Best Music Video of the Decade

Okay, so Justin Bieber may hold the YouTube record for most hits, but Beyoncé Knowles’s Single Ladies video not only scored more than 145 million hits and three million downloads, it has also been credited as having started the first major dance craze and garnered the most spoofs by celebrities. Single Ladies dominated the charts to become the singer’s highest-selling song of all time.

“Out of all my videos, Single Ladies was the least expensive and took the least amount of time to make… and it ended up being the most iconic,” the star has said.

The video features Beyoncé and two other “single ladies” dressed in black leotards and heels and grooving to a highly stylised yet simply choreographed dance piece.

The iconic video prompted a legion of imitations and spoofs and initiated a massive following with hundreds of YouTube tributes from people around the world, including celebrities Justin Timberlake, Joe Jonas, Thom Yorke, Tom Hanks and United States President Barack Obama.

The single received nine nominations at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and ultimately won the award for Video of the Year. Beyoncé also triumphed at the 2010 Grammys, winning six awards and breaking the record for most Grammy awards ever won by a female artist in one night!

And as an ironic parting shot, Beyoncé recorded this anthem for women all over the world and proudly sang, “If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it,” shortly after she secretly married Rapper and music producer Jay-Z. He clearly did put a ring on it.

Most Controversial Music Video

Robbie Williams’ music video for Rock DJ! sees the controversial singer “stripping” down to his… skeleton in a bid to win the attentions of the female DJ. First his clothes, then his skin are peeled away exposing bloody flesh, muscles and ligaments, which he then tears off to reveal his organs (not to be mistaken with the singular). The graphic nature of the video led to a censorship in the United Kingdom, and a cut version was broadcast by most music channels around Europe. The Dominican Republic banned the video altogether due to allegations of Satanism. But then somebody liked it because Rock DJ did go on to win the MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects.