100 GREATEST MUSIC VIDEOS

Released: 1998


Director: Jonas Åkerlund


High octane depictions of sex, drug, and violence-fuelled night outs don’t come much more hyper-real than this, a classic mid-nineties shocker shot in brilliant first person perspective.


Best bit: When you realise, shock horror, that it’s actually a girl doing all the damage.

Released: 1999


Director: Arni & Kinski


A revolutionary video in many ways. Featuring two young boys kissing at the end of a 1950s’ football match.


Best bit: The looks of pain, confusion and anguish on the boys faces throughout.

Released: 1994


Director: Spike Jonze


Hawaii Five-O, S.W.A.T. and Starsky And Hutch all get a nod in the classic mid-90s vid. It’s precisly these kind of dress-up-and-muck-about-in-a-city vids that make us want to form a band, chuck on some aviators and make our own comic promo.


Best bit: The bits where people fall out of cars and off freeways.

Released: 1994


Director: Spike Jonze


Thanks to what was at the time some groundbreaking editing, the slacker rock heroes make a cameo in Happy Days for a retro vid that seemed made for the song.


Best bit: The knowing winks to original cast members and when they get the Fonz dancing near the end.

Released: 1997


Director: Michel Gondry


This was one of both Gondry's and the Foo's finest moments. Chainsaws, cross-dressing, monsters and metamorphases combine for devastating effect.


Best bit: When Taylor sits up in bed and starts drumming.

Released: 1998


Director: Chris Cunningham


The schlock horror director made one of the most strangely beautiful promos with this clip of two robots mating. It’s one countless awards and is even on permanent display at New York’s Museum Of Modern Art.


Best bit: The wide angle shot of the first full-on cyborg kiss as the chorus kicks in.

Released: 1994


Director: Howard Greenhalgh


One of the classic WTF? vids, this promo's playful satire of American family life jars magnicifently with the dark subject matter of the song.


Best bit: When the happy family get dragged skywards into a black hole sun.

Released: 1989


Director: Herb Ritts


Long before hip hop culture made booty-shaking passe in music videos, music vids could be gently provocative and subtly sexual and present nudity in a classy way. This vid was just that.


Best bit: When the couple make out – which is most of it.

Released: 1995


Director: Jamie Thraves


There's a man lying down on the pavement, much to the consternation of the passersby. Everyone wants to know why he’s lying down but he can’t tell them. Enigmatic Radiohead at their finest.


Best bit: When he stands up to reveal why he’s lying there, but the subtitles cut out at the worst moment.