Every VMA Winner for Video of the Year, Ranked: Critic’s Picks

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MTV’s biggest nighttime — and present officially Music’s Most Iconic Night — conscionable went down this Sunday (Sept. 7), arsenic the Video Music Awards came to CBS for the archetypal time. Produced for the archetypal clip successful a decennary by longtime MTV exec Van Toffler, hosted by five-time Grammys steward LL Cool J, and featuring performances from a wide array of breakout stars and returning greats, the evening was a memorable 1 — but for nary 1 moreso than Ariana Grande, who became the latest successful a agelong enactment of legendary artists to instrumentality location the apical prize for video of the year.

The video of the twelvemonth class has a storied but imperfect way grounds of honoring the all-time greats of the format, acknowledging Madonna but not Michael Jackson, Pearl Jam but not Nirvana, Kendrick Lamar but not Drake. Despite the galore celebrated artists and classical videos yet denied the distinction, the all-time winners database remains a formidable canon of premier MTV fixtures, YouTube sensations and present adjacent theatrically premiered abbreviated films — a database of names that Grande is nary uncertainty overjoyed to present beryllium capable to adhd her ain to.

Take a look backmost astatine Billboard‘s ranked database of the now-42 videos that person received MTV’s top grant — and spot wherever Grande’s Brighter Days Ahead abbreviated movie ranks among older favorites successful our updated list. There’s not a full dud successful the bunch, and astatine slightest a mates twelve that stay indispensable pieces of popular civilization past years, if not decades later.

Justin Timberlake, “Mirrors” (2013)

Image Credit: Courtesy Photo

“Mirrors” made Justin Timberlake conscionable the 2nd creator to ever triumph some the video of the twelvemonth and the Video Vanguard awards successful the aforesaid nighttime successful 2013, an accomplishment apt much astir his wide vocation momentum astatine the clip than “Mirrors” being a peculiarly large video. Which isn’t to accidental it’s bad: Floria Sigismondi gives its divided romanticist communicative an elegance befitting the stately midtempo ballad, but the pacing of the video ne'er feels close and its aggregate timelines ne'er wholly cohere into thing you privation to travel for a afloat 8 and a fractional minutes.
Katy Perry, “Firework” (2011)

At the highest of Katy Perry’s popular ostentatiousness, “Firework” could fertile arsenic lone the second-most-memorable video from the Teenage Dream epoch with explosive worldly shooting retired of her chest. It’s a coagulated video with beardown intent, but it lacks the gaudy panache that truly made the visuals connected this medium rhythm truthful iconic for Perry, and its straight-faced messaginess tin get a small tiresome connected repetition viewings.
Green Day, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (2005)

Green Day spends a batch of clip walking that lonely roadworthy successful “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”… and walking… and walking. Not a batch genuinely happens successful “Boulevard,” arsenic the set traverses desolate landscapes portion manager Samuel Bayer scratches up the movie banal similar his sanction was DJ Premier. It’s effectual capable arsenic the hangover backmost fractional of a two-parter with the much rambunctious “Holiday” but a spot unremarkable connected its own; possibly they should’ve been nominated successful tandem.
Taylor Swift feat. Kendrick Lamar, “Bad Blood” (2015)

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