What are the greatest videos of MTV’s golden era?

Summary

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All Songs Considered: "What are the greatest videos of MTV’s golden era?"

Host: Robin Hilton, NPR
Guests: Stephen Thompson, Anne Powers
Date: January 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Robin Hilton is joined by NPR music writers Stephen Thompson and Anne Powers to celebrate and debate the most groundbreaking, influential, and personally beloved music videos of MTV’s golden era. Prompted by rumors (and clarifications) about MTV’s demise, the team embarks on a nostalgic and passionate roundtable: What were the greatest videos from the first two decades of the iconic channel, and why did they matter?

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Record Straight: Is MTV Really Gone?

• Robin recounts headlines of MTV being "officially dead," clarifying that while some European music video channels have closed, music videos continue to air on U.S. outlets like MTV Classic.
  • “The story was that the parent company Paramount had completely pulled the plug on music videos once and for all. ... But the problem with all of this is it's not true. Not entirely true.” (00:39)
• Stephen points out the long history of dire pronouncements about MTV’s fate.
  • “I feel like we've been seeing this exact headline for 30 years.” (00:35)
• Ongoing nostalgia for the original, video-centric MTV is a jumping-off point for revisiting its most lasting artifacts.

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2. Ground Rules: What Counts as MTV's Golden Era?

• Early MTV defined roughly as 1981 (launch) through the late 1990s/early 2000s.
  • “I think of the era beginning certainly in 1981 when it first goes on the air. I think by 2000, 2001, 2. I think we're done.” – Robin (04:54)
• Focus on videos that were impactful within MTV’s context, not necessarily the “greatest of all time.”
  • “We're specifically talking about mtv. And I think it's fair to say we're pretty specifically talking about early days of mtv.” – Stephen (04:38)
• Some consensus classics are automatically included.

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3. The Five Untouchables: Consensus Classics

Robin rattles off five videos so essential they “don’t even need to be mentioned”:

• “Thriller” – Michael Jackson

• “Take On Me” – A-ha

• “Sledgehammer” – Peter Gabriel

• “Money for Nothing” – Dire Straits

• “Video Killed the Radio Star” – The Buggles

  • “You have to include it whether it's great video or not, because it's too important. It's like the title track of mtv.” – Anne, about "Video Killed the Radio Star" (06:01)

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4. Personal Picks & Why They Mattered

a. "Take On Me" – A-ha

• Stephen’s #1 pick: technical innovation (animated/live action hybrid), aspirational stardom.
  • “Not only is it a great song … it still looks amazing ... I wanted to look like Morten Harket more than I wanted anything else in the world.” (07:09)

b. "Nothing Compares 2 U" – Sinead O’Connor

• Anne: Simplicity and pure emotion; the radical power of a close-up.
  • “It shows you how simplicity can be so radical. Right. And so effective.” (09:03)

c. "Rhythm Nation" – Janet Jackson

• Robin: The zenith of dance in music video, a “masterclass.”
  • “I think, to this date, greatest dance video of all time. I have pulled this video up just to show my kids … Watch this Janet Jackson video from 30, 35 years ago.” (11:46)

d. "Brass in Pocket" – The Pretenders

• Anne: Early storytelling and representation, 7th video ever played on MTV.
  • “It was one of the early examples of storytelling in these videos—you're getting an entire little movie in about three minutes.” – Robin (20:08)

e. "Addicted to Love" – Robert Palmer

• Stephen: Masculinity templates—suavity, iconic imagery.
  • “This was a picture of suavity. … There were many versions of that, none of which I could possibly attain.” (22:23)

f. "Freedom! 90" – George Michael

• Robin: The allure and aspiration of that era.
  • “There was this whole universe that I wished I could live in and be. … No video made me feel smaller and make me want more than George Michael’s Freedom 90.” (22:49)

g. "Human Behaviour" – Björk (dir. Michel Gondry)

• Anne: Surrealism and artistry in the MTV era.
  • “Björk, in that it's both magical and you want to enter that realm. But in her Icelandic way, she's always like, look, bears are cool, but they will eat you. And I think that's an important message.” (26:15)

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5. MTV’s Formative Power: Personal Origin Stories

• Stephen: Seeing “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by the Eurythmics (14:43), obsessively tracking pop charts.
  • “I basically immediately became obsessed with pop music.” (15:29)
• Robin: First video ever seen was “Mickey” by Toni Basil, in a Kansas City hotel (18:16).
• Anne: Experiencing an MTV preview at a festival, reinforcing the channel’s mythic allure. (17:19)

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6. Other Icons & Cultural Shifts

• The Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket”: illustrating early video storytelling, the desire to “be seen.”
• “Twisted Sister” – “We’re Not Gonna Take It” & “I Wanna Rock”: camp, rebellion, “seared into my brain in a way that … I will forget members of my family before I forget these videos.” – Stephen (27:38)
• “Rocket” – Herbie Hancock: robots, surrealism, hip-hop on MTV.
• “Nothing But a G Thang” – Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg: MTV as window into Black culture, LA, and hip-hop’s everyday life.
  • “It is just these guys driving through South Central, going to a barbecue ... completely puts you into that milieu.” – Anne (33:12)
• “Sabotage” – Beastie Boys (dir. Spike Jonze): parody and style.
  • “It is a perfect marriage of amazing song, hilarious, amazing visuals.” – Stephen (35:32)
• “Weapon of Choice” – Fatboy Slim (dir. Spike Jonze, starring Christopher Walken): signals the end of MTV’s truly golden video era.

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7. Innovation & Directors

Discussion highlights the role of major filmmakers who cut their teeth on music videos:

• David Fincher (“Freedom! 90”)
• Michel Gondry (“Human Behaviour”)
• Jonathan Glazer (“Virtual Insanity”)
• Hype Williams (Missy Elliott)
• Spike Jonze (Beastie Boys, Fatboy Slim)

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8. Final Top 20 (+3 Tie-breakers)

Consensus Top 20 MTV Golden Era Videos (in the order mentioned):

1. Thriller – Michael Jackson
2. Take On Me – A-ha
3. Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel
4. Money for Nothing – Dire Straits
5. Video Killed the Radio Star – The Buggles
6. Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinead O’Connor
7. Rhythm Nation – Janet Jackson
8. Brass in Pocket – The Pretenders
9. Addicted to Love – Robert Palmer
10. Freedom! 90 – George Michael
11. Human Behaviour – Björk
12. We’re Not Gonna Take It/I Wanna Rock – Twisted Sister
13. Rocket – Herbie Hancock
14. Nuthin’ But a 'G' Thang – Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg
15. Sabotage – Beastie Boys
16. Weapon of Choice – Fatboy Slim
17. The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) – Missy Elliott
18. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
19. Virtual Insanity – Jamiroquai

Final slot (tie among):

• Where the Streets Have No Name – U2
• Losing My Religion – R.E.M.
• Kiss – Prince & The Revolution

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Reality of MTV’s Demise:
  “The problem with all of this is it's not true. Not entirely true.” – Robin (01:05)
• On Early MTV’s Appeal:
  “We thought we had landed on another planet. … Everything about it was mind blowing because not only did I start hearing all of these songs for the first time, I started seeing what the artists looked like.” – Robin (18:30)
• On the Power of Simplicity in Sinead O’Connor’s Video:
  “It’s as simple as it gets. But man, it shows you how simplicity can be so radical.” – Anne (09:03)
• On Janet Jackson’s Dance Masterclass:
  “If you want to know about dance and how music and dance intersected in the 80s and the 90s, this is where you’re going to find the masterclass.” – Anne (12:31)
• Reflecting Generational Impact:
  “I was surrounded by great music as a little kid, but it wasn't mine. Watching MTV, it suddenly became mine.” – Stephen (15:40)
• On the Denial of Coolness in "Kiss":
  “There is a gigantic number one hit single in which someone says, you don’t have to be rich, you don’t have to be cool. … God bless that man.” – Stephen (52:08)
• On Omitted Videos:
  “We left out literally thousands… I’m sure everyone is going to disagree with all of our picks, and there’s so many things that we didn’t include. ... You could fill an entire filing cabinet with all the ones we’ve gotten so far.” – Robin (53:23)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• MTV’s “death” and the real story: 00:15–03:10
• Setting ground rules for their choices: 03:34–04:54
• The untouchable five: 05:04–05:57
• Personal picks and explanations begin: 06:12–
• Origin stories: hosts’ first MTV experiences: 14:25–19:05
• Notable directors/future filmmakers: 24:54–25:17, 30:07–31:24
• MTV’s impact on identity and culture: 22:49–24:43
• Final tie-breaker and closing thoughts: 46:52–53:46

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Tone & Style

The conversation is nostalgic, enthusiastic, and peppered with personal anecdotes, warm banter, and irreverent asides. The hosts’ selections reflect both cultural significance and personal resonance, remaining true to the mixtape spirit of golden-age MTV—part curatorial, part confession.

Transcript

[Announcer]

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[Robin Hilton]

The end of this past year, I was seeing. I started seeing these headlines, you probably saw them, too, that said that basically MTV was over, that after years of drifting away from showing videos, it had finally decided that it was just going to stop broadcasting any music videos at all.

[Stephen Thompson]

I feel like we've been seeing this exact headline for 30 years.

[Anne Powers]

I know.

[Robin Hilton]

I mean, we've certainly been moving in this direction, but the story was that the parent company Paramount had completely pulled the plug on music videos once and for all. In some cases, there were these stories. I saw one headline that said, after 44 years, MTV is officially dead. And I was completely shocked. I mean, I mean, I knew, where.

[Stephen Thompson]

Am I gonna see 120 hours of ridiculousness?

[Robin Hilton]

Ridiculousness. The problem with all of this is it's not true. Not entirely true. What really happened is MTV has shut down about a half a dozen, five or so of its music channels in the UK. In Europe, they did go dark on December 31st, but in the US and Canada, not a lot has changed, at least yet you can still get videos on the MTV Classic channel, the MTV flagship channel, the main MTV channel. Best I can tell, if you go and look at the. It'll show you like the TV Guide for what's showing. It's nothing but ridiculous.

[Stephen Thompson]

It will literally say ridiculous. Ridiculous, Ridiculousness, Ridiculousness.

[Anne Powers]

And.

[Stephen Thompson]

And I did account at one point during one of the many, many, many pieces I have done for NPR over the years about the death of mtv.

[Anne Powers]

Right.

[Stephen Thompson]

And one of the last times I did one of those pieces, I counted, and there are 168 hours in a week, and 110 of those hours were taken up by ridiculousness.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, my gosh, I've never even seen that show.

[Anne Powers]

I literally thought you guys were using ridiculousness as sort of a general term.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, so that's the flagship channel, MTV2. As far as I can tell, it only shows the Wayans Brothers, the French Prince of Bel Air, and Catfish, the TV show. But the MTV Classic Channel, though, it does show lots of videos. That said, it's honestly, it's very hard to get a clear picture of exactly where things stand. I asked NPR music reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento to kind of poke around and see what she could find out. And the long and the short of it is that Paramount is reviewing its portfolio, but there are no specific Plans to either end videos or bring them back. I actually saw one story this week that said David Ellison, the head of Paramount, was like, he wants to bring MTV back. According to at least, like, the Hollywood Reporter.

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, there is definitely a push in this country to make it the 1980s again.

[Anne Powers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

David. Throwing fastballs, throwing heat here.

[Anne Powers]

So true, so true.

[Robin Hilton]

So very much up in the air. But this got us thinking about what a huge impact MTV has had on our lives, Especially early on on the industry, on bands. Just big influence. And we thought, while we still can, let's celebrate MTV on this episode of All Songs Considered. I'm Robin Hilton, NPR Music's. And Powers. Stephen Thompson here. That was a very long setup.

[Stephen Thompson]

That was a very long intro. It's kind of like, have you ever watched a movie and then, like, feel 15 minutes into the movie they suddenly drop a title card?

[Robin Hilton]

Well, so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna make a list of our top 20 videos. We can call these the greatest videos. The most influential, the most groundbreaking, whatever. Maybe ones that just meant a lot to us. We can take turns here. We'll each add a video to the list, and when we hit 20, we'll just stop.

[Stephen Thompson]

I cannot tell you, dear listener, how haphazard this process is.

[Anne Powers]

But, you know, I just had to sit down for five minutes and open up my memory bank. Cause MTV definitely was formative for me.

[Stephen Thompson]

Oh, me too.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, absolutely. I said, like, yeah, it took me five minutes to, off the top of my head, make a list of about 30 videos that we could choose from. I will say that I think that there are five videos. I counted five. Five videos that we just don't even need to bother to mention because they're so indisputable.

[Stephen Thompson]

I want to stress up front. I'm sorry to interrupt you, Robin, but we have to stress up front. This is not a discussion of the greatest music videos of all time.

[Robin Hilton]

Right.

[Anne Powers]

No.

[Stephen Thompson]

Before you sit down at your keyboards, like, how could you forget Single ladies? Parentheses put a ring on it by Beyonce. How dare you. Maybe we will talk about. Cause it's a great video. This is. We're specifically talking about mtv. And I think it's fair to say we're pretty specifically talking about early days of mtv.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, I think maybe. I think of the era beginning certainly in 1981 when it first goes on the air. I think by 2000, 2001, 2. I think we're done.

[Anne Powers]

Okay.

[Robin Hilton]

I'm thinking of the era where you could just turn on mtv like you would turn on the radio and maybe you'll find something because it's just. It's just showing stuff all the time. All right, so the five videos. Five videos that I think we don't even need to bother to mention. Number one, and these aren't necessarily ranked, but number one, Thriller. We don't need to mention Thriller. Everyone knows Thriller's amazing.

[Anne Powers]

Exactly.

[Robin Hilton]

Take On Me, Rachel. Sledgehammer.

[Anne Powers]

Yes, sorry.

[Robin Hilton]

Groundbreaking Sledgehammer. All right, here's where we might split these last two. I'm gonna say money for nothing. Oh, it was groundbreaking digital animated video for its time. It included the Sting feature, which was crazy at the time. Sting singing I want my mtv. I'm gonna say that one. And then I'd say number five. I would go with video. Kill the radio star. There are better, better videos.

[Stephen Thompson]

This is the first equals best.

[Robin Hilton]

Yes, exactly.

[Stephen Thompson]

That's the first video ever played on mtv.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

You have to include it whether it's great video or not, because it's too important.

[Anne Powers]

It's like the title track of mtv.

[Stephen Thompson]

I do think before we do this, since Robin just listed what he considers the five greatest, we should go around the table. What is your personal greatest? What would you say is the greatest?

[Robin Hilton]

All right, well, let's start with that because those will go on this top 20, right?

[Guest Singer]

Okay.

[Stephen Thompson]

Yeah. My number one video. You mentioned it in that list. For me, the number one best video of all time is Take On Me by Aha.

[Guest Singer]

I don't know what to say. I'll say it anyway. Today is another day to find you shying away I've been coming for your love okay. Take on me Take on me Take me on Take on me I.

[Stephen Thompson]

Not only is it a great song, not only is it full of 80s signifiers, it still looks amazing. It has this interaction of like video and pencil drawn animation. That still looks incredible. And as far as you know, we're going to be talking a lot. I think about our childhoods and our teen years here. I wanted to look like Morton Harkett more than I wanted anything else in the world. And I still sort of suck in my cheeks when pictures are taken of me. To try to create the illusion. I noticed that to try to create the illusion of cheekbones.

[Robin Hilton]

I didn't realize that you could look.

[Stephen Thompson]

So that I could look like Morton Harkin. So that I could look like Morton Harken of Aha.

[Robin Hilton]

That's funny because that whole idea of I wish I were that person in the video came up many times for me when I was Looking through this.

[Stephen Thompson]

Absolutely.

[Robin Hilton]

But now you've got me.

[Anne Powers]

I never felt that. I never knew. I knew. I. When. When am I gonna be Janet Jackson?

[Stephen Thompson]

It's just not gonna happen.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, now you've got me rethinking the top 20 here. Why don't we just throw these five that I've mentioned on the list? We don't need to go any deeper on them. And we'll do. And we'll add 15 more to it. How about that?

[Stephen Thompson]

Okay.

[Anne Powers]

All right. Okay.

[Robin Hilton]

All right, Anne, you're up. What do you wanna add to the list?

[Anne Powers]

Well, I feel like mine is a big departure from what you were saying, Steven. Cause it's really not about visual innovation, but it is about the most compelling performance and the most compelling image on MTV ever. And that is Sinead o' Connor's video for Nothing Compares to you.

[Robin Hilton]

You took one of my picks.

[Stephen Thompson]

Great choice.

[Robin Hilton]

Yes.

[Guest Singer]

It's been seven hours and 50 days.

[Anne Powers]

Since you took your love away.

[Guest Singer]

I go out every night and sleep all day.

[Anne Powers]

Since you took your love. First of all, Sinead is my girl. I mean, RIP Love you forever. Second of all, that video directed by John Mabry, who went on to make films about Francis Bacon and Dylan Thomas, really notable British film director. It's as simple as it gets. But man, it shows you how simplicity can be so radical. Right. And so effective.

[Robin Hilton]

It's nothing but. Well, essentially nothing but a super tight close up of her face as she's singing the song.

[Anne Powers]

Exactly. And those eyes.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, she's like strolling through a park I think in Paris or something at some point. But really, it's just that how much.

[Stephen Thompson]

That tight closeup on her face sells that, that song and that performance and how much the two are intertwined in a way that when you hear Nothing Compares to you on the radio, you picture Sinead Oconnors face exactly as she sings it. Like that video does so much work with such as you said, simplicity won.

[Robin Hilton]

Three MTV awards, including Video of the Year. Video of the Year. You know what she was up against that year?

[Anne Powers]

19. 1990.

[Robin Hilton]

Vogue.

[Stephen Thompson]

Oh, Vogue by Madonna.

[Robin Hilton]

She was up against Madonna's Vogue and still won Video of the year.

[Anne Powers]

And that's fascinating because Madonna's Vogue is also a close shot. I mean, part of it, it's also got the dancing, but it's got the close up shots of Madonna's face.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, that was a huge one for me. It was definitely on my list as well. And that was a. I remember where I was when I first saw it video. It was 4:30 in the morning on a little black and white TV that we kept in the studio at the radio station, the member station where I worked. And I showed up to do the newscasts first thing in the morning. I turned on the TV that was on and I just. It immediately captivated me. All right, I'm going to add one right here at the top because if I don't, someone else is going to take it and I want to be the one who picks it. Rhythm Nation, Janet Jackson.

[Guest Singer]

5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Let's work together to improve our way of life.

[Robin Hilton]

So shot in black and white in this steamy industrial sort of factory or warehouse or something. It's Janet, her dancers, they're all dressed in these black military uniforms. It's very dystopian. There's some kid who's watching from kind of in the shadows. The whole thing. I think, to this date, greatest dance video of all time. I have pulled this video up just to show my kids, like, you know, you want to see great dancing? Watch this Janet Jackson video from 30, 35 years ago.

[Anne Powers]

Do you guys then do the dance? Do you make them do the.

[Robin Hilton]

Do you have a little 4, 3, 2, 1, boom. Best moment. I struggle to pick the best moment, but it's either that first drop when they first kick into the dancing.

[Anne Powers]

Absolutely.

[Robin Hilton]

Or that little breakdown at the end where it's just kind of an instrumental.

[Anne Powers]

And I love it. And I'm so glad you picked that one because dance is so key to video, to music video. It's so key to early mtv. I mean, we, we love the narrative ones. We love the animated etc. The sledgehammers and the aha. But if you want to know about dance and how music and dance intersected in the 80s and the 90s, this is where you're going to find the masterclass, the lesson, the encyclopedia.

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Comes from BetterHelp President Fernando Madera shares BetterHelp's commitment to expanding access to therapy.

[Robin Hilton]

Our State of Stigma report helped us understand that believing in mental health is easy, but asking for help is not. Now, with the report on our hands, we can work to make mental health care more accessible.

[Fernando Madera]

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[Robin Hilton]

Month do you all remember when you first saw MTV? Like, the very first time you heard of it and you turned it on and saw it for the first time?

[Stephen Thompson]

Literally one of the most formative moments of my entire youth. So MTV was born on my ninth birthday.

[Robin Hilton]

That's right. August 1st.

[Stephen Thompson]

August 1st, 1981. My family got cable in in 1983, and I remember, like, hungrily turning on, you know, like, flipping stations of this incredible new banquet of TV programming that I suddenly had access to, hitting MTV for the very first time and hitting Sweet Dreams are made of this.

[Guest Singer]

That was the first five Eurythmics. Sweet dreams are made of the years. Who am I to disagree? I travel the world and the seven seas Everybody's looking for something.

[Stephen Thompson]

First video I ever saw, I was 11 years old, and I basically immediately became obsessed with pop music.

[Guest Singer]

Oh, really?

[Stephen Thompson]

Absolutely. Soon thereafter, I mean, I have an older sister. She played a lot of the Ramones and Blondie and all the. I was surrounded by great music as a little kid, but it wasn't mine. And watching mtv, it suddenly became mine.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, that's the thing. MTV got me into so much stuff.

[Stephen Thompson]

That I never would have gotten into so much stuff. And I immediately gravitated to Every Sunday. I started listening to Casey Kasem's American Top 40, followed immediately by Rick D's weekly Top 40. Of course, I transcribed them in spiral bound notebooks, which I still have, and it'd be like Phil Collins in this, like, cursive handwriting. I no longer have Phil Collins called Separate Lives featuring Marilyn Martin. Just like, would, like, painstakingly transcribe the artist and song title. I currently write about the Billboard charts for npr. I mean, this was.

[Anne Powers]

You were made. It was all laid out in front of you.

[Stephen Thompson]

It was all laid out in front of me the second I turned on MTV in 1983 and saw Sweet Dreams Are Made of this by the Eurythmics.

[Anne Powers]

Okay, I have a great origin story, too, but it's very different from that. December 7, 1982, I guess, is when it was, there was this thing called the 1983 Wave Spectacular. There was a concert, there was a big festival, and, like, Wall of Voodoo played and Oingo Boingo and. And so I was, I guess, like in high school, right. And walking to the arena to see the bands. We walked through this corridor, and in the corridor were all these TVs, and they were showing the very first preview iteration of mtv.

[Stephen Thompson]

Man, I'm so jealous. I'm so jealous that you got to hear.

[Anne Powers]

So jealous that I'm so old.

[Stephen Thompson]

You got to hear. Well, you also. I also lived in the Seattle area. I lived in Iola, Wisconsin.

[Anne Powers]

That's true.

[Stephen Thompson]

Like, at the nearest college radio station. WWSP in Stevens Point was just outside my reach.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, I mean, that was my experience, too. Mine's closer to Steven's in the. MTV had been around for a little while, what, a couple years or so? Year and a half. But before it ever got piped into my town via cable. However, in 1981, not long after it launched, I went to a relative's, like, an aunt's wedding in Kansas City. And we stayed at a hotel. Yeah. And the hotel had mtv. And I remember my brother and I, like, sprinting to the television. We got in the room and turning it on because we thought, I bet they have MTV here, this thing we'd been hearing on. And I remember my first video, too. It was Tony, Basil, Mickey.

[Stephen Thompson]

Mickey, for sure.

[Robin Hilton]

We thought we had landed on another planet. It was unbelievable. Just such a lifeline. I mean, it just. It connected especially. I don't think people really think that much about isolated towns and communities where you just. You only got what was on the radio. And the radio was usually, like. Where I grew up, it was like Christian contemporary or country. There was a top 40 station that we could kind of get in, you know, and this was. Everything about it was mind blowing because not only did I start hearing all of these songs for the first time, I started seeing what the artists look like.

[Guest Singer]

Right?

[Anne Powers]

Yes. Well, that makes me want to share another one of my favorites for our list. This is kind of a left fielder, but I wanted to nominate Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders. So that video was like the seventh played video on mtv, you know, it was like number seven in the lineup or something.

[Guest Singer]

Got this in pocket Got the dough I'm gonna use it Intention I'm feeling my tail Gonna make you, make you, make you more 10.

[Anne Powers]

She plays a waitress Chrissy Hine plays a waitress.

[Robin Hilton]

I remember it. Yeah, yeah.

[Anne Powers]

And then the band and she's singing this song which is all about like, I'm special, please notice me. And so it's very simple. It's like just a little scenario acted out, but also such a great song.

[Robin Hilton]

I didn't realize that was one of the very first videos. Did you say it was really like in the. One of the first 10?

[Anne Powers]

Yeah, it was in the very first playlist because the song predated mtv, you know.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, yeah, that was true of a lot of those very first videos. But the thing that is, is really cool about that video and why I'm totally happy to see it on the list is it was one of the early examples of storytelling in these videos that, like, you're getting an entire little movie in about three minutes.

[Anne Powers]

Yep, yep.

[Stephen Thompson]

Stephen, I'm gonna pick a song here, but I also want to pick a topic.

[Robin Hilton]

Okay.

[Stephen Thompson]

And that is Portraits of Masculinity.

[Robin Hilton]

Are you gonna go with White Snake?

[Stephen Thompson]

White Snake Extreme More than words in the 1980s. And what sort of models of masculinity to pockmarked 13 year old boys watching?

[Anne Powers]

Okay, just pick Motley Crue.

[Stephen Thompson]

So I'm just gonna list several of the louche weirdos that you had from which you could take your pick. Right. You could be David Lee Roth, Fun loving horn dog.

[Anne Powers]

Yes.

[Stephen Thompson]

You could be Tom Petty. Kind of top hatted mad scientist. Yeah, mad scientist. You could be.

[Robin Hilton]

Can I just say quickly, every single touchstone you're saying you said Tom Petty and you said top hat. I said don't come around here no more. And Angela said mad scientist. And I thought she blinded me with science. Thomas Goldie.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, there you go.

[Stephen Thompson]

See, you know, you certainly had your. You certainly had your male sex symbols, your George Michaels, your Simon Le Bonds, but also your dudes from ZZ Top.

[Anne Powers]

Yes.

[Stephen Thompson]

Your Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. I want to talk about Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, well, that's.

[Robin Hilton]

I knew someone was going to go with that.

[Anne Powers]

That's a template, man.

[Guest Singer]

You can't sleep, you can't eat. There's no doubt you're empty. Your throat is tight, you can't breathe. Another kiss is all you need. Oh, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff. Oh, yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

You wanted to be Mr. Suave in a suit. That was so cool, Right?

[Stephen Thompson]

This was a picture of suavity. You know, you had. And there were many pictures of suavity, right. There was Robert Palmer, there was Bryan Ferry, there were Duran Duran, Simon Le Bon. There were many, many versions of that, none of which I could possibly attain at any point in my entire life. But that is absolutely a part of growing up on these videos and having this channel beaming those images into your life.

[Robin Hilton]

I think that you make a really good point, which was having this outside world piped into my world made me realize just how empty my life was. And there was this whole universe that I wished I could live in and be. And I can think of no video that made me feel smaller and make me want more than George Michael's Freedom 90.

[Stephen Thompson]

Oh, my God.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, well, of course.

[Guest Singer]

I don't belong to you and you don't belong to me.

[Robin Hilton]

Yes. It has all these supermodels lip syncing to George Michael's song. Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Tatiana Pettic. And they're all in the most amazing apartment you have ever seen in your life. Like a big, giant, gothic loft apartment. You assume it's in New York or some exotic place that I'd never been. And it's worth noting that this was coming right out of the 1980s, a decade that I had not really liked that much. And I especially had not liked Wham. And here's George Michael basically saving pop music for me and signaling this whole new era, because the song is also incredible.

[Stephen Thompson]

It's a great song. Did you go back and appreciate Wham?

[Robin Hilton]

No, I don't. I still don't care for Wham. All right, one last bit of trivia about this video. You know who directed it?

[Anne Powers]

Herb Ritz? No.

[Robin Hilton]

David Fincher.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, right. David Fincher. Well, that's. I'm so glad you brought that up, because so many notable film directors directed videos. You know, it's like I mentioned John Maybery. I mean, it's so many people who went on Spike Jonze, you know, Michel Gondry, et cetera. There's so many, so many of them. And. Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

All right, keep going, Ann.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, well. Bjork has got to be on this list because she is one of the greatest artists of the video age and one of the most innovative. And she worked with so many great directors. I could have picked All Is Full of Love, directed by Chris Cunningham, where Bjork is a robot making love with herself. But instead, I am picking human behavior.

[Guest Singer]

If you ever object close to a human and human behavior, be ready, be ready to get confused under me and my head after there's definitely, definitely, definitely no magic to human behead.

[Anne Powers]

Human Behavior, directed by Michel Gondry, also went on to a distinguished film career. It was Inspired by the 1995. Soviet animated film Hedgehog in the Fog. And it depicts this crazy puppet, like, bear who not only is in a little war with a hunter, but eats Bjork, consumes her. She sings part of the song in the bear's stomach kind of, you know. So Bjork, in that it's both. It's both magical and you want to enter that realm. But in her Icelandic way, she's always like, look, bears are cool, but they will eat you. And I think that's an important message.

[Robin Hilton]

And it was beautifully shot, too.

[Anne Powers]

Gorgeous.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah. No, that song, that whole album, that's from. What was that, like, 93?

[Anne Powers]

Yes, it was 93. Yes.

[Stephen Thompson]

Stephen, I want to talk about Twisted Sister.

[Anne Powers]

All right.

[Stephen Thompson]

Okay. And I specifically want to talk about the twin videos for We're Not Gonna Take it and I Wanna Rock. Now, these videos both contained the actor Mark Metcalf, who played Douglas C. Niedermeyer in Animal House.

[Robin Hilton]

Right.

[Announcer]

Wow.

[Stephen Thompson]

And whose kind of thing as an actor was kind of this, like, sputtering authority figure.

[Anne Powers]

Pass the carrots, please. Maggie, excused, please.

[Stephen Thompson]

And the visuals, you know, from these videos are seared into my brain in a way that, like, I will forget, you know, in my old age. I will forget members of my family before. Before I forget the videos for We're Not Gonna Take it and I want to rock.

[Robin Hilton]

Okay. I was gonna say you hadn't told. Told us what the second one was yet. I wanna rock I wanna rock.

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, that's the one that has the, like, what do you want to do with your life?

[Guest Singer]

What do you want to do with your life? I want to rock I want to rock I want to rock.

[Stephen Thompson]

And then Twisted Sister, like, blast through the wall. Oh, my gosh, you guys, I just. I did not like Twisted Sister at all.

[Robin Hilton]

It's so campy.

[Stephen Thompson]

You weren't 12, man. I think you're what, like, three?

[Robin Hilton]

Got, like, two years on you or. I, I, I thought it was just ridiculous. And I kind of, over the years, come to appreciate D. Snider a little bit more than I did at the time. That I think there's a lot more going on there.

[Stephen Thompson]

There's a lot more going on. That's a very smart dude.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, but I was not into it at the time at all.

[Anne Powers]

Now, I love the metal videos also, that. That makes me want to mention another great film director who came out of the video age, and that is Rob Zombie. Check out his video for Dragula. Incredible. Presaged his amazing horror film director career that followed in the 2000s.

[Announcer]

This message comes from NPR sponsor 1Password. Anyone else feel like 99% of your emails and texts are password reset codes trusted by millions of users and over 175,000 businesses? 1Password lets you skip the resets and sign in securely. With strong, unique passwords that autofill across all your devices, you can safely share logins, store cards and files. And finally, stop using your pet's name as a password. Try it free for two [e-mail] NPR this message comes from Brex. Brex is the intelligent finance platform that helps you spend smarter and move faster. With Brex, you get corporate cards with built in expense management, plus a team of AI agents that handle manual finance tasks. Learn [e-mail] so Anne, you mentioned robots.

[Robin Hilton]

Earlier when you were talking about the Bjork videos. That made me think of one that I want to add to the list that had robots in it. I'm wondering if any of you can guess what it is if I just say it had dancing robots in it.

[Anne Powers]

If it's not Rocket, I'm leaving.

[Robin Hilton]

It's Rocket.

[Guest Singer]

Yay, Sancock.

[Robin Hilton]

Rockette. This is from 1983 from his album Future Shock. And basically there are these robots, like partial robots, sometimes just legs. Like, do you remember there were this like mannequin legs that were walking in a circle in the middle of the room?

[Anne Powers]

Yes, it's.

[Robin Hilton]

And then these other. Oh my God. It was creepy and also futuristic and so amazing. I remember thinking the future is now. And I just assumed like, all right, by the time I'm out of high school, we're all gonna have robots. And that was such. Because there they are.

[Anne Powers]

And that was such an early one too. I mean, that was like 1983. That was directed by Godley and Cream, by the way, who had found pop success as the band 10cc. But yeah, I mean, that's rock. It's such an important song too. I mean, that was this song that introduced scratching and hip hop beats to so many people in the mainstream.

[Robin Hilton]

It won a ton of mva.

[Stephen Thompson]

You keep saying MVA awards and that's like saying ATM machines.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, I keep saying it wrong. Did I say MVA awards earlier?

[Stephen Thompson]

You sure did.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, MPA, VMAs.

[Stephen Thompson]

It's also VMAs.

[Anne Powers]

And it absolutely should have. It should have won all those awards.

[Robin Hilton]

It won best concept video, best special effects. Yeah. Incredible.

[Anne Powers]

Well, from the haunted, uncanny landscape of Rocket, I want to take us into a video teeming with people. And this is a video for nothing but a g thing by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg from 1993.

[Guest Singer]

Hey, Snoop, what'?

[Anne Powers]

Hey, what's up, girl?

[Guest Singer]

How you know?

[Guest Rapper]

1, 2, 3, into the foe snoop doggy dog and Dr. Drake is at the dope ready to make an entrance. So whack on up before I have.

[Stephen Thompson]

To pull the strap off the cut.

[Guest Rapper]

Give me the microphone first so I can bust like a bubble Compton and Long beach together now you know you in trouble? Cause ain't nothing but a G thing Bang back to low F G so we crazy Death Row is the label that pays me unfatable so please don't.

[Anne Powers]

Try to fake that video is so cool. Like, it is just these guys driving through South Central, going to a barbecue where people are playing volleyball, you know, Then it turns into a night party. The cars, remember the low riders bouncing in that video. I just absolutely love the way that video introduces you to those of us who haven't had not been to South Central. La, like what life is like, you know, just completely put you into that milieu. Plus, I don't know, it's like Snoop. That was my first Snoop moment. And he, of course, has had his long and strange career, but definitely one of the most charismatic screen presences of hip hop culture, so. And MTV was so important for teaching us about like, you know, all these dances, all these subcultures, stuff like that.

[Stephen Thompson]

Well, there's not. Not so much the dancing, but the driving through la.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, my God.

[Stephen Thompson]

LL Cool J's going back to Cali.

[Anne Powers]

Yeah, completely.

[Robin Hilton]

So many of those driving videos, cruising, hanging out, Tone Loke. It was either Wild Thing or Funky Cole Medina. Funky Cole Medina?

[Anne Powers]

Funky Cole Medina's in the bar and they open. No, wait, you know what? That's right. Cause in the bar, they're drinking the funky old Medina. And then in nothing but a G thing, there's a scene where somebody opens a fridge and it is just full of 40s, you know, and like the kind of cold frost is coming out of the fridge. Amazing moment.

[Robin Hilton]

All right, Steven, where do you want to go next?

[Stephen Thompson]

All right, well, you know, Anne keeps bringing up the importance of major film directors.

[Anne Powers]

Yes, yes.

[Stephen Thompson]

I want to talk about Spike Jonze.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, right. I wondered if someone was going to bring this one in.

[Stephen Thompson]

It's all about the director of one of the all time greatest videos, Robin, you could have named this in your Sabotage. Absolutely. By the Beastie.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, yes.

[Guest Singer]

I can't stand it. I know you plan it. I'm a single.

[Stephen Thompson]

When you were talking about kind of the Mount Rushmore of the greatest music Videos of all time. This is absolutely up there. It is a perfect marriage of amazing song, hilarious, amazing visuals. It's kind of a parody of 70s cop shows. Your Starsky and Hutch, your one long chase scene. One long chase scene set to a song that slaps about as hard as any song in the 90s. And it's a perfect marriage of audio and visual. And, you know, it helped kind of portend Spike Jonze's incredible film career.

[Robin Hilton]

One of the things I love about that video is that it looks like something that you would make with your buddies with your old VHS camera.

[Anne Powers]

Totally the crazy wizard.

[Stephen Thompson]

If your buddies were like. Yeah, yeah. If your buddies were incredibly talented.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, I mean, because it looks so.

[Stephen Thompson]

Homemade, but it's also cheesy.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, it's super low, low budget. And it also comes off like they've just made it up as they went along.

[Stephen Thompson]

But it's so cool.

[Robin Hilton]

Mike D sliding across the hood of a car. You know, like, that had to be so fun to. Well, what I would pick from Spike Jonze, and I'm going to put this on the official list we're putting together here. I'm going to go with Weapon of Choice.

[Anne Powers]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

So weapon of choice 2001. To me, this is sort of the end. Yes. It's the Christopher Walken dancing through a hotel lobby, defying gravity. It was an incredible video and it did debut on MTV, but I. You know, by 2001 or so, I think we're getting to the point where everyone's starting to shift to watching everything online. You're not just putting on MTV to see what kind of discovery you can make. As much as we were before, reality TV shows and animated shows and all that sort of stuff have completely dominated the lineup by this point. So it's a turning point for me with mtv, but also one of the indisputably the greatest videos of all time.

[Anne Powers]

But early 2000s wasn't totally request Live. Still going pretty hard.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, it wasn't started in 97.

[Stephen Thompson]

Yeah. I mean, Total Request Live, you know, we are definitely. We are Generation Xers. We did not necessarily come up with Total Request Live, but Total Request Live was a huge pop cultural influence and had a lot of effect on the careers of a lot of boy bands.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, my God. And a lot of Britney Spears and Christina and Sync and. Yeah, I was working at the New York Times at that time. And the crowds that surrounded the MTV offices at all times when they were shooting the show because, you know, remember, they would bring in kids to be the audience for this show. It was a huge thing.

[Robin Hilton]

We should take a minute here just to kind of see where we are with the list because we've been throwing a lot of stuff out here. So we've got the first five that we mentioned. Thriller, Take on Me, Sledgehammer, Money for Nothing and Video Kill the Radio Star. Then we've got Nothing Compares to youo, Rhythm Nation, Brass in Pocket, Addicted to Love and George Michael's Freedom 90. That's 10. Then we've got Bjork's Human Behavior, Twisted Sister. We're not gonna take it. I will allow you a tie for I Wanna Rock. And then at 13, we've got Rocket, followed by Nothing But A G Thing, Sabotage, and then Weapon of Choice. I just did. That is 16. So we've got four more slots.

[Guest Singer]

This is.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, boy.

[Robin Hilton]

It's impossible. You can't do it. You can't do it.

[Stephen Thompson]

So many more to talk.

[Robin Hilton]

All right, let me see if I can extend the studio. And we're just gonna give everyone a tight hundred.

[Anne Powers]

Thank you. Thank you, Sophie.

[Robin Hilton]

But Anne, that does mean we're back to you. And technically we each kind of get one more pick. So what's your Sophie's Choice pick gonna be here? I know you're gonna just mention a whole bunch and then say. But I go with.

[Stephen Thompson]

I'm going to do the same thing, buddy.

[Anne Powers]

Frankly, it's. No, I'm just going to go straight to the obvious choice that I was going to pull out at the end. Like, dudes, you forgot this. And you are not going to. You're going to hate yourselves forever. Missy Elliot, the Rain I've been waiting.

[Stephen Thompson]

To talk about Milia Missy Elliot oh, the rain, yeah.

[Guest Singer]

Me, I'm super duper fly super duper Me, I'm super fly.

[Robin Hilton]

When the rain hits my window I take.

[Guest Singer]

A Django we so tight that you get our styles tangled.

[Anne Powers]

Missy Elliott, director Hype Williams, that crazy blow up suit. She becomes the Michelin Woman.

[Robin Hilton]

You know, she has like inflatable black. Yeah. And it's shiny. Like it's made out of plastic or something.

[Anne Powers]

Exactly. And apparently when they were making the video, the suit deflated and she had to like blow it up at a gas station in Brooklyn. And then she couldn't fit in the car. So then she had to walk back to the set, like through the streets of Brooklyn in the suit, which. You gotta love that. You absolutely.

[Robin Hilton]

That's amazing.

[Anne Powers]

Gotta love that. But I mean, that's Hype Williams too. It's not just about the suit and Missy's delivery, but his, his, you know, he was one of the. He is one of the great video directors. And it's all that weird Fishey Len stuff.

[Robin Hilton]

I was just gonna say, I remember her leaning into the camera and everything kind of warping the piece. She got to the lens and so it was funny too. But I mean, just an incredible song. So cool, so innovative.

[Anne Powers]

Everything about it.

[Stephen Thompson]

Okay, Steven, I am surprised we have gotten this far into the show without mentioning Cyndi Lauper.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, that's great call. Great call.

[Stephen Thompson]

Cyndi Lauper not only, but which.

[Robin Hilton]

Where do you even go?

[Stephen Thompson]

Oh, I'm gonna go with girls.

[Robin Hilton]

Just.

[Anne Powers]

I knew it because of the wrestling connection.

[Stephen Thompson]

Am I right? Specifically the Stranger, this strange kind of fulcrum that Cyndi Lauper sat at where she was an ambassador between pop music and pro wrestling. Like Captain Lou Albano played her dad in the video. She was really passionate about kind of bringing those two worlds together. But she was also an extremely innovative ambassador for incorporating and giving voice to queer culture.

[Guest Singer]

We're not the fortunate ones and girls they wanna have fun oh, girls just wanna have fun.

[Stephen Thompson]

She'S still great, but like in those early days of mtv, she was one of the major, major faces of the network and of music videos and of pop music. Girls Just Wanna have Fun has now kind of become one of these songs that just kind of gets played as 80s wallpaper.

[Robin Hilton]

Exactly.

[Stephen Thompson]

But that song, besides being a pretty unimpeachable pop song, she, in the 80s was such a fascinating pop cultural figure. I mean, talk about she bop and what she bop was Trojan horsing onto the radio. Yeah, I think she is such a massively culturally important and wonderful.

[Anne Powers]

She was like both the kind of tougher sister, not little sister, tougher sister of Madonna, and also like the culmination of a certain arty girl, new wave style. I'm thinking about people like Lena Lovich and Nina Hagen. You know, every city in America and England had that band that had those cool, weird, arty women in it. And Cindy, like embodied all of that energy.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, we're down to the last two slots here and I don't want this one to be the one we go out on, but I feel like we really ought to mention it. So I'm gonna go with Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity.

[Guest Singer]

This world only to be told I can't see, I can't breathe Nor my will we be and nothing's going to change the way we live Cuz we can always take but never give and everything's changing Far the way.

[Announcer]

See?

[Guest Singer]

Wow. It's a crazy world we're living in, and I just can't see that. Half of us immersed in sin is all we have.

[Robin Hilton]

So if you've seen this video, you remember this video. It's one shot in the all white room and the walls.

[Stephen Thompson]

You remember the hat?

[Robin Hilton]

The hat he's wearing. JK's wearing this hat and he's dancing, and it looks like the whole floor is moving. And he's just. It's an incredible optical illusion. The thing that's kind of amazing about it is that it looks like the floor is sliding with him.

[Anne Powers]

Yes.

[Robin Hilton]

But he is actually standing in place. The illusion was created by moving everything else in the room.

[Anne Powers]

That's incredible.

[Robin Hilton]

So the floor is still. The walls were on casters and are sliding past him. All the furniture on casters and sliding around in the room, and he's kind of dancing around and wobbling like he's having a hard time keeping his balance. But the truth is, he was standing still the whole time.

[Guest Singer]

That's wild.

[Anne Powers]

But he was dancing. He was. He was dancing.

[Robin Hilton]

He was dancing. He was dancing. All right, and my last bit of trivia for you. Who directed this video? Jonathan Glazer.

[Anne Powers]

Oh, my gosh, that's right. I totally forgot that. That's how.

[Robin Hilton]

Jonathan Glazer.

[Anne Powers]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

Sexy Beast Birth. Under the Skin. Zone of Interest.

[Guest Singer]

That guy.

[Robin Hilton]

He directed this video.

[Anne Powers]

That's killer.

[Stephen Thompson]

I just remembered who you're talking about.

[Guest Singer]

Yeah.

[Anne Powers]

You know, like, this is my next. This is going to be my next PhD thesis is like the connections between Zone of Interest and Jamiroquoi.

[Stephen Thompson]

I was just trying to figure out how to connect Zone of Interest.

[Robin Hilton]

To virtual insanity. He also did a lot of videos. Radiohead, I think he did Karma Police. He worked with Massive Attack Nick, Cave in the Bad seats. Lots of them. So we're down to the final slot here, and I don't really know what to do.

[Stephen Thompson]

I mean, I've got. Oh, go ahead.

[Anne Powers]

No, no, we both have. Do you want to fight it out? Should we have a cage match on the last round?

[Robin Hilton]

Why don't we do this? Why don't we all pick one that we would go to the map for. For being on this list, and then we'll just play one to go out on. Okay, I'm gonna go with you two. Where the streets have no name. The police department has the authority to shut these locations down. I understand that, and that is exactly what we are doing. And I apologize to you for having.

[Security/Police Officer]

To have all your equipment moved out of here.

[Robin Hilton]

But it is over as of. There is no compromise.

[Security/Police Officer]

The word that we got was another radio station went on the air with paranoid warnings and said things about they were expecting crowds of 35 route, 35,000 rowdy people. And they were expecting an Astro Guard to be called out in the.

[Announcer]

So forth.

[Anne Powers]

So they blew it for us.

[Security/Police Officer]

Which kind of freaked out the city fathers across the street looking down on top of the liquor store where you two was. Was. Was doing the taping. And it was a. A fashion factory. There's little ladies in there sewing and I mean, seamstresses going.

[Robin Hilton]

And there.

[Guest Singer]

What is going on here? I won't feel high. I won't.

[Robin Hilton]

1987. Shot on the rooftop of a liquor store in Los Angeles. It's sort of an homage to the Beatles playing their final show on a rooftop. And it's presented kind of like a little documentary where they're shooting behind the scenes. The band's trying to give this show, and the cops show up and they cancel the whole thing. We're shutting you down. But the director yells, keep rolling, keep rolling. And, you know, there are all these overhead helicopter shots of the thing happening. And it was just so cool and incredible. And I've never loved the band more.

[Guest Singer]

More.

[Robin Hilton]

I've always wondered over the years whether this video was real, like how staged it was. I assumed part of it was.

[Anne Powers]

It was totally staged.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, it was not totally staged. It was not totally staged. It was. It was real in that they did set up. They were on the rooftop. They were going to give a show, but they wanted to get shut down. They were hoping they would get shut down. So they had a backup generator ready to go to keep everything powered up once they got shut down. And the cops did come, and the cops did shut them down. But in interviews years later, it was revealed that the police actually gave them plenty of opportunity to keep going and finish their video, even though they said, we're shutting it down. So that's the one I would go to the mat on.

[Anne Powers]

All I have to say to you guys is Losing my religion how could we have not included Losing my religion? REM that's me in the corner.

[Robin Hilton]

That'S.

[Guest Singer]

Me in the spotlight Losing my religion Trying to keep up with you and I don't know if I can do it oh, no I said too much I haven't said enough.

[Anne Powers]

Directed by Tarsum Singh, who goes on to make such cult classics as the Cell Mirror, Mirror. Amazing visuals. But I wanted to highlight this video not only for Michael Snipes, Insane dancing in that. In it. Which is so great. But just for what a video can do for a band, you know.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, that was the whole tournament.

[Anne Powers]

Yeah. I mean we're very. This is like a Gen X conversation. So we're talking about. About our Gen x heroes and R.E.M. like the embodiment of college rock, they leap to a new level with this video.

[Robin Hilton]

Counterpoint. I would go with Everybody Hurts.

[Anne Powers]

How beautiful.

[Robin Hilton]

Which is sort of like the YouTube video in that it's shot, it's. It's on a highway and it's shot as the. They all get out of their cars in a traffic jam and everyone's walking and it's. At some point there's a helicopter shot overhead and it's like a. Everyone's just getting out of their cars and walking. But by 92, I would argue because of that turning point that you mentioned, Ann REM has become the biggest band in the world at that point.

[Anne Powers]

They are absolutely.

[Robin Hilton]

Steven, what are you going to the map for?

[Stephen Thompson]

I'm gonna go with Prince and the revolution Kiss.

[Guest Singer]

You don't need experience, good time that I just leave it all up to me. I'm gonna show you what it's all about. You don't have to be rich to be my girl. You don't have to be cool to rule my world. Ain't no particular sign that I'm more compatible with. I just want your extra time and your kiss.

[Stephen Thompson]

1986.

[Anne Powers]

Ah, sweet.

[Stephen Thompson]

You know, like I mentioned Prince in passing, but if we're gonna actually have of 20 songs, I think Prince has to have one of them. One of the faces of the 80s that not only is this is this video iconic Prince and Wendy of Wendy and Lisa. You know, she's playing guitar, he's writhing around, sometimes shirtless, sometimes not. But also that song is so. And no seriously, no pun intended, that song is revolutionary. The message of that song is revolutionary. Counter programming to so much of the messaging that I received from videos on MTV in the 80s. There is a gigantic number one hit single in which someone says, you don't have to be rich, you don't have to be cool. You don't have to be cool was a message that was on MTV in 1986. God bless that man.

[Anne Powers]

Women, not girls.

[Stephen Thompson]

Women not girls rule my world.

[Robin Hilton]

So we're basically. We're ending with a three way tie here. For our ones we'll go to the mat over Even though where the streets have no name, Losing my religion and Kiss. The song, not the band we left.

[Anne Powers]

Out so many great ones, but that's we left out literally thousands can write us.

[Robin Hilton]

I'm sure everyone is going to disagree with all of our picks, and there's so many things that we didn't include. You can leave us a review in Apple Music or Spotify or comment what videos you think we should have mentioned. Email us allsonsvr.org if you'd like to write us a Dear Idiots letter. We always love getting those. You could fill an entire filing cabinet.

[Stephen Thompson]

With all the ones we've gotten so far.

[Robin Hilton]

Just in the time it took to tape this episode. It's true, but Ampower Steven Thompson, thanks for this.

[Stephen Thompson]

Thanks for exposing your soft white belly to the long knives of our listeners.

[Anne Powers]

Thanks for the memories, guys.

[Robin Hilton]

I'm Robin Hilton for NPR Music. It's All Songs Considered.

[Guest Singer]

You don't have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude. You just leave it all to be. My love will be your fool, yeah, you don't have to.

[Announcer]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Capella University. Interested in a quality online education. Capella is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn [e-mail].

[Fernando Madera]

This message comes from Sony Pictures Classics with the Choral directed by Nicholas Hittner, written by Alan Bennett, starring Ralph Fiennes as a choirmaster in 1916. Yorkshire making music as war rages on. Now playing only in theaters.

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