80's week rolls on here at FTTW and for this week's Group LNT we decided to put our poll question to our writers. What's your favorite music videos from the 80's?

We have an eclectic bunch here.

Cullen

My favorite 80s video?

Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's "Don't Come Around Here No More."

video on youtube

While I've always been fond of Tom Petty, this is not a good song. I'd go as far as to say that the song is bad to the point of annoying. However, the video is fantastic.

First, everything about the video screams 80s. The hairstyles, the color schemes, the checkerboard uniformity, the surrealism, all very key to 80s style art. This video encompasses a lot of what was going on in pop culture at the time. In some parts of the video it's like an Olivia painting come to life. In others, we get the "lost babe in the woods" sensation that a lot of media was trying to convey at that time.

And then turn a chick into a cake and eat her. I mean... just damn.

Ernie

I'm going with Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top.

With the help of a super cool car, three smokin hot, spandex-clad babes and the magic of ZZ Top, a total loser gets shows up his jerky boss and gets the girl at the end of the vid.

Plus it's a good tune by a good band and the video actually tells a story. Definitely one of the best of the era in my mind.

Michele:

Duran Duran, Girls on Film.

My inner lesbian called this one Free Porn. Didn't have to titl my head to watch this through scrambled lines. It was all laid out right there on my tv screen. I could switch my lustful gaze between the boys in the band and the girls on film. A win-win situation.

I also want to give props to David Lee Roth for anything he ever did on video. The man was (yes, was) a genius.

Jay

Fav 80's music video, easy, as long as you put it into the context of the time, Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Two Tribes Video was well played, so was the banned version of Relax, which was a cinematic version of every sexual taboo imaginable, but well put together and if you dont believe me, check out you tube for the banned version.

Also, The Art of Noise's Peter Gunn video is great, with the awesome Ric Mayall in it. Lastly few things David Lee Roth did after leaving Van Halen when he made Just A Gigolo, California Girls etc. Those videos were comic genius.

Turtle

I'm going with an Art of Noise one too, but for different reasons.

I like Close(To The Edit) cause the chick was hot.

Branden

No question. Without a doubt, my favorite 80s video is Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five--The Message.

Not only is this song classic, the video is so laughable it hurts. From the clothes to the horrible dubbing, where at one point Flash is rapping but it's Melle Mel who is lip synching, it's pure cheese. My buddy and I had a tape of this video we recorded from MTV and used to watch it over and over. Classic hip hop, and classic eighties cheesiness.

Johnny St. Clair

"...people pissin' on the stairs, man they just don't care..."

damm...where do i go here? ZZ Top already mentioned...loved those girls.

then there's madonna's "like a virgin" and the one with tawny kitaen all over that car. who was the band, led zeppelin or something? sike.

what about dio's "the last in line?" it was on the video machine at the mall's arcade, like, constantly. fuckin' metalheads. and i can't forget the beastie boys "fight for your right to party." oooooo...or the cro-mags "we gotta know."

but i'm puttin' my money on herbie hancock's "rockit." it's totally 80's. fer sure. tripendicular. gag me with a coke spoon.

Travis

Guns N' F'N Roses - Welcome To The Jungle

Travis = WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kali

i'm going with DLR's yankee rose. on the forreally though, this thing reminds me of the 80's more than any other.

every SINGLE time the actor lady screaming about the laxatives almost falls on her ass because she accidentally slips on one of the boxes she just threw on the floor, i can't help but pee a little in my panties.

seriously -- he was making fun of 7-11 owners WAY before the simpsons.. you can't help but watch this thing all the way through...

and the outfits in the actual music video after? classic.

i'm telling you this was MTV in the 80's..

Philbrick

Well, since I've been threatened with the loss of my meth lab priveleges I figured I ought to go along with this one. My favorite video from the 80s is "Bastards of Young" by The Replacements. It's just one long shot of a stereo and some guy sitting in front of it who occasionally appears in the frame. At the end he kicks in the speaker, yells something and walks out of the room. Basically it's just a video that flips MTV the bird back before everyone knew how awful MTV really was.

Paul

Since all of the good ones were taken, I guess I have to go with Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran. I think videos prior to this one being pretty straightforward: band playing their instruments on stage and singing to the camera. Or in the case of Journey, pretending to play their instruments while emoting as hard as they could to the camera. Hungry Like the Wolf was the first video I remember having something resembling a storyline and on-location shooting in exotic locales. The video also perfectly matched the song so perfectly, that it's almost impossible to imagine the song without immediately seeing the video in your head. It didn't hurt that it had a quasi-Indiana Jones vibe to it, either.

Lovemonkey

She blinded me with Science - Thomas Dolby.

Meg

I think this is a good time to mention that some of us were raised by hippies and grew up without a TV and have no idea what any of you are talking about. Again. Not that that's me or anything.

Timmer

I'm going to stick with "Money For Nothin'." Between the Thunder Drums of Doom, Sting's wailing, Knopfler's guitar and the neon animation, that video just makes the 80s for me. Either that or "Dancin' in the Dark" because that's what we were watching at the Airman's Club while I was in Basic, and I can't even type that with a straight face. Everyone was so disappointed because "Bruce was a purist. He'd never sell out." How wrong were we? Okay, while I'm thinking about it, the Springsteen video is 23 years old. How come Courtney Cox still looks like she's in her thirties? She's at LEAST my age.

Shawna

Duran Duran's Save a Prayer. I still love that video.

DJ Baby Huey

despite the fact that i boiled turtle's blood the other day for picking Metallica's "One", today I'm gonna pick Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly" because hell fucking yes. I was like 7 when that video came out and I still had about a half a pack of rolaids going on down there. She's the first celebrity I ever had those funny feelings for. Unless you count She-Ra. But I'm pretty sure she was fucking her brother He-Man, so that's kinda gross.

Deb

Coming in late again... What the 80's meant to me, music wise was late afternoons at my friend Jenny's, taping the videos we liked from "Toronto Rocks" and "The New Music" and anything on "Much Music" (aka Canada's much better version od MTV).

I have two favourite videos from that time:

1. a-ha; "Take On Me" - the combination of animation and live action was, and still is, fantastic. I still have a crush on Morten.

2. Helix; "ROCK YOU" - Legendary Canadian rock band, sorta. It's fun to watch - total cheese. Who doesn't like cavemen?

And those are the videos our writers admit to liking. Don't think we don't notice the blatant lack of hair metal. I wonder how many of us (and by us, I mean you) sat around like Beavis and Butthead with our hair sprayed high, banging our heads and doing the metal sign while watching Warrant videos?

Don't look at me....

Got a favorite? Tell us about it and then go nominate it over here.

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