"If you like stories about midgets on cocaine, this book is like MOBY DICK."

Last night I went to a night of "Awesomely Bad Music Videos" presented by Rob Tannenbaum, co-author of a new oral history of MTV called I WANT MY MTV. I received this book as a gift and it has been sitting around shamefully unread ever since; still, seeing some of the videos discussed in the book as well as those Tannenbaum's guests had picked made me really want to get around to it sooner. Take a break on me and enjoy some really terrible music videos: They just don't make 'em like this any more (and by "like this" I mean 800 minutes long). Nothing says "this piece is dated!" like referencing ad campaigns no one remembers any more. Tanenbaum said this video came up the most in interviews when he asked his subjects what the empirically worst video was. Now it just looks kind of goofy, rather than career-torpedoing. This is the only one I had seen previously, but it's just so magnificent. (Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield's pick.)