Which pop music videos are the best? This is a difficult question to answer. As with anything in the field of art, it is really a subjective question. What you like and enjoy may not be what your best friend likes and most certainly not what your parents would watch or listen to. However, one way of evaluating music videos is to see what the experts have to say. What better way to get their opinion than to see who they have honored through the years.
One of the most coveted titles for any classical pop musician is a Grammy award. These awards have included the category of Best Music Video, short form since 1984. These are a few of the selections since its inception.
Hurt
In 2004, this award was given to Johnny Cash for his song entitled Hurt. Hurt is not an original Johnny Cash song, rather it was written by Trent Reznor, the lead singer of the band Nine Inch Nails. They released their version in 1994 on the album The Downward Spiral. They also did a music video for this recording.
Johnny Cash’s video was directed by Mark Romanek. It is three minutes and thirty eight seconds long and is thought by many to be Cash’s epitaph. Cash was 71 years of age at the time that the video was filmed and was suffering from extremely poor health. Johnny died seven months after the recording.
God’s Gonna Cut You Down
This video won the award in 2008. Johnny Cash died in 2003, and the award had to be given posthumously. Cash had made the recording of this song in 2003, but Rick Rubin did not create the award-winning video until 2006. The video which is a little over two and a half minutes in length features countless icons of the music industry. Among the most notable faces on the video are Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson, Sheryl Crow, Lisa Marie Presley, Whoopi Goldberg, Bono, Kid Rock, Justin Timberlake, and the list goes on.
Free As A Bird
This is an amazing video which features all of The Beatles. It won the title of Best Music Video in 1997, seventeen years after the death of John Lennon. The song was an unfinished demo written by John Lennon and it was given to Paul McCartney by Yoko Ono. The remaining band members wanted to do a piece that would enable all of them to contribute to the final effort.
The version that was provided by Yoko featured John singing and playing the piano. The Beatles took this demo and then added additional lyrics and musical arrangements. They added new instruments, including George playing the ukulele, and they filled in the gaps. The final product directed by Vincent Joliet bears little resemblance to the track that was given to Paul.
Other pop videos that were nominated in this year included Michael Jackson’s Earth Song and The Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight Tonight.
Love Is Strong
The Rolling Stones won their first music-video award for the best short in 1995. The video directed by David Fincher beat out Sinead O’Connor’s Fire on Babylon and The Pet Shop Boys Go West. Strangely, although the video won a Grammy, the song was the lowest rated single ever released by The Rolling Stones.
The song debuted on the album Voodoo Lounge. It is three and a half minutes long and is the first song on the record. The writing credits for this piece are given to both Jagger and Richards, although the majority of the lyrics were written by Richards at his home in Ireland. Richard’s first title for this song was Love is Strange and fans have procured numerous bootlegs of this song under this title.
Jazzin For Blue Jean
David Bowie added his name to this elite list of musicians in 1985. It is one of the longest shorts to win this coveted title. The video is actually twenty one minutes long and was created to promote the single Blue Jean. The video has David Bowie playing a number of different roles, including a rock icon by the name of Lord Byron, and a nerd called Vic. The short was directed by Julien Temple.
This short is very different from most of the videos that are contributed in that it is actually a mini-film. Many people who saw the video only saw the three-minute portion which featured the track Blue Jean.
When all is said and done, pop music videos are liked and disliked by the ear and eye of the beholder.
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