Worst music video of all time

Meeting in the Ladie's (sic) Room

I had a huge crush on the guy in the chair when I was 10.

Rebecca Black's "Friday," duh!

Hall and Oates

She's Gone

This will inevitably come up, because it is probably the most mocked video of all time, because it came out during a very homophobic time and was (rightly) considered extremely gay. But for that reason i always found it very hot.

every guy, grab a girl

Does this count? It's not really a video but a Scopitone, but they're the same thing, really.

This is so bad it's great.

There’s a hot amateur gay video I’ve seen on Tumblr and maybe elsewhere featuring OP’s song. Anyone else seen it?

This is what you got when you didn't take MTV serious:

Not as terrible as her much-vaunted-at-DL live TV appearance, but still pretty awful

Any compendium of bad music videos must include the oeuvre of Miss Jan Terri.

You Spin Me Right Round by Dead or Alive always shows up on the Worst list. Deservedly so.

Moronic song, embarrassing video

From the opening words - - "Hi! I'm Toenail!" you know it's going to be fabulous.

The video may be dated and terrible, R1, but the song is great! I love this one, too. For your viewing horror/listening enjoyment:

Jaw-dropping for so many reasons: the entire idea of having an angry dance-off with a pimp; the image of the gay whore coming up the escalator at Penn Station wearing a wife beater, leather pants, and a belt made from a chain; Pat's cheetah-spotted skirt (with matching hair ribbon!); and of course, Pat's "dancing," which consists mostly of her shimmying her tits. And the prostitutes all congratulating each other afterwards and affirming their Girl Power.

But as a friend of mine once pointed out, the most fascinating part of this entire video is to wonder what she could possibly be writing in her letter to her brother starting at 2:41. It certainly seems to give him much to muse upon!

That’s Pat’s brother? I thought it was her son. Pat was being kicked out of the house by her brother and sister in law leaving her young teen son in their care. That couple couldn’t possibly be her parents, they’re practically the same age.

Hey baby wake up from your a sleep

We have arrived onto the future

And the whole world is become....

Elektronik, Supersonik, Supersonik, Elektronik,

Song - I Wanna Love You Tender - Tahdon olla sulle hellä

Artist - Armi ja Danny

Album - Tähtisarja - 30 Suosikkia / Harvinaisuudet

Absolute shit, and the lead "singer" is extremely repulsive.

Astoundingly awful.

R3 that Hall and Oates video is seriously truly, truly terrible. Yikes.

3 million+ views of the worst rap music video ever.

Compilation of stultifyingly inept and talentless idiots:

這個音樂視頻很糟糕。其中的人是成堆的狗屎。音樂很糟糕。

Chewing Gum.

Good god, where are you people finding this stuff?

"Our love is stronger than a Puerto Rican hurricane."

I am pretty sure they were pretending Pat was a teenager (!!!) instead of her actual age at the time of 32. Teenage runaways were a BIG obsession in 1983.

But you are right that the late Trey Wilson, the father, was only old enough to be her brother in real life: he was only five years older than Pat.

Isn't this video officially known as the worst of all time? It definitely ranks!

The worst you say? Beat this, bitches!

R29, No that’s the WORST SONG of all time!!!!

[R24] -- so good to know this is an international phenomenon in all languages! And in case any of you are a little behind with your Chinese reading practice, the poster helpfully tells us that not only is the music terrible, but also the performers are "dog shit." Spot on!

William Shatner, Rocket Man (1978) with original special effects.

From one the worst bands of all time.

The song stylings of Miss Sondra Prill...

Damn r3 Hall and Oates are totally fuckable in that video

Poor Donna, finally on a career rebound and gets this POS for a video. The trying-to-catch-a-bus "choreography" is cringeworthy.

OMG ... brand-new content from Jan Terri! Franz Schubert would stab himself in the peehole were he alive to see it.

You bitches are def. slipping - a bit of DL history.

R37, I loved Donna Summer's Stock-Aitken-Waterman period, but yeah, the videos were unbearably white.

The infamous made-for-TV version of Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm in Love," in which Miss Kelly (or is it Miss Marie?) is accompanied by dancers dressed as gold condoms. Note her great galumphing delay in finding the camera.

OP, I had never seen that Yes video before. They must have redid it because the one I remember is this one.

This is the worst I have ever seen. I read up on the Insane Clown Posse when i was sick in bed with flu last year. This opus is entitled 'Miracles'. 'Fuckin' magnets - how do they work?' is the jaw-dropping lyrical highlight.

The dancing, singing, nightmarish hotness of Slim Goodbody.

A LAND. That I heeard of!!!! Ah Robert.

OP, that was terrible, but Yes did put out a concept video that was the "official" video for that song.

Worst song AND video:

The blonde guy in the chewing gum video is kinda hot and he totally adjusts his junk in the undies scene.

OP, isn't that from some music show? The official music video for the song is way different.

Sorry, didn't see r45 already linked to the video.

This may be the worst.

I am surprised nobody has yet posted Kanye's video where he and Kim Kardashian ride a mortorbike together.

............

Don't put it on me gurl

No one has mentioned toto coelo?

r55. LOL. Looks and sounds like a reject from the Misfits (Jam & and the Holograms).

Fun fact about Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart video: Certain scenes were too disturbing for American MTV viewers, so the network requested that the band re-edit the video to remove the offending scenes (like the one where the guy has mealworms in his eyes).

Great song...hellish, amateurish video. Laughable. Weather Girls...It’s Raining Men

I Can't Wait by Nu Shooz. It's a huge WTF, like someone was like, "Who's this group again? Nu...what? Nu...shewwwz? Okay, let's just throw some random shit up and call it a day. No one will see this. Oh, wait--let's take this new CGI program for a test ride, see how it works!"

US born Jan Terri was very popular in Canada in the 80s, selling out concerts across the provinces. In the US, she is best known for her series of badly produced videos. Part of her success in Canada was due to her bilingual songs in both French and English, which few pop artists were doing at the time. Her Canadian popularity waned in the 90s when other Canadian singers began making inroads in the US market. Now retired, she moved back to the US and lives in Florida.

R60 is confusing Terry with DL favorite Rita MacNeil!

Just awful

YES was the worst concert I ever attended also-5 years ago approximately.

R4 That video effectively ended his music career.

I didn't know about the other YES video, sorry. In any case, I thought the worst and weirdest part of it was the zombified singer's dance moves.

^^^^

The 1973 video for "Caribbean Moon" by Kevin Ayres is a trainwreck. The gayest dancers ever, and practically naked. What were they thinking?

This one is hilarious, I almost pissed myself laughing. Bonnie Tyler with the French version of Total Eclipse... anyone else sees the lesbian subtext? It's undeniable!

The Vic Damone video is the best.

Love the song though.

I'm looking for Jodie Foster's super-low-budget video of "Nuit des Temps" where her three characters are superimposed, but it must have been taken off Youtube—this slightly less craptacular one will have to do. She plays the same three characters, each one dykier than the last (homage to Shatner in "Rocket Man"? Or did this one come first?).

Oops, Jodie Foster video didn't take. Try again.

Refugee - Tom Petty & co.

Nobody should have to look at a 1979 rough looking Tom Petty for over 3 minutes.

He looks like the Crypt Keeper's son in this one.

Tom must of thought viewers would want a close up of his face after the 2:00 mark.

You have been warned...

[quote][R4] That video effectively ended his music career.

Billy Squier never had a major career to end, and no one cared or remembered that video when it aired because it was no less goofy or weird than anything else at the time. I just have to say this because it's so annoying how kids on the internet keep creating these urban legends about the past out of thin air.

What's the Barbra Streisand video where she's vacuuming, wearing a chocker that matches her bedroom?

That video with Freddie Mercury cleaning house

Billy Squire had definitely had some pretty big hits before the Rock Me Tonite video came out and derailed his career, including "My Kind of Lover," "In the Dark" and "Everybody Wants You." Don't know what R74 is blathering on about, but he's got his head up his ass.

OT, but what's the evidence that Billy Squier is gay? He's currently married to a woman. Did he used to be young in his younger, hard-bodied days?

"That video with Freddie Mercury cleaning house "

British fans got that it was a parody of a UK TV show, but U.S. fans were intensely homophobic toward Freddie after he sported his mustache clone look. The drag didn't help.

Blondie’s Island of Lost Souls...unwatchable. Great band, but seemingly all smacked out in this awful video.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Oran Juice" Jones!

As you will learn from this masterpiece of a video, the best way to exact the revenge on a cheating ho is to kick her out of the house into the rain in nothing but her pajamas!

JAN TERRI wins hands down, but she wasn't a famous singer so it might not count, but an incredibly terrible video nonetheless!

COMPLETLEY AWFUL.

It's like a MADTV or SNL sketch about how not to make a video!

Jesus loves you, you godless queers!

Madonna – Turn Up the Radio

That video was "explicit"?! I was expecting Madonna to have a gang bang with all the guys and gals she was picking up. Boring video, terrible song. Her wig is even horrible.

Quelle pute! Une vraie salope!

R74 I'm not an internet kid and you are the fucking moron. Maybe do a little research before you spout some bullshit about something you clearly know nothing about.

At first glance I thought that was Michael Landon at R29

Falco

Der Kommissar

A masterpiece of badness.

awful...

....

"nibblin' on bacon.....

chewin' on cheese.."

Chicago made some really awful videos.

Example A...

Happy Jack

R73 "Tom must of thought"

Oh Dear.

How Do You Do, featuring a very creepy doll/puppet/ventriloquist dummy

Points if you watch it when high

Sammy Hagar

I Can't Drive 55

Could someone dig up the worst video ever: 1969 , Lou Christie "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" filmed in front of some Econo-Lodge swimming pool with two talentless dancers and one confused onlooker. Only redeeming value: Lou's chest hair.

The horror

Can someone start a BEST VIDEO, especially those early wilderness years? My vote is Elvis Costello’s “Every Day I Write the Book”. Digs on Charles and Di...Chill but fierce backup ladies, and overall syncopation.

Mick Jagger - "Let's Work"

[quote]Could someone dig up the worst video ever: 1969 , Lou Christie "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" filmed in front of some Econo-Lodge swimming pool with two talentless dancers and one confused onlooker. Only redeeming value: Lou's chest hair.

Here you go. I've always imagined that the third girl stinks and the other two refused to let her near them. Video starts at :16. And yes, Christie is pretty hot.

Miss Carl Lewis...

R92, "Stay the Night" would like a word.

I never wanted to punch someone in the face as much as the insufferable Dennis DeYoung of Styx.

Surely you all have witnessed this awful Blazin Hazen? Thread closed.

Morning Train (9 to 5) - Sheena Easton

Blazin' Hazen's kinda fuckable, in an awful '80s way.

The Hoff

No. there is another hasslehoff video (1 of the recents) i saw it about a year ago its david, a sports car and a bunch of other crazy shit i cant even begin to tell u u have to c 2 believe.

Jesus is My Friend

Renewed Mind is the Key

I was going to suggest this, then drop the mike, but the Hasselhoff shitshow deserves the worst video title hands down. I heard it on a car radio yesterday, which really wrecked my night.

The thread belongs to Hooked On A Feeling by some fall down drunk guy.

Let It Be

M Pop Muzik? R112=another iron/taste challenged moron.

^^^*irony

^^^and millennial

Can you fucking read, R114? The topic is worst video.

some people are clueless.

Uh huh honey!

Someone please explain the origin of OP's truly awful YES video. It's definitely not what I saw play in heavy rotation when the song debuted . Could it be an unrehearsed test or rough cut that didn't get approved? Jon Anderson acts like he's never seen or performed for the camera before.

Stupid song/video from Sheena Easton. Machinery (1982)

This woman deserves our respect

If we're counting rap, then: Bow Wow (the rapper), 'Take Ya Home'. They wasted a killer Neptunes/Pharrell beat on this trash.

Even if you take the corniness of the production as tongue-in-cheek (i.e. as a representation of a dumb horny 14 year-old's imagination), it still looks like shit with the SIMS CGI and the crunchy epileptic dance-moves. That's not even mentioning the racist/misogynist/homophobic imagery and the creepy subtext. Yet the year it came out viewers selected it for replay a thousand times straight on TRL & MTV Hits (and probably made a few mill, ugh)...

Air Supply's Making Love Out of Nothing at All had two different "dramatic story" videos and both sucked.

Emotions by Destiny's Child. Note how Beyonce has the best storyline so you keep watching her throughout.

And then MadTV parodied it brilliantly. Listen to Debra Wilson's incredible Beyonce. She gets the runs just right. Wilson is a Goddess.

Don't know what's worse, the song or the video. Here's RizMC AKA actor Riz Ahmed in rapper mode.

The video is a poor man's " Blade Runner". Cameo by Kayvan Novak, Waj, from "Four Lions".

The 80s was the decade where a bunch of legendary artists from the 70s decided to make fools of themselves.

THAt was indeed ghastly OP. the concept video was good. But the song is great still

Love this thread! Some of them are, well, bad, but they're of songs I liked back then in the early Mtv days. Yes, pat benatar! Hall and Oates!

Haha I want to dance in Caribbean Moon r67. Ayres worked with mike oldfield and Eno and Nico and Cale??

It's funny to read the comments on YouTube for R110's "Jesus is my Friend" video.

Many Christians talking about how the song "rocks" -- and, as for the lyrics: "Checkmate, atheists!"

132 replies and nobody has mentioned or posted this classic gem of bad taste?!?

Vince Neil, 'Sister of Pain'. Fight me on it.

It's a shame the video is such hot gar-bage, as Steve Stevens had Vince sound better than he ever did in Crue and their joint album was killer.

Anything featuring Pat Benatar -

R2 Seconded

[quote]Haha I want to dance in Caribbean Moon [R67]. Ayres worked with mike oldfield and Eno and Nico and Cale??

I was a huge Kevin Ayers fan. He was talented, cool and sexy. I was shocked to hear he died a few years ago. I guess alcohol killed him, he was a heavy drinker..

I remember the story about the infamous 1974 live LP Ayers did with Nico, Eno and John Cale. A few hours before the concert, Ayers was fucking Cale's wife. Cale found out and the show was almost cancelled. There must have been a lot of tension during that gig!

This is up there with Jan Terri.

"Why Must I Cry" by Reh Dogg

R137 Who wouldn't spread for him!

I wonder if sexual release before going onstage is something musicians need. The opposite of athletes.

[quote][R137] Who wouldn't spread for him! I wonder if sexual release before going onstage is something musicians need. The opposite of athletes.

I don't think the sex was one off, IIRC, Kevin was having an affair with John Cale's wife. It was John's second wife. At that point, Cale had already divorced designer Betsey Johnson, they were married in 1968, divorced a year later.

In the early 1970s, Cale married a groupie, Miss Cynthia of the GTOs. They divorced in 1975, she was the woman Ayers was having the affair with.

Kevin was hot when he was young and had that sexy deep voice. WOW. Unfortunately, he aged terribly due to his heavy drinking and druggy lifestyle. It's sad, he never really made it, especially considering how talented he was, he should have been famous. At least Kevin influenced many generations of musicians and some of his former bandmates went on to success, such as Andy Summers of The Police.

Beyawnsay- Single Ladies

I get the fraus missing this, but the gays get no hall pass for missing the indescribable training wreck of ... BALTIMORA’s “Tarzan Boy”

THe producer yanked the lead singer because he wasn’t hot enough, put in a truly adorable Irish danger who lip synced through the video but couldn’t sing (a pre Milli Vanilli) and proceeded to have a nice dance hit.

One small problem. He had to perform live, and lip synced his way through those - until he died of AIDS.

Okay, great song, great singer, but WTF video on a multitude of levels.

"Into the Night" by Benny Mardones.

Enjoy.

R15, laughing out loud at the Pat Benatar video for "Love Is A Battlefield."

Yes, her "mom" looks more like her younger sister.

Hysterical how the pimp looks like he is having some sort of fit after the whores shimmy at him!

And that may be the first "fist bump" to appear in a video.

It's easy to post incredibly awful videos by unknown bands and singers. Their budgets alone make them bad. I'm sure there are hundreds of low budget bad videos by unknowns, that's not a challenge at all.

The thread should be about the worst videos by popular and famous musicians and even by one hit wonders. Bands who had more than enough resources to make much better videos. For example, The Police had a pretty large budget for videos, yet most of their videos were terrible.

I don't care what made the video bad, or how "culpable" the artists are. The only exception is that "Supersonic Elektronik" video is made by an Australian comedian and is tongue-in-cheek, so isn't really "bad". And I loved early Police videos and the low-budget charm of many early 80s videos. Low-budget /= bad. High-budget /=good.

R10 beat me to it.

The Mad Bumper is back

148 replies and no one got to Latoya? (the other Jackson upthread is Rebbie)

The song and the video that broke up Styx

Great song. Tragic video.

The song and video that proved we needed Nirvana

Did anyone post this yet?

Before the videos for Michael Jackson’s Thriller album most music videos were horrible by 21st century standards.

The vast majority of music videos were made to look as if they were shot at night and almost always featured smoke and animals.

R95, I love that song and I love that blonde lady.

How do YOU do!

Why is the audience sitting there like this is alright? Hot garbage.

Boney M were.......interesting. Anyone know anything about them?

About the male performer Bobby Farrell

In Germany, he worked mostly as a DJ until producer Frank Farian spotted him for his new Boney M. group. He became the sole male singer in the group, although Farian later revealed that Bobby made almost no vocal contributions to the group's records, with Farian himself performing the male parts on the songs in the studio.

Liz Mitchell claimed that only she, Marcia Barrett and Farian had sung on the hit recordings. Farrell did, however, perform live in some of the various incarnations of 'Boney M', including the main 1970s incarnation.

Farrell left the group in 1981, after clashes with Farian. He was replaced by Reggie Tsiboe. He re-joined in 1984, and continued as a member until it finally split in 1986.

Most of these are oldies, here’s a view of an awful contemporary video, nothing beats this:

R154 I love seeing these old videos from early to mid-80s. They were cheesy and weird, but they were so of the era. Few other things can take me back to that time when the world seemed so big and I wondered how I would find my place in it. Also, in pre-internet times the videos were a window into other cultures and places. Duran Duran in Sri Lanka for “Hungry like Wolf”, Men at Work for “Down Under” and my favorite Madness “Our House” in West London.

"It's a Hard Life", by Queen. Nice song, and the video has fuck nothing to do with the song. Mercury's queening it up like the Phantom of the Opera in a prawn costume, and his bandmates look so very, very embarrassed.

Although I will give it points for unintentional camp value, and I'm quite sure the camp was unintentional.

"It's a Hard Life", by Queen. Nice song, and the video has fuck nothing to do with the song. Mercury's queening it up like the Phantom of the Opera in a prawn costume, and his bandmates look so very, very embarrassed.

Although I will give it points for unintentional camp value, and I'm quite sure the camp was unintentional.

R92 mentioned Chicago's contribution to worst videos. Indeed, they made one so bad that it was pulled from MTV after only a few days as it was so bad. Still, without a video, the song managed to make it to #3 on the Hot 100 in 1988.

This video is cheesy even by Steps' standards. Even as a twelve-year-old, I was cringeing at the bit with the dancing dragon. Also, why are they doing Bollywood choreography in a Chinese-themed video? (As an aside, they would never get away with this today. Cultural appropriation.)

R77 Yeah. Not sure what 74 is talking about. Billy Squire himself has talked about how that video derailed his career.

R160 Our House is one of my favorites! Also House of Fun. I love how in both, the only guy with a beard plays the mother.

That Corey Feldman dance never gets old.

I Swallow His Kids

I nominate All around the world by Oasis. Crappy video, crappy song

R163 Christ that Chicago video was horrible. I was 21 when the song came out. I always wondered why certain popular songs had no videos back then. MTV was so right to pull that shit.

Not a worst, jsut very bizarre. Can't imagine anyone making a video like this today

Watched REMs "Everybody hurts" video today. The part at the end made no sense. Everyone abandons their car on the freeway.

R158: thanks for the Boney M info. I was wondering if any of them sang on the records considering Frank Farian produced Milli Vanilli

R170 OMFG I think I saw it once before about 20 years ago. That is not just bad it's disturbing.

This is a genuine music video, and not just a TV show appearance. I think it was produced for Europe, before Arista made the well known video for the song's American release as a single.

When I need a good laugh.

A catchy song, but holy shit - KC looks like a coked-up Buffalo Bill from The Silence of The Lambs.

Here’s another one that’s so bad it’s amusing to watch. The guys don’t know what to do with themselves, especially the drummer without his drums. But I guess there’s always over-emoting into the camera.

Streisand's "I feel like a faggot" costume.

Makes me wish the terrorists would win

Along the same line as R179’s example:

R3 The Hall and Oates video of She's Gone is a great song with a terrible video. Mind you it was 1976 and music video were mainly promos for music industry. Many of the bad videos listed here are for bad to middling songs.

R176 Agree the song isn't bad but OMG my eyes hurt!

If you haven't discovered the oeuvre of Jan Terri, you're missing out!

May I present, "Get Down Goblin".

OP’s Yes clip looks like a promo shot for a TV show, I doubt that was ever intended to be the video for the single. They were a big deal and could afford better, hence the courtroom one with the paranoid man seeing insects and animals.

A lot of you are posting videos that are cheesy or dated looking, but were actually well done and well received for the time and medium. “Love is a Battlefield” [italic]is[/italic] undeniably cheesy (the melodrama! The dance breaks!) and dated (that hair and fashion, ugh), but it’s shot like a mini-movie. It was actually a high water mark for the genre. Very high production values for a music video, even at the height of their popularity.

If you want to see a cheesy and dated music video with extremely poor production values from the same era, you need to watch Gloria by Laura Branignan, which looks like it cost $10 to film, likely spent on the electrical tape that decorated the set they built in someone’s basement.

[quote]It's easy to post incredibly awful videos by unknown bands and singers.

Exactly. It’s not all that interesting to post some shitty act from 30 years ago that no one heard of; of course their videos would be poor quality and low-rent. It’s more fun to post actually recognizable songs from known artists, and see how truly badly they captured that hit on video. It’s interesting that some songs live on forever despite shitty music videos that originally promoted them that were long forgotten.

Also, this isn’t about bad songs! It’s about bad videos. A good song could (and often did) have a crappy video.

Clearly the budget for this one was limited

God, I loved Euro-disco though, as cheesy as Juvet’s video was.

R188 that actually has some charm.

R35 is much better than anything Janet Jackson has done.

How about this cynical money-grab?

"Gimme More" by Britney Spears

When I was a kid my white trash redneck neighbors had a VHS tape of these hilariously awful Statler Brothers videos. They couldn't afford cable, and their shitty tv antenna only picked up 3 or 4 fuzzy channels, so they'd watch shit like this, and act like it was peak entertainment.

Hall and Oates' "Out of Touch" video is so awful

I LOL'ed for days at R35. Ripe for interpretation by a drag queen.