Music videos came of age in the 1980s – where promotional clips had usually been perfunctory mimed performances, the advent of MTV led to an explosion of ideas, ambition and – most importantly – budgets. Here are the 15 videos that defined the decade.
The 15 defining music videos of the 1980s
15. The Bangles, 'Walk Like An Egyptian' (1986)
In 1986, The Bangles could do no wrong. The third single from the multi-million-selling Different Light was the US No 1 ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’, a playful pop track which looked to start a new dance craze. Which is where the video comes in.
While most of the promo is devoted to an energetic mimed performance of the song, filmed in front of a live audience, there are clips interspersed of the band dancing in Egyptian finery, a series of shots of members of the public (delivery drivers, paramedics, firemen) doing the ‘Egyptian’ moves and even photographs of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, the Statue of Liberty and – most bizarrely – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, all animated to make them look as if they too are ‘doing the Egyptian’.
But the video might be remembered best for one moment, a close-up on guitarist and vocalist Susanna Hoffs. As Hoffs coyly mimes the final chorus, her eyes shift from side to side, inspiring untold crushes the world over. But Hoffs claims that wasn’t her intention.
"One of the things I used to do to sort of deal with stage fright is I would pick three people in the audience – one person on my left, one person on my right and one person in the middle – and I’d kind of sing to them all night," Hoffs told Planet Out in 2009, "because the camera had such a tight shot on my face, it caught that and it became sort of a 'thing'."
14. Adam & The Ants, 'Stand And Deliver' (1981)
From the first time we see Adam Ant in this video, he means business, preening in front of a mirror while applying his war paint. We then see ‘the dandy highwayman’ leap from a tree to halt a carriage carrying an aristocratic couple (one of whom was Ant’s real-life beau, actress Amanda Donohoe) and perform the most civilised hold-up imaginable.
But Ant isn’t done yet – clearly no fan of knocking, he enters a lavish banqueting hall through the window by jumping through the window. He proceeds to sashay down the table, paying scant regard to diner’s plates. Unsurprisingly, he is apprehended and we see him on the gallows awaiting his hanging – slightly harsh punishment if you ask us, but different times.
But his band of merry wastrels are on hand to save the day and the outlaws gallivant off in search of more loot and fine wine. To top it all off, there’s a cameo from a future pop star – Limahl from Kajagoogoo can be spotted in the banquet scene. Apparently, he was asked to take a bigger role, but he was too shy.
13. George Michael, 'Faith' (1987)
The video for former Wham! star George Michael’s 1987 hit ‘Faith’ was a vital part of him breaking away from his boy band past. Clad in blue jeans and leather jacket, with aviators, designer stubble and a cross earring, Michael looked every inch the ’80s rock star as energetically performed the song to camera.
But, ever the pro, Michael played through the pain on the video shoot, as he told No 1 magazine in November 1987, "If you look in the video, some of the time I’ve got a glove on and other times I haven’t. That’s because I’d grazed my fingers on the strings which were new.
"There was blood all over the guitar so it seemed best to cover the hand up. I do play quite a few instruments on the album – bass and keyboards – which I think helps the album… I play drums as well which I love. I’m going to be the next Phil Collins. Play the drums and go bald."
12. Kate Bush, 'Running Up That Hill' (1985)
Always ahead of her time,the video for Kate Bush’s timeless ‘Running Up That Hill’ was overlooked by MTV at the time, with the station preferring to use a clip of the singer performing the show on the BBC chat show Wogan.
"MTV weren’t particularly interested in broadcasting videos that didn’t have synchronized lip movements in them," her brother Paddy said. "They liked the idea of people singing songs."
It was MTV’s loss, the video – directed by David Garfath and starring Bush and dancer Michael Hervieu – features stunning choreography by Diane Grey which draws upon modern dance while echoing the song’s theme of yearning for closeness and a deeper understanding with a partner.
11. Guns N' Roses, 'Welcome To The Jungle' (1987)
Back in the heyday of MTV, the station could break a band overnight, as Guns N’ Roses discovered. When GNR released their debut album Appetite For Destruction on 21 July 1987, the world shrugged – the group’s bad boy reputation preceded them, radio wouldn’t play them and, as for MTV, no chance.
Eventually, David Geffen, the founder of GNR’s record label Geffen Records, called MTV himself to request they play the video for the band’s debut US single ‘Welcome To The Jungle’. The station agreed, but the slot they allocated was 4am New York time (1am in Los Angeles).
Despite burying the video – a raucous performance of the track interspersed with riots and police brutality – MTV were inundated with requests after playing it, and the video was added to the station’s playlist.
Just over a year after its release, Appetite eventually hit No 1 in the US, where it sold over 18 million copies (it’s estimated to have shifted over 30 million copies worldwide, surely making Geffen’s phone call one of the most lucrative in music history).
10. Prince, 'Raspberry Beret' (1985)
Choosing the best Prince video of the ’80s isn’t easy – ‘1999’ and ‘Little Red Corvette’ were electrifying performance videos that helped him break through to a mainstream audience; ‘When Doves Cry’ used footage from Purple Rain alongside sultry studio-shot footage; ‘Sign O’ The Times’ pre-empted lyrics videos while bringing home the song’s striking message… we could go on.
But the gloriously psychedelic ‘Raspberry Beret’ is our pick – where else do you get to see Prince wearing a sky-blue suit covered in clouds with a fabulously ruffled blouse and Liza Minnelli haircut?
The Purple One is backed by the Revolution, each musician stood on individual podiums while the studio audience dance around them in their paisley finery. And ever wondered what the deal is with the strangely incongruous illustrations that pop up towards the end?
Turns out that after recording the performance footage, Prince commissioned a Japanese animator to make a completely new video, then simply mashed the two videos together.
9. Duran Duran, 'Hungry Like The Wolf' (1982)
Another instance of a video changing a band’s fortunes. Prior to ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’, UK new romantic dandies Duran Duran were struggling in the US.
Turns out all they needed was an utterly ridiculous music video, memorably described by Andy Taylor in his 2008 memoir Wild Boy: My Life In Duran Duran as ‘Indiana Jones is horny and wants to get laid’.
After the scene is set with footage of Sri Lankan streets, we meet lead singer Simon Le Bon glowering in a busy café, paying no attention to the man holding a monkey in front of him. Out of the blue, Le Bon flips his table and takes off, rampaging through a crowded marketplace.
Next thing, Le Bon is being rowed down a river through the heart of the rainforest and crossing a precarious-looking rope bridge. His bandmates begin scouring the streets looking for him. Well, they do at first, then – obviously, this is Duran Duran in 1982 we’re talking about – they get distracted by the amorous pursuit of locals.
Meanwhile, after doing some flouncing around rivers, Le Bon is rescued by a local boy before finally reaching his destination – the rainforest woman he’s been dreaming about throughout the video – and having a jolly good wrestle.
It’s terrifically entertaining nonsense and, most importantly, set the band on course for international stardom – once MTV picked it up, it reached No 3 in the US and won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1984.
8. Run DMC & Aerosmith, 'Walk This Way' (1986)
In early 1986, Rick Rubin, the 22-year-old hip-hop producer behind Def Jam records, phoned Aerosmith’s manager Tim Collins with a proposal. Rubin suggested a collaboration between one of his acts and Collins’ ’70s rockers.
As Rubin laid out his vision, Collins interrupted him to ask a question that feels unthinkable today: "What’s rap?" By the summer, this mysterious new form of music had revitalised Aerosmith’s career.
The success of ‘Walk This Way’ – a re-recording of a 1975 Aerosmith track with crackerjack verses from hip-hop trio Run DMC – was fuelled by its video, a none-too-subtle depiction of the genre barriers being smashed down by the track.
The clip shows the two groups – the grizzled old rockers and the ultra-cool rap crew – rehearsing in adjacent rooms and enjoying a game of volume one-upmanship. When Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler smashes down the wall between them (see what they’re doing here?), the two groups unite.
Next thing, the rival gangs have united on stage together in front of an adoring crowd, with the rappers even joining in with Tyler’s peacocking about the stage.
The video was a massive hit – it was shown twice an hour on MTV – helping the single to reach No 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100, a higher position than the Aerosmith original. By this point, Collins was only too aware of what rap was.
7. Bruce Springsteen, 'Dancing In The Dark' (1984)
Unbelievable as it may seem, when Bruce Springsteen completed his seventh studio album, Born In The USA (y’know, the one that ended up having seven US Top 10 singles pulled from it and selling over 30 million copies), his management told him it was lacking a killer single.
So Springsteen rolled his sleeves up and channelled his desperation into his greatest pop moment, ‘Dancing In The Dark’.
Point proven, now Springsteen needed a video, but the first two attempts – one of Springsteen dancing solo in a dark studio (see what they did there?), the other with saxophonist Clarence Clemons – fell flat.
Enter director Brian De Palma (Carrie, Scarface), who filmed Springsteen and his band performing the song over 28 and 29 June 1984 at the Saint Paul Civic Center, Minnesota. The second night was the opening show of the Born In The USA tour and in the crowd was 19-year-old actress Courtney Cox, who’d been cast by De Palma following an awkward audition process.
"I walked into this big casting room, and all these dancers were there," Cox said in 2017 on The Off Camera Show with Sam Jones. "And I was like, 'I don’t think I’m in the right place because I can barely touch my toes.'"
Despite her misgivings, De Palma cast Cox as one of a group of fans attending the show, but even then, she didn’t know that she’d be the one that Springsteen plucked out of the audience.
"I was like, no. I did not want to be the one to go. I don't want to dance for 30,000 people! It was a full concert and we did the song twice, back-to-back."
The magical moment when Springsteen pulls Cox on stage to dance works so well because the actress is so obviously an overwhelmed fan (check out her sleeveless top) and can’t hide it. That very human moment helped to send Springsteen’s career stratospheric and had fans all over the world dreaming of having their own special moment with The Boss.
6. Queen, 'I Want To Break Free' (1984)
As we’ve seen, MTV had the clout to break artists almost overnight, but the station was also influential enough to derail a band’s career. Incredibly, considering their global popularity today, this even applied to Queen.
While the video for ‘I Want To Break Free’ – in which the beloved four-piece dressed in drag in a tribute to characters in the long-running UK soap Coronation Street – was regarded as a hoot in the UK, it was another story in the US.
"MTV were very narrow-minded," said drummer Roger Taylor in the 2021 official YouTube series Queen The Greatest. "They decided they didn’t think that men in drag was ‘rock’ enough, I guess. So they didn't play the video."
According to guitarist Brian May, the US reaction to the video set the band back years. "I know that it really damaged our sort of whole relationship with certainly radio in this country and probably the public as well," May told NPR in 2010, "That’s probably one of the reasons why this sort of hole developed between us and the States, which was really a tragedy."
Happily, that hole has long since been repaired.
5. Madonna, 'Like A Prayer' (1989)
By the late ’80s, Madonna was no stranger to courting controversy with her music videos, but the brouhaha caused by ‘Like A Prayer’ cost the singer dearly. In January 1989, Madonna signed a deal with Pepsi for $5 million, which included the sponsorship of her next world tour. But when stations started playing her next album’s lead single and title track, there was an immediate backlash.
The ‘Like A Prayer’ video begins with Madonna witnessing the assault of a woman by a gang of young white men, next we see a Black man led away by the police – we later discover he was attempting to help the woman when the police arrived on the scene.
Madonna seeks solace in a church, where she sees a wax saint that bears an uncanny resemblance to the arrested man. The singer lies prostrate in front of the figure and kisses its feet. Miraculously, the statue comes to life and embraces her. Then the video flits between scenes of Madonna dancing in front of burning crosses, performing in church with a gospel choir and cavorting with the awakened statue until she eventually frees the innocent man.
Religious groups were outraged by the video and after intense protests and complaints, Pepsi cancelled their deal with the singer. The following year, Pope John Paul II called her Blonde Ambition tour "one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity."
As tends to be the case, the controversy did her little harm, ‘Like a Prayer’ was nominated for MTV Video Music Awards’ Video of the Year and the single topped the Billboard Hot 100.
4. Janet Jackson, 'Rhythm Nation' (1989)
Following 1986’s 10 million-selling Control, Janet Jackson was under pressure from her record label to follow it up with more of the same, but the then-22-year-old singer had other ideas.
As sessions progressed with her trusted production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the material on what became Rhythm Nation 1814 took on a more political dimension than her previous work, addressing issues including racism, inequality, the media and drug abuse. Jackson ended up co-producing the entire album and writing all but five of the songs.
On completion of the album, Jackson wanted to make a short film incorporating three of the album’s tracks – ‘Miss You Much’, ‘The Knowledge’ and ‘Rhythm Nation’. When she asked her label A&M for a million dollars to make it, they told her they’d need to hear the music first.
On Jam’s suggestion, Jackson picked A&M president Gil Friesen up in her new Range Rover and took him for a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway blasting out the tracks. Jam’s plan worked, as he later said: "Janet called me back three or four hours later, and she said, 'We got our budget'."
The spectacular 30-minute film – shot entirely in black and white, despite label protests – ended with the ‘Rhythm Nation’ sequence, featuring Jackson and an army of uniformed dancers performing in a post-apocalyptic setting.
The song’s powerful message of unity and the groundbreaking choreography helped the song reach No 2 in the Billboard Hot 100 and the album double the sales of Control. Meanwhile, Jackson’s film won the Grammy for Best Music Film, beating her brother’s Moonwalker.
3. Talking Heads, 'Once In A Lifetime' (1981)
While ‘Once In A Lifetime’ was an obvious high point on Talking Heads’ 1981’s album Remain In Light, the song’s video lodged it firmly in the public consciousness.
Choregraphed by Toni Basil (of ‘Hey Mickey’ fame, who also co-directed the promo clip with singer David Byrne), the video featured a suited and bespectacled Byrne dancing like a possessed marionette, his moves inspired by archive footage of "preachers, evangelists, people in trances, African tribes, Japanese religious sects."
"He wanted to research people in trances – different trances in church and different trances with snakes," Basil later recalled in the book MTV Ruled the World – The Early Years of Music Video, "So we went over to UCLA and USC, and we viewed a lot of footage of documentaries on that subject. And then he took the ideas, and he 'physicalized' the ideas from these documentary-style films…
"I set up the camera, put him in front of it and asked him to absorb those ideas. Then I left the room so he could be alone with himself. I came back, looked at the videotape, and we chose physical moves that worked with the music. I just helped to stylise his moves a little.”
Byrne’s idiosyncratic moves led to the video being picked up by MTV (which launched 10 months after Remain In Light’s release) and becoming a visual inseparable from the song.
2. a-Ha, 'Take On Me' (1985)
The extraordinary success of a-Ha’s ‘Take on Me’ shows what a difference a great video can make. The song was first released in 1984, accompanied by a video featuring an unremarkable band performance, and flopped. The following year, the track was re-recorded with a polished synth-pop production and – most importantly – an unforgettable, innovative video – and it became one of the defining songs of the decade.
The video shows a young woman reading a comic book when the heartthrob hero (played by a-Ha singer Morten Harket) winks from the page and pulls her into his illustrated world.
The video’s director Steve Barron later told this writer how he found the inspiration for the video: "I was doing a Toto video at the time in New York. It was absolutely freezing and I was sitting in a pretty grubby hotel room, playing this song on my Sony Walkman.
"After a few hours of ‘what to do?’, this image sprung into my head of an animated hand reaching out of a comic book. It gave me little chills up the spine. If you’ve got goosebumps, you’re onto a good thing.
"It was a comic book from my childhood, villains against goodies in a motorbike sidecar race. That really stuck as an image, but then it needed a story. It was fantasy coming out of the least expected place, a greasy spoon – magic coming through a cup of tea and egg and chips."
1. Peter Gabriel, 'Sledgehammer' (1986)
Former Genesis singer knew his swaggeringly funky track ‘Sledgehammer’ had to be a single. "I think it was a surprise for people who have a fixed image of what I am and what I do," he told Sound On Sound in 1987. His record label, Virgin, were just as excited and agreed to a big budget for the song’s video – money incredibly well spent, it turned out.
Gabriel and director Stephen Johnson wrote a rough storyboard before heading to Bristol, where they met with two groups of stop-motion animation specialists – Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay – to work on ideas. The animators then spent three weeks working on sets, making models and planning the animation.
Filming took place in a warehouse in Clifton, Bristol, and lasted a week. "You had four or five separate stages dotted around the space, filming simultaneously," animator David Sproxton later told Uncut. "You had the claymation models of Peter’s head. You had Steve and Tim Quay doing their animations with wooden objects, fruit and fish. You had Peter on his back, under a sheet of glass, as they moved objects on top and around him."
The results were spectacular, with Gabriel’s face the focal point as chaos reigns on screen – flowers bloom, chickens prance, trains appear from his mouth, fruit dances. The tactile quality of stop-motion animation means that it’s aged incredibly well, and as the age of expensive videos has long gone, it’s unlikely to be matched.
All photos Getty Images / Music video screenshots YouTube
Top image Group photo of a-Ha, circa 1986
