Las Vegas Weekly

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Remember when MTV actually played music, and you'd hear a new song and wonder what its video might look like? Bands still make videos, sure, but unless they're OK Go, the impact typically gets limited to hardcore fanbases and YouTube fanatics.

In the space that follows, the Las Vegas Weekly crew looks back on its all-time favorite music videos. So turn up the volume, sit back and imagine it's 1985 again ... Pass the Doritos.

Big Bang, "Bad Boy" (Brock Radke, Web & Food Editor)

Alien invaders in the form of a K-Pop boy band complete with green hair and furry-back punk rock jackets take over Brooklyn and get super-smooth.

The Chemical Brothers, "Let Forever Be" (Rick Lax, Staff Writer)

What would psychedelic camera tricks look like if you didn't have the technology to do psychedelic camera tricks? Low-tech effects master Michael Gondry answers that question with this video.

Michael Jackson, “Smooth Criminal” (Wesley Gatbonton, Associate Art Director)

I could have picked any of MJ's videos, but I had to go with the choreography here is banana, costumes were on point and it's part of the film Moonwalker, which was mind-blowing ... in 1988. I had that VHS tape on heavy rotation.

Yo La Tengo, "Sugarcube" (Spencer Patterson, Managing Editor)

"The Foghat Principle: Your fourth album should be double live." Great band, great song, plus David Cross and Bob Odenkirk? Simply put, the smartest music video ever made.

Fiona Apple, "Criminal" (Leslie Ventura, Contributing Writer)

Years before American Apparel made waves with its '70s porno-themed advertising, Fiona took televisions by storm with her voyeuristic video for this 1997 hit. Fifteen years later, it still stands up.

J. Geils Band, "Centerfold" (Ken Miller, Associate Editor)

Okay, it's not the best video I've ever seen, but the tune rocks, hot chicks in various states of undress prance around ... and that fake drum makes me smile to this day.

Interpol, "Rest My Chemistry" (Erin Ryan, Staff Writer)

Most music videos are more like short films, with elaborate plots, costumes, sets and special effects. This one doesn’t tell a story. It embodies Interpol’s sound. The simple, hypnotic visual swells and shrinks in infinite space. If you watch it long enough, you’ll swear the song itself is a creature made of energy and light, burrowing into your brain.

Beastie Boys, "Sabotage" (Chris Bitonti, Contributing Writer)

An early Spike Jonze directed video, one of three he directed for the Beasties that year, is still one of the "ill"-est videos out there.

The Ting Tings, "Shut Up and Let Me Go" (Mark Adams, Associate Web Editor)

When it comes to music videos, I really like trippy visuals, and I’m certain I’m not alone. This one immediately came to mind, for its Matrix-y combat scene and the psychedelic, triangular portal to new settings.

Badly Drawn Boy, "Pissing the Wind" (Ryan Olbrysh, Art Director)

Joan Collins is in this video. How many videos have Joan Collins in them?