'80s Video Hits

MTV changed the way we look at music. In the '80s, we were hit with images we'd forever link to songs. From Michael Jackson's cinematic "Thriller" to Frankie Goes to Hollywood's orgiastic "Relax", these tracks and their video interpretations helped define this brave new outlook, and the moving image became entrenched in pop.

We challenge you to listen to these songs and not remember their respective videos. In the '80s, music videos launched careers, championed bold new music, and massaged our imaginations. Who can forget Adam Ant dressed as a highwayman in "Stand and Deliver" or the Teardrop Explodes hurtling around in an old Jeep in "Reward".

Hurling money at videos was a fad in the '80s, but one band who kept it all low-tech and never disappointed was Madness ("Driving in My Car") — they realized that running around pulling faces like the Keystone Cops was a formula that worked. Other bands went all arty, like New Order, whose "True Faith" remains a fanciful classic.

Close your eyes when listening to these songs, and you'll be transported back to the '80s, the early days of MTV — a time that saw up-and-coming artists launched into the stratosphere, thanks to the creation of revolutionary techniques in visual storytelling. When combined, two great art forms — music and moving pictures — created something bigger than either: a cultural phenomenon. These are the songs that spawned a network and a whole new era in music.