10 Best Metal Music Videos Of All Time
9. Panama - Van Halen
Coming just before the music video era, Van Halen's songs were theatrical without needing any type of visual. With Eddie Van Halen's flashy guitar runs to David Lee Roth's irresistible charm, every one of the band's early tracks gave a pure distillation of the glam rock movement at its most fun-loving. So when the time for the band to transition into the proper video format, the results were destined to be big.
When you first start watching the video, you're set up for what would typically be a standard performance clip of the band singing "Panama," but the group went the extra mile by showing the behind the scenes aspects of the rock star life. In addition to the performances, the backstage clips of the band's various hi-jinx and misbehavior was the ideal image of what fans wanted to see from their rockstars. The shots of performances were also incredibly powerful by putting the viewer on the stage rather than just showing the band playing in the arena.
Add to that various over-the-top visuals like Roth's studded jackets and the band getting caught in the stage wiring and the video became one of the most charming forays into how the real stars live.