10 Most Revolutionary Rock Music Videos

Way back before CGI was even a thing, the video for Peter Gabriel's monster hit Sledgehammer wowed viewers with its quirky and imaginative animation.

At the time, Gabriel was four albums into a successful solo career, having previously fronted UK prog rock giants, Genesis. Sledgehammer served as lead single for Gabriel's fifth studio album, So, released in 1986. The song hit the top ten in both the UK and the US but, more impressively, the accompanying video scooped a record nine MTV awards, plus a Best British Video award at the Brits.

The video, which was directed by Stephen Johnson, was partly constructed by Aardman Animations (later of Wallace and Gromit fame) and the Brothers Quay (whose own animated films are well worth checking out). It featured clay-mation and stop-motion techniques, with a series of spectacular figures and objects traversing around and across Gabriel's head. Johnson had employed similar techniques on his previous work with Talking Heads, but Sledgehammer pushed the art-form (and, by all accounts, Gabriel himself) to the limits.

Despite using largely outmoded technology (by modern standards), the video, a product of countless hours of work, stands up very well, even after several decades.