"This was the first time we realized we were scared of needles being shoved into our faces..."
Craig's Hlist has spent the past 27 years of our life mired in music videos. The family got cable at the exact same time that MTV was hitting its stride, so you could say that our first babysitter was a three-minute Duran Duran clip instead of a cartoon. But we did make time for He-Man. [Ed. Note: Happy birthday, Simon LeBon!]
Along the way, we saw music videos go from quick clips of chicks on yachts and green screen theatrics to full-on artistic endeavors full of overshadowing and plot lines. Character arcs, love stories, pretty much every Michael Jackson video. The evolution of bikinis was another thing we noticed later on. That high-waisted and tube top shit had to go.
It was the creepy videos that effected us the most for the best, shaping our love of the weird early on. Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" clip was our first favorite, even if it has macabre effects and vegetable people.
Plus, it's about penis. We didn't know that in 1986.
The one video that did scare us though was Madonna's "Like a Prayer," because of the part where the saint statue comes to life. Coupled with our fear/fascination with mannequins as a small child, it was traumatic.
Imagine going to church with your family and being freaked out that every Jesus and saint statue was going to come down and dance with you.
It took a while for us to embrace the undead in Michael Jackson's clip for "Thriller," with the werewolves and zombies. All we could see was our dead relatives dancing in the street in front of our house, decaying and rotting. Forget being at a cemetery after dark. We didn't want to stick around for a choreographed dance routine. Fuck that noise.
Craig's Hlist picked ten videos that creep us out the most, from Eurotrash pop to some of the best industrial and electro we could find. Today is the day you see a female E.T. have a graphic threesome, and see a head get dissected under the eyeballs.
Have a happy Halloween, and be sure to check your candy for razor blades.