11. Ovlov "Small Voices"
Originally from 2012's Not The Same Without You.
10. Good Morning "Warned You"
Originally from 2014's Shawcross.
9. Alice Coltrane “Rama Guru”
Originally from 1987's Divine Songs.
8. Midnight “In League With Satan”
Originally from 2015's Summoning the Hounds of Hell: A Tribute to Venom.
7. Helium “Hole in The Ground”
Originally from the A-Side of a 1993 Matador 7-inch. First available on CD in 1997 on the All Over Me soundtrack. Released on Ends With And in 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhDOeyMbrHU
6. Prince “We Can Fuck”
Previously available on bootlegs. Released on Purple Rain Deluxe (Expanded Edition) in 2017.
Unavailable for free streaming.
5. Sheer Mag “What You Want”
Originally from a 2014 self-titled EP.
4. Autumn “Kill My World”
Originally from 1971's Comes Autumn.
3. Hüsker Dü “Do You Remember?”
From Savage Young Dü.
2. Can “Turtles Have Short Legs”
Originally from the A-Side of a German 7-inch from 1971. First available on CD in 1992 on Cannibalism 2 (Germany only). Sampled in the Playstation game Parappa The Rapper in 1997. Released outside of Europe for the first time on The Singles comp in 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxGaC4wzt50
Countin' em down-- All the way down-- from 100 all the way to the number 1 video of the year:
It's MTVZ's Top 100 Video Count-Down of 2017.
Hello and welcome to MTVZ's Top 100 of 2017 video countdown. The playlist below includes the 100 greatest music videos of the year as chosen by the staff of MTVZ and this here blog.
The abbreviation MTVZ stands for My Tasty VidZ. The channel started because we wanted to pretend that MTV and MTV2 were no longer abysmal. Back when MTV was ok, they would typically celebrate the new year with a countdown of their top 100 videos of the year on New Years Eve with an encore presentation on New Years Day. The videos here do not represent TMK's best videos of the year; those were already posted over the past week. And this list does not represent our official best songs of the year, which will be posted when Fire Mix 2017 gets posted (probably over the next 2 weeks).
We're trying this out as an experiment hypothetically considering what MTV might have chosen if they still cared about literally anything (besides pressure from investors), strongly filtering out most of what we personally tag as "bullshit music." (Ed Sheeran is notably absent. Paramore placed strongly because they're a very popular band among our friends and are not egregiously awful, but they will likely not appear on Fire Mix 2017. "Africa" by Toto places at #12 despite that it's a video from 1983.) The selection process is too bizarre and boring and complicated to quickly explain.
Also, this will function as MTVZ's official playlist for January 2018 (even though more than half of this playlist appears in previous editions of MTVZ).
Note: MTVZ playlists tend to front-load, and so the videos are shown in ascending order as opposed to counting down.
MTVZ’s Top 100 Of 2017 Video Countdown
100. BEAK “(Merry Xmas) Face The Future”
99. Nicki Minaj, Drake & Lil Wayne “Fake Love”
98. Julia Michaels “Uh Huh”
97. Weezer “Mexican Fender”
96. Great Grandpa “No”
95. Mariah Carey f/ YG “I Don’t”
94. God Damn “I’ll Bury You”
93. Thundercat f/ Michael Macdonald & Kenny Loggins “Show You The Way”
92. Nelly Furtado “Pipe Dreams”
91. The New Pornographers “High Ticket Attractions”
90. Snoop Dogg f/ Redman, Method Man & B-Real “Mount Kushmore”
89. Mura Masa & Charli XCX “1 Night”
88. Action Bronson “Let Me Breathe”
87. Alvvays “In Undertow”
86. Weaves “Walkaway”
85. Bully “Feel The Same”
84. Poppy “Bleach Blonde Baby”
83. Flying Lotus “Post Requisite”
82. Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie “In My World”
81. Moon Duo “Cold Fear / Lost In Light”
80. Potty Mouth “Twisted”
79. Jaden Smith “Batman”
78. Rae Sremmurd “Perplexing Pegasus”
77. Palberta “Filling Empty / Jaws”
76. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats “Crystal Spiders”
75. Future “Mask Off”
74. Now Now “Yours”
73. Charly Bliss “Black Hole”
72. EXPANDER "Mechanized Deathcanal"
71. Miguel “Now”
70. Lil Yachty “Shoot Out The Roof”
69. BADBADNOTGOOD “Fall In Love”
68. Sevyn Streeter “Before I Do”
67. Satyricon “To Your Brethren In The Dark”
66. Leikeli47 “Miss Me”
65. Charlotte Gainsbourg “Deadly Valentine”
64. Strange Relations “Very White Teeth”
63. Kehlani “Distraction”
62. Run The Jewels f/ Gangsta Boo “Love Again”
61. Maren Morris “’80s Mercedes”
60. Aminé "REDMERCEDES"
59. Young Thug "Homie"
58. Cloakroom “Seedless Star”
57. Kelela “LMK”
56. The Saxophones “If You’re On The Water”
55. Rico Nasty “Block List”
54. Jay-Z “Moonlight”
53. Miguel “Told You So”
52. Paramore “Told You So”
51. Power Trip “Executioner’s Tax”
50. Cardi B “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)”
49. Rae Sremmurd “Swang”
48. Yo Gotti f/ Nicki Minaj “Rake It Up”
47. Melkbelly “Off The Lot”
46. Bruno Mars “That’s What I Like”
45. Maren Morris “I Could Use A Love Song”
44. Jorja Smith “On My Mind”
43. The Weeknd f/ Daft Punk “I Feel It Coming”
42. Aye Nako “Nightcrawler”
41. Lil Pump "Gucci Gang"
40. Protomartyr “A Private Understanding”
39. Dua Lipa f/ Miguel “Lost In Your Light”
38. Priests “Pink White House”
37. LOONA / ODD EYE CIRCLE “Girl Front”
36. Metz “Drained Lake”
35. Lil Yachty “Lady In Yellow”
34. Bruno Mars “24K Magic”
33. Pile “Texas”
32. Migos “T-Shirt”
31. New Found Glory “The Sound Of Two Voices”
30. Childish Gambino “Redbone”
29. Horisont “Electrical”
28. Big Thief “Mythological Beauty”
27. Danny Brown "Ain't It Funny"
26. Charli XCX “Boys”
25. Rihanna “Love On The Brain”
24. Kendrick Lamar “HUMBLE.”
23. Bjork “Arisen My Senses”
22. Mahmundi “Imagem”
21. Sheer Mag “Suffer Me”
20. Nnamdi Ogbonnaya “let gO Of my egO”
19. N.E.R.D. f/ Rihanna “Lemon”
18. Otoboke Beaver “Love Is Short”
17. PRETTYMUCH f/ French Montana “No More”
16. Code Orange “Bleeding In The Blur”
15. Selena Gomez “Bad Liar”
14. Winter “Jaded”
13. Lil Uzi Vert “XO Tour Llif3”
12. Toto “Africa”
11. Lil Yachty “Bring It Back”
10. Charly Bliss “Westermarck”
9. Lil Peep f/ Lil Tracy “Awful Things”
8. Kendrick Lamar f/ Rihanna “LOYALTY.”
7. N.E.R.D. f/ Future “1000”
6. (Sandy) Alex G “Bobby”
5. Electric Wizard “See You In Hell”
4. Young Thug “Wyclef Jean”
3. Paramore “Hard Times”
2. Migos “Bad and Boujee”
1. Kendrick Lamar “DNA”
When Thrillist placed "Wyclef Jean" at #5 on their Top 50 Music Videos of 2017, the bloggers theorized that Young Thug's physical presence would have made this a "relatively forgettable" video. This assumption is largely incorrect. The video was already on its way to becoming something special since either version would have included 7-year-old cops and bikini babes smashing cop cars with bats in slow motion. Either version may have included Thugger's 13-second cameo, most of which is spent lip syncing while scarfing a bag of Cheetos. "The inherent chaos of celebrity life" was likely not itemized within the video's $100,000 budget, but its ensuing text narration propels it from great to GOAT. This is among the top 5 music videos of the 2010s.
Hopes are up for one more 3rd and final N*E*R*D video with Mette Towley mostly because we perceive "1000" as the apex of a trilogy - a rare example of a sequel that surpasses its Part One. If our suspicions prove correct, N*E*R*D can boast a spot among the all time classic video trilogies alongside GNR's Illusions trilogy with Stephanie Seymour and Aerosmith's Get A Grip clips with Alicia Silverstone. ("Lemon" premiered on Wednesday, Nov 1st while "1000" dropped exactly 5 weeks later. Yesterday, Wednesday Jan 10th, was exactly 5 weeks since "1000" and 10 weeks since "Lemon," so it would have been the best time to premiere this hypothetical Part Three. Keep hope alive.) We're also not typically fans of abrupt song disruption, but we'll make an exception for Mike Tyson.
If this keeps up, the kid's gonna have to change his name to Busy Boat Boy:
Lil Yachty's 2017 Videography
Jan 6 "Shoot Out The Roof"
Feb 17 "It Takes Two" (w/ CRJ)
Apr 7 "iSpy" (w/ KYLE)
Apr 14 "Peek A Boo"
May 4 "Bring It Back"
May 5 "From the D to the A" (w/ Tee Grizzley)
June 7 "Hip Hopper" (w/ Blac Youngsta)
June 23 "Dirty Mouth"
Aug 2 "Marmalade" (w/ Macklemore)
Aug 4 "Forever Young"
Sept 14 "Better"
Sept 27 "Lady In Yellow"
Oct 5 "On Me"
Oct 23 "Faking It" (w/ Kehlani & Calvin Harris)
Dec 19 "Ice Tray" (w/ Quavo)
Well damn, that is a lot of videos.
The nature of Lil Yachty's post-trap diversions seem to require the unexpectedly bizarre and almost psychedelic visual choices in "Bring It Back" and "Lady In Yellow." The former partially borrows from Wedding Singer nostalgia but includes distinctly 2010s absurdity including a sequence where he walks on and steps into plates of cake and Jell-o. A girl uses her cupped hand to scoop up a serving of whipped cream surprise. Yachty mugs for the camera. In the dream-like "Lady In Yellow," he appears in a kitchen full of condiments within its final few seconds, waking up abruptly after a girl reacts to something from off-camera that is never shown.
Narrative is dead. Or is it? The non-linear elements in "Bobby" comprise of mixed visual media including marionettes and animation loops. Vans are driven; bikes are ridden. The Alex G band performs with a new front person who seems so immersed in the music that he forgets to sing anything. It's a specific and enchanting combination recalling the short lived Jancee Dunn / Chris Booker era of 120 Minutes or something MTV2 would have rotated heavily between 1998-1999.
The "purposely bad 3-minute sitcom" trope has run its course. These two examples are noteworthy for other reasons: "Ain't It Funny" begins with a logo from a phony Christian TV channel, which does not make any sense at all compared to the content of the hypothetical show. They got Gus Van Zant to act as the dad for some reason. But it's the griminess of the song that really sets the juxtaposition in motion. More of a short film than a music video, "Moonlight" frustratingly neglects to prioritize the song that it's supposed to be promoting. However, a shot-for-shot remake of Friends' title sequence blatantly illuminates the original version's nerdiness and embarrassing whiteness. And we kinda think Friends is the fucking worst, so thank you to all responsible parties.
Metal videos in the 2010s typically look best when horrendously low budget and chock full of terrible ideas. The condensation from the trunk of Expander's car is really just the natural heat emitting from their brutality. Apparently, they hold their band practices inside of the trunk of a sedan. This is a really bad video.
Indulging self-caricature, Mr. Doggy Dogg closed his funniest year yet with the auto-tune extravaganza Make America Crip Again and oversaw a minor summer triumph with "Mount Kushmore," starring the Forefathers of Kush in appropriately minimal, cheaply-produced anime/Boondocks-style action. We tried to read their lips, but it just said "meap meap meap."
"Batman" is a story about waking up to a beautiful pink/purple skyline that just happens to include Jaden Smith's own personal Bat Signal. When the world needs a hero, Jaden knows what he must do. He is that hero. He is Batman.
Let's give credit where it's due:
#1 The keyboard hook is pretty damn catchy.
#2 Whoever shot this knows their cinematography well enough to have captured some decently gorgeous skyline shots.
#3 We'll give some benefit of doubt here: Jaden might be the world's biggest fan of Drake & Future's "Jumpman," but the song was also sampled and lifted hundreds of other times - not only on mixtapes like Lil B's Thugged Out Pissed Off but on critically acclaimed records like Kanye West's The Life Of Pablo - so at least he's in good company.
If bees are going to be the special guest stars of your band's new video, odds are pretty much 100% perfect that we will reserve space for them in our top 10 of the year. They actually figured out a way to get bees to twerk to the beat. Giant A+.
BEAK, also known as Beak>, also known as best band of the 2010s. We need a new Beak album already, but at least both of their 2017 singles were lit. No clue what the lyrics are, so we're not sure exactly how the song relates to the holidays, but the video is definitely more specific to Xmas 2017 than any previous year. December 2018 will be the year when Secret Santa is replaced by everyone in the office receiving permission to burn a Xmas tree over their cubicle. Who knew Putin and Kim Jong Un were such wonderful dancers?
Damn, these dudes look really fucking scary. The social commentary strengthens simply because the song itself is a party banger about riding in sports cars. Definitely 100x more enjoyable than White Chicks.
HM stands for "Honorable Mention." Not to be confused with www.hm.com which is the website for H&M.
"Homie" is one of those like "Virtual Insanity" where it's tough to tell if the room is moving along with the camera. We prefer the mystery of not knowing how they did it. Any other video with close-ups of freshly scarfed meat trays would typical gross us out to the point of disqualification based on principle. It's a weed video though. Creative as hell and mad disorienting.
Not all vids can make it into the 10 best vids of the year.
But they are good enough for the bonus. Let's see what we got.
Lil Pump "Gucci Gang"
At California High School, Lil Pump sips purp slurpees for breakfast and brings his giant pet tiger to school for protection against any kids who try to steal his plastic 5-pound bags full of marijuana buds. The lunch lady approves of Lil Pump's lifestyle and indulges in purp between classes. Hiphop won this year. Deal with it. Learn from our mistakes and move on.
Rae Sremmurd “Swang”
Actual Golf Wang. Similar to the lunch lady moment from Lil Pump's video, "Swang" shows Rae Sremmurd helping out a couple sweet old lady golfers with their cataracts. VHS camcorders, video within a video, fresh golf polos, Titlist hats, keg stands. Indie-rock video directors: Take notes.
Kendrick Lamar f/ Rihanna “LOYALTY.”
Rihanna thinks everything is just so fucking hilarious. It's funny when Kendrick Lamar gets his ass kicked, laughing her ass off as she sinks into literal quicksand or while dangling from 50 stories high. Nothing brings the lulz for Rihanna like a good old fashioned head-on collision complete with shattered glass and blood flying everywhere. MDMA and chronic are a wild combination. Kendrick smokes a very big cigar.
Selena Gomez “Bad Liar”
2017 was a year with lots of great music but few "future GOATs." There was no "Super Bass" or "Black Beatles" or "Call Me Maybe." No consensus jams. And when that happens, end-of-year-list season gets weirder.
In a different year, a single like "Bad Liar" (apparently the year's 6th most critically revered pop hit) would most indubitably have a "future GOAT" status secured. But 2017 was not a normal year. We don't really "get" "Bad Liar" as a critical blockbuster, but it's an ok enough song and we dug the video right away. For a moment, we were convinced that the "high school" Selena was a 12-year-old doppleganger.
Kevin Gates "2 Phones" OG Maco "12 Bricks"
In the chorus of "2 Phones," Kevin Gates declares "I got two phones." A shocking moment follows at the 0:38 mark when a close-up reveals that Kevin actually owns not two, but four phones, outing Kevin Gates as an unreliable narrator. The fan video for "12 Bricks" should have been the real video for OG Maco's song in which two friends discover 12 masonry bricks laying on the side of the road and cannot believe their good fortune. (Note: Both of these songs and videos are from 2015 but we are old and didn't know about them until recently which is why they are bonus.)
It's been quite a year for record-smashing video streams.
Remember July 10th? That was the day Youtube history was made once again when Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again" (from the soundtrack of the Dwayne Johnson / Vin Diesel vehicle Furious 7) dethroned 2012's long reigning big budget video for "Gangnam Style" by PSY to become the most popular Youtube clip of all time.
Luis Fonsi's "Despacito" broke Mr. Khalifa's record a mere 25 days later on August 4th. Since its premiere on 1/12/17, "Despacito" has nearly surpassed 5 billion streams, a checkpoint it will reach by Spring 2018.
Youtube has a boner for its own record breaking distinctions, not incomparable to Hollywood's blockbuster business model: The top 10 highest grossing movies of all time still include 4 movies from 2015. The top 15 include 4 movies from 2017, and 18 of the top 20 were released in the past decade. "Breaking the world record" is now a business model for moving visual art. It won't be long until it spreads to TV, Netflix, Hulu and the like.
As capitalism continued its growing influence on both music exposure and video, hiphop was chosen by the people as the music streaming world's most popular genre of 2017. Unsurprisingly, the year's most engaging visual concepts found their way into more hiphop videos than in any other calendar year in the the genre's history. (No disrespect to Hype Williams or Paul Hunter, but this is probably true.) Comparatively, videos in almost every other genre seemed less inspired than ever. Perhaps disinterest has grown from newfound lack of marketability. Why put so much effort into creating an interesting or weird or stimulating video that no one will ever see?
2017 was a year when the creators of this blog decided to run our own music video channel on Youtube. We were probably on the hunt for dope music videos more persistently in 2017 than any of the past 10 years. The hunt exposed us to a lot of really good rap clips, while the best videos from the world of rock, metal, weirdo, experimental, pop or R&B simply didn't want us to find them. We know they're out there somewhere, and they often cross our path after the year's end. But from where we stand now, hiphop singles and especially hiphop videos kicked more serious ass than any other genre.
It will be more obvious once we get into the top 10. For now, check these out...
Priests “Pink White House”
Priests directed their own damn punk rock video just the way they like it. The band encounter themselves. One of them plays a swamp thing, and there's a food fight. All money shots with no anticipation: the way rock videos should be. This technically debuted late-2016 or else it might have placed Top 10.
Ariel Pink "Another Weekend"
"Concept by Eric Andre" caught our attention. A fun story of what happens to Ariel Pink throughout a typical weekend, it fits with the trippiness of his more psychedelic clips like "Mistaken Wedding."
Hellrazor "Ants vs Dragons"
Whoops, how did this get here?
The Saxophones “If You’re On The Water”
Four new fan clips from Alejandro Taruth were posted in 2017. Song selection seems to be moving farther away from Rubber Soul-core (bands like Homeshake, Mild High Club and Good Morning), nearer to folk/make-out jams from bands like Cigarettes After Sex, and more closely following the narrative of the original films instead of a less faithful re-purposing of images.
Retro 2017 celebration starts Sunday or Monday (probably). It's basically going to be like one of those episodes of VH1's I Love The '80s if they made one for 2017. Like Robocop. Remember that shit? Crazy times.
(P.S. Way back in December 2016, we accurately predicted that 2017 would be worse than 2016. We hated 2017 before it was cool.)
Lit Mix 2017 was more difficult to compile than any of the past 5 years.
Rock and metal improved from last year.
Hiphop albums and pop singles were lacking.
R&B was equally as strong.
Not sure if these factors made any difference.
First up is the best videos of the year. Stay with us......
TASTE MY KIDS is a digital newsletter compiling recommendations for a happier and healthier existence, most often in the form of "best-of" lists, youtube posts, album or movie reviews, and various scribblings. We lived on Geocities starting in August 2000. In January 2009, times got tough and posts were on hiatus until a new host could be located. Geocities eventually died anyway, and now we live on blogspot. True story.
