A List a Day

PICTURES CAME AND BROKE YOUR HEART: A quarter-century or so after the Buggles declared the radio star dead, done in by video (in the conservatory with the candlestick), a new poll conducted by British cell phone company 3 seems to suggest that the video star might now want to look into estate planning, as Johnny Cash's haunting video for "Hurt" topped a list of the Top 20 Music Videos of All Time. That Cash's simple and haunting video for a Nine Inch Nails' song could beat "Thriller," even after "13 Going on 30," has to be considered a major upset and a odd coda to Cash's legendary career.

I couldn't find the full list, picked by musicians like Michael Stipe, Robert Smith, and Bjork, anywhere on the Web, but rounding out the top five were "Thriller" Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy," Radiohead's "Just" and "Billie Jean." Refreshing absent from the top five were such perennials as "Sledgehammer," "You Might Think," "Money for Nothing," and Madonna's entire oeuvre, though you can bet they--and the Spike Jonze collection--made the top 20.

Related: Slant Magazine's top 100 music videos; MTV's 1999 list of the 100 best videos; and MTVe's top 20 of 2004.>