Top music videos that are Thrillers

Last week, social music website MySpace.com released its list of the top 10 most influential music videos of all time. Perhaps not surprisingly, Michael Jackson's Thriller was voted number one.

The 14-minute clip for the late pop icon's 1983 track, which cost $500,000 (Dh1.83 million) – the most expensive music video ever at that point – scored 15.2 per cent of the votes in the website's poll.

A shortlist of 20 of the most groundbreaking videos was compiled by critics and MySpace users voted to determine the top 10.

In second place was Here It Goes Again by OK Go in which the band performs on treadmills, while Britney Spears' Baby One More Time completed the top three.

Although a few of the videos in the top 10 are no doubt some of the best, we can't help but feel the list is slightly predictable. And Spears' promo at number three? Really? Yes, it was a treat for teenage boys, but it was hardly groundbreaking.

This got Emirates Business thinking about what other videos really struck a chord with fans.

We haven't conducted any polls or looked at the most expensive. We've just chosen videos that have, well, something about them.

Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan

Technically it wasn't a music video – as it was originally the opening segment of Don't Look Back, DA Pennebaker's documentary about Dylan's 1965 tour of England – but Subterranean Homesick Blues became known as one of the first "modern" promotional film clips for a song.

In the short film shot in a London alley, Dylan (who came up with the idea) looks into the camera, flipping cue cards with selected words and phrases from the lyrics.

Forty years on, the concept has been imitated by numerous bands and artists.

Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai

Unarguably one of the best music videos of the nineties, Virtual Insanity consists of Jamiroquai's singer, Jay Kay, dancing and performing the song in a bright white room with a grey floor.

At the beginning it passes for any old basic video, but the genius in director Jonathan Glazer's work is that the floor appears to move while the rest of the room stays still. Oh, and Jay Kay shows off some awesome dance moves.

Just by Radiohead

Log onto YouTube.com, search for this video clip, and you'll find that, to this day – 15 years after the video debuted – fans are still wondering: "What does the man in Just say at the end?"

And that's part of the magic of director Jamie Thraves piece of work.

A man lies down in the middle of the pavement, and people start to gather asking him what's wrong via a subtitled conversation.

Near the end of the song, the man gives in and says: "I'll tell you why I'm lying here, but God forgive me, because you don't know what you ask of me."

The camera zooms in on his mouth but the subtitles stop, thus not revealing the reason to the viewer. As the camera zooms back out, it shows the pavement covered with the crowd of people, all lying down just like the man.

Telephone by Lady Gaga and Beyoncé

Although we personally prefer Gaga's Bad Romance video, we cannot help but feel that Telephone will be remembered as one of the most-talked-about videos of 2010 and the decade. Everything's in it: fashion, pop culture references, great dance routines, controversy... etc.

In this nine-minute production by director Jonas Åkerlund, Telephone continues where Gaga's vid for Paparazzi left off where the singer was arrested for killing her boyfriend by poisoning his drink. She is taken to a women's prison, but later bailed out by Beyoncé, who is waiting for her.

After a chat, they pull over at a diner where Beyoncé meets her boyfriend but tires of his abuse and poisons him.

The duo then escape with the last shot hinting there will be a third music video of the story to come.

Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters

What we love about Foo Fighters is that the band members are never scared of taking the mickey out of themselves. One of the guys' best-known promos comes in the form of a parody of the film Airplane! with a special appearance by Jack Black and Kyle Gass AKA Tenacious D.

In the clip, everybody on the plane – except the band – drink some dodgy coffee that sends them to sleep, forcing Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel and Taylor Hawkins to land the plane themselves.

The trio also play several other roles in the vid.

Over by Drake

Drake's visually stunning music video for his latest single shows that the Canadian rapper really is worth all the hype that has been created about him.

Directed by Anthony Mandler, Over features Drake sitting in a room on a bed, with several images, including explosions and cityscapes shown on him and on the wall before the song kicks in.

He's later seen in front of a grey backdrop, as he seems to be thinking about two women in his visions – a good girl and a bad girl.

The four-minute production has earned rave reviews from music critics.

The Memory Remains by Metallica

The American band has had some fantastic videos, and some better than The Memory Remains, but we just love the surreal, anti-gravity concept here.

Frontman James Hetfield and co. play on a large, suspended platform making full and continuous rotations throughout the performance, like an enormous swing.

It was later revealed that the platform and band are actually stationary and the room, a giant constructed box, spins around it.

Marianne Faithfull makes an appearance near the end of the song.

Crazy by Aerosmith

Mention Crazy to any male Aerosmith fan, and they'll just utter the words: "Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler".

The duo (Liv is frontman Steven Tyler's real-life daughter) play a couple of schoolgirls who skip class and run away, driving off in a blue Ford Mustang convertible, and set off onto a very exciting adventure. Great song, sexy video and one of the hottest of the nineties.

Rabbit in Your Headlights

by UNKLE featuring

Thom Yorke

If you've never seen this video, search for it online and watch it right now.

Also directed by Virtual Insanity's Glazer, it stars French actor Denis Lavant as a man wearing a heavy parka and walking along the middle of the road in a busy car tunnel.

He appears to be out of his mind, mumbling and shouting incoherences.

Then there's that ending, which we are not going to reveal – but it is without a doubt that the story is cryptic and powerful.

Vogue by Madonna

No stranger to controversy, Madonna's David Fincher-directed black and white video recalls the look of films and photography from the Golden Age of Hollywood, plus features that very famous dance routine.

Oh, and Madonna does what Madonna does best – not wear very much.

Myspace's Most Influential vids

1. Thriller (Michael Jackson)

2. Here It Goes Again (OK Go)

3. Baby One More Time (Britney Spears)

4. Take On Me (A-Ha)

5. Hurt (Johnny Cash)

6. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)

7. Around the World

(Daft Punk)

8. Weapon of Choice (Fatboy Slim)

9. Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)

10. Sabotage (Beastie Boys)

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