411 Music Ten Deep 9.18.09: Top Ten Videos of the Decade

Posted by Andrew Moll on 09.18.2009

This week, Ten Deep looks back at the last ten years in music videos. From The White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl" to Outkast's "Hey Ya!" and to Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" see what clips rank as the best videos of the 2000s in this week's edition of Ten Deep!


(Disclaimer: All opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of 411 Music and its staff.)


Hello and welcome everybody to this, the ninth edition of 411 Music Ten Deep. It's been a pretty notable week for music, I must say. Just today I received the new Pearl Jam album Backspacer in the mail, so I am pumped for that. And in other news, PAVEMENT IS REUNITING! Seriously, a whole world tour?! This is awesome. This is beyond awesome. Best. Reunion. Ever. I love Pavement, so I am more than a tad excited. Of course, the big news has been Kanye West's takeover of the VMA's on Sunday. I may be the only person with this opinion, but I thought it was awesome. Sure he acted like a jackass, but isn't that what we want from Kanye? To act inappropriately in public situations?

But his comments about Beyonce's video being one of the best of all-time got me thinking of some of the best videos we've seen this decade, and that's what this week's list is dedicated to. But first, let's go back to last week's list of the Top Ten VMA Performances.




this list needs more Guns N Roses.
Posted By: JP (Guest) on September 10, 2009 at 11:18 PM

You and a few others mention GNR. I know they performed a bunch of times at the VMAs and I'm 100% sure it's just me but it seems like they kind of blend together a little bit, excpet of course "November Rain" with Elton and Fat Axl in 2002.

LOL no MJ 1995? That was one of the greatest performances in history, easily the best in VMA history. Slash guitar solo + Billie Jean = Madonna's whole career.
Posted By: John (Guest) on September 10, 2009 at 11:35 PM

Cannot believe you don't have November Rain with Elton.

MJ with Slash on Billie Jean should be here also.

Ill take Niel Young with Pearl Jam and Nirvana over Madonna and Bruce/Wallflowers any day, but I see why you have them rated so high.. nice job.
Posted By: FCT (Guest) on September 11, 2009 at 10:06 AM

1995 MJ..it was the best performance of Dangerous
Posted By: CL (Guest) on September 12, 2009 at 09:54 PM

I may very well be in the minority, but I didn't really like that performance. Perhaps if there had been less lip synching then I would have enjoyed it more. As it is though, it's a good performance that I just don't think quite compares with the ones that I mentioned.

I still wish Britney and Christina kissed each other.
Posted By: Captain Awesome (Guest) on September 11, 2009 at 07:46 AM

You and me both.

What about the Kid Rock/Run DMC/Aerosmith Mashup from the '99 Awards??? That was killer
Posted By: BigChill313 (Guest) on September 11, 2009 at 09:56 AM

Ok I'm probably guessing that you are not a Kid Rock fan, but how can you not put his performance with Run DMC and Aerosmith in the top 5? Personally that's my number 1. Not only did it establish Kid Rock as an artist with staying power (can't say that about the rest of the class of 99), but even the host (Chris Rock) gave props. Rock said, "my god, I guess DMX can't take Kid Rock's Woman."

Rest of the list is ok, but also need Michael Jackson 95, replace Eminem's 00 with 02 White America and Beastie Boys 94.
Posted By: JT (Guest) on September 11, 2009 at 12:52 PM

Great list but mega BOOOOOO for no Aerosmith-Run DMC-Kid Rock...
Posted By: Alex Mattis (Guest) on September 11, 2009 at 02:52 PM

I will admit to simply forgetting about the "Walk This Way" performance. I loved it at the time it happened and, having just checked it out on YouTube, it still holds up pretty well. If I had remembered it then it definitely would have been at least an honorable mention.

And finally, to the few people that mentioned the Beastie Boy's performance of "Sabotage," I couldn't find it online, so I have no opinion on it. I don't doubt that it's a great performance, but I'm unable to comment on it fully.

"After "The Real Slim Shady" he goes into "The Way I Am," a song not as good as the first song"


You probably didn't hear it but that was the sound of my head hitting my desk after reading that. Please explain to me how The Real Slim Shady is better than The Way I Am. I'm Waiting.
Posted By: Bob Maximum (Guest) on September 11, 2009 at 05:42 PM

I don't know. Opinion, I guess? I know I've never been a fan of the "Radio won't even play my jams" lyric, since that is so patently false. But yeah, it's mostly opinion.



Top Ten Videos of the Decade



It's ironic that in the decade that MTV began to phase out the music video that directors and musicians began exploring what was possible with a music video. They ended up creating amazing clips that rank among the best that have ever been seen, even if fewer and fewer people saw them. The ten videos ranked below were all great in their own way, either challenging music video conceptions or just providing an enjoyable few minutes with a good soundtrack. So, before we get to the best of the best, let's look at the videos that were just shy of making the list:


Some Honorable Mentions: Beyonce - "Single Ladies"; Missy Elliott - "Lose Control"; Eminem - "Stan"; Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"; Jay-Z - "99 Problems"; Elton John - "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore"; Nas - "One Mic"; Pearl Jam - "Life Wasted" Radiohead - "House of Cards"; Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Californication"; The Shins - "New Slang"




10. Outkast - "Hey Ya!"


The Love Below. Ice Cold 3000, Johnny Vulture, Benjamin Andre, Possum Jenkins, Dookie Blasingame and the Love Haters. The band that got the girls screaming and shaking it like a Polaroid picture like no band before them. Alright, so maybe The Love Below isn't a real band and maybe they're all alter egos of Outkast's Andre 3000, but there's no doubt the group featured in the video for "Hey Ya!" knew how to party and entertain. I know some of us are just recovering from the song's initial overexposure (I personally have only recently been able to hear it without wanting to jump out of the nearest window), but the reality is that it may be the best pop song of the decade and the video reflects the effervescent energy of the song.

Back in 2003 there probably wasn't anybody cooler than Andre 3000 and it doesn't hurt to have a great catchphrase like "What's cooler than being cool? Ice cold!" that enters the pop culture lexicon. And there's definitely nothing cooler than being onstage and having a studio full of young ladies screaming their lungs out for you like you're The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan stage. The retro feel of the video was a big advantage too, making it feel at times like it was genuinely taken from the 1960s. This was a song and video that would have fit in then just as well as it did in 2003, in my opinion. The video would end up winning Best Video at the VMA's that year as well as being a Grammy nominee, while also serving as one of the last great moments when Andre and Big Boi actually worked together. Positively ice cold.





9. Feist - "1,2,3,4"


It's one of the most fun videos of the decade, and it managed to turn Feist into an unexpected pop star, along with those never ending iPod commercials. Indie rock is probably known for a lot of things, but that doesn't normally include happy-go-luck songs, bright colors, and elaborate colors. Those are the things, however, that make "1, 2, 3, 4" such a great video. When you hear the exuberance in the song, this is really the only type of video that could match the feeling of the song. You need to have lots of shiny, happy people dancing and singing; anything else just wouldn't do the song justice. There's something really refreshing about a video free of any cynicism or anything else that could distract from the good feelings the video gives off.

The colors, the choreography, the production, the continuous tracking shot, they all make it seem like an updated version of a Busby Berkley musical or something. It's not the type of thing you would expect to see in this decade, especially from the world of indie rock. But, like I mentioned before, that's the exact reason why it's so refreshing and why people responded to it. The video ended up being a Grammy nominee for Best Short Form video and became a bit of a sensation, no doubt helped by the aforementioned commercials, but a bit of a sensation nonetheless. All in all, "1, 2, 3, 4" is as fun of a video as you'll ever see since everyone involved is so dedicated to making it that way. I find it tough to believe that a person can't muster at least a little bit of a smile after watching it, and that enjoyment doesn't cease upon repeated viewings. It all comes together for a very memorable and delightful video.





8. Cake - "Short Skirt/Long Jacket"


The 2000s was the decade in which the middleman started to disappear and bands began to get their music straight to the people through a variety of methods. It was with the internet that bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails got the music to their fans immediately without anybody else. But earlier in the decade, Cake did something similar, albeit in a completely different manner. They took their music to people on the street, giving them a pair of headphones and letting them hear the new Cake song, "Short Skirt/Long Jacket." Using quasi-focus groups isn't necessarily groundbreaking, but to record people's immediate reactions and then make a music video out of them? Well we hadn't seen that before. The result was a funny video comprised mainly of people listening to music and wide range of reactions they had to it that also managed to be an incredibly interesting look at music fans themselves.

Cake's trademark bouncing energy is on full display with this song, making it a pretty good choice for a man on the street experiment; of course that's if you ignore the song's somewhat unconventional structure and John McCrea's style of talking/singing. The listener's immediate reactions are really the most interesting part of the video, whether they vastly enjoy what they're hearing, if they have no idea what they're hearing, or if they actively dislike what they're hearing. It's kind of cool that the blonde woman dancing and the guy saying it had all been done in the 1940s are listening to the same song. It just goes to show how no piece of music can be universally liked or disliked. And kudos to Cake for making such a great video and not being afraid to just let people say if they thought the song sucked.





7. Kanye West - "Can't Tell Me Nothing"


I've been a fan of Zach Galifianakis since his ill-fated VH1 talk show Late World with Zach back in 2002. The show couldn't have lasted more than a month, which makes sense considering I was probably the only person watching. But apparently Kanye West also became of fan of Galifianakis' at some point, because he asked the comedian to make an alternate video for his song "Can't Tell Me Nothing." So Galifianakis went the completely non hip-hop route; he went to the farm. Joined by folk singer Will Oldham, aka Bonnie "Prince" Billie, the resulting video is absolutely hilarious while remaining pretty truthful to the song itself. Galifianakis' lip-synching is straight-forward, but the whole context is what makes the video so awesome.





I've been a fan of Zach Galifianakis since his ill-fated VH1 talk show Late World with Zach back in 2002. The show couldn't have lasted more than a month, which makes sense considering I was probably the only person watching. But apparently Kanye West also became of fan of Galifianakis' at some point, because he asked the comedian to make an alternate video for his song "Can't Tell Me Nothing." So Galifianakis went the completely non hip-hop route; he went to the farm. Joined by folk singer Will Oldham, aka Bonnie "Prince" Billie, the resulting video is absolutely hilarious while remaining pretty truthful to the song itself. Galifianakis' lip-synching is straight-forward, but the whole context is what makes the video so awesome.





6. OK Go - "Here it Goes Again"


Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of ingenuity to make a great video, and it's all OK Go needed to make one of the most popular viral videos ever. The band had already done the low-budget choreographed video thing for their song, "A Million Ways," but decided to step their collective games up for their next video "Here it Goes Again." Just like the "A Million Ways" video, "Here it Goes Again" was choreographed by the lead singer's sister and without the band letting their record label know that they were making the video. This time, though, instead of just normal dancing, four treadmills were thrown into the mix. The video apparently required seventeen takes to get right, but it was all worth it as the video no doubt ranks as one of the best, and arguably the most popular videos of the decade.





The video has been viewed more than 47 million times on YouTube since it was posted more than three years ago and that number is absolutely insane. "Here it Goes Again" is also one of the best examples of using the internet to your advantage without the use of record labels. It's actually a pretty simple formula; band makes video, band releases video, lots of people watch video, band benefits greatly. And with the advent of YouTube and similar sites that process can be sped up and experienced more directly for the fan. But the reason people loved it so much is because (like a lot of videos on the list, I'm noticing), is that it's a fun watch. You can tell the band is enjoying the experience and it becomes impossible for you not to enjoy it with them. It's the power of word of mouth, as OK Go created something that people had to tell their friends about and whole thing turns into an unexpected phenomenon.





5. Muse - "Knights of Cydonia"


Take a reference from The Searchers, add in a little kung-fu, a lot of spaghetti western and science-fiction, and also plenty of "I have no idea what's supposed to be happening here but it's still pretty damn awesome," throw it all together and voila, you've got Muse's video for "Knights of Cydonia." Like the song itself, a Rush-meets-Ennio Morricone-hybrid, the video is slight absurd and ridiculous. But that's the fun of it all and what makes the video so cool. Muse have become pretty well-known for their live shows, but this video shows that their music can translate pretty well given the right context. Like with the Feist video, this is pretty much the only satisfactory way the song could have been transformed into a music video; it had to been an over-the-top tribute to films and it most definitely had be to campy and fun. Those aren't terms I would always come up with to describe Muse, but they certainly work in relation to this video.





Complete with opening and closing credits, this mini-movie takes its cues from some famous movies, from that Searchers shot at the beginning to a little Matrix fight sequence thrown in there are lots of little self-aware nods all over the video. I think the plot is supposed to be something like A Fistful of Dollars with The Man with No Name riding into town. From there the good guy looks to save the girl from the evil sheriff, and there are space weapons and holograms and a lot of other stuff I'm not nearly qualified enough to explain thrown in there as well. But none of that really matters since the video works not because of its plot because of the cheesiness of it all. I don't mean that as a bad thing since cheesiness the video's best quality. None of it is meant to be taken seriously. It's simply meant to be viewed and enjoyed at face value, with a few little inside jokes thrown in for those that know. But even if you don't get all the references you'd have a hard time not getting a kick out of the video itself.





4. Fatboy Slim - "Weapon of Choice"


I was reading a New York Times a week or so ago on Spike Jonze, the director of "Weapon of Choice" and the writer theorized that Jonze's motivation for the video was nothing much more than, "Wouldn't it be cool if we made Christopher Walken fly?" But when you have a premise like that, you don't need any more motivation. Before becoming a big time director with Being John Malkovich and Adaptation under his belt, Jonze made his name as a music video director, making famous videos like "Sabotage" and "Buddy Holly." His clip for "Weapon of Choice" quickly joined those other videos as some of his best achievements, based solely on the idea of Christopher Walken dancing and flying. It's simultaneously surreal, enjoyable, fun and crazy, which can be said for all of Jonze's best works.





A little while ago we had some weird cultural fascination with Christopher Walken. I don't know if it was "more cowbell" that started it or what, but soon everybody was doing a Walken impression and he became some sort of cult icon. He of course parlayed that popularity into his accepting of literally every movie role that came his way. The "Weapon of Choice" is probably the height of that fascination, since nothing anybody did after that would be as memorable or fantastical. Having Walken dance throughout a hotel lobby is entertaining enough, but to then have him fly through the air takes the whole thing to another level. The video not only received a bunch of Video Music Awards, but also grabbed the Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video, meaning that you really don't need a grander idea than "Wouldn't it be cool if we made Christopher Walken fly?"





3. Justice - "D.A.N.C.E."


The French electronic duo burst onto the scene in 2007 with their awesome debut † (seriously, pick it up), and one of the better singles that year, "D.A.N.C.E." The video for that song is another great schievement for the band as it made one of the best looking videos of the year, a trip through some Andy Warhol-esque pop art. As the band members' t-shirts constantly change, it makes for a stunning visual and an incredibly inventive four minutes. I honestly can't remember seeing a video like it before or after, with its great use of colors and shapes that are so incredibly vibrant and vivid. Even if you don't like the song itself, you can't help but be amazed while watching everything shift and morph as the song moves along, even providing interpretations of the words themselves.





I know I'm really gushing over it, but if you've watched the video I'm sure you can understand why. Out of all the videos on this week's list, "D.A.N.C.E." is probably my favorite, and not just because it contains arguably the best dance song of the decade. It's the type of video that provides new thrills each time you watch it, rewarding those that watch it multiple times with new effects and images that you may not have been able to notice the other times you watched it, since there's so much available to digest. Justice made a similar video with "DVNO," and a completely different one with "Stress" but neither are as good as "D.A.N.C.E." which has become somwhat iconic in regards to the band's image. Not surprisingly it was nominated for Best Video at both the Grammys and the VMAs, so it's great to see deserving music and videos get their just recognition.





2. Johnny Cash - "Hurt"


No other video ever made has been as emotional or heartbreaking as the clip for Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt." It features Cash, not far away from death, reflecting on his life and regrets through the words of Trent Reznor and accompanied by various images from his life and career. There isn't a moment in the video that isn't absolutely emotional and gut-wrenching, be they clips from Cash's career, the old House of Cash museum, or Cash himself singing the song while seated at a dinner table. Everything we see here is meant to make us feel something that videos aren't usually designed to do. They mainly either act as pieces of art or as glorified commercials, but "Hurt" is neither. It's the last great statement from one of the greatest artists of all-time, his final stand if you will. You can literally see the pain in his eyes as he sings Reznor's lyrics, but they have an entirely new context when Cash sings them and the video makes the most out of that emotion.





The video gave Cash's career a resurgence as people responded to the raw emotion of the clip. You'd have to be made of stone not to be affected by the sight of Cash pouring wine on the table, his wife June watching him as he sings, or the montage of clips that accompanies the final climax of the song. Even Reznor himself said that he cried after watching the video. Never before had people been so moved by a music video, and it served as a fitting finale for Cash's distinguished and almost unparalleled career. The video earned a Bes Short Form Video Grammy, but accolades like that don't really do the video justice. It's more than that or any record sales or artistic statements; it's a tribute and almost an epithet for a legendary artist that deserved to have one last hit like "Hurt."





1. The White Stripes - "Fell in Love with a Girl"


This was a pretty damn easy choice for the best video of the decade. It's the most brilliantly idealized and executed video of the last of the past ten years, and probably longer than that, and also served as the kicking off point for one of the decade's best rock bands. The White Stripes has released two albums before their third album came out featuring this song and its video, and it was the video that made them into stars. It was directed by another guy that would make eventually make his name in feature films, Michel Gondry, the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But very little he does will be able to compare to the genius of this not even two-minute clip, one that matches the energy of the song itself while at the same time providing another example of the music video as a piece of art. Yeah maybe they don't have the same cultural standing as movies or artwork, but music videos can take big chances, which is what Gondry did here, creating an iconic clip that will be associated with the band forever.





The idea sounds like a simple one ("Band playing song recreated by Legos'), and you try to think of why nobody had thought of it before. Then you realize just how painstaking the process must to be to do stop motion animation with a Lego set and see why people may have thought of it before but nobody was willing to try it. But there's not a whole Michel Gondry won't attempt, and the result of his labor was a video that won three MTV Video Music Awards and earned him a place as one of the best music video directors of all-time. Like I mentioned before, it also did wonders for the White Stripes, turning them from respected indie rockers to fully fledged rock stars. They've been one of the most consistently good rock bands of this decade but for many people they'll always be the band in that Lego video. That's not a bad thing because the video is so good that it's still amazing to watch. With each viewing you're impressed at what was accomplishment, and that sense of wonder and enjoyment never goes away no matter how many times you watch the video.



That'll do it for this week folks, thanks for reading. If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know, and make sure to leave your own lists in the comments. I'll see you all next week. And if you're out on your bike tonight, do wear white.