Asklemmy @lemmy.ml

2y ago

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

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

225 comments

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
- My personal vote is The One Moment.
  https://youtu.be/QvW61K2s0tA?si=ME--ppag0ENUMGxK
  
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- 38 minutes later with NO CGI, this holds up as one of the greatest references of all time
  
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  38 minutes later with NO CGI, this holds up as okie of the best references
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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.
- Same goes for Tron Legacy.
- That cod piece. What the literal fuck was going on with 80s kids movies?
  The totally unnecessary tiddies in neverending story come to mind.

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
  
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  Chris Martin really had to learn to sing the song backwards for the MV.
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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!"
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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.
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Nothing can top "Ok Go" :)
- Damn you're right that was awesome.
- That's not even their most impressive one, imo:
  https://youtu.be/QvW61K2s0tA?si=bffy_I3ltthb9wza
  
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  Nothing can top "Ok Go" :)
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Impressive, maybe!? Crazy? Absolutely! The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist
https://youtu.be/qLrnkK2YEcE?si=e9TAdbnRRgRAzopL
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Beastie Boys - Sabotage My favorite music video of all time, probably
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Blockhead - The Music Scene is just incredible
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I’m convinced Ok,Go is a music video band that made music to go with their videos.

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.

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.
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  and it shows
  Jungle's Back on 74
  Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators' Driving Rain
  Gojira's Another World
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Goodbye Moonmen
- Fuck yes dude. Such a good song.
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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.
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DJ Shadow - nobody speak
DJ Snake feat Lil Jon - Turn down for what
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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.
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Interstellar 5555 by Daft Punk
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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.
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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
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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.
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Kylie Minogue - come into my wolrd
- This was on my mind immediately! Such good work from Michel Gondry.
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Do the Evolution - Pearl Jam
- So well done! I love this music video.

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 :)
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Fever The Ghost - SOURCE: https://youtu.be/9RHFFeQ2tu4
- Thank you for this, it's amazing
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wild boys by Duran Duran cuz of the time it was made

Rammstein - Deutschland

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
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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.
- I'll raise you On Your Mark, which was done by Ghibli: https://vimeo.com/75179415
  
  That's amazing! I've never seen that, thanks.
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the one where robbie williams rips his skin off
edit: rock dj

Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson! My favorite by far!
- There's periods where I watch this every day.

Rammstein - Adieu
Everytime, I forget that I'm watching a video clip for a song and not a movie.
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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
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Shugo Tokumaru - Katachi
Might be one of my favorite modern music videos (assuming you count a decade-old music video as "modern").
- Just.. great!
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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
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That one that was recorded in reverse - the full thing.
- But…. Which one is that
  
  DRRRRRRROP. https://youtu.be/wqVsfGQ_1SU?si=WKUrPT9Ry7Lu1ecq
  
  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.

A$AP Rocky - A$AP Forever. It blew my mind the first time I saw it.
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The original Genesis Land of Confusion was very ambitious puppetry and had a great evergreen message.
- Thatcher was the only person uglier in person than their puppet in this video.

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.
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I know it’s old, and maybe others have mentioned it already, but Michael Jackson - Thriller was a revolution when it came out.
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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.
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The Knife - Pass This On (unsure if it's the absolute best but I do like it.)
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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.
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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.
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  The bot should include a link showing how users can mske their own piped links.
- Based weezer :)

This isn't my actual answer, but I tried doing that treadmill dance and immediately busted my ass

My Chemical Romance - The Ghost of You. They remade Saving Private Ryan's beach scene for a music video. Still blows me away.
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Chris Hadfield - Space Oddity

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