3 Aerosmith Music Videos That Ruled MTV in the Late 1980s

MTV helped bring music videos to the masses. Artists rose to the occasion, creating timeless videos for the network to play on repeat. While we’d shy away from crowning one band as the greatest music video makers, we’d put Aerosmith on the short list. These rockers reveled in visuals, becoming mainstays in the industry. Check out three videos from the band below that ruled MTV back in the day.

Videos by American Songwriter

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“Dude (Looks Like a Lady)”

The video for “Dude (Looks Like a Lady”) lives up to the title. The band doesn’t opt for anything too unexpected here, given that the song itself is caustic enough. Steven Tyler dominates this video, flexing his unique stage presence. While the whole band puts their energy into it, it’s hard to take your eyes off this enigmatic frontman.

Intercut between shots of the band performing this song are moments of drag. While today, this doesn’t seem like the in-your-face, shock therapy it likely was back in the ’80s, it’s still a dose of rock irreverence that we all crave from time to time. This Aerosmith video earned the band heavy airtime on MTV, and it’s not hard to see why.

“Janie’s Got a Gun”

Aerosmith tapped David Fincher for the “Janie’s Got a Gun” music video. That kind of cinematic prestige doesn’t go unnoticed. This visual is a notable step up from the rest of their catalog. The video follows closely the plotline in the lyrics.

This video follows a daughter’s retribution on her abusive father. Shrouded in darkness, there is an uneasiness about this visual that is deeply intriguing. You want to watch the entirety of this video, if not to listen to this timeless classic, then to uncover the central mystery.

“Love In An Elevator”

Few networks are as sexually-charged as MTV. The platform allowed artists to do things no other place would. Because of this, fun-loving, raunchy videos like Aerosmith’s “Love In An Elevator” exist.

As the title suggests, this video features the band getting hot and heavy with some ladies in an elevator. There’s really not much more to it…And there doesn’t need to be. While we appreciate narrative-driven visuals like “Janie’s Got a Gun,” it’s okay for a video to be pure vibes. That’s the direction the band went here, earning one of their most enticing videos ever.

(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)