Top 10 Most Iconic Music Videos

Peter Gabriel's stop-motion and claymation extravaganza directed by Stephen R. Johnson won a record nine MTV Video Music Awards and remains the most played video in MTV history.

The Norwegian band's pencil-sketch rotoscoping technique blending live action with hand-drawn animation created one of the most visually innovative and instantly recognizable music videos of the 1980s.

Often cited as the first true music video, Queen's promo clip for their six-minute opus used prismatic visual effects and multi-image techniques that predated MTV by six years and set the template for the art form.

Beyoncé's black-and-white dance video directed by Jake Nava featured a J-Setting-inspired routine so iconic it spawned millions of imitations, became an Obama-era cultural touchstone, and won Video of the Year.

Samuel Bayer's anarchic pep-rally-gone-wrong visual perfectly captured grunge's anti-establishment energy, and its heavy MTV rotation made Kurt Cobain the reluctant face of Generation X overnight.

David Fincher's black-and-white homage to Old Hollywood glamour and Harlem ballroom culture transformed voguing from an underground dance form into a global pop phenomenon.

Spike Jonze directed Christopher Walken dancing through an empty hotel lobby in a single take, creating a surreal, joyous three minutes that won six MTV VMAs and became the internet era's first viral music video moment.

The nine-minute epic directed by Andy Morahan was the most expensive music video of its era, featuring orchestral sequences, a desert wedding, and Slash's iconic guitar solo emerging from a chapel.

Hiro Murai's single-take-style video juxtaposing joyful dancing with sudden gun violence became the most analyzed and debated music video of the 2010s, forcing viewers to confront America's relationship with entertainment and tragedy.

Peter Gabriel's stop-motion and claymation extravaganza directed by Stephen R. Johnson won a record nine MTV Video Music Awards and remains the most played video in MTV history.

The Norwegian band's pencil-sketch rotoscoping technique blending live action with hand-drawn animation created one of the most visually innovative and instantly recognizable music videos of the 1980s.

Often cited as the first true music video, Queen's promo clip for their six-minute opus used prismatic visual effects and multi-image techniques that predated MTV by six years and set the template for the art form.

Beyoncé's black-and-white dance video directed by Jake Nava featured a J-Setting-inspired routine so iconic it spawned millions of imitations, became an Obama-era cultural touchstone, and won Video of the Year.

Samuel Bayer's anarchic pep-rally-gone-wrong visual perfectly captured grunge's anti-establishment energy, and its heavy MTV rotation made Kurt Cobain the reluctant face of Generation X overnight.

David Fincher's black-and-white homage to Old Hollywood glamour and Harlem ballroom culture transformed voguing from an underground dance form into a global pop phenomenon.

Spike Jonze directed Christopher Walken dancing through an empty hotel lobby in a single take, creating a surreal, joyous three minutes that won six MTV VMAs and became the internet era's first viral music video moment.

The nine-minute epic directed by Andy Morahan was the most expensive music video of its era, featuring orchestral sequences, a desert wedding, and Slash's iconic guitar solo emerging from a chapel.

Hiro Murai's single-take-style video juxtaposing joyful dancing with sudden gun violence became the most analyzed and debated music video of the 2010s, forcing viewers to confront America's relationship with entertainment and tragedy.