In Honor Of MTV’s 30th Anniversary, The Five Best Music Videos You’ve Never Seen

The network formerly known for playing “Video Music” (and inventing “reality television”) turns thirty today, and while many can complain it is showing some signs of aging (Where are the music videos?), MTV has given at least two generations lifetime memories– most Americans can’t thank Van Halen, Pat Benatar, Hall & Oates and Duran Duran enough. But some of the greatest masterpieces of the Music Video era often go unsung, so on this birthday, we bring you best music videos everyone forgot existed.

Robert Hazard: “Escalator of Life”

Robert Hazard is one of the great heroes of the 1980s, though from this video you may not quite know it. Hazard is responsible for writing the Cyndi Lauper classic “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”– though failed to achieve that level of popularity with his darker fare, particularly his obscure hit “Escalator of Life.” Succumbing to the apparently irresistible temptation every ’80s artist had of spelling out every metaphor in every line of their songs, this video features some amazing escalator cinematography by some people who look like the band the Human League but are not. The mullets, mannequins, and existential locked door motif are all worth noting.

Junior: “Mama Used To Say”

The pastel colors and jolly R&B beat make this video worth bookmarking to watch on a bad day alone, but its place in history as one of the first British R&B crossover hits in America cements its appeal. Sure, the animation is static, but it was a brand new take on the music video that feels at least somewhat prescient of the backdrop in Lionel Ritchie‘s “All Night Long“.

Nik Kershaw: “Wouldn’t It Be Good”

Released a year before what is perhaps the biggest animated music video hit of the 1980s, A-Ha’s “Take On Me” (Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” gets an honorable mention), Kershaw’s “Wouldn’t It Be Good” became a hit on the back of its phenomenally creative music video, employing Chroma-key technology to depict a troubled extraterrestrial’s internal struggle as he makes his way back to the technology that can take him home. Looks clunky to us now, this sort of thinking got the ball rolling on what would become much a trend that gave us some of the best art of the time.

Ultravox: “Vienna”

“Vienna” was released in January 1981, which puts it in music video Prehistory (before MTV), gaining heavy rotation on shows like TBS’ “Night Tracks” before making it onto the nascent network. It’s about as high brow as music videos can really get, but that it takes itself seriously makes the delicate tune all that much enjoyable to hear.

The Bongos: “Numbers With Wings”

“Numbers with Wings” is one of those songs that was a huge hit in its time in certain circles, but never made it deep enough into the mainstream to give The Bongos the one-hit wonder status that, say, Dexy’s Midnight Runners currently enjoy. Nevertheless, the Buñuel-esque surrealist scenes and attempts to literally depict nonsense lyrics won it a Best Director nomination at the first ever VMAs.