The 100 Greatest Music Video Artists of All Time: Staff List

The 100 Greatest Music Video Artists of All Time: Staff List - Billboard

Posted: 27 Aug 2020 12:00 AM PDT

Why She's a Video Icon: It takes no more than 10 seconds to know you're watching a Sia video – an impressive feat considering she rarely, if ever, appears herself. Teenage wunderkind Maddie Ziegler serves as Sia's avatar, perfectly encapsulating the sadness, humor, and overall profundity of her music.

The MTV Classic: "Chandelier" features Ziegler introducing the three key elements of all Sia videos to follow: endlessly elastic and athletic dancing set to would-be-improvised contemporary choreography, expressively surreal face-acting from a child set to pop music about depression, alcoholism, and looming death, and of course, the wig -- an anonymous blond bob that iconized Sia and Ziegler at once.

Worth YouTubing: From the BZ (Before Ziegler) era, stripped of all choreography and titanic belting, "Breathe Me" features Sia in the flesh through a sped-up series of polaroid snapshots. But in classic Sia fashion, the song and video mix sadness and playfulness in an ultimately optimistic light. -- ERIC FRANKENBERG

69. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

Why He's a Video Icon: Whether in a barroom, a barn in New Jersey, or a globe-circling set of stadiums, Springsteen's finest videos have celebrated his community of fans, and the potent mix of rock'n'roll and the warmth of the crowd.

The MTV Classic: After not showing his face in his first clip, the stark, black & white "Atlantic City," Springsteen's breakthrough video (which introduced him to a massive pop audience) saw him reaching into a concert crowd to invite a then-unknown Courteney Cox to twirl onstage to the closing strains of "Dancing in the Dark."

Worth YouTubing: For the sweat-dripping "I'm on Fire," director John Sayles crafted a mini play starring Springsteen as a grease-stained auto mechanic tempted by a Thunderbird-driving, high-heeled -- and married -- woman who lives, she says seductively, "way out in the [Hollywood] Hills." -- T.D.

68. THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS