Twin Towers in Music Videos: 16 Songs That Featured Them

The twin towers in music videos turn up more often than most fans realize.

Sightings range from AC/DC’s 1985 hard rock clips to a hip-hop video shot six days before September 11.

At least 16 documented music videos captured New York’s World Trade Center towers before they fell, according to Ultimate Classic Rock.

This list rounds up every confirmed sighting and what happened to those clips afterward.

Dozens of classic rock artists filmed against that skyline back when nobody imagined the towers would ever disappear.

What Are the Twin Towers in Music Videos?

Twin towers in music videos describes footage of the World Trade Center caught on camera between the 1970s and 2001.

The towers appeared in dozens of videos shot during that span, most of them by accident.

The towers stood 1,368 and 1,362 feet tall.

They dominated the Lower Manhattan skyline from 1973 until September 11, 2001.

Directors used the towers as instant visual shorthand for New York City.

Any video that needed to say this is New York often panned across the skyline and caught them in frame.

That habit means the twin towers in music videos show up across genres, from arena rock to hip-hop.

Most appear as an unplanned backdrop rather than the point of the shot.

Which Classic Rock Music Videos Featured the Twin Towers?

Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” opens with a shot of the towers.

It is one of the earliest confirmed twin towers in music videos sightings, from 1979.

The table below lists every confirmed classic rock video, its release year, and how the towers appear.

This twin towers in music videos table spans two decades of confirmed sightings.

According to Ultimate Classic Rock, a wider group of pop and R&B acts also used the towers as New York shorthand.

That list includes Madonna, Prince, Public Enemy, Hall & Oates, Whitney Houston, and Stevie Wonder.

Exact song titles for each of those individual clips are not independently confirmed.

Wrestling fans may also recognize the towers from Hulk Hogan’s “Real American” entrance video.

The 1985 clip is built around a song written and performed by classic rock guitarist Rick Derringer.

Why Did the Twin Towers Appear in So Many Music Videos?

The twin towers appeared in so many music videos because directors needed a fast way to establish New York City.

MTV’s 1980s boom sent video crews to shoot skyline B-roll constantly.

The 110-story towers were the tallest, most identifiable landmark visible from nearly any angle in Lower Manhattan.

Many appearances were not deliberate statements about the World Trade Center.

They were incidental background, captured during helicopter or rooftop shots of the city.

That is why the twin towers in music videos usually show up for only a few seconds.

They are tucked into an establishing shot, not framed as the subject.

What Was the Last Music Video Filmed at the World Trade Center?

The last music video filmed on location at the World Trade Center was Dilated Peoples’ “Worst Comes to Worst.”

It was shot on September 7, 2001, four days before the attacks.

A handful of other videos were filmed directly at the complex rather than just capturing it from a distance.

Depeche Mode taped a promotional clip for “Enjoy the Silence” atop the World Trade Center’s South Tower observation deck in 1990.

It was filmed for the French television program Champs-Elysees, a different shoot from Anton Corbijn’s better-known official video.

The Beastie Boys’ 1999 video for “Alive” shows the towers throughout its New York location footage.

Limp Bizkit filmed their “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” video on the roof of the World Trade Center in 2000.

The clip won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video on September 6, 2001.

According to Loudwire, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey sent Limp Bizkit a thank-you letter and a fruit basket.

The gift arrived September 10, 2001, one day before the attacks, thanking the band for featuring the towers.

How Did 9/11 Change Twin Towers in Music Videos?

The September 11, 2001 attacks changed twin towers in music videos overnight, turning once-casual skyline shots into unplanned historical footage.

Guitarist Wes Borland told FHM in 2015 that radio and MTV stopped playing “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” after the attacks.

The video had just won a major award days earlier.

Ozzy Osbourne’s original “Mama, I’m Coming Home” video reportedly showed the towers.

It has been largely scrubbed from circulation online.

Ultimate Classic Rock reports that Osbourne disliked the clip even before 9/11, for unrelated reasons.

Some artists later addressed the attacks directly in new songs and videos, rather than editing old ones.

That separate wave of work is covered in classicrockartists.com’s roundup of classic rock songs about 9/11.

Today, most surviving twin towers in music videos exist as a quiet, unintentional time capsule of the Manhattan skyline before September 11, 2001.

People Also Ask About Twin Towers in Music Videos

Which music videos featured the twin towers?

At least 16 documented music videos featured the World Trade Center’s twin towers, including Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” (1979), Rod Stewart’s “Sailing” (1975), AC/DC’s “Shake Your Foundations” (1985), R.E.M.’s “Stand” (1988), and Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” (2000).

Why do old music videos show the World Trade Center?

Old music videos show the World Trade Center because the twin towers were the tallest, most recognizable landmark on the Manhattan skyline between 1973 and 2001, making them an easy visual shortcut for “New York City” in any establishing shot.

What was the last music video filmed at the World Trade Center?

Dilated Peoples’ “Worst Comes to Worst” is reported as the last music video filmed on location at the World Trade Center, shot on September 7, 2001, just four days before the September 11 attacks.

Is Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin'” video connected to 9/11?

Yes, Limp Bizkit filmed “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” atop the World Trade Center and won an MTV Video Music Award for it on September 6, 2001, and the Port Authority thanked the band in writing on September 10, 2001, the day before the towers fell.

Were any music videos pulled because they showed the twin towers?

Radio and video outlets stopped playing Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” after September 11, 2001, according to guitarist Wes Borland, and Ozzy Osbourne’s original “Mama, I’m Coming Home” clip has since become difficult to find online.

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Essential Albums Behind Twin Towers in Music Videos

Each of these four albums produced a single whose video is confirmed to have featured the twin towers.

All four singles appear earlier in this twin towers in music videos rundown.

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Last updated: September 11, 2026.

Nobody thought to protect that Manhattan skyline on camera, because nobody thought it needed protecting.

Twenty-five years later, the twin towers in music videos remain one of classic rock’s strangest, saddest MTV-era footnotes.