Back when MTV had videos

In the 1980s, MTV videos gave the failing music industry a commercial future, ceaselessly unspooling bright, seductive ads to sell artists, songs, albums, and related personal accoutrements. At their best, though, music videos were also pieces of pop art. They became an extremely influential form, not just on movie directors who borrowed the fast-edit style but on viewers who connected with the images and messages. In 1994, the Globe even started reviewing them. Now, of course, MTV is far too busy serving up overheated reality shows to bother with music. But recently the network wisely set 16,000 plus MTV videos loose on the Internet (with more to come), through a new site called MTVmusic.com. Here's a tour through the classic clips that turned us on. MATTHEW GILBERT

"Stand and Deliver" Adam and the Ants (1981)

In this delightfully amateurish clip, the swashbuckling Ant came on like a New Romantic precursor to Jack Sparrow on dry land. He robbed stagecoaches, drank deeply of wine and women - including future "L.A. Law"-yer Amanda Donohoe - at Bacchanalian feasts, and nimbly fled the guillotine with his merry band of dandy highwaymen, in their ruffled shirts and eyeliner. Entranced by those cheekbones, that Nehru jacket, that irresistible Burundi-derived groove, even Ant's horrible lip-synching, I was ready to fill out my citizenship papers and join the insect nation. SARAH RODMAN

"Rock the Casbah" The Clash (1982)

There are few videos as confusing, yet entertaining. You think you're watching a story unfold, and then you realize none of it makes a whit of sense. There's an Orthodox Jew, an Arab, oil wells, a Cadillac, a ghetto blaster, and what, on earth, does the armadillo mean? To my 12-year-old mind, the real mystery was how to become even half as cool as the mohawked dude with the battered Telecaster, kneeling in the dust as he chanted out this disco punk anthem. GEOFF EDGERS

"Hungry Like the Wolf" Duran Duran (1982)

Sex, intrigue, cinematic sweep, John Taylor in a headband - this video has it all. I still remember seeing it for the first time, in a friend's living room in 1983, six of us standing around the TV, riveted. Till then, we'd been fed a steady diet of videos laden with cheesy effects and bad lip-synching. This was different. Here were characters (chasing each other, seducing each other), exotic locations, quick-cut editing, even the occasional handheld camera shot, all propelled by a throbbing pop track. And, oh yes, that little flash of tongue. Indelible. HAYLEY KAUFMAN

"Legs" ZZ Top (1983)

This classic makeover tale is the first video I ever saw, and then I watched it over and over again. In it, a timid woman is harassed and pushed around until a tarted-up trio of bad girls shows up and takes her shopping - for frilly white ankle socks, pink high heels, and a micro-mini dress revealing every inch of her stunning legs. Suddenly, the wallflower can push back. All the while, the trenchcoat-clad members of ZZ Top are spinning their fuzzy guitars in the parking lot. It's not clear what they have to do with the transformation, but one thing is certain: The girl is all right - as long as her legs are showing. KATIE JOHNSTON CHASE

"Say Say Say" Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson (1983)

Like those online videos of snakes devouring mammals, "Say Say Say" is at once horrifying and compelling. You want to look away, but McCartney and Jackson hook you with the hokey medicine show scene and seal the deal with the catchy rhythm and bass line. It's ridiculous that one sip of Mac & Jack Wonder Potion could help skinny little Mike beat anyone at arm wrestling, but it's even harder to believe that the two of them didn't get the pulp beaten out of them in that bar for dressing like a pair of Chess King employees. STEVE GREENLEE

"Hot for Teacher" Van Halen (1984)

Oh, the squeaky parted hair, the drumroll of insanity in the school bus, the tense guitar hammer-ons as bespectacled little Waldo quakes alone at his desk. . . . MTV was made for the moment he's waiting for: The chalky homeroom explodes into color and a babe bursts through the glittery curtain, lights circling the blackboard marquee behind her. Van Halen is all good-clean-fun goofiness here. "Teacher needs to see me after school" sings David Lee Roth, as the blonde gyrates in her bikini and "Phys Ed" sash and the band hams it up, Temptations-style, in creamsicle suits under a disco ball. Oh yeah, my homework was never quite like this, either. REBECCA OSTRIKER

"Bastards of Young" The Replacements (1985)

With the first video off their major label debut, "Tim," the 'Mats updated Groucho's Law for the hardcore era: They would never, ever belong to any cable music channel that would have them as a member. Consisting of one crude, four-minute black-and-white zoom-out from a stereo speaker blasting the song, the vid raises a defiant middle finger against the already hardened cliches of MTV rawk. "We are the sons of no one/Bastards of young," yowls Paul Westerberg in the chorus. How nice to find a band that actually means what it sings. TY BURR

"Rush Rush" Paula Abdul (1991)

Long before he escaped "The Matrix," and even longer before she became a seemingly sedated "American Idol" judge, unlikely duo Keanu Reeves and Paula Abdul teamed up for the video to accompany this constipated ballad. It's a sad knock-off of "Rebel Without a Cause," with Reeves, fresh off Bill and Ted, as the dopiest of James Deans and Abdul as the lamest of Natalie Woods. Add some artistic shots of Abdul's cheek mole and scenes of her dancing with a scarf (an accessory she seemed to enjoy more than Reeves did) and you have a truly pitiful yet most excellent early '90s adventure. MEREDITH GOLDSTEIN

"No Rain" Blind Melon (1993)

Ever wonder where the "Little Miss Sunshine" writers got the idea for their awkward, bespectacled, heart-wringingly hopeful child protagonist? Look no further than this video's Bee Girl, who tap-danced her way through a world of mockery and disdain until she finally found others of her kind - an eccentric family of sorts - dancing in a bucolic green meadow. The jammy indie tune and feel-good video became ubiquitous, and backlash ensued, but the be-yourself-and-you'll-find-your-place message was a breath of fresh air between Tool's "Sober" and White Zombie's "Thunder Kiss '65." JOAN ANDERMAN

"Buddy Holly" Weezer (1994)

Anticipating the parody mash-ups that now fuel YouTube, director Spike Jonze seamlessly conjoined clips from "Happy Days" with Weezer performing on the Arnold's Drive-In set. The result: The 1990s looking back to the 1970s looking back to the 1950s in a trail of yearning for innocence gone by. The video was a brilliant paean to nostalgia and sitcom-bred ideality, as singer Rivers Cuomo fantasized about being a nerd in his true element. I connected with that. But the atmosphere was tinged with a sad, ironic awareness - that those happy days never truly existed, that geeks always lose when Fonzie hits the dance floor. I connected with that, too. MATTHEW GILBERT

"Gimme Some More" Busta Rhymes (1998)

Rhymes and director Hype Williams's finest 2 minutes and 40 seconds together. The song samples the strings from Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," and, somewhat accordingly, the video is a surrealist nightmare. The setting is a big, bright toy house on a hill. A kid in a blue monster costume chases his mommy while Rhymes, among other things, flexes his fake muscles next to real bodybuilders. Williams was in his prime here, staring at hip-hop's materialist excesses until they warped - everything is larger than life and made of plastic, rubber, cardboard, and foam. The only natural thing about this clip is its brilliance. WESLEY MORRIS