Music: Videos videos videos (WARNING: one of them contains nipples...female nipples)

The music video, once the toast of town, remember? The most important marketing tool to any band hoping to tickle open the doors of success, it strutted its stuff on MTV through the nineties, was poked fun at by Beavis and Butthead, was religiously recorded by innocent fans/victims and springboarded famous movie directors like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry into the bigtime.

Well now the world has changed, and MTV cares more about the shameful self-infatuation of a team of Hollywood airheads (The Hills, The Osbournes, The Kardashanianisnaaisns, take your pick). YouTube rules, and bloggers feed on internet scraps to see who can find the most unheard-of act in the industry (tip: he's under a bush on Hampstead Heath, he bangs conkers together, apparently he's fusing West Indian jazz with a new brand of Japanese dubstep and it sounds b-anging...), but the music video lives, just, and there is still an audience for well-made, interesting images to accompany the hottest new sounds.

Pitchfork, that coolest of cool websites, the lovers of somewhat bland indie bands, your Deerhunters and Animal Collectives, but with a predictable soft-spot for electronica, has not let the music video down, and in its endless compiling of lists that come with every new year, they have begun with a collection of their favourite music videos from the past year.

Find...it...HERE

And for those of you with neither the time nor the inclination to visit the other website, here are a few of my favourites:

PLEASE NOTE - these videos have been selected because I like the VIDEOS, not necessarily the music. Although most of that is good too. ALSO NOTE: that the first video contains shots of partial female nudity. Not my fault, but a bonus.

El Guincho - "Bombay"



The Books - "I Didn't Know That"



Janelle Monae (Feat. Big Boi) - "Tightrope"



AND, because we're praising the humble music video, I thought I'd post a few videos that have remained with me over the years...quality, all of them...

White Stripes - "Fell In Love With A Girl"



Radiohead - "Street Spirit"



Korn - "Freak On A Leash"