Before MTV launched in 1981, music videos were often an afterthought – promotional clips filmed quickly to avoid constant TV appearances.
But once the dedicated music-video channel hit the airwaves, the format exploded, reshaping how artists presented themselves and how fans experienced music. Rock bands in particular seized the opportunity: the best videos didn’t just showcase a song, they turned it into an event, embedding unforgettable images into popular culture.
The Beatles had laid the groundwork with playful promo films, while later Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ made an unforgettable case for the rock video as spectacle. By the early ’80s, though, artists were thinking cinematically. From David Bowie’s surreal dreamscapes to Talking Heads’ performance-art oddities, from Duran Duran’s globetrotting blockbusters to Genesis’ puppet-filled satire, rock videos became short films in their own right. They could be political, comedic, terrifying, or just breathtakingly inventive.
This list counts down 21 of the greatest rock videos ever made, from pioneering promos of the 1960s to MTV-era classics and beyond – clips that forever changed how we see music.
Greatest rock videos
21. AC/DC – ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ’n’ Roll)’ (1976)
The video for AC/DC’s breakthrough fourth single is iconic for its raw, street-level energy, featuring the band parading through Melbourne on bagpipes and electric guitars. Its unpolished, authentic charm perfectly captures the grit, humour, and determination of early rock ’n’ roll, making it endlessly memorable.
Fun fact: The video was shot in Melbourne’s Swanston Street, now famous as the world’s busiest tram corridor.
20. Prince – ‘When Doves Cry’ (1984)
Prince at his most enigmatic, the video for Purple Rain’s lead single blends surreal imagery, purple smoke, and intimate sensuality, notably in the iconic bathtub scene. Its striking visual style, unusual camera angles, and moody lighting perfectly complement the song’s raw emotion and innovation, making it one of MTV’s defining and unforgettable early moments.
Fun fact: The video was shot in Prince’s own home in Paisley Park, Minnesota, USA.
19. Ultravox – ‘Vienna’ (1981)
The moody, cinematic short designed for ‘Vienna’ perfectly complements the song’s dramatic atmosphere and air of faded Mitteleuropean grandeur. Singer Midge Ure moves through shadowy, smoke-filled rooms, while enigmatic figures in flowing coats and hats wander the streets, evoking a noirish European cityscape.
The lighting, shadows, and artful framing heighten the sense of longing and melancholy, while elegant transitions and lingering close-ups lend a hypnotic air. ‘Vienna’s sophistication and stylistic ambition made it a defining visual statement of early ’80s New Wave.
Fun fact: The ‘Vienna’ video draws strongly on the classic 1949 British film noir, The Third Man.
18. Unkle – ‘Rabbit in Your Headlights’ (1998)
Denis Lavant, French actor and owner of one of cinema’s most unforgettable faces, trudges muttering through a busy road tunnel at night. He is repeatedly struck by cars, but gets up every time. Eventually, he takes off his coat, revealing his bare chest. A speeding car crashes into him, yet he stays upright, arms outstretched, as smoke envelops him.
The video for Unkle’s 1998 single, with vocals from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, is a chilling meditation on alienation, vulnerability, and urban despair. The slow-motion cinematography, bleak lighting, and stark realism create an unforgettable, almost surreal experience, perfectly complementing the song’s tense, atmospheric trip-hop sound.
17. Talking Heads – ‘Once in a Lifetime’ (1981)
One of the most striking early MTV videos, ‘Once in a Lifetime’ turned David Byrne into an art-rock icon. Bookish in bow tie, suit and spectacles, he jerks, twitches, and preaches like a televangelist possessed by nervous energy. Directed by Toni Basil and Byrne himself, the choreography was modelled on evangelical preachers and body language studies, giving it both a comic and unsettling edge.
Intercut with surreal green-screen images of underwater worlds and tribal rituals, the video captured the song’s disorienting themes of identity and alienation. It proved that a video could be both high art – and pop spectacle.
16. The Beatles – ‘Paperback Writer’ / ‘Rain’ (1966)
Long before MTV, before even the concept of a music video, The Beatles were making promo films like those for their 1966 single ‘Paperback Writer’ and its B-side, ‘Rain’. Filmed in gardens and studios, these short clips saw the Fab Four pioneering a new visual form. Their playful camera angles, slow-motion sequences, and surreal touches set them apart from mere performance footage. The Beatles didn’t just invent modern pop music – they helped invent the music video, long before anyone was even calling it that.
15. Queen – ‘I Want to Break Free’ (1984)
Who can forget this mid-Eighties belter? Famously, it features all four Queen members in drag performing household chores – a fond nod to the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street. Freddie Mercury’s strutting, moustachioed charm turns domesticity into camp comedy, while the band’s deadpan expressions only heighten the absurdity. Equal parts satire and self-aware fun, it pokes at gender and societal norms, making it playful, memorable, and endlessly quotable.
14. Michael Jackson – ‘Beat It’ (1983)
A curtain-raiser for the matchless drama and tension of ‘Thriller’ a few months later, the video for ‘Beat It’ is an intense, cinematic experience, depicting rival street gangs going head-to-head in a gritty urban setting. Jackson’s iconic dance moves dominate, turning violence into choreographed spectacle.
The blend of narrative, dance, and rock-infused pop creates tension and release, while the clear anti-violence message resonates. Stylish, dramatic, and endlessly influential, the ‘Beat It’ video transformed the music video into a storytelling art form with cultural impact.
13. Duran Duran – ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ (1982)
Few videos screamed ‘MTV excess’ like ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’. Shot on location in Sri Lanka, it plays like a mini–Indiana Jones adventure, complete with exotic marketplaces, dense jungles, and Simon Le Bon pursuing a mysterious femme fatale. The lavish cinematography and filmic scope are more blockbuster trailer than music promo.
While the lyrics evoke lust and hunger, the visuals amplify them into a tale of obsession and pursuit. ‘Wolf’ established Duran Duran as not just a band but a global brand, and set a template for the jet-set, cinematic style of ’80s pop-rock videos.
Fun fact: Guitarist Andy Taylor had to be hospitalised after contracting a stomach from accidentally drinking water in the lagoon during the shoot.
12. David Bowie – ‘Ashes to Ashes’ (1980)
One of the most ambitious and expensive music videos of its era, the ‘Ashes to Ashes’ video was as surreal, groundbreaking and fearlessly creative as its performer. Dressed as a Pierrot clown, Bowie wanders through dreamlike tableaus: walking with a bulldozer, floating in negative-space solarization, and leading a funereal procession by the beach.
The video reintroduces ‘Space Oddity’s Major Tom – now a strung-out junkie – while surrounding Bowie with cryptic, symbolic imagery. Directed by Bowie and David Mallet, ‘Ashes to Ashes’ fused high fashion, avant-garde art, and pop in a way no one else dared at the time. Less a promo than a fever dream.
Fun fact: The bulldozer that features in the film was found abandoned on the beach.
11. Nirvana – ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ (1991)
When ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ hit MTV, it didn’t just announce Nirvana – it announced the end of the ’80s. Set in a dingy high school gym, with disaffected students slumping in bleachers, the song quickly turns into a riot of chaos, sweat, and rebellion. Black-clad cheerleaders sporting anarchy symbols twirl their pom-poms as Cobain howls into the void, and by the video’s climax, the crowd has erupted into an orgy of destruction.
Directed by Samuel Bayer, the video’s grimy aesthetic perfectly matched grunge’s ethos. Few videos have captured the mood of an era – and killed a previous one – so completely.
10. Genesis – ‘Land of Confusion’ (1986)
Equal parts funny and terrifying, Genesis's ‘Land of Confusion’ was one of the most biting rock videos of the tribal, polarised 1980s. Using grotesque puppets from the satirical TV show Spitting Image, it portrays Ronald Reagan as a bumbling, apocalyptic figure presiding over a collapsing world.
Thatcher, Gorbachev, and even the band themselves get lampooned, and the song’s lyrics about fear and chaos take on a sharper meaning. The surreal imagery – Reagan drowning in his own bed, the band as nightmarish caricatures – made it unforgettable. The birth of the rock video as savage political commentary.
9. Queen – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (1975)
Perhaps the single most influential pre-MTV video, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ remains iconic. Those four faces lit against total blackness, harmonizing in eerie unison, became instantly mythic. Intercut with performance footage, the video was shot in just a few hours, yet its imagery gave the song a theatricality impossible to capture on stage. It didn’t just help ‘Bo’ Rap’ climb the charts – it proved that music videos could be powerful promotional tools in themselves. Every rock video since owes it a debt.
8. The Police – ‘Every Breath You Take’ (1983)
Black and white, moody, elegant: ‘Every Breath You Take’s video captured both Sting’s icy charisma and the obsessive love that fuels the song. Directed by musicians-turned-video-artists Godley & Creme, the minimalist set – just spotlight, smoke, and shadows – was as stark as the lyrics. It became one of MTV’s most-played videos and remains the template for the power of restraint in music visuals.
7. Frankie Goes to Hollywood – ‘Two Tribes’ (1984)
How do you follow up a single like ‘Relax’? With ‘Two Tribes’, a masterclass in politically charged pop-video spectacle. Its cinematic imagery of Cold War tension, literalized battles, and caricatured world leaders amplifies the song’s urgent anti-war message. Combining theatricality, humour, and edgy visual effects, the video turned Frankie’s synth-driven anthem into a cultural event.
Bold, provocative, and unmistakably ‘80s, it cemented Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s reputation for blending pop, politics, and performance art into an unforgettable audiovisual statement.
Fun fact: The two world leaders seen slugging it out were portraits of then-US President Ronald Reagan, and Konstantin Chernenko, then Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
6. Dire Straits – ‘Money for Nothing’ (1985)
Perhaps the defining video of the MTV era, ‘Money for Nothing’ broke new ground with its pioneering CGI animation, bringing MTV-era visuals to the forefront of rock storytelling. The video’s satirical portrayal of music television and rock stardom perfectly matches Mark Knopfler’s sardonic lyrics and slinky guitar riffs. Its blend of humour, social commentary, and technical innovation made ‘Money for Nothing’ a defining moment in 1980s music video history. And those blocky CGI figures have a timeless charm we can’t help coming back to.
5. Talking Heads – ‘Road to Nowhere’ (1985)
Talking Heads videos always blurred the line between art and music, but 'Road to Nowhere' is their masterpiece in this realm. Surreal sequences unfold like visual riddles: faces stretching, rooms spinning, people rolling in barrels. The mood is playful yet unsettling – perfectly echoing the song’s theme of journeying toward an uncertain future.
The juxtaposition of optimism and dread is quintessential Talking Heads – marrying catchy melodies with visual experimentation. In the age of MTV excess, David Byrne and co. turned the medium into an art gallery, using absurdity and imagery to make pop music feel profound.
Fun fact: It was nominated for Best Video of the Year at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, losing out to ‘Money for Nothing’.
4. Pink Floyd – ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)’ (1979)
Gerald Scarfe’s animation gave Pink Floyd’s album, film and tour The Wall its nightmarish power, and nowhere is it more iconic than ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)’. Children march into a meat grinder, faceless drones shuffle through industrial landscapes, and giant marching hammers crush everything in their path.
Combined with footage of schoolchildren rebelling against a tyrannical teacher, it’s both political allegory and psychedelic horror film. Few videos have conveyed such a sense of oppression and rebellion.
Fun fact: The singing children were from Islington Green School in London. The school’s music teacher Alun Renshaw took pains to hide the anti-education lyrics from the headmistress.
3. a-ha – ‘Take On Me’ (1985)
The brilliance of A-ha’s Take On Me video lies in its audacious fusion of live-action and pencil-sketch animation, creating a seamless rotoscoped world that still feels astonishingly fresh decades later. Director Steve Barron’s vision turns a simple love story into a surreal, high-stakes adventure: the heroine is literally pulled into a comic-book world, where romance, danger, and fantasy collide.
The video’s pacing mirrors the song’s infectious urgency, with the iconic keyboard riff and Morten Harket’s soaring vocals matched by inventive transitions between sketch and reality. It’s playful yet emotionally charged, blending humour, suspense, and yearning in a way few music videos had ever attempted.
Fun fact: The ‘Take On Me’ story is concluded in the opening of a-ha’s next video, ‘The Sun Always Shines on T.V.’ music video.
2. Michael Jackson – ‘Thriller’ (1983)
Quite simply, ‘Thriller’ redefined the music video as a cinematic event. Directed by John Landis (The Blues Brothers, Coming to America), it blends horror, humour, and blockbuster choreography into a 14-minute mini-movie, featuring Jackson’s legendary zombie dance and groundbreaking special effects. Its narrative approach, costume design, and iconic choreography elevated the medium beyond mere promotion, making it a cultural touchstone.
Fun fact: Weeks before ‘Thriller’s premiere, Jackson – then a Jehovah’s Witness – was warned by the organisation that the video promoted demonology and that he would be excommunicated. He nearly destroyed the negatives, but was persuaded to include a disclaimer at the start of the video instead – see below.
1. Peter Gabriel – ‘Sledgehammer’ (1986)
No video has ever matched the sheer creativity of that created for Peter Gabriel’s 1986 single Sledgehammer. Directed by Stephen R. Johnson with Aardman Animations, it turned Gabriel’s face and body into a canvas for stop-motion wizardry. Trains run across his head, chickens dance in synchronized time, and fruit bursts into kaleidoscopic explosions. Every frame is a new invention, yet it never distracts from the joyous funk of the song itself.
At the time, ‘Sledgehammer’ was the most-played video in MTV history, winning a record nine MTV Video Music Awards in one night. But more importantly, it showed that music videos could be works of art in their own right – playful, surreal, endlessly inventive. Nearly 40 years later, it remains the medium’s high-water mark, a joyous fusion of sound and vision that no one has topped.
Fun fact: During the week-long shoot, Gabriel lay beneath a glass sheet, filming one frame at a time – on one occasion enduring a gruelling 16 hours without rest.
Top pic Getty Images
