Top 10 Music Videos

A tribute to those music videos that went beyond merely advertising a band or song. These music videos had directors who went to the next level, telling dramatic or comical stories. More than video's there more akin to film shorts.

10. Bark At The Moon - Ozzy Osbourne. In an old English manor, a mad scientist becomes a Mr. Hyde-esque werewolf. He ends up having to confront himself, and beaten, the evil still remains inside the manor. 

9. Amish Paradise - Weird Al Yankovic. This is spoof-master Al at his finest. Not only spoofing Gangsta Paradise, but Amish culture as well. This video shows the comical side of Amish life as they go about their business. You'd think an entire culture would be outraged, but chances are they never saw it, since they don't own a television.

8. You Gotta Fight, For Your Right, To Party - Beastie Boys. Condense Bachelor Party and Revenge of the Nerds into a four minute video. Two nerds left alone decide to throw a small party, until the band shows up to crash it. Then it becomes a madhouse. Just another example of the pecking order of high school culture.

7. Wanted, Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi. This video, shot in black and white, shows the ups and downs of a band on tour. Exhausting performances, plane rides, bus rides, lonely hotel rooms, fan meet & greets, and to get up and do it all over again. A dramatic look at life on the road.

6. Total Eclipse Of The Heart - Bonnie Tyler. Arriving at an all boys boarding school, Bonnie slips into a fantasy dreamworld where her feelings for the students haunt her.

5. Return To Innocence - Enigma. Shot in color and monochrome, this video rewinds a single man's life from the moment of death to his baptism as an infant. As we are born of "original sin" it would be a baptism that was our first moment of innocence.

4. Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.. This video depicts a small moment in life we've all experienced, a traffic jam. We're introduced to dozens of charcters and given insight into their thoughts, feelings, and dispair. No dialogue, other than the lyrics, the characters feelings are communicated to us through subtitles. Poignant and humbling, their problems are real and very relatable. You will shed a tear.

3. Papa Don't Preach - Madonna. While her acting in movies was still sub par at this time, Madonna puts in a powerful performance as Daddy's little catholic girl who finds out she's pregnant. She struggles to find a way to tell her Father, but come what may, she's determined to keep the baby. A powerful stance at a time when abortion issues were becoming en vogue.

2. Take On Me - A-Ha. This was The Matrix of early 80's music videos. A young girl reads an underground comic book at a coffee house and is pulled into that world. She falls for the main character, and they are pursued by motorcycle thugs. He tears a whole into the wall allowing her to return to her world before he is assaulted by the thugs. Returning home, she reads the final pages to see he's been left for dead, but suddenly she see's him breaking through reality to return to her in our world. Just fantastic.

1. Thriller - Michael Jackson. Was there any doubt. MJ put MTV on the map. Plus he understood how powerful music videos can be. Thriller comes in at about 22 minutes, making a small movie out of this production. The video reflects the song as it is a tribute to old fashioned horror movies. Michael becomes a werewolf and a zombie as this is a movie-within-a-movie.