Day 70: “What’s your favorite music video of all time?”
Wow! I have so many videos to choose from. MTV was there for me as a kid. I saw some of the earliest videos on the channel. I saw video kill the radio star. I saw Michael Jackson make history as one of the first black artist on MTV. Some people try to make it about racism, but it was not at all. MTV was a video rock channel. Slowly it transformed into whatever was hot at the moment. I eventually lost interest. I was not interested in the rap and hip-hop, and I especially was not interested in all the new reality programs. I went back to the radio.
The list of videos that I thought were great visually and the list I thought were excellent songs might be different. Madonna had some of the greatest videos ever, especially “Express Yourself”, “Like A Prayer” and “Vogue”, but my favourite is still “Cherish”. Overall, I love the song the most.
The other queen of video from the earlier years of MTV would be Janet Jackson. “The Pleasure Principle” is a simple video of Jackson dancing alone in a warehouse, but she makes me tired with all her moves. I think “When I Think Of You” and “Escapade” are my favourites of Jackson’s. Where Madonna seems to take herself more serious, Janet likes to have fun and when she does so do we.
Of course, Michael Jackson had some of the greatest music and videos too, but I think his best video was “Thriller”, although now it has been overplayed and turned into a Halloween song.
Many artists ruled the video channel throughout the 80s. Some of the biggest were Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Tina Turner, George Michael, Billy Idol, Prince, and Paula Abdul.
a-ha’s “Take On Me” was one of the most innovated videos, but I was not a fan of the overplayed song. On the other hand Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” album was one of the first albums to have a video for every song. It was amazing.
But my favourite video might not be obvious when you watch it, but here goes, it is Hall & Oates’ She’s Gone from the early 70s. Firstly, the song is incredible. Read the lyrics. Pure poetry and a great use of consolation, carbon, and monoxide. Secondly, the video is so ridiculous that I laugh every time i watch it. MTV was even thought of at the time and hardly anybody was doing videos. It is a classic.
Excerpt From: Scott Green. “397 Journal Writing Prompts & Ideas.” Apple Books.
an ocean roars 
I’d never known that Hall & Oates had such innovative ideas for their music vids. It’s a shame they’re not as iconic anymore, because we all have the attention span of a gnat. Ah well, some of the greatest ones are the oldest!
So true! But it was more of a FU to a television programme that wanted them to lipsync it. They did not want to do it so they sent them the video and it never aired.
Ahh I see – haha seems to me they’re not the only artist to hate lip sync via televised programs. MTV, Top of the Pops – they had it all, and artists resented them for it.