Staff Blog / The Alternative Music Videos: Our (Completely-Not-MTV-Affiliated) Top 10 Picks

There’s a lot of talk of music videos this week, what with that big MTV shindig happening over in Los Angeles later today. And given that we love any excuse to arm-wrestle over this kind of thing, we started thinking about what our favorites videos have been so far this year.

Excluded from our list are those already getting their due: the many Vimeans on MTV's shortlist. Our fingers are tightly crossed for Romain Gavras (M.I.A. ‘Bad Girls’), Keith Schofield (Duck Sauce, ‘Big Bad Wolf’), Vincent Haycock (Calvin Harris, ‘Feel So Close’) and Yoann Lemoine (Drake feat. Rihanna, ‘Take Care’).

But as is often the case with big music awards, there are so many amazing videos from lesser-known bands and directors that aren’t going to make it up on to the big screen at a shiny party like the one going on in LA tonight. We think those videos also deserve a moment in the spotlight, so we’d like to take this opportunity to shine it ourselves.

Without further ado, here are our favorite Staff Picked music videos from 2012 that you won't see on MTV. We made the playlist, you make the popcorn.

We’re giving you two viewing choices. If you want a quick browse, take a spin through the list. Or if there’s room in your busy schedule to give these videos the attention they truly deserve, sit back and put yourself and this playlist, in Couch Mode.

Think we missed something? Let us know in the comments, or arm-wrestle us through the computer. It will totally work.

UPDATE: Arm-wrestling through the computer does NOT work and nobody wins.