter Gabriel
Sledgehammer (1987)
O This is genius because here Peter Gabriel stands and lip-
syncs to his song whilst everything else goes on around
him. Not just that but it’s stop motion. Something I dreamt
about doing but would never be to this standard. It’s this
simplicity again and it really really works. It’s such a fun
video too and it’s just a little bit zany with a train going
round his head whilst he’s singing. It’s so original and
unexpected. It’s not been done before and I don’t believe
stop motion has been used so effectively since.

A-ha
Take On Me (1986)
O There seems to be a theme of strong narrative and great
story-telling in 80s music videos. Together in Electric
Dreams, Hungry Like the Wolf and this, Take On Me. A short
story with diegetic sound at the beginning and end, a really
tense story that is like a short film during instrumental
breaks that seem to match the mood and a clever and
creative mix of cartoon and real people. It’s an original
story of a girl reading a cartoon and being pulled into the
sketchy world by a man (the lead singer). There’s a real plot
to the video with trouble, baddies and a happy ending.
Although videos nowadays tend to be longer or with more
film at beginnings and ends, none have the same film feel
as 80s storylines (and outfits!).

Queen
I Want To Break Free (1984)

Queen
I Want To Break Free (1984)
O One of the funniest, yet weirdest videos of all time. The
members of Queen struck gold with the least video on this
list (Bohemian Rhapsody) and kept with the slightly odd
theme. Costume is key here – they are all dressed as
women; housewives, school children or grannies. These
outfits have been and will be imitated every Halloween and
fancy dress party throughout history. This track isn’t
considered one of Queen’s greatest hits (not where albums
are concerned) but as videos go it is one of the best, one of
the most creative and probably the second best video they
ever made as a band.

Michael Jackson
Thriller (1983)

Michael Jackson
Thriller (1983)
O Generally considered the best video of all time (although I
do believe some think it is the first – it is not and is about 8
years too late anyway). This was such a big deal and it still
is – after all, it was essentially a short film. The video spans
13 minutes and walks the audience through an entire story
with plot, costume, dozens of extras (all dressed as
zombies), props and scenery. The quality and the
production effort in this is insanely incredible, and there’s
nothing like it and there probably never will be again. The
dance moves also play apart and everyone pulls out ‘the
Thriller move’ at parties and millions of imitators and fancy
dress goers will pretend to be MJ for years and years to
come.

Pre-80s:
The Buggles
Video Killed The Radio Star (1979)

The Buggles
Video Killed The Radio Star (1979)
O This feels like the first video to really experiment and I think
this video is so fun because it is just that. It’s playing
around and seeing what they can do so you can see
examples of video merge that nearly cut someone's head
off in editing as well as filters and cartoon effects over
characters. Overlaying, imposing images on one another.
It’s just iconic as it’s the early editing of a music video and
it’s so fascinating because it’s all about technology and the
radio and video coming in – quite ironic too.

Pre-80s:
Queen
Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)

Queen
Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
O Everyone has seen this video and if not hey know the song, even if
it’s from Wayne’s World. What most people forget is that this is
actually a video of 3 parts or even more and that the majority of
the video isn’t their faces famously in the shadows lip-syncing but
it is their live performance in those fab white costumes that takes
up most. There’s also the effects such as bottom left here and it’s
a 6 minute long video so there’s a lot of room to fill. This video is
very old-fashioned in the sense that early videos were mainly live
performances found on shows like Top of the Pops. It’s also in a
way, kind of ahead of its time with the retro and colour effects that
it uses. I’ts the most iconic video of all time.

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