The Best Rock Music Video of Each Year of the 1980s ('80-'89)

What were the best rock music videos for each year of the 1980s? It was a decade that set the standard for what the music video can be and we saw the growth explode over the course of the 1980s.

Dating back to the 1950s, there were instances of the music industry attempting to capitalize on the songs they were releasing by offering a companion video. This became a little more commonplace in the 1970s with the music video mostly being used as a tool to promote the group's live performances.

But the music video format really started to evolve with the advent of MTV in 1981.

READ MORE: The 10 Most Dates Rock + Metal Music Videos

Seeing the growing popularity, record labels invested more of their budget into creating these short films and artists got a little more creative and visual in their presentation. By the end of the '80s, music videos had become nearly as important in promoting the music as radio itself.

The early part of the decade saw acts such as The Police and Billy Idol being among the first to explore the more creative side of video making, but the tipping point for a lot of videos seemed to be 1982 when Duran Duran went on location to film a mini adventure piece around their song "Hungry Like the Wolf." From that point on, most music videos started getting more creative and labels started investing more in their video budgets for artists.

Acts began to use more visual tricks, humor and even social issues to draw attention to the music and appeal to the mostly younger viewing audience. Bands such as Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot saw significant gains thanks to their videos. Simply put, the music video was a force to be reckoned with by the end of the decade and rock was a large part of what made the medium so successful.

So join us as we take this look at the best rock videos for each year of the 1980s and see the clips that took the music video experience to the next level below. And below that you'll find our gallery for the 25 Best Rock Songs of the 1980s.

Now, let's look at the 25 best rock songs of the '80s!