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Buzzworthy's #1 Top Video Of 2009: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Lady Gaga's built her bottle rocket of a career on full-frontal performance art, freakish fashion, and insanely infectious hooks. But the platform upon which those pillars are built is Lady Gaga's ability to absolutely next-level everything she does. Where some artists take a good idea and repeat it, Lady Gaga doesn't just reinvent the wheel -- she makes a better one -- and takes it a step higher every time, from her VMA performance to her American Music Awards performance (uh... FLAMING PIANO!??!) down to the red dress she wore to meet the Queen of England. But nothing Gaga's done has been more next-level than her "Bad Romance" video.

On its own, as a record, "Bad Romance" was almost too big to be believed. And the anticipation wrapped around the "Bad Romance" video was an event in and of itself. It's hard to think of a video since "Thriller" that, well, thrilled like "Bad Romance." It became an instant classic and Gaga's best video yet. In 2009 we needed to escape, and no artist's video met that need better than Gaga in "Bad Romance."

Related Content Get Gaga's 'Bad Romance' Look!

Tags Best of 2009, Lady Gaga, video

They're about to drop that ball, which means it's time to drop my #1 Top Song of 2009...

"Empire State Of Mind"

Call me biased (I work in Times Square), but no song knocked harder or louder this year than Jay-Z's love song to the Big Apple, "Empire State Of Mind." From its chase-you-down beat, to Jay-Z's always-hypnotic roller coaster cadence, to Alicia Keys' plunky piano parts and soaring, raise-the-roof chorus, "Empire State Of Mind" either made you proud to be a New Yorker or wish you were one.

Happy new year! Once more, with feeling!

(Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, live at the 2009 MTV VMAs... in New York!)

Related Content The Stephen Colbert Remix, 'Empire State Of Mind' Part 2, MTV's Best Of 2009

Tags Alicia Keys, Best of 2009, Jay-Z

And then there was one. Quick recap of my Top 5 Vids of 2009: #5: Rihanna, "Russian Roulette," Number 4: Vampire Weekend, "Cousins," Number 3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Heads Will Roll," and Number 2: Handsome Furs, "I'm Confused." And now...

+ Number 1: Taylor Swift, "You Belong With Me"

Gurl! Don't look so surprised! "You Belong With Me" was a teen rom-com (a bunch of teen movies, actually) wrapped up in a music video, wherein Taylor plays two roles (whoa there, Meryl Streep!); one bad brunette, convertible-pushing mean girl, the other a nerd-tastic band geek vying for the attention of the boy of her dreams.

While things don't look so good in the beginning (notes are written with Sharpies and read through windows... because your parents suspended your texting privs or something?) this is, ultimately, a love story, and, baby, he says, "yes." TEAM TAYLOR!

Tags Best of 2009, Taylor Swift, video

Let's check the rear-view for the other Top 5 Songs of 2009. Number 5: Mario, "Break Up," Number 4: Paramore, "Where The Lines Overlap," Number 3: The Clipse, "Popular Demand (Popeyes)," Number 2: Drake, "Best I Ever Had," and now...

+ Number 1: Phoenix, "Lizstomania"

An unassailably perfect pop song, taken from Phoenix's amazing Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix album. The opening tinkle of keys, the galloping beat, The Smiths-esque guitars that crash in before the chorus and those ponderous lyrics; are they about composer Franz Liszt's 19th Century rise to stardom? A regretful look at the end of a relationship? Both? Doesn't matter, once Thomas Mars coos, "So sentimental/Not sentimental, no" you'll fall under this brilliant song's spell.

Related Content MTV's Best Of 2009

Tags Best of 2009, Phoenix, video

It was Gaga's year. I know this, you know this, your house pets probably know this. It would be impossible to unpack Lady Gaga's 2009 in its entirety; and besides we've been doing it all year, right?

So why not just take a gander back at Gaga's top 5 most audacious, jaw-dropping, wow-inducing looks? Let's do this:

+ Latex Reindeer Gaga

Gaga got into the holiday spirit in London with this Prancer-Go-Dominatrix get up.

+ Gaga As Pregnant Ballerina

From the pages of Italian Vanity Fair. Gaga was giving us a preview of her look for Francesco Vezzoli's perfomance art (performing art?) installation at the Los Angeles Museum Of Contemporary Art's 30th Anniversary gala.

+ See Through Red Lace With Full-Face Mask/Veil

Upon accepting her award for Best New Artist at the 2009 MTV VMAs, Gaga's insane red ensemble even made Eminem basically go "WTF?"

+ Phantom Of The Opera/VMAs

Another VMA look from Gaga. This one brings to mind Phantom of the Opera meets bird enthusiast. This was the outfit that caught Kermit's eye:

+ Show Her Who's Really Queen Red Rubber Dress

When Gaga met the Queen she went royal, donning an Elizabethan red rubber dress by Atsuko Kudo.

Can't wait to see what Gaga pulls out of her bag of tricks in 2010!

Tags Buzzworthy Style Files, Eminem, Lady Gaga

Cliff's Notes to Chris' Top 5 Songs Of 2009: #5: Mario, "Break Up," #4: Paramore, "Where The Lines Overlap," #3 The Clipse: "Popular Demand (Popeyes)" and now...

+ Number 2: Drake, "Best I Ever Had"

Ah, Drake. Music's Can't-Miss-Kid drew a considerable amount of ire for "Best I Ever Had"'s Kanye West-directed, chest-focused video. Regardless of how you feel about Kanye the filmmaker, Drake's qualities as a a singer/songwriter/rapper/burgeoning star are pretty much indisputable.

The Canadian DeGrassi veteran/Young Money all-star made a big splash with this mixtape cut (taken from his essential So Far Gone). It's got everything that's good about Drake: hooks coming at you from all over the place; a great match of voice and beat (Drake's smooth tones over the rising/falling bass line); and, of course, a lot of aw-shucks-I'm-the-greatest charm and braggadocio.

Related Content MTV's Best Of 2009

Tags Best of 2009, Drake, Kanye West, video

Yesterday I threw some shine on my #3 Top Video of 2009, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Heads Will Roll." But the hits keep on coming. My #2 Top Video of 2009 is...

+ Handsome Furs, "I'm Confused"

Director Scott Coffey's clip for the Handsome Furs' lo-fi/new-wave rave up (taken from their awesome album, Face Control) is basically Night Of The Living Dead Cool Kids. Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade) and Alexei Perry kick out the jams at a house party until a serious case of Zombie Flu hits the crowd. Then, well...you know how these things go; sooner or later, everyone's stumbling around, spitting infected black grime at one another, and it all looks like a hipster version of "Thriller."

Related Content MTV's Best of 2009

Tags Best of 2009, Handsome Furs, video, Wolf Parade

It's been a tumultuous year for Rihanna. After the whole Chris Brown episode, she could've been forgiven for just shutting it down and chilling out in Barbados for the rest of '09. Instead she went into action, recording a dense new album (Rated R), making brilliant videos, and popping up everywhere fashionable and making it more fashionable. Let's revisit some of our favorite Rihanna moments of the year. (Besides her topless GQ cover.)

+ She got by with a little help from her friends. Rihanna got back in the mix flanked by two of her closer industry supporters, Jay-Z and Kanye West. Her inimitable, ghostly wail punctuated Hova's Blueprint 3 anthem, "Run This Town."

+ She made us laugh. What? Yeah, Rihanna, not really known for bringing the LOLs, did just that when, during her musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live she co-starred in the digital short, "Shy Ronnie," with Andy Samberg, playfully lampooning her own songs in the process.

+ She made two incredible videos ("Russian Roulette" and "Hard") that showed us she wasn't just developing as a recording artist, but as a music video artist as well.

+ She re-established (and actually wildly improved) herself as a live performer, bringing the atmospheric sounds of Rated R to the state. Check out this footage from her November live stop in London (with bonus Jay-Z duet included).

+ She made the Polar Bear look WORK. Seriously, who can pull this off and not look ridiculous other than Queen Ri?

We leave you with three sick Rihanna videos from '09: "Run This Town," "Russian Roulette" and "Hard."

Tags Best of 2009, Chris Brown, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Rihanna, video

Quick recap of my picks for Buzzworthy's Top Videos of 2009! Buzzworthy's #5 Top Video of 2009 went to Katy Perry's 'Waking Up In Vegas." The #4 Top Video of 2009 is Fall Out Boy's "What A Catch, Donnie." The #3 Top Video Of 2009 went to Beyonce's "Sweet Dreams." Which brings us to the #2 Top Video of 2009, which is...

Matt & Kim, "Lessons Learned"

Not only is Matt & Kim's "Lessons Learned" video, directed by Taylor Cohen and Otto Arsenault, the starkest video of the year as well as the nakedest, but it's one of the most scintillating videos of 2009 -- and not just because they're naked. Matt & Kim's snapshot of public indecency -- in true DIY spirit, Matt and Kim actually, for-real stripped down (and not in the acoustic way) and streaked Times Square -- embraces the sheer joy of the song... until you get to the didn't-see-that-coming ending.  While the impact of the video's end is absolute, its meaning is nebulous -- does it signal the end of wide-eyed innocence? The inevitability of "The Man" keeping you down? The power of anarchy? You decide. Just don't try it at home.

Watch the video that won a 2009 VMA and a 2009 mtvU Woodie Award, and watch Matt & Kim perform "Lessons Learned" live at the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards.

Related Content MTV's Best Of 2009

Tags Best of 2009, Matt & Kim, video

We're halfway through the Top 5 Songs Of 2009! A quick review:

#5 Demi Lovato, "Remember December"

#4 Tokio Hotel, "Automatic"

#3 Bat for Lashes, "Daniel"

... And at #2: Alicia Keys, "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart."
Alicia Keys promised that her fourth album, The Element Of Freedom, would eliminate all boundaries "and all the limitations, so that you can feel your freedom and express your freedom" and strike a balance between strength and vulnerability. Nowhere is that equilibrium more obvious than on her second single, "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart." It's four-and-a-half minutes of vulnerability and longing tinged with acceptance and perspective, injected throughout with an almost otherworldly sense of clarity.

"Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart" is one of Alicia Keys' most lush love songs since "No One," and every pleading note is coated in passion and power. Absolutely breathtaking and more and more beautiful with every replay, it's an instant classic on every level.

Related Content MTV's Best Of 2009, Top Videos Of 2009

Tags Alicia Keys, video