Coming into prominence with the advent of MTV, the music video came to define the music industry throughout the 80’s & 90’s. Bite-sized bits of cinema set to your favorite tune, music videos became a way for a group to engage with their audience through visuals, often with controversial results. Here at EveryGuyed we’ve assembled a list of 10 music videos we think embody ‘style’ more than most.
10) Vampire Weekend: Oxford Comma
East-coast prep done perfectly, with a little Brooklyn hipster-dom mixed in for good measure. The fact that the song is amazing doesn’t hurt either.
9) Fatboy Slim: Weapon of Choice
Three-minutes & Fifty-Three seconds of Christopher Walken tap-dancing in a suit? How was it possible that no one thought of this before Fatboy Slim?
8 ) The Strokes: Last Night
New York owes somewhat of a debt to The Strokes. They exploded on the scene with a look & a sound that let anyone outside the city limits know why it’s “the city so nice they named it twice”.
7) Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit
The music video opens with a closeup shot of grungy-ass Chuck Taylor’s, & for a blistering few minutes serves as a textbook for how an entire generation aspired to dress.
6) D’Angelo: Untitled
There isn’t much to say about this video, since there isn’t much to it. We will say that this video is a testament to proper male grooming & a serious exercise regimen.
5) Guns N’ Roses: November Rain
An insanely epic song deserves a video of equal measure, & the video for November Rain represents all the best – & worst – of post-80’s rock & roll culture.
4) Kanye West: Runaway
It’s a rare thing in this world when a man can actually back-up the kind of insane egoism & bombast like Kanye West can. The man’s a genuis, & its music videos like this that show us exactly why.
3) The Smashing Pumpkins: 1979
If this video doesn’t make you pine for the carefree nature of teen-dom, then you’re missing out on more than just nostalgia.
2) Broken Social Scene: Sweetest Kill
We won’t spoil the video for those that haven’t seen it, but we will say that we’d let Bijou Phillips do whatever she wanted to us. Yes, even that.
1) Michael Jackson: Thriller
Okay, so at thirteen-minutes long, this is more like two music videos, or a mini-movie for that matter. Still, one can’t deny the iconic style this video represents, & the effect it’s had on designers & taste-makers alike in the decades since. We could never pull it off, but to this day we still want that red leather jacket.
Erik Adler
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