Cyndi Lauper, ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ vs. A-Ha, ‘Take On Me’ — Greatest Pop Video of the Modern Era [Final Round]

It all comes down to this: our final round in PopCrush's search for the Greatest Pop Video of the Modern Era, 80's edition! The rambunctious Cyndi Lauper and the innovative A-Ha have battled their way to the top—all thanks to your votes—but now it's time for you to vote again and help us crown a winner!

Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" barely beat out Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in our semi-finals, but her 1% victory proves that we prefer to have fun than go in for the thrill. The video begins with Lauper nearly giving her mother a heart attack after coming home "in the morning light," and declaring that "Girls just want to have fun" in response to her mother's earnest requests for her daughter to get her life back on track. While the fun, fashion, and feminism are all part of what made (and makes) this video so iconic, it's perhaps the initial telephone scene—where Cyndi uses said telephone (after answering it upside down) to rally her girls behind her—that rings (pun intended) on in pop today, in both visuals and lyrical metaphors! So, will you answer Cyndi's call just to have fun one final time, or will she remain not one of the fortunate ones?

A-Ha's video for "Take on Me" took out another Jackson—this time, it was Janet and her video for "Rhythm Nation"—in our semi-finals, but it won by a slightly larger margin: almost 6% compared to Lauper's 1% win over Michael. In "Take on Me," the female protagonist seems to have taken a subconscious note from Lauper's earlier exclamations of girls just wanting to have fun, in that she lets herself quite literally get pulled into a whirlwind romance. As she descends into A-Ha's groundbreaking newspaper/comic strip world, she finds herself caught in an unexpected action-adventure as her male love interest fights not just for her but also for his freedom into the "real" world (to be with her). So, will you help "Take on Me" come to life and rise to the top, or will it become yesterday's news?

Now it's time for you, our readers, to decide who will win and be crowned PopCrush's Best Pop Video of the 80s: Cyndi Lauper or A-Ha! Re-watch the videos and be sure to cast your votes! The poll will close on November 30 at 5 PM ET.

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