25 of the Most Iconic Music Videos Ever Made

One of the most innovative music videos of its time, this video, featuring animated mannequins, was directed by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. It won five MTV video music awards in 1984 including Best Art Direction, Best Special Effects, and Most Experimental Video. “Rockit” was the first single by a jazz musician and one of the first singles by a Black artist other than Michael Jackson to be aired on MTV.

Another short theatrical video utilizing spectacular choreography that was made to promote Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album, “Beat It” stars Michael Jackson as a peacemaker who stops a fight between warring gangs with the power of dance. Choreographed by Michael Peters and directed by Bob Giraldi, the video features dancers as well as real L.A. gang members, and revolutionized the use of syncopated dance moves in music videos.

With one of the first depictions of CGI human characters on MTV, this offering from director Steve Barron took home the network’s award for Video of the Year in 1986. Ironically, songwriter and Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler was famously against music videos – “Money for Nothing” is framed as a blue-collar skewering of the medium’s stars – and had to be convinced by MTV to relent to the video’s creation.

Released in 1984 with a generic music video, this song by Norwegian synth-pop band a-ha failed to gain traction until director Steve Barron put together this comic book fantasy video using rotoscoping, an animation technique that involves tracing over motion picture footage to create realistic movements. The song took home six MTV video music awards in 1986, including Best Concept Video.

This eye-popping stop-motion music video from director Stephen R. Johnson features claymation and pixelation. During filming, Peter Gabriel had to lay under glass for 16 hours, as each frame was shot in sequence. The song won a record nine MTV video music awards in 1987 and remains MTV’s all time most played video.