There is honestly nothing better than better than 90’s music videos. Mostly because music videos died a miserable death after 2002, due to reality television. Yes I am so blaming Jessica Simpson for this!  Why 90s videos??? Because I love the shear amounts of nothing that happens in them, the celebration of the mundane. There is no story line of Fergie becoming the flossy flossy, and no Avril pretending to be a badass.

Most importantly they show actual musicians, trying to interest you…  musicians so inticing they don’t have to stoop to a writhing on the floor to get you to listen, all they really have to do is sing at you.

I give you the best plotless videos of the 90s (sorry some won’t let me embed them):

First Music Video: Live- Dolphin’s Cry

Chosen because this video involves a very intense bald guy, a whole lot of water, and no plot.

 Second Video: Vertical Horizon-Everything You Want

 

This video is everything you could want in a 90s video… 4 minutes of nothing, with a few flashing messages. My favorite part is when he’s singing to the girl on the bench that is filing her nails.

 

Third Video: Lisa Loeb- Stay

I picked this because they play this in Reality Bites, and as those who borrow my DVD and make it all gummy know, I really adore this movie. This video was directed by Ethan Hawke. He directed her to walk and sing, which may have been more complicated because she had to look melancholy, and there was also a cat involved.

 

Fourth: U2- The Sweetest Thing

This one I suppose has a plot. But it’s kinda creepy. Get to about 2:30 in the video and ask yourself about those firefighters… shouldn’t they be doing something better???

 

Video Cinco:  Duncan Sheik – Barely Breathing

I must admit I was briefly in love with Duncan Sheik when this video came out. I picked this video because he’s singing at some girl, playing his guitar and rubbing his face against a window.. because I assume he cannot find air. That is pretty much the whole music video, I also love the splashes of color, it screams I’m so indifferent even though the world is bright and cheerful.

 

Sixth Video: the Goo Goo Dolls- Name

Location is everything when your music video is this scattered and 90’s, enjoy the montage of John Rzeznik, a girl in a park, some peeps on a bus, and some architectural landmarks. I like how every indie/alternative guy had that hair, remember the aforementioned Ethan Hawke…

 

 

he had eerily simlar hair…..

 

Seventh Video Pick: Green Day- When I Come Around

I love the isolation in this music video. It’s so Californian that it hurts. The spying upon other people is reminiscent to me of Woodbury… but I wonder if it is because all the people who were attending the Bury at the time were products of 1990’s entertainment. I also like Green Day dressed like dudes, not like they’re going to a funeral for a drag queen.

 

Eighth Video: Natalie Imbruglia- Torn

What happened to the Lillith Fair women anyway????

 

Ninth Video: Beck- Where it’s At

Because “Loser” wasn’t a masterpiece of 1990’s videos like this one was…plain and simple this music video makes me forget that Justin Timberlake and My Chemical Romance has ever existed, thanks Beck.

 

Tenth Video: any 90’s video by Matchbox Twenty

This one wins the “Did Anything Relevant Happen in the last 3 Minutes” award.. what do you think???

 

** only watch this one if you are brave because it’s the lamest plotless song of the 90’s according to me.

 

ENJOY!

♫LAUREN