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Best Music Videos from Grammys Nominees

My biggest guilty pleasure in life is derived from the candy-coated trash (and occasional true artistry) found in the oft-forgotten field of the music video. Why directors (and art directors, and costume designers) don't tout their music-video accomplishments more often is beyond me, since a number of big-name moviemakers got their starts (or further padded their bank accounts) in music videos — Scorsese, Jarmusch and Michel Gondry to name a few. But what's really great about a music video is what it reveals about a musician's level of charisma: some people (Jack White) have none, others (Justin Timberlake) have so much it turns you to jelly. (OK, maybe that's just me.) In any case, depending on the narrative style of the video, you can tell a lot about a musician's future as an actor (Mary J. Blige, I love you, girl, but you cannot act), or, if the video is less a narrative and more a performance, a video can say a lot about a musician's nonmusical skills as an "artist." Since members of the record industry no longer like to refer to themselves as mere musicians, it seems perfectly fair to me to evaluate their musical value based on their skills as performance artists.... Heck, I don't even have to like a song or a genre of music to totally appreciate a video. Anyway, to that end, I list here my top five favorite music videos from artists nominated for Grammys this year. Most of this stuff doesn't even fall within my preferred genre (I'm an indie rocker all the way), but this year I saw some real gems nonetheless. Here they are, in no particular order:

1) Chris Brown, "Run It": This baby-faced rapper looks like he's about 16, which makes my reaction to him totally against the law. But I don't care: He's got mad charisma, mad choreography, and an otherwordly self-assurance that'll make you melt. Big-smiled and sweet-eyed, he doesn't have an ounce of the arrogance you see in the average hip-hopper, and to further distinguish him in the genre, the female dancers he casts are sexy as hell while still seeming classy, smart and — shocker — blessed with backbones that have uses in life other than humptastic moves at the club. His "Gimme That" video also has some terrific choreography, and the costume design — which has a Roaring Twenties, gin-soaked satin feel — truly shimmers.

2) Ludacris featuring Mary J. Blige, "Runaway Love": Scratch what I said about Mary J.: This stinking video is so powerful it made me cry. Yeah, it's over-the-top melodrama, but that's what Blige does best. The song tells the story of two 12-year-old girls who run away from home to escape abusive environments, and the two young girls cast in the video are amazing young actresses. It's heavy stuff, it's an important topic, and it's beautifully done.

3) The Flaming Lips, "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song": After your cathartic Ludacris-induced cryfest, this hilarious Lips entry is the perfect antidote. Everybody's favorite freaks from Oklahoma never fail to illicit that huh? response (the last Lips show I saw featured dancing bunny costumes wearing pasties, and there's been talk of vibrating underwear that operates by remote control), and this video reads like an SNL skit, except that it'll actually make you laugh. It's tough to even begin to explain, but essentially lead singer Wayne Coyne, dressed in a Mongolian emperor caftan or somesuch costuming, lectures a dusty village crowd about the evils of selfishness and ambition, while indoors a group of wide-mouthed backup singers use electrical tape to fasten schmear-smeared bagels on the various vulnerable body parts of a pudgy corporate schmo. Said schmo is then released into the village to square off against a cabal of men in bull costumes. A crack-up-out-loud chase scene ensues — and that's just the first half.

4) Pink, "Stupid Girls": I love Pink, not for her music but for herself. She's so utterly comfortable in her skin, and smart, and self-effacing, and in this video her comedic skills are on full display. She picks on overtanned Hollywood girls (and slutty rap-video dancers, and giggling fashionistas with microscopic dogs, and underfed gym dolls), and she's so very good at it. The scene where she sends up Paris Hilton's car wash commercial... somebody cast her in something, now!

5) The Raconteurs, "Hands": This song wasn't Grammy-nominated (that was "Steady, As She Goes," which was directed by Jim Jarmusch and looks an awful lot like the White Stripes' "White Orchid" video), but I love it too much not to mention it here. I'm always a sucker for a good narrative video (I'll always love Paula Abdul's "Rush"), so this one had me at "Oldham Prison for Young Offenders." The story is that the boys in the band break out of juvie and in their escape route they come upon a school for deaf girls. (The school apparently is real, and the girls in the video are real students.) The two groups take a liking to each other, swapping jokes, doing magic tricks and just generally hanging about. The girls teach the boys sign language, the boys teach the girls about music, and the whole thing is filmed with a jerky, sepia-toned Bonnie & Clyde fantasy feel, except that it's sweet and heartfelt and totally without acting of any kind. Adorable.

Some special mentions:

6) Gwen Stefani's "The Sweetest Escape": A horrible song, but Gwen is so lovable and genuine, and, of course, her clothes drive the ladies wild with envy.

7) Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback": Not his best video work, and the narrative left me feeling awfully confused as to who was who, but seeing our little curly-haired Justin in a sex scene while singing about being whipped is... so unexpected, even indie-rock girls such as myself melt over this guy's charisma. And speaking of charisma, his oft-collaborator Timbaland nearly rivals him in that field. He's cuddly, puckish, self-assured, and, like Timberlake, every bit the gentleman: See Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right" for proof.

8) Lupe Fiasco's "Gotcha": Funky, video-game theme has a friendly, fantastical Gondry feel, a lot like the White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl."

9) Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man": The return of the blues-drenched twenties as a fashion trend is in full force in this piece, and Christina pulls it off like she made it up herself. "Dirty" Christina is so gorgeous now that she's had a bath.

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Best Music Videos from Grammys Nominees