The EditoriaList: Top Eight Music Video Fight Scenes

posted in: Features

Our wonderful Managing Editor Alison is dangerously obsessed with violence and, I hear, is actually in an underground fight club, though she doesn’t talk about that. One day she suggested to me that I do a list based on fight scenes in music videos. It was hard to understand her at first, since her jaw was mysteriously wired shut, but we eventually got on the same page. Let’s start with a pair of pop divas who have a history of working out their problems in public:

8. Heartbreaker by Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey beating the hell out of herself is just about the best thing that can happen in a Mariah Carey video, so there you go. Bonus: The song stops during the crucial scene. I also like it when her boyfriend overhears his brother talking to his hoodlum friends about finding that body down by the tracks.

7. Hold It Against Me by Britney Spears

Another dummy beating herself up. I like this one because it seems like Britney has some really valid issues with herself that can only be solved through violence. This video otherwise makes no sense and as such is a perfect compliment to this song. The sheer volume and obtrusiveness of product placement is also really, really spectacular.

6. The W.A.N.D. by The Flaming Lips

A good old-fashioned pillow fight between roller derby girls. The healthiest way to solve problems with your roommate, bar none.

[Warner Bros is really smart about not letting people share the videos of their artists on the Internet, so you’ll have to go look it up. I mean, you don’t want, like, everyone seeing the commercial you paid to make for your product, do you?]

5. It Ain’t Gonna Save Me by Jay Reatard

The late, great Jay Reatard and his compatriots find themselves in the middle of kiddie birthday party anarchy and they take a beating in the process. All is lost, there is no hope, all is lost, you can go home

4. Pyro by Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon need a new booking agent. Worst bar gig ever.

3. Ritalin by Dancing Pigeons

Flame thrower versus fire extinguisher! Go!’ If only all art was that simple. The other awesome part of this video is imagining the backstory.

2. Cameras by Matt & Kim

Things seem to escalate quickly between bandmates Matt & Kim, but in fairness, and as someone who has taken more than a couple of swift microphones to the face, I can tell you that shit is infuriating and can definitely send you over the edge. Bit of homage to the Aerosmith/Run-DMC Walk This Way video, too, innit?

1. Beat It by Michael Jackson

It doesn’t get any better than a West Side Story­ inspired dance-fight broken up by famed pool-hall denizen and Nobel Peace Prize winner (honorary) Michael Jackson. Who can forget the historic moment at the crucial “Summit-upon-Thriller,” when Mr. Jackson banged the heel of his bedazzled dance shoe upon the podium and announced to the head of the British delegation, Sir Paul McCartney, I’m a lover, not a fighter? I still get chills.

More Like This: