What is the most impressive music video you've ever seen?

Cyclohexane@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 211 points –

Most music videos, especially modern ones, are pretty boring.

244

Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity is pretty impressive when you find out how they filmed it.

DANCING 🕺💃 WALKING 🚶🚷 REARRANGING FURNITURE 🪑🛋️ BABS IS 👵 SHOPPING 🛍️ I LET THE BIRD OUT OF THE CAGE 🦅🐓

Was the first one that came to mind for me.

Aha - Take On Me ...such a mesmerizing video. A girl reading a comic is sucked into a world in between the two realities. Really cool artistically and you can't help but wish you could see more of the story.

Heard the song so many times, never watched the music video

That was great :)

Ok Go, just about any of their videos are worth watching, even if you don't care about their music

Dire Straits Money for Nothing was amazing at the time. Turn Down for What is amazing in its own way. Smashing Pumpkins Tonight, Tonight. Michael Jackson had a few good ones.

Fun fact: the Director of the "Turn Down For What" video ended up directing "Everything Everywhere All At Once".

And the extremely underrated “Swiss Army Man” featuring a fart-propelled Harry Potter raft.

One of the Daniels directed “The Death of Dick Long”, which might be the best mystery movie I’ve ever seen. Go in blind mister and, hands down, you won’t be disappointed if you like mystery movies.

Labyrinth.

Sure, they call it a movie, but it's really just an hour and a half long David Bowie video.

That cod piece. What the literal fuck was going on with 80s kids movies?

The totally unnecessary tiddies in neverending story come to mind.

From Yesterday by 30 Seconds to Mars is like a whole short film and they went to China to film it. I remember it being a bit of a deal at the time.

Basically every OK Go music video, This Too Shall Pass is particularly impressive.

Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel is pretty impressive the amount of work that must've gone into it.

The face morphing at the end of Black and White by Michael Jackson was cutting edge special effects at the time and it holds up well today (better than the rap verse breakdown in the song itself....)

Haha. Last night my teen was watching the MJ halftime performance. She was SO offended that they cut the rap out of Black and White because "it's the only part of the song that makes sense!"

I don't think anyone has appreciated what Coldplay did with their MV for The Scientist. In which Chris Martin really had to learn to sing the song backwards for the MV.

Here's what Director Jamie Thraves said on his interview with MTV way back on 2003

"I had this idea that I wanted to do a story that's tragic but starts off happy and ends happy, and the video is about rewinding to that happy ending,"

Thraves needed to find a new way to tell a narrative story that moved forward even as the action moved backward.

"The original idea was a straight narrative without the lead singer in the video," said Thraves. "But Chris wanted to be in the video and he was really excited to learn how to sing the song backward."

"He got a tape of the song recorded backward and he listened to it over and over. He's a very passionate guy, so he got really into it. What we learned later on is about the problems with phonetics, because you have to be very careful with the lip movement so that when you end on a sound your mouth is formed in the right way."

I think this would be always the most impressive music video in my book, ALWAYS. The dedication Chris Martin put man, I cant even think how he learned all of that.

nah, The Scientist will always take a backseat to Drop by The Pharcyde which did the same thing, but years earlier in 1995 (and a rap track no less)

like it's not even a competition in my mind

The Scientist will always take a backseat to Drop by The Pharcyde which did the same thing, but years earlier in 1995 (and a rap track no less)

Oh, I see. Today I learned, I was born in '98 and really not fan of rap. Haha

Nothing can top "Ok Go" :)

Turn Down For What?

Same directors as Everything everywhere all at Once.

Came here to post this one. I saw that movie on the airplane without knowing anything about it, and immediately thought, "This movie was made by the guys who filmed the 'Turn Down for What' music video." I didn't even know their names, had to confirm my guess after landing.

Because the music video and their directorial style are that distinctive and memorable. It was not surprising at all that they got showered in awards, those guys are creative AF.

I’m convinced Ok,Go is a music video band that made music to go with their videos.

A few directed by Ritchie Cunningham, he often collaborates with Aphex Twin and Björk.

Prodigy's "Smack my bitch up" That video just had excellent camera work and a surprise twist at the end.

Pretty much all videos of Daft Punk's "Discovery" Album.

Jamiroquai "Virtual Insanity" Simple setup, but great execution.

A few from Peter Gabriel come to mind as well.

Peter Gabriel has a new album out with a bunch of videos produced with AI. I don't think he meant them to be disturbing but I find them to be very so, in the way that AI when it gets things somewhat wrong is disturbing. I also think possibly his new songs were produced via AI as well - they sound a bit like music by an AI trained up on Peter Gabriel music.

Sledgehammer was fucking awesome, though - and it was done by the guy who went on to do the Wallace and Gromit series.

Edgar Wright directed a music video featuring Noel Fielding which was guided by the same idea that birthed Baby Driver (and it shows)

Jungle's Back on 74 features some absolutely exquisite choreography.

Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators' Driving Rain would be boring if it wasn’t done exclusively with puppets.

Gojira's Another World is a fun (depressing) Interstellar-inspired animation.

That Driving Rain video is amazing. Not only do the puppets make it better , but the Top Gear level cinematography sends it to the next level.

I quite like Around The World by Daft Punk (directed by Michel Gondry of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame). I guess "impressive" isn't the primary word I'd use to describe it but thought it was worth a mention

Impressive?

An Unkindness - Anything EASILY.

Why? Shot by one dude, all the instruments and vocals are one dude, shot through multiple seasons, and then you realize the lines on different season are keys on a piano/keyboard, playing the song.

Fuckin masterpiece.

Runner up: Turn Down for What, directed by the directors of Everything Everywhere All At Once.

daydreaming - Radiohead

It's Thom York stumbling through historical scenes of his life and career looking old and tired. It took me a hot minute to realize what I was watching but as soon as it hits you it's inescapable and heartbreaking.

It's not "impressive" in the same sense as take on me, Californication, or money for nothing... but in terms of really augmenting the music with a well conceived visual storytelling mechanic? Top notch.

Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt by NiN

The video is beautiful, but the story, and timeline of cash’s later life, is heartbreaking.

It’s not flashy, it’s not in your face, but it evokes feelings in most people, and tells a story.

First thing to come to mind is Childish Gambino - This is America. It's fairly simple on its face. Some people and a few props in a large empty warehouse. It mostly relies on Donald's presence but the filmography and post FX is pretty impressive.

Honorable mention to Radiohead - Paranoid Android just because it's cool.

The choreography and the symbolism behind it blew me away.

There’s a lot more to that video, too.

A few notable classics:

One - Metallica
Thriller - M. Jackson
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Take On Me - a-ha
Hurt - J. Cash
Sledgehammer - P. Gabriel
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Hurt and Take on Me are excellent

Some of the ones that first came to mind are already mentioned, but I still wanted to include

Depeche Mode - Wrong

It's quite dark, but it still gives me shivers every time I watch it.

The funny thing is that video was made waaay after the age of music videos had ended. It’s like DM just decided to pretend it hadn’t.

It could just be that they aren’t aware of the awesome ones.
Consider the entire thread an opportunity to correct them of their misconception :)

Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel is iconic, the claymation and dedication is insane for a music video from that time period

It's okay to envy by Takayan is impressive for how it plays with the subtitling, trust me turn on Closed Captions for this and enjoy

Loretta by Ginger Root for how perfectly it captures an atmosphere and aesthetics of those late 80s/early 90s East/South East Asian music videos, it's a vibe - plus him playing all members of the band/accompanying orchestra is also impressive in its own right

just a few off the top of me head

Quite a few Ok Go videos.

This one involves drone footage, a fucktonne of choreography, an entire school of Japanese children and a horde of Honda handlebarless e-scooters. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZB_rGFyeU&pp=ygUmSmFwYW5lc2Ugc2Nob29sIGRyb25lIG11c2ljIHZpZGVvIGJhbmQ%3D

They constantly outdo themselves! I Won’t Let You Down and (both versions of) This Too Shall Pass are my favourites.

This one's got me right now. Not crazy editing or anything, it just REALLY drives the point home for the song. Probably mostly because it's a nostalgia bomb for me.:

https://youtu.be/fSKQRDq3RkM?si=fbjm4qAa-WYp3d6a

Weezer - Pork and Beans. As someone who wasn't even alive during the era of YouTube when it came out, it is really mesmerizing seeing that day's stars all in one place. Not to mention the actual video is super funny and well done. The ending scene is so cathartic. Plus the song itself is cathcy and has a nice message.

A$AP Rocky's Testing era had some great ones with very impressive editing

Kids Turned Out Fine

A$AP Forever

Sundress

These are some of my favorite animated music videos:

Stuck in the Sound - Let's Go

Dan Deacon "When I Was Done Dying"

And finally, the mixtape visualizer from Hi This is Flume is really damn cool.

I have a playlist with some more.

Potential seizure warning for some or all of the posted links.

Kina Granis - In Your Arms

It's all stop motion with jelly beans.

Here is the making of it.

Absolutely loved this. Never heard of the artist before this (though clearly she is very popular!). She seemed to have a lot of fun making the video.

The only thing that disappointed me was learning that a bunch of people had to volunteer their time to make this. Surely this made lot of money for the artist and video producers, could it really be that the margins were too thin to compensate all the people working on this?

I hear you but, to be fair, she wasn't popular when this came out.. She was just some nobody artist. This went semi-viral at the time and that's how she became more widely known.

Fair enough. And I'm sure the people who volunteered were probably thrilled to be involved with the project, it really is a brilliant piece of work.

Porter Robinson & Madeon - shelter

https://youtu.be/fzQ6gRAEoy0?si=5tH9QomRfDje2QbR

Join me, fellow weebs!

They got a pro anime studio to make it. You can feel the caring of the father even though he's only in it a few seconds.

That one that was recorded in reverse - the full thing.

But…. Which one is that

It's been years. I tried looking for it, but nothing I could find looks like what I'm thinking of.

Apparently there's many reverse and some multiple show in reverse in one take now. The one I'm thinking of surely was one of the first, or the first of its kind.

But with how long ago it was and not a band or song I listened to, I can't recall nor find.

Rise Against - Help Is On The Way

Being from Louisiana this has always been such a chilling song.

Chris Stapleton - Fire Away

This one may not be too popular but having been in a similar situation, this hit home hard.

So I love music videos as well as making my own, so I have a lot of favourites, but in particular half·alive's music videos are amazingly done. The lead singer Josh Taylor is an incredible producer for his music videos as well as the band being amazing dancers. All of the videos off of their new album are amazing, but two that I will highlight are:

Summerland

Amazing storytelling. This really comes full circle.

TIME 2

Incredible creative direction. Following the plot of the song while making it visually attractive as this is, is so impressive.

I have more (ask me), but these are definitely on top. Did I Make You Up? and Move Me are also really good.

I think the MTV era from the 80s to early 90s had the most creative videos. Likely because there was a bit more of a demand for music videos back then. You really had to stand out when your only platform at the time was MTV. As far as favorite music videos, I've always been a fan of Tool's weird-ness.

In it’s time? Early days of music videos: Sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel 2000s: The Hunter, Bjork Recently: The love in my heart, Jacob Collier

Easy mode: OK GO’s entire catalog of music videos.

Klangkarussell - All Eyes On You - this is probably my favourite music video ever. I'm a sucker for one-takes, and the fact that this one is nine minutes long makes it so impressive on a technical level. But also, the video really feels like an experience. I feel like there are a lot of different ways the characters and situation, and what they represent, can be interpreted; it feels like everyone reads into the video in their own way (and I'm totally down to discuss anyone else's interpretations once they've watched it). Plus the atmosphere of the video really enhances that of the song - I like the song well enough, but combined with the video I find it so hypnotizing and engrossing. (Plus, it doesn't feel cheap by any means but you can see it was made on a shoestring budget, so it gets extra points for that as far as I'm concerned.)

All India Radio - Rippled - long-exposure light stop-motion is so damn cool. It's such a pretty video, and I love how authentic it feels - it obviously took a lot of time, energy and talent to make (over 6 months according to the description) but it has so much personality to it, and you can obviously see the people in the background moving the lights around which makes it feel far less "clinical".

Delta Heavy - Get By - musically, it's a slightly above-average 2012 dubstep track, but the video is so fun (and terrifying, I suppose...). Again, I love the stop motion, but it's also just really fun on a conceptual level.

Anyway, all of these are a decade old, so I guess maybe you're right about modern music videos. I can't say I watch many music videos, though, so there are probably some good ones I miss!

Big Data and Joywave - Dangerous (it's pretty NSFW btw.).

I still remember how i heard that tune for the first time and how surprised i was in which direction the music video went.

All the Battles videos are really creative. "My Machines" with Gary Neumann might be my favorite and the entirety of the video happens on an escalator

It's not the biggest or best, but I've always found the effect on "Always" by blink-182 to be pretty effective

I don't really watch a lot of music videos, so I'm just gonna list a few of my favorites

Bad Motherfucker by Biting Elbow by far and away

Still Feel by Half Alive is mesmerizing. I'm a straight guy but the lead singer is still my type

Starlight Brigade by TWRP rekindled my interest in Spelljammer, and also I think the animation is so pretty

Magnum Bullets by TWRP is also very nice to look at

Battleborn's intro cinematic might not technically be a music video, but it's my favorite video game cinematic of all time

That damned apple ad music video with the dancer and the stretchy room.

Björk have made some that are absolutely spectacular, she has a way of making you feel what she feels with her voice and the visual impressions, she pulls you into her world. She's one of those artists that are completely unique and deeply talented.

I can't remember the band or the song, but I remember the VH1 pop-up version where they told you tidbits during the video. The whole thing was 1 take (shot on film in those days) and included a part where they passed the camera through a car. The camera operator had to hand the camera off to someone, run around to the other side of the car and then take it back without it looking like that happened, and while everyone was singing in time. I was a film student at the time and in awe about how well it was done. So much so that I can still see that part, but I cannot remember the song.

Please update if you remember. I've been digging through 1 shot videos, but haven't found it yet.

I personally find the music video for Radioactive by Imagine Dragons to be absolutely hilarious. The juxtaposition of serious and nonsense is so good, it just gets me every time. Even though I think the actual song is way better as covered by Within Temptation. Seriously though, go watch that music video and tell me it's not hilarious.

I always admired the concept for the video for Stone Sour’s “Through Glass.”

death grips and crumb have some great music videos

i also think always by blink 182 is amazing, love the idea and exectution

Death Grips? I love their music but their videos have always been incredibly boring for me, especially with Zach Hill's background in video production and Stephan's visual art background. Eh is the only song that comes to mind as having a good MV

i like all the videos for government plates. but then again i watch them while stoned 😆

Edit: Seizure warning due to flashing lights

The Holidays - Voices Drifting

I can't hold my breath for nearly that long

Seizure warning for the above link

It's a nice video, but I can't watch more than a few seconds because of the flashing lights.

The Stage - Avenged Sevenfold

First few times I heard the song, it was just on in the background and I wasn't paying much attention to the lyrics. Like... okay, we're watching you perform on a stage? Weird thing to write a song about, but whatev; sounds cool so screw it.

Finally pulled up the video and it went from "lol marionette puppets!" to "Oh... OOOH. Hoooooly shit!" pretty damn quick.

Now it gives me shivers every time it comes on.

Nigel Stanford has some amazing videoclips. I love Robots vs. Music the most (especially since the tune and the whole Automatica album is amazing), but Science vs. Music is also great.

And he also did a few making of videos. While I'm sure most of the final result is CGI anyway, it's still a nice touch.

Steven Wilson's Drive Home

Besides being a masterpiece, it also has a heart wrenching video clip that's very artistic

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Drive Home

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

I’m surprised this not mentioned yet:

https://youtu.be/ub747pprmJ8?si=68YcC7BA4Zlbkrjy

Okay, this should be one of the more popular songs amongst indie producers:

  1. WARNING×WARNING×WARNING by Akatsuki Records https://youtu.be/7UubKYqEy3s // https://piped.video/7UubKYqEy3s

  2. The Creator by Akatsuki Records https://youtu.be/9YFZ_7yPId4 // https://piped.video/9YFZ_7yPId4

I'm more into music tracks rather than in 'music videos', though.

A lot of people have mentioned OkGo already, so I'm going to mention New Lands by Justice's MV is a pretty fun one

Ok go! Have aan archive of songs that I don't regularly listen to, but have really memorabele video clips. I likey them more for the videos than everything else.

Quite s nice niche,I think

The Brothers Quay aesthetic captured in Manson’s Beautiful People video is wonderful.

I was always fond of the video for Sugar Water by Cibo Matto. Didn't necessarily care for the song, but the video was directed by Michel Gondry.

Death Grips - Beware because no man can run as fast in the desert as MC Ride can.

Anything by The Correspondents:

Fear and Delight

Inexplicable

All done with practical effects and camera trickery. The making of videos are amazing: first second.

Also shoutout to the parody song Climate Change Denier.

Adrenaline by Kontra K The video definitely does not show the artist himself surfing a Berlin S-Bahn in broad daylight.