10 pop videos that changed the world
VIDEO may have killed the radio star – but it was a price worth paying for the great global spectacles that followed.
In the age of the internet, pop shorts have achieved such artistry and drawn audiences so huge they are often inseparable from the song.
And they will finally get the recognition they deserve as their streaming and downloading counts towards the official UK singles chart.
That’s a big deal when Ed Sheeran’s video for Shape of You has been viewed 3.5 billion times.
And who can forget the dance craze sparked by Psy’s Gangnam Style, the first video to notch a billion views? Or Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball – viewed 19.3million times in its first 24 hours?
But none of this would be possible without
SINEAD O’CONNOR: Nothing Compares 2 U (1990)
Shaven-headed Sinead doesn’t just sing the hit written by Prince, she feels it. She snarls at the camera, seethes, is confrontational, then mournful as a single tear tracks down her face.
There’s restraint in every aspect of the video, from her barely-there make-up to the plain, black turtleneck and black backdrop. It bucked a trend for megabucks, all-singing all-dancing videos.
David Hepworth says: “Flashy expensive videos were usually done to disguise the fact a singer had no charisma. Sinead’s video is perfect.” the trailblazers who found the perfect platform when MTV launched in 1981. Former Smash Hits editor David Hepworth said: “Videos revolutionised the industry. In the 80s, fans didn’t see much of artists. Now, Youtube means you can download any videos whenever you want.”
Here are the 10 pop videos that we think changed the world…
QUEEN: Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
Probably the most iconic music video of all time. And yet it cost £3,500 and was only done because Queen did not want Pan’s People dancing to their complex song on Top of the Pops.
It took four hours to make. Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon insisted production did not overrun as they wanted to be out of the studio before the pub closed. The video’s debut on Top of the Pops was the first time the band saw it.
Director Bruce Gowers said: “The film represents six minutes that changed my whole life.”
NIRVANA: Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
MTV had never premiered a video from an unknown band – until this one. Shot on a low budget in a smoky high school gym hall, it featured rebel cheerleaders and long-haired teens in baggy T-shirts and scuffed trainers smashing up the set.
Director Samuel Bayer said late frontman Kurt Cobain didn’t want to be there and, on being asked to perform it yet again, let rip and screamed the song into the camera. In just over four minutes it launched the grunge era, made Kurt a legend and Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl – then on drums – an icon today.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Dancing in the Dark (1984)
Before she became Friends with half the world, The Boss plucked then-unknown model Courteney Cox from the crowd and danced with her on stage in this video.
It was filmed during his show in Minnesota, halfway through when Bruce was sweaty and fans were whipped up into a frenzy. He sang it twice to ensure the cameras got all the necessary shots.
David Hepworth says: “I interviewed Bruce and he was reluctant to make videos. “But since the Dancing in the Dark video became a huge hit, he made pulling a girl from the audience for that song part of his stage act to this day.”
PETER GABRIEL: Sledgehammer(1986)
This game-changer video is one of MTV’S most popular of all time.
It uses “claymation”, pixilation and stopmotion animation. And Nick Park, who later famously created Wallace and Gromit, animated the dancing chickens (below).
Peter Gabriel lay under a glass sheet for 16 hours to make the video, but believes the song would not have been a hit without it. He said: “I think it had a sense of both humour and fun, neither of which were particularly associated with me. I mean – wrongly in my way of looking at it – I think I was seen as fairly intense and eccentric.”