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Top 10 Essential Pop Music Videos

Today's Defining Music Videos

By Bill Lamb, About.com

These are the 10 hottest music videos today. Check them out to see what pop music fans are watching and check out the state of the art in pop music video.

1. Lady GaGa - "Paparazzi"

Lady GaGa - PaparazziCourtesy Interscope

Lady GaGa's video for the fourth single from her smash debut album The Fame was put together by veteran Swedish music video director Jonas Akerlund. He is perhaps best-known for a series of Madonna videos including her landmark "Ray of Light." The "Paparazzi" clip is styled as a mini-movie with eye-popping imagery of death, murder, and, most of all, fame. It has been hailed by some as Lady GaGa's top artistic accomplishment thus far.

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2. Miley Cyrus - "Party In the USA"

Miley Cyrus - Time Of Our LivesCourtesy Hollywood

The video for Miley Cyrus' huge hit single "Party In the USA" was directed by Chris Applebaum. He is known for his work on Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten." The video is set in a drive-in in part because, according to Cyrus, she wanted to pay homage to Grease.

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3. Owl City - "Fireflies"

Owl CityPhoto by Pamela Littky, courtesy Universal Republic

Steve Hoover directed the witty video that accompanies Owl City's breakthrough pop hit. It is appropriately filmed in what looks like a bedroom with a variety of normally inanimate objects coming to life in different ways.

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4. Jay-Z featuring Rihanna & Kanye West - "Run This Town"

Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West - Run This TownCourtesy Roc Nation

Prolific music video director Anthony Mandler put together the clip for "Run This Town" with an epic feel. He has filmed the majority of Rihanna's music videos including the landmark "Disturbia." Anthony Mandler pulled together a small army of extras at New York City's Fort Totten Park to illustrate "Run This Town." He has said of this mini-movie, "There's a tone and feeling to the song, there's a militia, a march and a kind of rambunctious energy to it that, for me, I immediately wanted to tap into."

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5. Death Cab for Cutie - "Meet Me on the Equinox"

Death Cab for Cutie - Meet Me on the EquinoxCourtesy Atlantic Records

Walter Robot directed this Death Cab for Cutie video to accompany their song "Meet Me on the Equinox" which is featured on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack. It captures perfectly the moodiness of the film in sound and the clips included from the highly anticipated film.

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6. Black Eyed Peas - "Meet Me Halfway"

Taboo in "Meet Me Halfway" VideoCourtesy Interscope

will.i.am calls this the Black Eyed Peas' "arty" video. The clip for the group's latest single "Meet Me Halfway" finds the quartet separated from each other in different parts of the universe. Fergie is in a lush forest somewhere. apl.de.ap seems to be on a very barren planet. will.i.am is riding an elephant on what appears to be a moon of Jupiter, and Taboo is in a spacesuit seemingly a little too close to the sun. The clip was directed by Ben Mor.

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7. Green Day - "21 Guns"

Green Day - 21st Century BreakdownCourtesy Reprise Records

Green Day's music video for the song "21 Guns" was directed by Marc Webb, the man behind All-American Rejects' humorous clip for "Gives You Hell." His first feature film (500) Days of Summer was released in the summer of 2009. The music video depicts part of the story of the characters Christian and Gloria that runs throughout Green Day's album 21st Century Breakdown.

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8. John Mayer - "Who Says"

John Mayer - "Who Says"Courtesy Columbia Records

With the release of John Mayer's video for the song "Who Says," we get to see two artists at top form in presenting their art. Mayer's song is simultaneously one of his simplest recordings and one of his most affecting artistic statements. The music video was directed by Anthony Mandler who recently gave us stunning imagery in the "Run This Town" video. The overall effect is highly cinematic and the mood fits perfectly with the song John Mayer says sounds best between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night.

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9. Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me"

Taylor Swift - You Belong With MeCourtesy Big Machine Music

The music video that accompanies Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" tells a very sweet high school Cinderella story. Young actor Lucas Till co-stars in the clip with Taylor Swift.

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10. Shakira - "She Wolf"

Shakira - She WolfCourtesy Epic

Jake Nava, the man behind Britney Spears' video for "If U Seek Amy," put together Shakira's "She Wolf" video to represent the metamorphosis of a woman into a sexual animal. The primary content of the video is Shakira's own interpretive dancing.

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