The 10 Best Aerosmith Music Videos
You can’t build a string of hit music videos without a string of hit songs to work with, and the rockers of Aerosmith don’t hurt for either. Since the band’s early days in the Seventies, they’ve spun out 11 platinum albums and a corresponding body of iconic videos that spans four decades. Their best narrative videos are like artifacts from a lost time – they were once so popular that they launched the careers of the actresses who starred in them. There’s a singular thread linking them, a trademark mix of goofiness, sensuality and often ambitious storytelling. And as always with lead singer Steven Tyler, plenty of ladies.
Here are our picks for Aerosmith’s 10 best videos – some of them award winners, some overlooked. But all of them have ladies.
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10. ‘Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)’
Winner of an MTV Video Music award, "Falling in Love" claims a successful (if silly) director at the helm: little guy called Michael Bay. His philosophy here is less helicopters blading into the sunset and more men in cages wearing leashes. But instead of playing it dark, Bay goes goofy enough to fit a song that's not above sporting a pun in its title.
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9. ‘Love in an Elevator’
There's no tribute to the young and virile Steven Tyler quite like "Love in an Elevator." From the first "Going down, Mr. Tyler?" to the gyrating babes in high-waisted bikinis, the message here is sex, anywhere and at all times. If the plot weren't so repetitive (girls dance, band wails), this raunchy vid would be higher on our list.
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8. ‘Amazing’
"Amazing" is a pretty apt title for this insight into our early hopes for the internet. With only a joystick, clunky helmet and wall of screens to aid him, a young Jason London travels boldly into his computer to meet an equally young Alicia Silverstone for some virtual reality making-out on a motorcycle. Who cares how dated the vision is? Anything so balls-out indulgent deserves immortality.
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7. ‘Livin’ on the Edge’
There is indeed something wrong with the world today. Why don't our rock gods cup their balls sensitively onscreen anymore? Or sprout green aliens? Or play the guitar in front of oncoming trains? The glorious absurdity of this video more than balances out the heavy-handed symbolism of a half-black, half-white Tyler.
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6. ‘Dream On’
Longtime Aerosmith director Marty Callner filmed the band in concert for MTV's 10th anniversary and came out with a hit. The combo of dramatic lighting, dramatic lyrics and dramatic orchestral stylings make it impossible not to sing along — dramatically. Plus, having neither a plot nor a budding actress means all the focus is on the real star: a good old-fashioned rock ballad.
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5. ‘Pink’
People come in all shapes and sizes: tall, short, skeletal, centaur. The video for "Pink" celebrates all these forms and more with a runway of charming freaks who tend to blur into versions of Steven Tyler. It's the most recent video on our list, featuring a mellowed-out middle-aged band OK with strutting in lieu of doing backflips onstage.
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4. ‘Crazy’
Basically a mini-film starring Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler, "Crazy" was one of the most requested videos of 1994. The gorgeous young things play hooky on a spree through the countryside, breaking hearts and scoring cash, all while hinting that they're more than just friends. Its playful edge launched the careers of its two stars, and brought attention to the fact that a teenaged Liv pole-dances in her dad's video. Stars: they're just like us!
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3. ‘Walk This Way’ ft. Run DMC
Maybe it's super-literal, but this visual meeting of the minds is also epic. Run-D.M.C. takes a studio next to Tyler and Perry, and the strained peace between rap and rock eventually ends up in — what else? — Tyler breaking through the wall. As one of the first rap hybrids, the experiment is unrestrained fun. And the song happens to be pretty sweet too.
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2. ‘Janie’s Got a Gun’
Before David Fincher got his hands on The Social Network script, he directed the story of Janie and her gun. The landmark video implies murder in the wake of incest, a tricky subject for mainstream radio and TV at the time. Its fearlessness – plus Fincher's suffused blue parking lot lighting and backtrack through a bullet hole wound – won the band their first Video Music Award. Deserved, we say.
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1. ‘Cryin”
Alicia Silverstone’s debut video for Aerosmith is so perfectly of its time, what with the Doc Martens and flannel, that belly button ring, and, well, Alicia Silverstone, it could’ve either aged badly or made us long for the days. Chalk one up for longing. The sultry, sullen Alicia looks so damn cool beating up Stephen Dorff (and then-unknown Josh Holloway), not to mention twirling from her bunjee cord over the highway. DeLoreans may not work as advertised, but this is almost as good.
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