Robots have feelings too. We’ve heard their laments, from replicants who want more life to GM line-working drones who ponder suicide. Even R2-D2 had distinctly sad and happy beeps. But before WALL-E courted EVE, no robot had expressed the sensuality that director Chris Cunningham imbues in a Björk-bot in the video for the Icelandic enigma’s achingly beautiful “All Is Full of Love.” He overlays the cherubic face of Björk on a polished white mask. Her robot limbs, innards and nether parts are crafted before our eyes with factory precision, the final touches completed in a flourish — a backward rush of liquid. Today, making this kind of computer animation would be fairly routine, but for Cunningham and his team in 1999, it was a milestone. There’s an uneasy thrill for the viewer when the robot kisses and caresses a lookalike. Cunningham called it “kama sutra meets industrial robotics.” In addition to arms, legs and steel sinew, the lyrics promise that “you’ll be given love, you’ll be taken care of.” Witnessing the embrace, you ache to touch and be touched: if only it were I, robot.
The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos
Thirty years ago, MTV began to beam a budding art form — the music video — into homes across the U.S. TIME takes a look back at the most memorable clips from three decades' worth of music television
Björk, ‘All Is Full of Love’ (1999)
Full List
1980s
- Talking Heads, ‘Once in a Lifetime’ (1980)
- Michael Jackson, ‘Thriller’ (1984)
- Godley and Creme, ‘Cry’ (1985)
- a-Ha, ‘Take On Me’ (1985)
- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’ (1985)
- Run-DMC, ‘Walk This Way’ (1986)
- Peter Gabriel, ‘Sledgehammer’ (1986)
- Madonna, ‘Express Yourself’ (1989)
1990s
- Sinéad O’Connor, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ (1990)
- Nirvana, ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ (1993)
- Nine Inch Nails, ‘Closer’ (1994)
- The Beastie Boys, ‘Sabotage’ (1994)
- Weezer, ‘Buddy Holly’ (1994)
- Jamiroquai, ‘Virtual Insanity’ (1997)
- Missy Elliott, ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ (1997)
- Pulp, ‘This Is Hardcore’ (1998)
- Blur, ‘Coffee & TV’ (1999)
- Björk, ‘All Is Full of Love’ (1999)
- Chemical Brothers, ‘Let Forever Be’ (1999)
- Fatboy Slim, ‘Praise You’ (1999)
2000s
- D’Angelo, ‘Untitled (How Does It Feel)’ (2000)
- Fatboy Slim, ‘Weapon of Choice’ (2001)
- Johnny Cash, ‘Hurt’ (2003)
- The White Stripes, ‘The Hardest Button to Button’ (2005)
- OK Go, ‘Here It Goes Again’ (2006)
- Gnarls Barkley, ‘Going On’ (2008)
- Beyoncé, ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)’ (2008)
- Lady Gaga, ‘Bad Romance’ (2009)
- Kanye West, ‘Runaway’ (2010)
- Arcade Fire, ‘We Used To Wait/The Wilderness Downtown’ (2010)
