The mischievous humor and anarchic energy of Spike Jonze’s videos were essential ingredients of 1990s MTV (and later of MTV’s Jackass), and Jonze pulled off one of his most thrilling stunts for the punk-funk lark “Sabotage,” a ’70s goof that cast the Beastie Boys as roof-jumping, suspect-beating, mean-street-sprinting, mustache-rocking hero cops. It will not spoil the video’s fun to note its impressive technical precision — the edits are perfectly syncopated to the song’s ragged beats, and the doughnut-eating breakdown is sublime in its pacing. But regardless of execution, the concept is foolproof: the Beastie Boys stage the credit sequence for a Starsky & Hutch–like police show that never was — likely because it was too unbearably awesome to exist.
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
The Beastie Boys, ‘Sabotage’ (1994)
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)
