To celebrate the VMAs’ ruby anniversary, we ranked all 40 video of the year winners.
"Article published in Slant Magazine. Author: Slant Staff."
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the MTV Video Music Awards. The inaugural ceremony, held at Radio City Music Hall and hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler in 1984, saw the Cars taking home video of the year their groundbreaking clip for “You Might Think.”
Since then, the VMAs have doled out 39 more trophies for their top prize, with only a small handful of acts joining the club of repeat winners. Taylor Swift has racked up four wins while Eminem, Rihanna, and Beyoncé have notched two a piece (both Swift and Eminem have a shot at adding to their totals again this year).
Despite MTV handing over the choice to viewers in 2006, the quality of the winners in the category has remained surprisingly consistent, with only a few total duds or headscratchers. To celebrate the VMAs’ ruby anniversary, we ranked all 40 video of the year winners from worst to best. Alexa Camp
40. Neil Young, “This Note’s for You” (1989)
Neil Young’s “This Note’s for You”—the title of which is a nod to Budweiser’s “This Bud’s for You” ad campaign—is an ostensible parody of commercialization of music artists. Young’s seemingly holier-than-thou stance on the matter could simply be chalked up to the resentments of an out-of-touch rocker, but the clip’s mockery of Black artists, including a re-enactment of the moment Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire during a 1984 Pepsi shoot, has aged like a bottle of Bud sitting out on a hot summer day. Sal Cinquemani
39. Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and Pink, “Lady Marmalade” (2001)
As vibrant and bawdy as the song itself, the video for “Lady Marmalade” sees Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and Pink portraying cabaret singers at the Moulin Rouge, lounging in lingerie on a brightly colored set designed to resemble the famous Paris nightclub. The rather straightforward clip managed to snag MTV’s top honor from more deserving winners like Eminem, Fatboy Slim, and Missy Elliott (who co-produced “Lady Marmalade” and appears in the video) on sheer star power alone. Alexa Camp
38. Green Day, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (2005)
Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” which finds the band walking glumly down a dusty road after their car breaks down intercut with images of beleaguered city life, is a perfectly fine visual representation of the song. But it works best in tandem with “Holiday” (also directed by Samuel Bayer), which depicts the events leading up to the group’s bad fortune. Alexa Camp
37. Britney Spears, “Piece of Me” (2008)
Even Britney Spears seemed shocked that “Piece of Me,” a half-baked takedown of the media, won video of the year in 2008. The singer, who was being hounded by paparazzi at the peak of gossip bloggery, reportedly arrived 12 hours late to set and robotically went through the motions. The clip intercuts her blasé choreography with digital covers of fictional tabloids like Rats Weakly. The competition wasn’t exactly fierce, but Britney’s army of fans rallied around the troubled star and snagged her a win. Alexa Camp
36. Dire Straits, “Money for Nothing” (1986)
In hindsight, it seems inconceivable how A-Ha’s “Take on Me” could have lost video of the year to Dire Straits’s “Money for Nothing” in 1986. The former’s immersive mix of rotoscopic technology, hard-drawn sketches, and live action continues to awe today, especially when contrasted with the comparably rudimentary 3D computer animation of the latter. Perhaps MTV couldn’t resist a bit of self-promotion—Sting sings the network’s then-popular slogan, “I want my MTV,” in “Money for Nothing”—though they seem to have missed the fact that the narrator of the song is denigrating the artists who the channel largely owed its success to. Sal Cinquemani
35. Katy Perry, “Firework” (2011)
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, injuries and deaths from fireworks have increased since 2008, and while there’s no evidence to suggest that the VMA-winning music video for Katy Perry’s “Firework” has contributed to fireworks-related hazards, images of children igniting them in pools, hospitals, nightclubs, and dark alleys certainly couldn’t have helped. Alexa Camp
34. TLC, “Waterfalls” (1995)
The computer-generated effects and socially conscious storylines—particularly one revolving around the mother of an inner-city teen who’s tragically killed during a drug deal gone bad—make the video for TLC’s “Waterfalls” feel more than a bit hokey today. That it won over Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson’s “Scream” and Weezer’s “Buddy Holly,” both of which employed SFX to better effect, makes it even more tragic. Alexa Camp
33. Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar, “Bad Blood” (2015)
Credited as “a Joseph Kahn film,” the video for Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” plays out like an extended action movie trailer, with Swift and her celebrity “squad”—Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham, Zendaya, and more than a dozen others—introduced by their character names as they’re filmed kicking some butt. Some in the media critiqued Swift’s use of female empowerment for its hypocrisy, privilege, and exclusion, but the video’s biggest flaw is simply that it’s mostly spectacle and little substance. Sal Cinquemani
32. Eminem, “Without Me” (2002)
Like “The Real Slim Shady” before it, Eminem’s “Without Me” is an equal-opportunity offender, making fun of the rapper himself just as often as his perceived enemies. Difference is, Em’s targets this time around feel forced (Moby?), its reference dated, and, most unforgiveable, it’s just not that funny. Alexa Camp
31. Taylor Swift, “You Need to Calm Down” (2019)
Directed by Swift and Drew Kirsch, Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” feels like the equivalent of a bachelorette party at a gay bar. The video opens with the singer waking up in a pastel-colored trailer home adorned with kitschy paintings and a framed Cher quote: “Mom, I am a rich man.” She parades through the trailer park’s pride-themed festivities, which includes a “pop queen pageant” featuring drag versions of Swift and various other contemporary female artists. But just in case you question Swift’s allegiance to the cause, the clips ends with a message urging viewers to sign her petition for Senate support of the Equality Act. Sal Cinquemani
30. Panic! at the Disco, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” (2006)
Like singer Brendan Urie’s theatrical delivery in the song, the music video for Panic! at the Disco’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” is deliciously over-the-top. In the clip, Urie and members of the Lucent Dossier Vaudeville Cirque crash a wedding in order to expose that “the poor groom’s bride is a whore.” The wedding guests’ eyes are literally closed to her indiscretions—eyes are cleverly painted on their eyelids—until a glitter bomb causes them to open. Sal Cinquemani
29. Miley Cyrus, “Wrecking Ball” (2014)
Yes, Miley Cyrus takes a sledgehammer to a cinderblock wall while wearing nothing but a pair of underwear and a white tank top. And, yes, she rides a wrecking ball in the buff. But the most striking images in the singer’s “Wrecking Ball” video take a page straight out of Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” which won video of the year 24 years earlier. Cyrus sings directly into the camera, spittle clinging to her pearly white teeth and a solitary tear streaming down her porcelain face, nakedly showing all of the hurt and rage of the song’s lyrics. Sal Cinquemani
28. INXS, “Need You Tonight/Mediate” (1988)
Created by photocopying individual frames and layering them over the original video footage, INXS’s “Need You Tonight” isn’t as innovative as, say, A-Ha’s “Take on Me” or Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” but its newspaper-collage techniques created a pop-art effect that perfectly captured the band’s retro-meets-modern aesthetic. The second part, “Mediate,” pays tribute to Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” a nod to the past that’s updated with references to contemporary culture. Sal Cinquemani
27. Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug, “Havana” (2018)
The multi-narrative, über-meta video for Camila Cabello’s “Havana,” directed by Dave Meyers, sees the singer playing several different roles: the saucy star of a campy telenovela, a love-scorned nightclub singer in a movie, and the lonely young woman who lives vicariously through them, ultimately inspired to write her own story. Sal Cinquemani
26. Van Halen, “Right Now” (1992)
Though it seems quaint more than 30 years later, Van Halen’s surprisingly poignant “Right Now,” which features inspirational and cautionary text on-screen throughout, is the equivalent of a daily affirmations Instagram account. What’s most striking about the clip, though, isn’t how different the concerns of young people were back in 1992, but how similar they are. Alexa Camp
25. Taylor Swift, “All Too Well: The Short Film” (2022)
It’s tempting to dismiss Taylor Swift’s 15-minute romantic drama, set to her song “All Too Well,” as the self-indulgence of an artist who’s started to believe her own hype. But while the short film, which opens with a quote from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, is as navel-gazing as it sounds, it also priorities character and emotion over stylization and conventional story structure, a la John Cassavetes, who Swift has cited as an influence. It’s hard to evade the autobiographical nature of the story, which becomes distracting once Swift literally inserts herself into the narrative at the end, but the video’s two leads, Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien, turn in performances that are authentic and relatable, which is also everything that Swift’s best work can be. Sal Cinquemani
24. Lil Nas X, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” (2021)
The vibrant, unapologetically gay video for Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” is rife with profane religious imagery, including a central set piece depicting the 22-year-old rapper-singer riding a stripper pole to hell and performing a lap dance for Satan himself. The title of the song, inspired by Lil Nas’s birth name, symbolizes a garden of Eden where one is free to be who they are, and the accompanying video fearlessly co-opts anti-LGBTQ bigotry and humorously wields it as tool to encourage and empower queer visibility. Sal Cinquemani
23. Rihanna featuring Jay-Z, “Umbrella” (2007)
Things that rain down in the video for Rihanna’s “Umbrella”: sparks, glitter, and, yes, water. (But not actual water, as it was generated via digital liquid effects that were then composited with shots of the singer, creating the illusion that she’s interacting with it.) The clip, directed by Chris Applebaum, showers viewers with a torrent of eye candy, including shots of Rihanna covered in silver paint a la Red Hot Chili Peppers in “Give It Away” and, impressively, dancing en pointe. Alexa Camp
22. Jamiroquai, “Virtual Insanity” (1997)
Directed by filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity,” in which singer Jay Kay is seen dancing around a room while the floor beneath him appears to constantly be in flux, was created without the use of computer tricks. Instead, the walls and furniture roll around on a stationary set, giving the illusion that the floor is moving, an apt metaphor for a song about the shifting sands of humanity. Sal Cinquemani
21. Eminem, “The Real Slim Shady” (2000)
Eminem’s merry-prankster persona is an avatar of white rage not unlike the kind that’s permeated political discourse in the Trump era. One key difference is that Slim Shady is self-aware, a fact no more evident than in the video for “The Real Slim Shady,” in which the rapper plays a patient in a mental hospital filled with an army of lookalikes. He’s taking the piss, sure, but even at this early stage in his career, Marshall Mathers understood that he represented the grievances that the media and political class had yet to acknowledge. Or maybe we’re not supposed to take any of it that seriously. Sal Cinquemani
20. OutKast, “Hey Ya!” (2004)
A clever inversion of the Beatles’s iconic appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” imagines an American invasion of Britain, in which a fictional Black band, the Love Below, appears on a popular U.K. television program filled with screaming fans. The clip, directed by Bryan Barber, was filmed using motion capture photography, allowing André 3000 to play all eight group members, including three backup singers, in frenetic performances that captivate the audience on both sides of the screen. Sal inquemani
19. Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance” (2010)
With “Bad Romance,” Lady Gaga makes literal the unspoken plight of the pop star: being transformed into an empty vessel and reshaped into a commodity to be put on display. Gaga and her dancers emerge from cocoon-like coffins, taking on animalistic and alien form-distorting costumes as they perform for their half-human, half-mechanical all-male audience. For a few brief seconds, we see a Lady Gaga we hadn’t seen before: in extreme close-up, no makeup, no masks, and no glasses. A tear rolls down her face. In the end, she emerges victorious, lounging in bed next to the charred skeleton of her captor, smoking a cigarette as sparks shoot out of her bra. Oscar Moralde
18. Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero” (2022)
Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” marked a sharp pivot back toward a more characteristically tongue-in-cheek variety of self-deprecation for the singer-songwriter. The self-directed clip—which, at turns, evokes Michel Gondry’s sci-fi romantic drama Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland—sees Swift’s fears and insecurities play out as she’s haunted by her ghosts in a house smothered in garish vintage decor. A funeral scene in which the artist’s future family members—played by Mike Birbiglia, John Early, and Mary Elizabeth Ellis, who’s dressed like Swift circa 2009—squabble over her will is riotous and clever, with references to Swift’s penchant for “secret encoded message[s] that [mean] something else.” Sal Cinquemani
17. Justin Timberlake, “Mirrors” (2013)
A kaleidoscopic journey into memory inspired by the singer’s grandparents, Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors” homes in on three different periods in a couple’s life together, beginning with their first date in a carnival funhouse and ending with the woman, now alone, reflecting on her marriage. Directed by Floria Sigismondi, “Mirrors” is chockfull of visual details and Easter eggs—clock the reflections in the bedroom—that prime the clip for repeat viewings. Rather than predictably cast himself in the role of one of the younger versions of his grandfather, Timberlake lets the story (and the song) take the spotlight, at least until the video’s coda, when he flaunts some fancy footwork inside the funhouse. Sal Cinquemani
16. R.E.M., “Losing My Religion” (1991)
Directed by then-unknown Indian filmmaker Tarsem Singh, R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” presents the song in a painterly series of tableaux inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1986 film The Sacrifice, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” and passages from the Bible. It’s a heady brew that, paired with the earnestness of the lyrics, could have easily resulted in a jumble of film-school pretension—if not for Michael Stipe’s kinetic performance and Singh’s discerning eye. Sal Cinquemani
15. Aerosmith, “Cryin’” (1994)
In which the world was introduced to Alicia Silverstone as an angst-riddled, Doc Martin-wearing ass-kicker of purse-snatchers. The instantly iconic video for Aerosmith’s “Cryin’” turned the 16-year-old ingenue into the girl every teenager wanted to be or be with, and introduced the band to a whole new generation. But it didn’t just win MTV’s top prize due to its massive popularity with audiences, as it’s also a masterclass in storytelling. Sal Cinquemani
14. Missy Elliott, “Work It” (2003)
Missy Elliott’s mind-bending videos with visionary director Dave Meyers relied heavily on post-production effects and camera tricks. But the rapper’s “Work It” featured one exception: live bees. Missy, however, generates all the buzz here, breakdancing on a giant chess board, swallowing a Lamborghini, and looking as fly as a Halle Berry poster. Alexa Camp
13. Kendrick Lamar, “Humble” (2017)
The cinematic video for Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” features a myriad of symbols representing luxury and power, including re-enactments of da Vinci’s The Last Supper and a famous Grey Poupon TV commercial from the 1980s, as well as a scene of a cash cannon shooting crisp $100 bills. But the rapper prefers stretchmarks to airbrushing, and authenticity to materialism. With the help of directors Dave Meyers and the Little Homies, he uses these images—presented in kinetic widescreen and distorted fisheye lens—to challenge our conception of humility. Sal Cinquemani
12. The Weeknd, “Blinding Lights” (2020)
The dizzying video for the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” pulls out all the viral-clip stops: an exhilarating running sequence, a slowed-down hallucinatory interlude, luxury cars, bloody makeup effects, a giddy Abel Tesfaye dancing like no one’s watching—enough bells and whistles for the entire Top 40 but rendered with cinematic elegance by director Anton Tammi. The clip’s story progresses as if Tesfaye’s blustering persona in Uncut Gems inherited the anarchic sensibilities of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, with the singer on a reckless rampage through Las Vegas. It’s a menacing, indulgent romp that delivers an intoxicating dose of wish fulfillment. Eric Mason
11. Rihanna, “We Found Love” (2012)
Producer Calvin Harris’s Ibiza beats are enhanced by a series of striking, hazily filtered Technicolor images of his Barbadian muse and her fictional boy toy frolicking in a bathtub, popping pills, smoking rainbows, and vomiting streamers. Melina Matsoukas’s video projects (literally and figuratively) the fleeting rush of both young love and drugs—and the often fatal cocktail that results when the two are combined. Sal Cinquemani
10. Madonna, “Ray of Light” (1998)
Madonna’s sole moonman for video of the year to date, “Ray of Light” finds the new mom gyrating before a backdrop of rapid-fire images inspired by Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 film Koyaanisqatsi. Both “Ray of Light” and its video served as a celebration of Madonna’s then-newfound spirituality and appreciation for life in the wake of the birth of her first daughter. “I feel like I just got home!” she wails throughout, but it’s the latter nighttime portion of the video—in which the singer teleports through a traffic tunnel and lands at the heart of a San Francisco dance floor—that truly feels like a homecoming. Sal Cinquemani
9. Sinéad O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U” (1990)
In stark contrast to the often excessive videos of its time period, Sinéad O’Connor and director John Maybury’s absolutely mesmerizing clip for 1990’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” proclaimed O’Connor as an iconoclast to be reckoned with. Moody images of O’Connor walking through a paganistic, gargoyle-filled park are offset with close-ups of the singer’s porcelain face against a black background, naked in her emotions. And yes, that’s a real tear. Ed Gonzalez
8. The Cars, “You Might Think” (1984)
Decades after videos for Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” and Dire Straits’s “Money for Nothing” supposedly broke all sorts of new ground (one because it featured headless robots, the other because it lazily took us inside a digital factory and made one infamous shout-out to MTV), “You Might Think” is among a small number of ’80s relics that have truly stood the test of time. This colorful clip is a mélange of corny yet innocent visual puns, goofy sight gags, and cutout digital effects. In just over three minutes, director Jeff Stein brings to mind both Michael Snow and Andy Warhol’s negotiated personal conflict via a postmodern reality. Because of its underlying romantic spirit, “You Might Think” is more liberating than Snow’s Wavelength (not to mention *corpus callosum) and less preening than anything Warhol ever produced. In the name of love, Ric Ocasek repeatedly presents and repackages himself as a desperate romantic figure. Gonzalez
7. Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” (2009)
Sure, it served as Ground Zero for viral YouTube imitations. But if on-point choreography and hotness were the only qualifying factors here, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” would only be running a close second to this among distaff trio production numbers. What makes Beyoncé’s Three Leotards one for the ages is the fact that there’s actually a fourth dancer running rings around everyone: the flawlessly pirouetting camera. “Single Ladies” is Max Ophüls funkily reincarnated. Eric Henderson
6. Don Henley, “The Boys of Summer” (1985)
Directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, the black-and-white clip for Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” draws influence from both the French New Wave and, in close-ups of the torsos of svelte athletes, Leni Riefenstahl. The video juxtaposes stark images of the present with the blurry edges of memory. Like the song, it’s nostalgic but unsentimental, depicting the idealism of youth alongside the learned stoicism of adulthood. And in the end, reality is revealed to be nothing more than a rear projection. Sal Cinquemani
5. Beyoncé, “Formation” (2016)
Beyoncé is many things, but subtle isn’t one of them. “Stop shooting us,” reads graffiti on a wall in the music video for 2016’s “Formation,” intercut with scenes of a boy in a black hoodie facing off against a line of riot police with nothing but his dance moves. But the clip, directed by Melina Matsoukas, is much more than simply an audio-visual manifestation of the Black Lives Matter movement. Doubling as a tribute to New Orleans, the video opens with a pointed shot of Beyoncé standing atop a New Orleans Police Department car submerged in floodwater, and it dips even further back into our country’s racially charged history to ask, via a fake newspaper titled The Truth, “What is the real legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and why was a revolutionary recast as an acceptable Negro leader?” Sal Cinquemani
4. Pearl Jam, “Jeremy” (1993)
Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” was a more direct, sober sibling of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” but the video smacks with equally potent, if not more indelible, imagery. Pitting science versus emotion and nature versus nurture, the clip all but discards theories of “environmental stress” and “hereditary factors” for violence and places explicit blame on society and, specifically, Jeremy’s parents, presented here theatrically and abstractly (via giant photographs of a man’s suit and a woman’s dress) as the gluttonous Adam and Eve of parenting. Sal Cinquemani
3. Lauryn Hill, “Doo Wop (That Thing)” (1999)
Before Ms. Lauryn Hill voluntarily faded into relative obscurity, she produced one of the most socially and spiritually provocative albums of all time with 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. In the video for the album’s first single, “Doo Wop (That Thing),” British directing team Andy Delaney and Monty Whitebloom (a.k.a. Big TV!) used split-screen imaging to evoke a city’s undying affection for the sound of its culture. As the video’s cross-generational chanteuse, Hill revitalizes doo-wop and acknowledges its influence on modern R&B. “Doo Wop (That Thing)” isn’t so much about Blackness itself as it is about the pride that keeps that Blackness alive. Gonzalez
2. Smashing Pumpkins, “Tonight, Tonight” (1996)
Inspired by the novels of Jules Verne and early Lumiere films, illusionist George Méliès dazzled the world with the release of 1902’s A Trip to the Moon. Though his mini-epics are less structurally and thematically groundbreaking than many of D.W. Griffith’s early works, his ravishing tableaus forever changed the way audiences looked at and experienced cinema. More so than any other music video, “Tonight, Tonight” displays an unmistakable love for the possibilities of cinema. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris used period clothing, theater props, and old-school “special effects” to replicate the look and feel of A Trip to the Moon. This time, though, the journey is in color. Like the smiling moon from Méliès’s film, Billy Corgan and company become not unlike celestial bodies alive with the joys of creation. Gonzalez
1. Peter Gabriel, “Sledgehammer” (1987)
Peter Gabriel and director Stephen R. Johnson teamed up with the Brothers Quay and Nick Park in an effort to make a video that Gabriel called “a bit groundbreaking.” Clearly meeting their lofty goal, 1986’s “Sledgehammer” paved a stop-motion, claymation path for many videos to come. Decades later, the clip’s crafty visual pretenses are nothing short of a marvel to behold. Sal Cinquemani
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