Video Vixens: Let's Dance

Writer Marisa Meltzer, author of the new book ‘Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music‘, has curated a miniseries of contemporary women’s music for us this week. After the jump, Marisa’s fourth feature: the best dance videos.

Can I be honest? I am not a very good dancer. I’m not going to, like, embarrass anyone, but no one is ever going to form a circle around me on the dance floor and start clapping. (Although that might happen on 90210 and even then, only to David Silver.) But watching any of these videos in the comfort of my own apartment, I can channel Beyonce or Madonna or David Silver. I’m curious: Which ones do you watch?

Beyonce, Single Ladies Trying to recreate the choreography of this song can be totally dangerous if you’ve had several cocktails and are wearing four-inch heels and are at a wedding. Not that I’d know.

Madonna, “Vogue” The original video is an obvious classic, but the 18th century vibe of this VMA performance was such a brilliant idea.

Feist, “1,2,3,4”
I hate this song. I know that probably makes me a bad person. But this video is so good that even I am forced to overcome my hate and watch it whenever it’s on.

Janet Jackson, “Rhythm Nation” This entire list could have easily been Janet songs.

MIA, “Boys”
Boy objectification can be a good thing.

En Vogue “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”
I think when I was watching this video growing up, I somehow thought my adult life was kind of going to resemble this.

Marisa Meltzer is the author of ‘Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music‘ and the coauthor of ‘How Sassy Changed My Life’. She lives in Brooklyn and posts nineties ephemera to her tumblr, meltzer.tumblr.com.