The 10 Best David Bowie Music Videos

The video for the track from the 1969 album David Bowie is still iconic after all these years—an especially impressive feat since very few artists were making music videos back then. MTV didn’t launch until 12 years later.

The song from 1980’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) updates fans on the fate of Major Tom and serves as a reflective journey through Bowie’s career. The video is quintessential 1980s art house weirdness featuring Bowie dressed as Pierrot, contrasting colors and cameos by London scenesters. It cost £250,000 to produce and, according to Song Facts, at the time it was the most expensive music video ever made.

While “Magic Dance” may be the most memorable of Bowie’s contributions to the Labyrinth soundtrack, the video for “Underground” is wild and weird. It seems to take equal parts inspiration from the Jim Henson movie, Bowie’s own life and A-Ha’s “Take on Me.”

The clip for “Blue Jean” isn’t strictly a music video, but rather a short film directed by the Sex Pistols’ Julien Temple. It stars Bowie in dual roles as a sort of Clark Kent/Superman, playing both a geeky guy trying to get the girl by convincing her he knows a famous rock star, as well as the rock star himself. The long version known as “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean” ends with the director and the artist wondering if the ending is too “clever clever.”

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor at his most intense stalks a terrified Bowie through the streets of New York City in the surprisingly violent Taxi Driver-inspired video for the track from 1997’s Earthling.

The video for “Heroes” is nothing but a back lit Bowie, wearing an unzipped leather jacket, standing almost completely still singing the tune. Save for a few overlays, the video is highly unremarkable until you consider the massive amount of charisma necessary to keep viewers watching—that’s when Bowie’s true star power comes out to shine.

There may be nothing stranger in Bowie’s long career than seeing the musician and Tilda Swinton play an average suburban couple in this video for “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” off of Bowie’s 2013 album, The Next Day. In the clip Bowie and Swinton do away with rumors that they are the same person to play some regular joes who are being stalked by younger, hipper versions of themselves.

British rock photographer Mick Rock shot the video for “Life on Mars?” off of Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory. The video is simple, featuring Bowie with blazing red hair in an ice blue suit with matching eye shadow singing, but the effect is memorable and lasting.

Seventeen years ago, Bowie was already confronting his lost youth in the video for “Thursday’s Child” off of 1999’s Hours… The video is melancholy and contemplative, much like the perhaps under-appreciated song.

Bowie’s long career is littered with references to science fiction and outer space, so it’s no surprise that one of his final videos returned to the stars. The ten-minute long short film for “Blackstar,” the title track off his 2015 album, is squarely in Bowie’s artsy wheelhouse. The video features imagery used in Bowie’s final video, “Lazarus“, released just a few days before his death.