What is the most impressive music video you've ever seen?
What is the most impressive music video you've ever seen?
Most music videos, especially modern ones, are pretty boring.
Christopher Walken is so good in Weapon of Choice that he made me like the song https://yewtu.be/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8
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....)
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.
R.E.M. - Imitation of Life. The entire song happens in a few seconds, with all parts at the same time. The video keeps rewinding, each time showing one of the parts.
Impressive, maybe!? Crazy? Absolutely! The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist
Beastie Boys - Sabotage My favorite music video of all time, probably
Blockhead - The Music Scene is just incredible
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Interstellar 5555 by Daft Punk
Do the Evolution by Pearl Jam is definitely the most impressive that I've seen.
Do the Evolution - Pearl Jam
Some of the ones that first came to mind are already mentioned, but I still wanted to include
It's quite dark, but it still gives me shivers every time I watch it.
Fever The Ghost - SOURCE: https://youtu.be/9RHFFeQ2tu4
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
Everytime, I forget that I'm watching a video clip for a song and not a movie.
wild boys by Duran Duran cuz of the time it was made
Might be one of my favorite modern music videos (assuming you count a decade-old music video as "modern").
The wintergatan marble machine is boring but I'm fascinated with it every time I watch and listen lol.
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
Most of Michel Gondry's music videos are pretty impressive. For example: Cibo Matto - Sugar Water, Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar and Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World
the one where robbie williams rips his skin off
edit: rock dj
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.
Rammstein - Deutschland
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.:
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$AP Rocky - A$AP Forever. It blew my mind the first time I saw it.
The Knife - Pass This On (unsure if it's the absolute best but I do like it.)
I know it’s old, and maybe others have mentioned it already, but Michael Jackson - Thriller was a revolution when it came out.
A$AP Rocky's Testing era had some great ones with very impressive editing
These are some of my favorite animated music videos:
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.
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:
Amazing storytelling. This really comes full circle.
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.
Chris Hadfield - Space Oddity
Rise Against - Help Is On The Way
Being from Louisiana this has always been such a chilling song.
This one may not be too popular but having been in a similar situation, this hit home hard.
Not sure about most impressive but impressive, Travis Scott - Sicko Mode ft. Drake https://youtu.be/6ONRf7h3Mdk
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.
I love all Tool videos. They are all impressive.
This isn't my actual answer, but I tried doing that treadmill dance and immediately busted my ass
The Hardest Button to Button: https://youtu.be/K4dx42YzQCE?feature=shared
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.
Gorillaz - Stylo is pretty awesome. One of my favorite music videos ever.
Caravan Palace - Lone Digger is really awesome as well. Great song and well animated.
My Chemical Romance - The Ghost of You. They remade Saving Private Ryan's beach scene for a music video. Still blows me away.
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
weapon of choice.
i probably haven't seen a new music video
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!
Learning to Fly - Pink Floyd
That damned apple ad music video with the dancer and the stretchy room.
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Meat Loaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" is practically a short-film, much as the title is practically a novella.
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.
Bjork - All is Full of Love was bloody awesome!
In college Xzibit's What U See is What U Get blew my mind due to its faked one shot style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gddQhQnwZIY.
Windowlicker.
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
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.
Porter Robinson - Dullscythe
MGMT - When You Die is one of my go-to LSD watches
also Ganja White Night - Double Dream (TW flashing lights)
I always admired the concept for the video for Stone Sour’s “Through Glass.”
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.
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.
Highly Suspect - Lydia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev-bR9ii7Gs
Marina Kazankova (the freediver) filmed the entire thing in one take, no cuts or edits...bonkers.
Poets of the Fall - Carnival of Rust
https://youtu.be/MKk1u5RMTn4?si=4AT9oRx9wmqPoRLt
Love this video so much.
I’m surprised this not mentioned yet:
Anything by The Correspondents:
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.
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
Okay, this should be one of the more popular songs amongst indie producers:
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WARNING×WARNING×WARNING by Akatsuki Records https://youtu.be/7UubKYqEy3s // https://piped.video/7UubKYqEy3s
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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.
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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
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.
I was always fond of the video for
by Cibo Matto. Didn't necessarily care for the song, but the video was directed by Michel Gondry.
Directed by David Fincher, whose films include Seven and Fight Club,
Idol had been in a motorcycle accident and couldn't walk. He's seen only from the waist up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lda30Hjtb0s The Chemical Brothers - Salmon Dance. I still find the CGI incredibly cool nowadays.
I know the saddest one is Modest Mouse Little Motel, don't watch it.
The Brothers Quay aesthetic captured in Manson’s Beautiful People video is wonderful.
Yeasayer was always trying to go above and beyond with their music and storytelling. It still saddens me to be reminded they broke up.
I am Chemistry was peak for them, taking on a topic I never thought I'd see in music.
But it didn't stop there. The bizarre use of claymation to tell this story of theirs, in the music video cemented it as my favorite of all time.
Death Grips - Beware because no man can run as fast in the desert as MC Ride can.
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.
Chevelle All Right I Get It
Sia - Snowman https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gset79KMmt0
Adrenaline by Kontra K The video definitely does not show the artist himself surfing a Berlin S-Bahn in broad daylight.
Ssssnake - The War
Emperor's new clothes
Steven Wilson's Drive Home
Besides being a masterpiece, it also has a heart wrenching video clip that's very artistic
Edit: Seizure warning due to flashing lights
The Holidays - Voices Drifting
I can't hold my breath for nearly that long
I dunno about you guys but this one surprised the hell out of me
I read that as repulsive instead of impressive imao