If you're among the many people who miss the days when MTV showed videos all day instead of reruns of The Hills and My Super Sweet 16, you may be heartened by the launch of MTV Music, where you can go and choose from a fairly substantial library of videos to watch online. Contrary to some of the suggestions I've read, it certainly doesn't contain every video MTV ever showed — more on that later — but it includes some good ones, and certainly enough to perk up your Wednesday, if you're flagging. Up there is the 1983 "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" video where many folks first discovered the unusual Annie Lennox.

Four (plus one) more, after the jump...

 

Talking Heads, "Once In A Lifetime"

David Byrne's loose-limbed weirdness is in low-tech full flower, with almost nothing to distract you from his multiple dancing selves.

Duran Duran, "Reflex"

What you have to understand about this video is that the water effect partway through was, believe it or not, very cool at the time. I have very specific memories of watching this video with friends, and of course, we were completely unaware that we were witnessing a signature moment of '80s-osity, but we were very aware that THE WATER CAME RIGHT OUT OF THE SCREEN, SQUEEEEEEE! I would also point out that the one we thought was the cute one, John Taylor, in the half-jacket thing (well, most of us did...one or two were fans of lead singer Simon LeBon, WHATEVER), looks like he's on The Golden Girls.

The Police, "Don't Stand So Close To Me"

You know, when I set out to tell a dangerous story of forbidden romance between a high-school student and her teacher, I like to do it in a sleeveless shirt and a mortarboard, and I like to carry something that kind of looks like a lacrosse stick. In this way, Sting and I are very similar.

Elvis Costello, "Every Day I Write The Book"

My reason for including this is simple: this song makes me happier than any other pop song in history. I don't think I even knew it had a video about the royal marriage of Charles and Diana until today — thanks, MTV Music!

The Go-Go's, "Head Over Heels"

(They spell "Go-Go's" just like that, with the apostrophe, I'm sorry to say.)

This is the bonus. For whatever reason, this isn't on MTV Music. But it's on YouTube, which is a good thing, because as I looked through videos, my desire to see this one became overwhelming. This is a really good pop song, and not only are they wearing clothes, they're mostly wearing sweats. What a world.