'00s Video Hits

"Video killed the radio star", sang the Buggles in 1979, presciently anticipating the rise of MTV. Three decades down the line it looks like the internet has killed the MTV star . . . but fear not, video cadets, because the art of the music promo has — if anything — become more inventive, refined, and entertaining. OK Go's superb running machine choreography for "Here It Goes Again" pulled in nearly 40 million YouTube hits, while Eric Prydz took a little leotard a long way with "Call On Me".

For more sassy lasses, head to Next Steps.

"Girls on film" is usually a cast-iron formula for music video success — "Love Machine" sent Girls Aloud on a knees-up to their local wine bar, while the Pussycat Dolls took the art of the striptease into balletic new territory with "Buttons". Weezer cut through to the very heart of the new video age with "Pork and Beans", which hilariously references D.I.Y. YouTube culture, and Gorillaz brought us the head of Shaun Ryder, and some incredible animation, with "Dare".

The tracks in Deep Cuts kept raising the AV bar . . .

It takes a great video to stand out from the pack, and many of these tracks were accompanied by images that have been seared onto our memories and are instantly recalled whenever the music plays. "What's a Girl to Do?" by Bat for Lashes puts Natasha Khan on a bicycle at night, followed by BMX-ers with freaky animal heads, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog makes a guest appearance on Eminem's sharp sideswipe at generic booty videos, "Ass Like That".

The '00s has been a decade of astonishing, eye-popping, brain-shaking music videos — and these magnificent tracks prompted some of the very best. Some were approached in a high-tech way, others were tackled with lo-fi D.I.Y. enthusiasm, but all of them held our full attention for around three-and-a-half minutes. Digital innovation produced the terrifying monkey men in Basement Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At?" and enabled Robbie Williams' flesh-ripping striptease in "Rock DJ", while a mischievous sense of fun made Utah Saints "Something Good '08" and Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" (featuring a levitating, shoe-shuffling Christopher Walken) unmissable.