3 Overplayed Music Videos From the 90s You Want To Forget but Can’t

I didn’t plan on selecting overplayed videos from the early 90s for this list. But sometimes, you land on a theme by accident. The songs here were hits, but the visuals are a swing and a miss. MTV could make or break a song, often defined by its music video. That said, the awkward clips below didn’t hold these tracks back from success. But they may have helped usher in a new era of music as hip-hop, heavy metal, and alternative rock continued to rise in popularity.

Videos by American Songwriter

I apologize in advance if this list reminds you of something you worked hard to forget. Let’s begin in 1993 and work our way back to the start of the decade.

“The Sign” by Ace Of Base

Let’s leave aside whether you enjoy techno-reggae from a Swedish pop group. The music video for Ace Of Base’s colossal hit resembles a high school film project. There’s a spinning ankh, color, black and white, fire, a couple making out, odd dance moves, an empty chair, and rapid-fire transitions of the band. Still, “The Sign” topped the U.S. charts for six weeks, and even this amateur pile of edits couldn’t hurt one of the decade’s biggest pop songs.

“Something To Believe In” by Poison

Poison liked to party. They even said so in “Nothin’ But A Good Time”. But the boys responsible for “Talk Dirty To Me” and “Unskinny Bop” got serious on a piano ballad in 1990. Bret Michaels, looking for something, anything to believe in, strums an acoustic guitar while watching war footage on TV. There’s also a slow-motion clip of a roadie helping C.C. DeVille up on stage, and I’m not sure what this has to do with the scenes of a veteran suffering from PTSD. At one point, we find Michaels freezing while he’s crouched down over ice cubes. I’m sure they meant well, but Poison’s Sunset Strip gospel tune was too earnest to bear.

“Cherry Pie” by Warrant

This video was begging someone in Seattle to hurry up and reorient MTV’s programming with grunge. “Cherry Pie” became one of Warrant’s best-known songs, but it feels like all the worst bits of hair metal fused onto one track. The model Bobbie Brown strolls by the band as they sit on a firetruck, so they grab a hose and squirt her down. Even if the concept was to parody the era, you still had to sit through Warrant’s lesser version of “Pour Some Sugar On Me” to get the satire.

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic