Sure: the 80s may have had some of the best music videos of all time thanks to the golden age of MTV. But have you seen any music videos from the 90s? That crazy, sexy, cool, grunge-tastic time when girl and boy bands were on the rise and hip-hop grew stronger? The 90s were a straight-up vibe, and visuals of the time only stirred up the culture.
90s music videos are often overlooked because they live in the shadow of the 80s. But they contained equally ambitious concepts, performances, and production design. In this list, we’ll be counting down our Top 10 favorite music videos of the 90s. Trust us: we’ve watched them all. And these are the ones we feel defined the decade, did something new and memorable, or stirred controversy when it was actually ahead of its time.
Without further ado…let’s roll!
10. “Bitter Sweet Symphony” – The Verve
For some reason, the 90s are full of music videos where bands run or walk across city streets. blink-182’s “What’s My Age Again?”, Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” and the opening of Foo Fighters’ “Big Me” come to mind. But if we had to choose the best 90s video from the subgenre, our ballot would be cast for The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”
The concept is simple, yet so cinematic. It’s also an ode to the video for Massive Attack’s “Unfinished Symphony,” and a perfect metaphor for nihilism. It shows Verve singer Richard Ashcroft walking down a busy pavement in Hoxton, London, refusing to change his pace, gait, or direction. And that means he rudely bumps into several city-dwellers. He even steps over the roof of a car at one point. The video has a realistic tone, and so it’s very entertaining watching all of the characters’ reactions as Ashcroft’s shoulders hit them. His nuanced performance really sells this thing, and there’s something about his attitude that feels very dangerous, but also infectious. As the lyrics of the song would suggest, it’s as if he’s just learned the truth about life, and doesn’t care about consequences anymore. The band joins him on the street by the clip’s end.
The video for “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was played frequently on music channels and was nominated for a number of awards, including three MTV Awards at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2016, Guardian journalist Perry Francesca included the video on a list of the best music videos about city life. Francesca observed that “Hoxton Street in the late ’90s was just on the cusp before the area underwent rapid gentrification and hipsterisation, so the video has become a kind of historic snapshot”.
9. “Vogue” – Madonna
When it comes to music videos, Madonna doesn’t miss. The pop queen welcomed the new decade in 1990 with her flashy song “Vogue.” The music video harkens back to the black and white glamor of old Hollywood. And as the title of the song would suggest, there’s also some choreographic representation of the burgeoning LGBTQ+ dancehall scene. (“Voguing” is a dance style which imitates the characteristic poses struck by models on a catwalk.)
Famous film director David Fincher shot the sleek visual at Burbank Studios in California. The video features the dancers for Madonna’s then-upcoming Blond Ambition World Tour – Donna De Lory, Niki Harris, Luis Xtravaganza Camacho, Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza, Salim Gauwloos, Carlton Wilborn, Gabriel Trupin, Oliver Crumes, and Kevin Stea. Besides MTV, the video premiered on BET on November 22 in 1990: making it the first video by Madonna to air on an African-American channel. The “Vogue” music video received a total of nine MTV Video Music Awards nominations, becoming her most-nominated video at the award show. It won Best Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography. Also at that same VMA ceremony, Madonna served us a fan-flipping-tastic live performance of “Vogue.”
8. “Ironic” – Alanis Morissette
This free-spirited music video – as well as her performance as God in Kevin Smith’s film Dogma – proves Alanis Morissette has some serious acting chops. Jagged Little Pill was a cultural phenomenon, and “Ironic” proved to be its biggest track. When it came time to make the music video, Morissette created a concept where she sang to “Ironic” with different versions of herself while driving a car on a snowy day. It’s a simple idea, but oh so heartfelt and relatable thanks to Morissette’s infectious energy.
We watch red beanie Alanis drive, green Alanis fall asleep in the back, yellow Alanis sing while eating, and red sweater Alanis extend herself out the car window while belting. (Kudos for your bravery, Ms. Morissette!) The concept of Morissette appearing in a video with different versions of herself was so impactful, that she would continue the theme in future visuals. Red beanie Alanis would later return in the clip for “Reasons I Drink.”
7. “Around the World” – Daft Punk
Four robots, four tall athletes with prosthetic heads, four women dressed like synchronized swimmers, four skeletons, and four mummies walk onto a set shaped like a vinyl record. What happens? They go “around the world!” And it’s incredibly entertaining to watch.
Daft Punk’s video for their 1997 track “Around the World” is meant to be a visual representation of the lyrically-repetitive song; each group of characters represents a different instrument. The robots represent the singing voice, the physicality and small-minded rapidity of the athletes symbolizes the ascending/descending bass guitar, the femininity of the swimmer girls represents the high-pitched keyboard, the skeletons dance to the guitar line, and the mummies represent the drum machine.
“Around the World” was director Michael Gondry’s first attempt at bringing organized dancing to his music videos. He wanted to break away from the typical music video choreography tropes of the 90s. “I was sick to see choreography being mistreated in videos like filler with fast cutting and fast editing, really shallow. I don’t think choreography should be shot in close-ups,” he said.
6. “Wannabe” – Spice Girls
“Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want!” Seeing this amazing girl-power video made us want the future and forget the past. The video for “Wannabe” was helmed by commercial director Johan Camitz and sees Posh Spice, Ginger Spice, Scary Spice, Baby Spice, and Sporty Spice getting crazy in a hotel setting. It’s a one-take shoot of the girl group arriving at a building, taking over the place, and running riot – the same way they did when they were looking for a manager and a record company!
Because the video was intended to be filmed in one shot, the group rehearsed the routine several times through the night, while a Steadicam operator followed them. The final video was cut together from two takes. Virgin Records’ executives were horrified; besides the cold weather showing itself in various ways, the lighting was considered too dark, Virgin was concerned that old people appeared in the video, and worried that the scenes of the Spice Girls jumping on a table and Halliwell’s showgirl outfit might be considered threatening by music channels. Virgin began discussions about a re-shoot or creating an alternate one for the US, but the Spice Girls refused.
And thank goodness they did, because when the music video first appeared on the British cable network the Box, it was selected so frequently that it reached the top of the viewers’ chart within two hours. It stayed at number one for thirteen weeks until it was replaced by the Spice Girls’ next music video, “Say You’ll Be There.” “Wannabe” won Best Dance Video at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, and Best Video at the 1997 Comet Media Awards. It was also nominated for Best British Video at the 1997 BRIT Awards.
5. “Supa Dupa Fly” – Missy Elliott
Missy Elliott was the rap queen of MTV back in the 90s and early 2000s. The music video for “Supa Dupa Fly” was how she started her reign, and included classic Hype Williams fish-eye lens shots, cameos from several hip-hop artists (Timbaland, Lil Kim, Tamara Johnson-George, and Sean Combs just to name a few), and an iconic inflatable trash bag outfit.
Some consider the black suit to be a giant “eff you” to haters who bashed on Missy’s body type. Others just considered it the creative work of designer Jane Ambrose. “The contraption was very small deflated, but once you blew it up, it was the size of maybe a 900 pound man,” she told NPR. They had to take Missy Elliott to a gas station to inflate the suit. When they walked back to the studio where they were filming, Ambrose noticed the suit had a small leak and was slowly deflating.
“So, now I’m like, ‘Oh God, what am I gonna do?’ ” Ambrose recalls. “Everyone was screaming, ‘Get art department, let’s figure this out!” Fortunately, she found the solution in a bicycle pump. Ambrose stood behind the giant suit pumping during every take. “The slight leak actually made the suit a lot more dynamic than I could have ever imagined,” she revealed. “And that crazy luck, I gotta tell you, probably changed my life.”
4. “Virtual Insanity” – Jamiroquai
Okay, so we know this video has essentially become a meme now thanks to that cheeky Family Guy parody and the clip of Jay Kay floating towards the camera. But unlike Rick Astley’s meme-ified 80s video for “Never Gonna Give You Up,” “Virtual Insanity” by British funk group Jamiroquai actually has creative merit.
The visual, which premiered in 1996, features frontman Jay Kay dancing and singing in a minimalist white room with couches. The whole thing is an optical illusion. It looks as if the floor is moving…or perhaps Jay Kay is using telekinesis? There are cockroaches, a bird, and blood spills, too. In actuality, wheels were moving the walls of the room across a stationary gray floor. (You can learn more about how the effect was achieved in “Virtual Insanity’s” behind-the-scenes video.)
It’s a remarkable concept that still holds up today. Unsurprisingly, this video proved to be a smash hit with the public. At the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, “Virtual Insanity” earned 10 nominations, winning four awards, including “Breakthrough Video” and the “Best Video of the Year.” The future may truly be virtual insanity, but Jamiroquai’s iconic fuzzy black hat will always be a relic from the 90s.
3. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – Nirvana
Is it even a true Top 10 of 90s music videos if we don’t include the holy grail of grunge visuals? In the music video for Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Kurt Cobain and the gang rile up a group of high school-aged teens in a sort of anti-pep pep rally. By the end, everyone’s crashing into each other in a mosh pit. There’s even a kid hanging on to a basketball hoop for dear life. And a janitor cleaning up the mess.
The video’s creation was just as chaotic as the aesthetic of the final product. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was director Samuel Bayer’s first-ever music video. Apparently, Bayer believed he was hired because his demo reel was so poor, the band anticipated his production would be “punk” and “not corporate.” The video is inspired by Jonathan Kaplan’s 1979 film Over the Edge and the Ramones’ film Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. The visual ends with the students destroying the set, and that discontent was genuine; the extras filling the bleachers had been forced to stay seated through numerous replays of the song for an entire afternoon of filming. Cobain convinced Bayer to allow the extras to mosh…to allow their frustrations out. “Once the kids came out dancing they just said ‘f–k you’, because they were so tired of his s–t throughout the day,” Cobain remarked.
Once the video made it to post-production, Cobain made extensive re-edits: which included adding in that penultimate close-up shot of his face. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” received heavy airtime on MTV. The video won Nirvana the Best New Artist and Best Alternative Group awards at the 1992 VMAs, and is still a prominent symbol of teenage rebellion.
2. “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) – Backstreet Boys
So we know the video for “I Want It That Way” is iconic because of the Backstreet Boys’ all white outfits and those airplane shots. But if we had to choose which of their visuals is the tightest, has the best concept, and includes a monstrous amount of fun, it would be “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).”
The Backstreet Boys had made “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” around the time of their first album released, but saved the song for their second studio album because Jive Records president Barry Weiss believed that it would be weird to have a song called “Backstreet’s Back” on a debut record. In any case, the beloved boy band knew they had a hit on their hands. So when it was time to create the music video for “Everybody,” they decided to pull all the stops. And they made all the right decisions.
The ghoulish-yet-groovy music video for the track is inspired by the aesthetics of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which had been a revolutionary visual released in the previous decade. It follows the boys as they begrudgingly stay in a haunted house for the night. They turn into vampires, werewolves, and mummies, and throw a wild ballroom dance party. Kids of the 90s studied the choreography of this video religiously. Also, the boys put up their own money in order to meet the $1 million budget of the clip. With the amount of hype they received after the release of “Everybody,” it definitely paid off.
1. “…Baby One More Time” – Britney Spears
Okay, so maybe the video for “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” was inspired by “Thriller.” But the video for Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” truly is to the 90s what Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was to the 80s. Cool concept? Check. Slick-as-heck choreography that shows off the artist’s talent? Check. A look so iconic it’s now considered a common Halloween costume? Check. (Michael Jackson has his “Thriller” coat, Britney’s got her opening schoolgirl style.)
But unlike Michael Jackson when “Thriller” was released, Britney was still relatively new to the pop scene when “…Baby One More Time” dropped. Sure, she had a following from her Disney days. But she wasn’t quite the music industry queen she’d soon become once the early 2000s rolled around. In 1998, Spears dropped the sultry video for “…Baby One More Time.” Initially, the video was to be partially animated – harkening back to her days on The Mickey Mouse Club. But Spears wanted to shed her squeaky clean Disney persona, and found a good alternative: a visual set in school. It was a perfect choice, considering it reflected her own generation.
Because it deeply resonated with the 90s kids, “…Baby One More Time” received heavy rotation on MTV. People memorized the dance routine, girls copied Britney’s hairdos, and Spears was catapulted even further into superstardom. Furthermore, the success of “…Baby One More Time” signified the end of the grungy 90s and began the pop-heavy music revolution of the early 2000s. Like the teacher watching Britney in the gymnasium setting, we can’t help but smile and bop around whenever this video plays.
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Article Image: Missy Elliott in the music video for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” Close-up of Britney Spears in her …Baby One More Time video, Kurt Cobain in the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” (Missy Elliott, Britney Spears, and Nirvana via YouTube.)
