Notable Music Videos

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    Music videos that had a major impact on the genre, or are just notable. See also Music Video Tropes.

    Videos that have their own articles


    Examples of Notable Music Videos include:

    Predecessors of Music Videos (1930s- 1960s)

    • Music videos are generally Older Than They Think: it wasn't unusual for popular jazz singers and crooners in The Thirties to film "soundies" - usually extracts from films in which the song was performed - as a means of promoting their new songs. Famous ones include a video of Ella Fitzgerald performing "A-Tisket A-Tasket" on a bus in 1938 (an extract from the film Ride 'Em Cowboy).
      • There was even a video jukebox developed in the early 1940s for such short films. Scopitone was another video juke box from the mid-1960s, playing videos from popular artists of the time.
    • Many musical films and comedies from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s have musical segments that showcased popular tunes of the day.
    • The film Blackboard Jungle (1955) became a huge success when Bill Haley and his Comets' hit "Rock Around The Clock" was used as the opening theme. Teenagers just went to the film theaters to listen to this hit blasting out of the stereos at top volume.
      • Elvis Presley's films, especially Jailhouse Rock, had the same effect.

    1960s

    • In the mid 1960s The Beatles didn't tour that much anymore, so they started filming promotion videos for their new hit singles instead.
    • Bob Dylan's iconic video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues" was filmed in 1965, originally for "Dont Look Back" (the documentary about his 1965 UK tour).
    • The Monkees: We actually owe A LOT to the “Pre-Fab Four” for innovating and popularizing the music video genre. The Monkees’ “music videos” or, “romps” that regularly aired on their TV show (1966-1968) was an early (and very successful) attempt to market music on TV in order to sell records. This new method put the Monkees on the top of the charts, and on the walls of every teenage fangirl in America. How high on top? The Monkees had four #1 albums in the year 1967, and sold 35 million records in that year alone, beating out The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined!
      • And it doesn’t end there! Former Monkees member Michael Nesmith had created and produced music videos since the 1970’s, even winning the first ever Video Grammy Award for his PBS television special Elephant Parts. Nesmith, along with longtime partner William Dear, created the first music video program, PopClips, which aired on Nickelodeon from 1979-1981. As the series gained popularity, Executive Meddling soon took over, and warped Nesmith’s concept into what is now known as MTV and MTV Networks.

    1970s

    • The music video for Roger Glover's song "Love is All" (1975) also became famous thanks to the animation short film in which a guitar playing frog gathers all the animals in the forest to come to the Butterfly's Ball.
    • Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody"—which experimented with innovative visual effects in the mid-1970s, was done mainly because of the fact that the song was so utterly complex musically (complete with a bridge section that, when the song is played live, is always played as a pre-recorded sequence via the stage's sound system due to its complexity making it impossible to replicate live) that Queen decided that it would be easier to just send the video for the song for play on TV to promote the song.
      • Nine-part harmonies. That is all.
      • "I Want to Break Free" featured the band dressed in drag in a parody of the British Soap "Coronation Street". While reaching number three in the UK charts, the video is thought to have contributed to the songs poor performance in the US, and a subsequent decline in popularity of the band. The video was initially banned on MTV in the US.
    • The Buggles, "Video Killed The Radio Star"—First video ever aired on MTV.
      • By the time the video made it on MTV, the members had pretty much joined Yes.
      • This is actually pretty ironic, given that MTV (you know, Music Television) doesn't actually play music anymore. Video killed the radio star, indeed.
        • Nah, reality killed the video stars.
    • David Bowie has many good videos, but these deserve special mention:
      • "Ashes to Ashes" (1980) was one of the first great examples of the Concept Video. See also the videos from his 1979 album Lodger ("Look Back in Anger", "Boys Keep Swinging", and "D.J.").
      • "China Girl" (1983): The ending (a From Here to Eternity homage) was so steamy it was censored. Winner of the Best Male Video award at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984—a mighty feat in that one of the other nominees was "Thriller".
        • The "early" part bears emphasizing: these were created in 1974, a full seven years before MTV.
    • Country Music: There are conflicting published reports about when the first "official" video of a country music song was produced and released. Those making the claim:
      • "Galveston," a No. 1 country and No. 3 pop hit by Glen Campbell. The original video has been uploaded to YouTube.
      • Buck Owens' 1969 No. 1 country hit "Tall, Dark Stranger." Video stills from the song, plus at least three others, were included in the liner notes to Owens' three-CD box set, issued by Rhino Records in 1991.
      • Starting that same year, arious songs on the television series Hee Haw, with producer Sam Louvillo making the claim. However, these were not true music videos as they are known today, but rather compiled using filmed stock footage of rural settings and/or sped-up stop-action films of people dancing and/or acting goofy, and were used more for comedy than serious promotion of the song it was played under. When several prominent country singers began complaining that their songs were not being treated seriously (i.e., an instrument for comedy), the idea was later shelved.
      • Don Williams' 1973 single "The Shelter of Your Eyes," per country music historian Bill Malone, noting that it was a promotional tool used by JMI Records (later absorbed into what is today the Universal Music Group).
      • In addition, other country music videos from the 1970s that have been seen on YouTube and other video-sharing services include – among others – Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975); "One Piece at a Time" by Johnny Cash, "Let Your Love Flow" by the Bellamy Brothers, and Olivia Newton-John's "Don't Stop Believin'" (1976); "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers and "You Needed Me" by Anne Murray (both 1978); and "Half the Way" by Crystal Gayle (1979).
      • Neither any of Owens' late 1960s/early 1970s videos nor early Don Williams videos – including "The Shelter of Your Eyes" – have been seen anywhere since the late 1970s. Williams' 1980s-era videos have aired on CMT and Great American Country, as has Owens' 1988 video (with Dwight Yoakam) "Streets of Bakersfield."

    1980s

    • Herbie Hancock's "Rockit", which is... well..., see it for yourself!
    • Duran Duran's "Girls on Film", "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Rio"—early "cinematic" music videos that used both the letterbox format and exotic locations. And very exotic ladies doing very exotic things.
    • Michael Jackson did some of the most memorable videoclips ever made. In order:
      • "Billie Jean", famous for making Michael Jackson a mega superstar what with its illuminating sidewalk dance sequences. Concert performances added the "Moonwalk" dance.
      • "Beat It", in which Michael prevents two gangs from fighting by leading them in a line dance. It was the first video by Michael (or any black artist) to gain massive airplay on MTV and was Michael's first hard rock song. Additionally, it gets credit for pioneering the line dance and turf wars as tropes of the music video.
      • "Thriller", who pioneered the Videoclip With Big Budget genre and one of the first that used a short film scheme. And that choreography!
      • "Bad": The full video is a 15-minute short film, climaxing with the dance scene in the parking garage (an homage to "Cool" in West Side Story). It's directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Richard Price, and features an early appearance by Wesley Snipes as the gang leader.
      • His Moonwalker movie/music video also counts, though most people only remember the 1920s period piece music video "Smooth Criminal" and the stop-motion animation video "Leave Me Alone", which were segments of the movie (released direct to video due to Jackson not being able to find a studio to distribute the movie theatrically in the US) released as music videos.
      • "Black or White", who used morphing techniques in a very fluid style (though its use was largely a rip-off of the earlier video "Cry" by Godley and Creme).
        • The video had a controversial ending; after the song ends, Michael Jackson goes on a rampage on a nearby street, grabbing his crotch as he picks up a crowbar and destroys a car before morphing into a panther. While the "rampage" ending was immediately cut from all future tv airings of the video, for its VHS/DVD releases, hate group symbols were inserted via computer graphics onto the car in order to justify why Jackson would destroy a car with a crowbar.
      • "Scream", performed alongside sister Janet, still holds the record for the most expensive music video ever filmed: seven million dollars back in 1995!
      • "They Don't Care About Us", which drew controversy over its supposedly-antisemitic lyrics, has two equally stunning videos directed by Spike Lee. One was in black and white, staged in a prison; the other was full of color, filmed in front of a Brazilian favela.
      • "Ghosts" is nearly 40 minutes and currently holds the record for the longest music video ever made.
      • "You Rock My World": Features MJ, Chris Tucker, Marlon Brando, with a catchy song and arguably the best stomp performance in a music video. Ever.
    • Janet Jackson has made several notable music videos, the best arguably being 30 minute long "Rhythm Nation 1814". Originally released as a kind of telemusical, featuring several other songs from the album of the same name, Including "Miss You Much" and "The Knowledge" ending in the military themed "Rhythm Nation". Big brother Michael admitted it was his favourite of all of her videos.
    • Madonna, through her force of nature personality and chameleon-type adaptation powers, has produced many notable music videos:
      • "Material Girl", with her Homage to Marilyn Monroe's number "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", permanently labeled Madonna the "Material Girl", though many critics and fans utterly missed the point of the video, which had Madonna dating a poor guy and denouncing materialism.
      • "Like A Prayer", with Madonna making out with Black Jesus, burning crosses, and stigmata wounds created a stir and cost her a lucrative Pepsi sponsorship deal, though the controversy helped make the video a worldwide hit.
      • The various David Fincher-directed Madonna videos, most notably "Express Yourself" and "Vogue", which is widely considered Madonna's most popular music video in various "Best Music Videos Ever" MTV music video countdowns.
      • Erotica and Justify My Love, both were banned by MTV due to their sexual content (with Erotica featuring Madonna in S&M gear and other footage from the making of her "Sex" book).
        • The controversy over MTV's ban led to 20/20 covering "Erotica" and ending the show with the video's American broadcast debut. To avoid this with The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up," it was shown just once, late at night.
      • Her video for "Die Another Day", the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name is second only to "Scream" for the most expensive music video of all time.
    • Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time", which received massive kudos for its combination of claymation and live actors. Sledgehammer in particular was at one time the most-played video in MTV history. Probably still holds the record for most Video Music Awards.
      • It still does... for now.. The closest any artist has come is A-Ha, for Take on Me, and Lady Gaga for Bad Romance
    • The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" and Fatboy Slim's "Praise You", both shot guerrilla-style without filming permits by Spike Jonze.
    • A-ha, "Take on Me". A blend of rotoscoped animation done in a sketch-style, line drawing and live action.
    • "Weird Al" Yankovic created a number of iconic music videos that became so mostly by parodying other iconic videos, often reusing sets and actors:
      • "White & Nerdy" rocketed to the top of the charts, was packed with Troperiffic sight gags, and was affectionately promoted by "Ridin' Dirty" singer Chamillionaire, who proclaimed Yankovic "a real rapper".
      • "Amish Paradise", another rap parody based on "Gangsta's Paradise", was less well received by Coolio when people started to associate the lyrics to the song with the parody version. The video also featured backwards cinematography.
      • "Eat It" received a massive amount of airplay at the same time that Jackson's "Beat It" video was also being played.
      • "Fat," another direct parody of Jackson's song and video, and was especially notable for the makeup that turned Yankovic into a fat, white version of Jackson.
      • "Smells Like Nirvana" probably didn't hurt Nirvana's position as the new voice of the alterative music scene. The video parodied the band's iconic video and reused the janitor character, this time putting him in a tutu.
      • "Headline News", a hysterical parody of the Crash Test Dummies' "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm". Admittedly, it doesn't age as well as most of his videos, due to it being necessary for the viewer to have been around for the Singapore caning, Tonya Harding, and John Bobbitt incidents for it to make sense.
    • Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" was most famous for the line of identical supermodels performing as Palmer's band behind him. This was about as sexy as music videos got in The Eighties.
    • Toni Basil, "Mickey". Set a new standard in music video choreography, no wonder since Basil was a famous choreographer for films since the 1960's.
    • Hall & Oates, "Private Eyes". Who could forget the detective gear? C'mon...it was parodied awesomely in a commercial for Psych!
    • Pink Floyd 's The Wall. Can be summed up with "Telephone is for Lightweights."
      • Wrong. Can be summed up with "Terrifying".
    • Dire Straits, "Money for Nothing"—Had the same distinction in the UK as well as being an early experiment in computer animation.
      • The first successful country music video airing on MTV was Eddie Rabbitt's 1981 hit "Step by Step." Two succesful cross-genre videos from the early 1980s were by Ronnie Milsap: "Any Day Now" (1982) and "Stranger In My House" (1983).
    • The band Yes turned their video for "Leave It" (1983) into an elaborate Running Gag, shooting 17 different versions of the five of them standing side by side in dark suits, singing the song, with some unique variation in each (e.g. all facing backward, one of them with a different color of tie, one not singing, etc). Wondering what they'd do in the next version to premiere on MTV became something of a Couch Gag.
    • Wall of Voodoo's "Mexican Radio" was not only a radio hit, but also had an awesome video to go with it!

    1990s

    • Aerosmith's trilogy from Get a Grip, "Crazy" (Liv Tyler and Alicia Silverstone as femme fatales), "Amazing" (virtual reality, with Alicia Silverstone) and "Cryin'"(Alicia Silverstone getting a heartbreak, won a few VM As... and features Sawyer from Lost!).
    • MC Hammer's music video for "Can't Touch This" became far more popular than the single. Hammer's huge baggy pants and iconic way of dancing are still spoofed to this day.
    • Nirvana -- "Smells Like Teen Spirit". If one single event in pop culture can be said to have launched the mainstreaming of everything "alternative" in The Nineties, it is this video.
      • "Heart-Shaped Box". The video for the single was almost as memorable and controversial as the song, with lots of What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic imagery of fetuses, crucifixion, a field of poppies, and a child in Ku Klux Klan getup which darkens into a witch's hat after landing in a pool of blood.
    • Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" was banned from almost every television channel for its graphic video, which was filmed in first person perspective and featured a long night of drunken revelry by the POV. Ironically, the video, with its Tomato Surprise ending, was created to counteract accusations of sexism against the band due to the song's lyrics. MTV even tapped Madonna to give the video her blessing on camera.
    • Soundgarden. "Black Hole Sun". It's a combination of Mind Screw and excessive Nightmare Fuel
    • Nine Inch Nails have a history of these:
      • "Down In It" involves front man Trent Reznor leaping off a building, and his decayed body. Police found footage and thought it was a Snuff Film.
      • "Sin" involves bondage gear and gratuitous gonad-piercing.
      • The highly sought-after, unreleased Broken Movie, which incorporates rather disturbing music videos for the songs "Pinion", "Wish", "Help Me I Am In Hell", "Happiness in Slavery" and "Gave Up", integrated into a disturbingly realistic torture-snuff-film.
      • "Closer" is creepy as all hell, with sexual and religious imagery all over the shop, and brought the Moral Guardians running faster than Madonna ever did.
      • "Survivalism" had to be heavily censored for MTV play as well, the original involving shots of a woman's naked breasts and a gay couple making love.
    • Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" - both directed by Chris Cunningham - were infamous for their freakish imagery, including schoolgirls and strippers that all have Aphex Twin's head, and a giant screaming naked freak.
    • Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Warped"—Whips, Chains, Sex, Drugs, homoeroticism, and something vaguely resembling rock and roll (that and it's really creepy)
      • Also, "Give It Away" (silver-painted people doing crazy things in the desert), "Californication" (Chili Peppers video game!) and "Dani California" (Chili Peppers as The Beatles, funk musicians, glam rockers, Nirvana...).
    • Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Don't Come Around Here No More"—Possibly the first Concept Video to raid Alice in Wonderland, it established Petty's long-lived "mad hatter" persona and was one of the first videos to look like an LSD trip.
    • The Cars, "You Might Think"—Possibly the most famous Green Screen video, fondly remembered for all the video mutations of Ric Ocasek, most notably turning him into a fly.
    • Genesis, "Land of Confusion". Has its own page.
      • "I Can't Dance", a hilarious video for a catchy as hell song, with the ridiculously memetic "Genesis Walk".
    • Any ZZ Top video from their Eliminator era featuring the hot rod of the same name, especially those which include Three Hot Babes who rescue some sad sack from his or her ordinary life: "Give Me All Your Loving", "Sharp Dressed Man", "Legs" and others.
    • Weezer's "Buddy Holly" seamlessly integrates the band into vintage footage from Happy Days.
    • Coffee and TV by Blur features dancing milk that seeks out one of the members of the band who ran away from his family, overcoming many dangers and meeting a female carton of milk, who gets squashed. When he finds the band member, he takes him home and then drinks him. Then he goes to heaven along with the female milk. Yes, really.
      • The video became Hilarious in Hindsight a few years later when guitarist Graham Coxon, the band member who appears as the main human character (as well as the member who wrote and sang the song), quit the band. This was his last video with the band before he left. Ergo, he was now "missing" from the band.
      • The video for The Universal is the biggest Shout-Out to A Clockwork Orange ever made!
    • The song Joey by BOY has very bizarre happenings that go on the music video, all of which is very symbolic. Probably.
    • INXS generally made some good music videos, but the most "noteworthy" one was "Need You Tonight/Mediate," which won several MTV Video Awards in 1988 and combined various forms of animation and live-action, as well as an homage to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues."
    • Journey's "Faithfully", the first video featuring "behind the scenes" tour footage set to a power ballad. Now it's rather obligatory for a band to have one of these.
    • Blockhead's video for The Music Scene. Notable for being a very hypnotic case of Deranged Animation. Also, it was hand-drawn and animated by one man.
    • The early videos of The Residents, which are archived in the Museum of Modern Art.
    • Radiohead's "blips" used to promote Kid A.
    • Marilyn Manson}'s The Beautiful People
    • Kylie Minogue's "Come into My World"
    • Devo's "Beautiful World", notable for the fact that the band wrote the song around an idea for a music video they got and being a textbook example of Soundtrack Dissonance.
      • Also their early music video's for Mongoloid (True Art Is Incomprehensible) and Jocko Homo (Nightmare Fuel). Almost all of their videos were directed for the band.
    • George Michael's controversial 2D-TV animation video for "Shoot The Dog", featuring Tony Blair as George Bush's poodle, drew much controversy within the UK and is said to have resulted in George Michaels being blacklisted in America.
      • Don't forget "Freedom '90", which featured the hottest supermodels of the early 90's (Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington...).
    • The Pharcyde's music video for Drop, directed by Spike Jonze, in which the band performs the song backwards and then the video is played backwards, making everything look slightly off. Also features cameos from Mike D and Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys
    • Most of Blink182's videos are fun incarnate.[1] You have "What's My Age Again" where they run around town naked, "All The Small Things" which is wildly immature parody of Boy Band videos of the time, "First Date" set in the 70s and establishing Tom's popular alter-ego Boomer, and "Rock Show" where they pretty much just filmed themselves driving around LA and giving people money that was supposed to be the video's budget.
    • R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" features various arty religious imagery. "Imitation of Life" is shot entirely in Pan and Scan.
    • Eminem ones usually feature Slim Shady mocking various people by dressing like them.
      • His video for White America was a particularly interesting use of highly stylized animation.
    • The Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight Tonight", which was a remake of Georges Méliès's silent film A Trip to the Moon. Billy Corgan remarked that he never saw people react the way they did to the video. 'Thirty-Three' was also shot entirely using still photographs, giving the resulting video a stuttery time-lapse quality that makes it quite memorable.
    • Anything by Bjork. When she's not a lesbian robot, she's turning an audience into plants, blowing up a museum, or squirting mucus out of her nose and eating it. Heck, her entire solo career can be summed up with
    • OK Go's videos for "A Million Ways" and "Here It Goes Again" were recorded with ultra-low budgets and released directly onto the internet, where they quickly became two of the most viewed music videos ever.
      • Also noteworthy is that both videos consist of a single take.
        • The footage that became the video for "A Million Ways" wasn't intended to be viewed by the public. They were simply taping themselves in Damian Kulash's backyard (which explains why they look so disheveled, especially Dan). But they sent the footage to friends who sent the footage to other friends...and the rest is history.
      • They did it again with "This Too Shall Pass", featuring a massive Rube Goldberg machine.
      • Then there's the one-take 99-cent-store acid trip extravaganza, "WTF?"
      • There's also "End Love", shot in one take over a period of 22 hours. Look closely and you'll see the band being adopted by a stubborn goose.
      • The boys are back with another epic one-take video and this time they brought a bunch of waggly-tailed pooches (and one goat) for "White Knuckles". It's possibly also the first music video shot in 3D, but the only way to view it as such is on the Nintendo 3DS.
      • And Last Leaf. It's a stop motion video where the content of the music video has been shaped onto thousands of pieces of bread.
      • I Want You So Bad I Can't Breathe is a fan-made video of such good quality that OK Go themselves like it.
    • Pearl Jam's got a pair of really good videos. "Jeremy", where the title character ends up blowing his head off in front of his classmates on an Angst attack, is just a classic, made even more infamous due to the longrunning misconception that Jeremy shoots his classmates instead of shooting himself, a notion caused by the crazy editing done for the video's ending in order to comply with MTV's demand that they couldn't show Jeremy put the gun in his mouth and fire). After Jeremy, the band refused to do any additional music videos until "Do the Evolution". An animated music video directed by Todd McFarland and Kevin Altieri... not that that's a sign of quality by itself, featured more of the same images as far as showcasing humanity's inhumanity in video form.
    • The music video for Indian singer Dahler Mehndi's song Tunak Tunak Tun has become quite popular due to Memetic Mutation. This may be because it's so damn catchy, and there's the fact that everyone in the video is being played by Dahler Mehndi, even though they are frequently on-screen together!
    • For pure gall and creativity I nominate "Pure Morning" by Placebo; a four-plus minute video and song that covers about ten seconds 'real-time'. With about five of them happening in a single shot toward the end.
      • Predating the Placebo example is the video for "Velouria" by The Pixies. It was a quickly-shot video of the band running on rocks, slowed down to song length in a failed attempt to get around a restriction that only singles with videos can be performed on the BBC show Top of the Pops.
    • The music video to Metallica's One was the bands' first ever music video, after spending years proclaiming that they would never make a music video. Its Nightmare Fuel nature, with its amputation/war horror visuals and remix nature (as the band took the movie version of Johnny Got His Gun and mashed up the song with clips from the movie to create a 10 minute "mini-movie" version of the film as the song's video), made it an instant classic. And while their second video "Enter Sandman" became an even bigger hit, for many fans of Metallica will contend that they haven't made a good video since "One", as well as opine that "One" was the moment in which the band jumped the shark via embracing the mainstream that they spent their early career avoiding like the plague.
      • Not to mention that Metallica actually bought the rights to the entire movie Johnny Got His Gun in order to avoid any accusations of copyright infringement.
      • The video also spawned a massive case of Follow the Leader in the metal community. At least 1 in 3 music videos now have the band in a monochrome, abandoned warehouse.
      • Also of Metallica note, the music video to their cover of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" grew controversy for its sexual content, which included gratuitous female nudity and a rape scene involving a hooker and a John. (Is it any surprise that it was directed by the same guy who did "Smack My Bitch Up"?)
    • From another metal band Megadeth was the awesome music video "Hangar 18" with their mascot Vic The Rattlehead, working for an Area 51 type secret hangar prisoning aliens, all while Megadeth rock out in the background.
      • One of their video "A Toute Le Monde" was banned from MTV due to being seen as "Pro-suicide" which it wasn't; they later made the 2007 version with Cristina Scabbia.
    • Radiohead's video for "Just" has a particularly nagging Twist Ending.
      • Their video for No Surprises, where Thom held his breath for a ridiculous amount of time, even with the speed up.
      • Their video for House of Cards, which wasn't even filmed with cameras!
      • What? No one's mentioned Paranoid Android yet? MTV thought it necessary to censor the nipples on the mermaids, but a man cutting off his limbs is alright.
    • Several of Van Halen's videos became quite iconic. "Hot for Teacher" and "Jump" both became classic 80's rock videos. "Right Now" was also quite famous for its Anvilicious messages, although the song arguably gained more notoriety for its use in Crystal Pepsi commercials.
    • Whitesnake's "Tawny Kitaen" videos, most notably "Here I Go Again". Because, honestly. Tawny Kitaen on that car... Pretty much single-handedly invented the Hood Ornament Hottie.
    • Johnny Cash's cover of the Trent Reznor song "Hurt". Cash's heart-breaking epilogue and summary of his entire life, all done in under four minutes.
    • Foo Fighters have some amusing and interesting concepts, including the popular "Learn To Fly" video which consists of three Foo Fighters playing almost every character in the video. Dave Grohl plays a teenage girl who recognizes Dave Grohl himself and asks him for his autograph and also plays a gay steward who gives the eyes to - you guessed it - Dave Grohl, the pilot.
      • And oh yeah, Tenacious D cameo in it too.
      • There's also "Long Road to Ruin" where the band members (plus Rashida Jones) play actors on a soap opera. It's quite funny.
      • The music video for "Big Me" is a 4-minute parody of Mentos commericals, which involves huge grins, the band moving a car, and Dave with pony tails and wearing a dress.
      • The surrealistic "Everlong" video which takes place partially in dreams, but not All Just a Dream as such. It involves giant phones, band members discarding false skins to reveal their true identities, and Dave Grohl (in-character) gaining a massive right hand with which to administer bitch slaps of death.
      • They also have some awesome non-comedic videos, including "The Pretender", "Walking After You" and "Monkey Wrench."
        • Although, "Monkey Wrench" does have some distinctly absurdist elements to it (ie. multiple versions of the band, trying to break in/escaping from themselves)'
      • You can add "Walk" to this list now. It involves an homage to Falling Down with Dave Grohl walking to rehearsal and... getting into mischief.
    • Black Metal band Immortal's music video "Call of the Wintermoon" is well known for being one of the most unintentionally hilarious things in human history.
      • While it's possibly one of the worst videos in history, it is without a doubt the best video ever filmed with 3 hours and $50 to do it in. Though one wonders what led to the witch hat...
      • Their video for Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms too, with many a message board containing members using close-ups of Abbath's face as avatars.
    • Daft Punk's Discovery album with its accompanying Leiji Matsumoto-produced animated musical film "Interstella 5555".
      • While in the subject of Daft Punk, there's also "Around the World", featuring robots, skeletons, swimmers and other assorted things imitating the song's musical pattern.
    • Guns N' Roses had the Concept Videos for "Estranged" and "November Rain", as well as "You Could Be Mine", which featured the Terminator!
    • Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice", featuring Christopher Walken, has been called the best music video ever made by several people who spend their time thinking about these things.
    • Those who were included in the Directors Label DVD series were all creators of Notable Music Videos, including some of the ones mentioned here:
      • Spike Jonze ("Weapon of Choice" by Fatboy Slim, "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, "Buddy Holly" by Weezer)
      • Michel Gondry ("Around the World" by Daft Punk, "Fell in Love with a Girl" the White Stripes, "Knives Out" by Radiohead)
      • Chris Cunningham ("All Is Full of Love" by Bjork, "Windowlicker" Aphex Twin, "Only You" by Portishead)
      • Anton Corbijn ("Atmosphere" by Joy Division, "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode, "One" by U2)
      • Mark Romanek ("Hurt" by Johnny Cash, "Closer" by the Nine Inch Nails, "Bedtime Story" by Madonna, "Scream" by Michael and Janet Jackson)
      • Jonathan Glazer ("Virtual Insanity" by Jamiroquai, "Rabbit in Your Headlights" by UNKLE, "The Universal" by Blur)
      • Stephane Sednaoui ("Big Time Sensuality" by Bjork, "Mysterious Ways" by U2, "Give It Away" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers)
    • Tool: Any video from the 90s.
      • CREEPY "Schism" and its heavily Hellraiser-inspired disturbing visual imagery.
    • Tori Amos' "A Sorta Fairytale", where a leg lady (Tori Amos) and an arm man (Adrien Brody) fall in love, and eventually turn into full human beings. Also, "Caught a Lite Sneeze", which is more surreal than all of Bjork's music videos combined.
    • Pet Shop Boys' "It's A Sin"—one of the highest-budget music videos of the mid-'80s. Directed by art-film auteur Derek Jarman, this little period drama includes a young Geena Davis as Pride, and was filmed in the same warehouse used in Full Metal Jacket.
      • "Domino Dancing", whose (at the time unintentional) Ho Yay got it banned from MTV in several countries.

    2000s

    • The White Stripes "Fell In Love With A Girl"—notable for being filmed using LEGO brick animation and heavily pixelated video of the band, in order to simulate the LEGO footage.
    • Every single Gorillaz video is a bizarre cartoon full of random weirdness. Does a giant robot piloted by a monkey racing down an infinite highway to blast a giant space moose with a swarm of rockets make any sense? It doesn't have to!
      • Their video for "The Hardest Button To Button" featured them in stop-motion style animation moving frame by frame with their instruments throughout the city
    • 156 by Mew was created entirely out of rather crudely-drawn (but well-colored) comic pages, especially made to resemble a certain strip lead singer loved to read as a child.
    • Muse's video for Knights of Cydonia is so awesome, it has its own page.


    Other videos


    • Fujiya & Miyagi's "Ankle Injuries". It does for dice what The White Stripes did for Lego bricks.
      • And when the videos actually attempt to evolve a story, GOD HELP US ALL. Just watch "Feel Good Inc." and its two direct sequels...
    • Sketch-comedy group Loading Ready Run created its very own fake-white-80's-rap band for the sole purpose of making parody videos—mostly about gaming. This includes The LoadingReadyRap and 1337.
    • Blue, by The Birthday Massacre, which has its own page.
    • The video for Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" has become rather infamous for its complete craziness.
      • It's official; Lady Gaga proved to be more WTF-inducing than Björk.
      • Telephone managed to up the crazy by being nine minutes long with a bare crotch shot and an extreme sandwich murder montage.
    • Daytona 500—Ghostface Killah makes a Speed Racer Fan Vid for real.
    • What They Do By The Roots lampshades and parodies the hell outta modern hip-hop music video tropes and cliches.
    • Take a moment to watch "The Parachute Ending" by Birdy Nam Nam. This is what would have happened if Salvador Dali made cartoons in The Eighties.
    • Justice has "D.A.N.C.E." which plays around with various t-shirt design tropes, and "DVNO" which uses various broadcasting logo styles (mostly from The Eighties) to animate the songs lyrics. DVNO could probably fill a large trope page simply based on the references it makes.
    • How can one forget "Chocolate Rain"?[2]
    • The video for "No Rain" by Blind Melon, featuring the "Bee Girl" character. Pretty emblematic of The Nineties.
    • Animelo concerts and the released videos of same. Combines many anison artists performing vocal music related to Anime.
    • "Handlebars" by Flobots. A brilliant and highly disturbing animated video that shows just how horribly far apart two people can grow.
    • The Lightning Seeds' video for their cover of "You Showed Me", a song originally recorded by The Turtles. The video for the cover is an incredibly depressing time-lapse window into the life of a Japanese couple, from sweet youthful romance to bitter old couple with withered hearts.
    • "Hell Bent" by Kenna. Heartbreaking anvil-drop tale of (literally!) selling your soul for profit and success.
    • Monarchy of Roses by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Notable for its art style, inspired by California local Raymond Pettibon; brother of Black Flag lead guitarist Greg Ginn.
    • "What they do" by The Roots, which openly mocks the then-present state of hip-hop music videos.
    • "Scenario" by A Tribe Called Quest, which is being put together in progress with a computer program.
    1. ↑ and the only ones that aren't are their more serious songs
    2. ↑ I move away from the mic to breathe in
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