One year after launching her website, the musician, visual artist and performance artist inked a solo record deal with Radioactive records — home to artists like Traci Lords, Live and Star 69. Voog immediately began work on her debut solo album, anavoog.com. With her heart set on finally getting out of Minneapolis once and for all, Voog wanted to make sure the project was handled properly, so the aspiring electronic singer brought in former Prince & the Revolution drummer Bobby Z to handle production work.

Speaking about working on anavoog.com, Voog told Billboard:”It was interesting to make an electronic record finally. Techno is the sound light would make if it made sounds. I see visions when I hear the sounds on the album. It’s the beginning of a new era.” Although Voog was optimistic about her music, she knew it wouldn’t appeal to everyone. “The people who get it will get it, and those who don’t won’t. I’m not out to win intolerable fans. I just want to do what I do.”

After deciding the lead single from the LP would be the infectious “Hollywood,” remixes of the track by Juno Reactor, JS9, Davidson Ospina, and Mike Ski were commissioned. Even with this army of top-notch remixes, “Hollywood” failed to make a lasting impact on the dancefloor, peaking at a disappointing No. 45 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. While the song was a commercial disappointment, the ethereal track made an enduring connection with me. You can stream the LP version of “Hollywood” below. Unfortunately, the song isn’t on iTunes, but you can find the single on Amazon and eBay. Ana has recently been performing and promising new music. I am eagerly awaiting anything new from this severely underrated artist.

There are always certain songs that strike an emotional chord, whether for better or for worse. For me, one of those noteworthy songs is “Love Comes Quickly” by synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. With lyrics like “sooner or later, this happens to everyone” and “love will always get to you,” the song highlighted an emotional side of the Pet Shop Boys. While browsing SoundCloud tonight, I stumbled across a fantastic remix of “Love Comes Quickly” and was reminded of what a powerful connection I have to the song.

When I was 19, I was first introduced to “Love Comes Quickly” by my very first boyfriend, Brad. We had been seeing each other exclusively for about two or three months, and though things weren’t perfect, I had started to develop really strong feelings for him. One night, we came home from one of our many nights of drinking and dancing, and decided we would listen to music in his bedroom until we got ready to go to sleep. He always seemed to turn me on to bands and singers that I had missed growing up, so I was excited to hear something new.

I jumped in the shower, dried off, threw on a clean pair of boxers and went back into the bedroom. Brad had put on the Pet Shop Boys’ album, Please, for us to listen to. Besides “West End Girls”, I didn’t really recall having ever heard anything else from Pet Shop Boys. Needless to say, by the “Two Divided by Zero” finished playing, I had goose-bumps. As the song “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” started to wind down, Brad looked at me and said, “I have something to tell you. I love you.” He’d never said that to me before, and although I felt the same way, I had never said it to him either. I was terrified and excited all at the same time.

I still vividly recall having butterflies in my stomach while we laid on his bed holding hands and listening to Please. I thought we would be together forever and live happily ever after. Like most first loves, though, mine didn’t last very long. We only managed to stay together for a little over a year, but I learned a lot in that short time. Your first love brings up emotions that you may never have felt before — hearing “Love Comes Quickly” brings some of those feeling and emotions right back to the surface. To me, it’s more than just a pop song, it’s something much greater than that. It’s a bittersweet reminder to enjoy the moment because nothing lasts forever.

It is easy to forget that before Paula Abdul was a certified pop star and talent judge, the pint-sized superstar was a very much in demand choreographer to the stars — most notably the legendary Janet Jackson.

After meeting Paula in 1984 on the set of The Jacksons’ “Torture” music video, Janet brought her in  to work on a few dance moves for the “When I Think of You” music video. The two worked together and the result was one of Janet’s most electrifying performances. I stumbled across an extraordinary video of Paula , Janet and her dancers practicing for the final sequence of the video. Paula and Janet really did make the ’80s and ’90s so much more memorable. I miss the days when these two ladies were churning out hit after hit. They don’t make them like this anymore.

For most of us, music has always played an important role in our lives. Music is, without a doubt, one of the most beloved human experiences. Greek philosopher Plato once said, “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” I find it remarkable how certain songs can become attached to life experiences that will live on for as long as we do. Sometimes the visual counterpart to a song can leave an equally significant impression. Traditionally, music videos were only meant to be a means to stimulate record sales, but they can do much more than that — they can also help to capture the essence of a particular song and complete the performers artistic vision.

In this post, I randomly selected five of my favorite music videos to share with you. Initially, I tried to compile a list of my all-time favorites, but this proved to be a nearly impossible task. As with any list of this nature, it is all subjective, based on my own personal taste. Feel free to let me know what music video you would have included by leaving a comment below. You can watch all of the music videos I mentioned in this post at the bottom of the page.

Michael Jackson – “Thriller”

Growing up in an ultra-religious home, I was never introduced to the pop music that was ruling Top 40 radio during the 80s, but I knew who Michael Jackson was. He was virtually inescapable at the time. I remember spending the night with a neighbor and seeing the music video for “Thriller” for the first time. I was terrified, entertained and intrigued all at the same time. So, what music video list would be complete without it?!

The 14-minute clip, which was directed by  John Landis, took the idea of the music video to another level by transforming it into a mini film. The video, which many would still consider to be the most ambitious to ever be made, cost half-a-million dollars; at the time, it was the most expensive music video ever made. The week before the “Thriller” music video made its debut, sales for the album of the same name had slowed down to a respectable 200,000 copies a week. After the clip premiered on MTV, Thriller sales skyrocketed and pushed the album back to the top of the charts. Michael Jackson will always be remembered for his enormous contributions to music. “Thriller” is one of those contributions.

George Michael – “Freeek!”

Released in 2002, “Freeek!” was far from being George Michael’s biggest hit, but it did mark a drastic change in direction for the pop singer. The futuristic music video was directed by the still very much in demand director Joseph Kahn (Kylie, Britney).

The visual interpretation of the song incorporates a futuristic theme including cyborgs and sophisticated technology, and has a sexually assertive tone, like the leashed dogs that transform into female bondage slaves. With lyrics like “I’ll be your educational lover. Your one fuck fantasy”, the video fit the animistic lyrics perfectly. According to Michael, the song was meant to serve as a warning as to where humanity is heading with technology.

“Because I was trying to say something aggressive, it really freaked out my female audience,” Michael explained in a 2006 interview. “I love it as a record, but it stands out so much as not my normal intent. It made me understand how much people invest in who they think you are.”

“Freeek!” is one of the last really big budget music videos that I recall seeing at the time. They really don’t make them like this anymore, which really is a shame.

Björk – “It’s Oh So Quiet”

Spirited, energetic and strangely burlesque, the show-stopping “It’s Oh So Quiet” was an odd song choice for Björk to cover, but somehow it all worked. The music video, which was directed by Spike Jonze and shot in San Fernando Valley, California, featured Björk performing a series of eye-catching choreographed dance numbers. For the video, the Icelandic pop singer was clearly paying homage to the classic Hollywood musicals of Fred Astair and Gene Kelly. If the music video didn’t get your attention, the riotous chorus was bound to peak your interest. While the song wasn’t a big success in America, it was a staple on MTV. It did much better overseas, debuting at No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming her third and last UK Top 10 single.

Sinéad O’Connor – “Nothing Compares 2 U”

With all her recent drama with Miley Cyrus and her very public battle with depression and mental disease, it’s easy to forget what a talented artist Sinéad O’Connor really is. When Sinéad hooked up with British producer Nellee Hooper in 1990, the result was a fantastic cover of the Prince penned “Nothing Compares 2 U”. The song is easily one of the most iconic songs of the 90s, and the video is equally as captivating.

In the John Maybury directed video, after singing “All the flowers that you planted, Mama, in the back yard, all died when you went away,” tears begin to run down each of Sinéad’s cheeks. This moving visual was totally unexpected and unplanned. According to Sinéad, she cried because she was thinking about the troubled and complex relationship she had with her late mother, who allegedly abused her as a child. Speaking in a recent interview about the video for “Nothing Compares 2 U”, the Irish singer said: “It wasn’t what we had planned for the video. So what happened, happened accidentally and we decided to keep it.”

For both a song and its video to connect so deep is a rare occurrence, but “Nothing Compares 2 U” did just that. The emotional music video, which took home three moonmen at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, represents the heartfelt lyrics impeccably.

The Smashing Pumpkins – “Tonight Tonight”

Almost a shot-by-shot re-creation of Georges Méliès’s silent film ‘A Trip To The Moon’, the music video for The Smashing Pumpkins song “Tonight Tonight” was unlike anything I had seen before.

The video, which was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and starred Tom Kenny and Jill Talley, starts with a group of people celebrating the launch of a zeppelin. When the zeppelin is airborne, an adventurous young couple leaps from the craft only to land on the moon. Shortly after landing, they encounter a gang of  evil aliens intent on enslaving them. After making an escape plan and breaking free, the couple jumps on a rocket, land in the deep blue sea and are eventually rescued by a passing ship

According to lead vocalist Billy Corgan, the video “was something special because the moment it was on TV – everybody, and I mean everybody on the street that you would meet wanted to talk about it. And I’m not just talking about fans of the Smashing Pumpkins. I’m talking about like the guy parking the car. You’d go into a restaurant, the waitress who is 52-years old was talking about it. It was just one of those videos for some reason – it just connected with everybody.”

The spellbinding music video for “Tonight Tonight” went on to win six awards at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996, including Video of the Year, Best Direction, Best Special Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Breakthrough Video.

Kylie Minogue’s iconic single “Slow” celebrated its 10th anniversary last week, so I wanted take the opportunity to look back at one of Kylie’s greatest moments. It’s very rare that the melody of a song’s verses is just as strong and memorable as its chorus, but that happens to be the case with Kylie Minogue’s 2003 single “Slow.” When the opening beats worked their way into your eardrum for the first time, you instantly knew this was going to be a defining moment for Kylie. Sure, Kylie had shown us her sexy side before, but nothing as sensual, seductive and minimal as this. This was Kylie at a whole nother level.

“It’s a simple song, and yet it stays with you,” Kylie told MTV in an interview at the time. “Lyrically, it’s about how time and space have a different meaning when you meet someone [you really like]. I loved the way the song had this push-pull effect; the musical and lyrical combination gives you a sense of that.”

Kylie’s vocal performance on “Slow” is subtle and almost hushed, but she fills every fissure of the arrangement with her sexy, understated vocal delivery, while the melody slinks around and permanently embeds itself in your head. It’s a masterful performance that, along other tracks from the underrated Body Language era, made Kylie the artist she is today.

The music video for “Slow” was filmed in Barcelona, Spain by Baillie Walsh, and features choreography by Michael Rooney. The concept of the clip fits the song perfectly, and both work extremely well together to fortify the sensual feel of the entire Body Language period. “Slow” is, without a doubt, one of the more noteworthy moments in Kylie’s triumphant pop career.

We always hear that lightning never strikes twice. While the saying isn’t always true, it is a rare occurrence, and some of us have to learn that the hard way. Take British model Naomi Campbell for example. In the early 1990s, the super-model turned her attention to pop stardom. Considering that Campbell’s favorite method of communication is assaulting her employees, associates, and, in one infamous instance, police officers, she’s probably not the first person that comes to mind when you think of music. But believe it or not, the indignant model actually released a pop album.

Two years after inking a record deal with Epic Records, Campbell, who was at the time was taking home around $10,000 a day for strutting down the catwalk, decided it was time to get to work on that pop album she had been thinking about. In the spring of  1994, Campbell began recording her first and only album, Babywoman (stylized as babywoman). For the album, named after designer Rifat Ozbek’s nickname for her, the wannabe pop-star roped in a who’s who of hit-makers, including Bruce Roberts (Cher, Donna Summer), British electronic music producer Tim Simenon (Depeche Mode, Massive Attack), American hip-hop act P.M. Dawn, Irish singer-songwriter Gavin Friday and Killing Joke bassist Martin Glover, better known as Youth.

Unfortunately, Naomi had little interest in putting forth the effort it takes to make a solid pop album. “I love Naomi, and she really can sing,” producer Bruce Roberts revealed in an interview. “It’s always difficult with a first record. What a person has to learn is how involved they need to be in each aspect of the recording process.”

When Babywoman was released in the UK in 1994, it was met with extremely poor reviews, and the general public had little interest in giving it a chance. The album did find a more receptive audience in Japan, and went on to sell around one millions copies. The poor response didn’t really bother Naomi, “I achieved a goal I set out for myself. Of course the first album is a risk,” she explained at the time. The lead single from the LP, “Love & Tears”, is actually a nice enough song. Babywoman isn’t available on iTunes, but you can find it over on The Isle of Deserted Pop Stars.