After watching the video of Make Me Smile the other day, my YouTube feed was populated with a few old classic music videos which I duly watched.
Being a teenager in the early 80s, I guess I grew up in the “golden age” of music videos – MTV had just started, there were the “event” videos like Thriller, Undercover of the Night, etc etc (I still recall watching the being premiered on The Tube).
Even though YouTube is the perfect platform for music videos, it seems they are not as important as they used to be – there seems to be an abundance of “lyric videos” and not the big event productions – is this simply due to the fact there are so many, its no longer a medium that stands out ?
So, what are the all time greatest music videos (my choice in the comments) and are there any recent ones that have impressed ?
My choice for one of the all time greatest music vides – Fat Boy Slim “Weapon Of Choice”
Then there’s this…
I started off a thread on beautiful music videos with this one. I still think it’s great
“Visualisations”, please. Get with the times, Grandad 😉.
One of my favourites, found on a Youtube random click session, is not official. It’s footage of Felix Baumgardner’s jump from the edge of space, with Boards of Canada as the soundtrack:
Am I doing this right?
As a kid I was always taken in by anything computer generated or video edited. Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel, Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, that sort of thing. I reckon this, by a reasonable chalk, is the best music video I’ve ever seen.
Honourable mention to “Since I Left You” by the Avalanches, which makes me tear up.
i love all the Avalanches videos
This is one of my favourites. It caused a bit of a stir at the time by calling out domestic violence. Great song and performance by Gretchen Peters and Martina McBride too.
Hilariously Sarah Palin of all people thought this song, a song about domestic abuse, would be the perfect song to use on her campaign trail (echoing the Chumbawumba post above)
“But Ms Palin, using this song would imply that you somehow disapprove of domestic abuse. That’s gonna alienate our base…”
I recall in the seventies going into a pub and all the clientele were sat facing the jukebox, ” bit odd” I thought.
It turned out to be a jukebox that showed films to the music being played, mostly featuring semi-clad young ladies dancing.
I’m not sure if it was a Scopitone jukebox or some cheap knock off.
I saw a “video jukebox” somewhere in Cleethorpes in 1982. If they had one in Cleethorpes in 1982, absolutely the bottom of the universe in time and space, they must have had them in lots of places.
Not many semi-clad ladies on DLTs Golden Oldie Picture Show. Same principle, but less titilation
A Scopolamine Jukebox, perhaps…
John Grant’ GMF is one of my recent favourites.
Great song and well shot video to boot
A wonderful video and song.
a great record and the radiant beauty of Sarah Cracknell who i could watch for hours
A bit totally off tack and irrelevant, in that it’s not a music video, for which I apologise (whoever it was who said it’s easier to apologise than to get permission was dead right) but while I can’t think of any recent music videos that have impressed me, I quite recently came across a video I liked a lot through the fact that someone had paired it up with some Floyd tracks. I like the music, of course, but I think the video is just fab (I’m a bit sea-obsessed). Non Floyd fans should mute the volume and watch it as originally intended (or just scroll past it, as preferred). There are a few lovely videos of Endless River tracks on YT that I don’t know if they’re just amateur pairings or official. I guess there will be even less point in making expensive music videos now AI can do it. I look forward to watching this on an Apple Vision Pro.
I’ve thought of a video from the last ten years that I liked. Mike Posner’s I Took A Pill In Ibiza. No one knows where he got the inspiration for the video from, but I seem to remember Curiosity Killed The Cat doing something similar when Andy Warhol was in them.
Predated of course by this.
Yeahbut, Volpeliere-Pierrot was the more influential.
PS. When I wrote “no one knows where he got the inspiration for the video from” I meant no one in my house who’s both awake and mentally lucid. I knew you knew. It’s the only thing I know about you.
This one by Visage is a masterpiece I think.
This one:
Also my choice, dai…
Stormzy hits the spot for me every time with this one. Very stylishly filmed in black and white.
It’s refreshing that artists from other musical genres are also creating videos to illustrate their songs. Like the wonderful Scottish, Gaelic singer, Julie Fowlis.
In fact, in 2024 is there any corner of the world that the music video as not reached?
If you want a lavish, exuberant extravaganza, you can’t do better than Momoiro Clover Z
And here”s a marriage made in …heaven?
Juana Molina from Argentina is in a class of her own as regards making mysterious, suggestive rather Gothic videos.
Real Alice in Wonderland stuff. No wonder that @thecheshirecat shares my enthusiasm for her.
They call me El Sombrerero Loco!
For sheer 80s awfulness this one takes some beating.
Is that David Cameron in the yellow suit?
In a very real sense, they are all David Cameron.
A few more came to mind.
Faith No More from 1992. There’s a wonderful sense of brooding menace.
La Brass Banda feat Captain Sensible. What fun they must have had making it.
Ed Motta’s Colombina is a gem of Brazilian pop magic and this vid enhances it very effectively.
Not so much music vids becoming diminished on youtube as an art form per se, but many other types of video content being added at a greater rate and quantity. An educator said to me recently that youtube has far outstripped google as a go-to search engine among The Young People: “why read about new information when you can watch a video about it”.
Good point @DanP. There’s a whole generation of kids who are improving their language skills and general knowledge by leaps and bounds thanks to YT.
Our son grew up in a bilingual environment and his English has always been good. He is now 21 and watching YT videos is really broadening out his knowledge of the English language. OK, he is not a normal case as he’s painfully dyslexic and would never pick up a book for pleasure.
I’ve always been a voracious reader so I’m a little sad that reading will never be a pleasure for him, But I’m glad he’s curious and wants to know more.
The old pre-video promo films like Strawberry Fields and Jumpin’ Jack Flash are hard to beat. Much was made of MTV-era videos as a new art form of equal interest to the song. Such is novelty that in hindsight was overrated. Often TOTP and other TV performances are preferable. There are new videos coming all the time, we probably don’t keep up. This to my mind is exemplary. A certain joke at their expense. Charming and funny. A classic of now. The Smile – Friend of a Friend featuring young kids who wonder what the hell this is.
Here’s another. The Smiths – Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before. Morrissey look-a-likes on bicycles, even if he is no longer in favour amongst many of us, the video’s great, as is the song.
That Smile video is great. One or two of the kids really start getting into the psychedelic sections. Also, one little boy at the end, very conspicuously boo’ing!
Booing? Boo’ing?
Booing… Boom Tschak.
Boing…Boom Schtick shurely?
You seem to be rather interested in my schtick.
My carrot, alas, lies neglected.
New Order – Perfect Kiss.
A performance in real time. A bit tense. Makes a great video.
Indeed. Jonathan Demme directed it
You are on fire this evening @Diddley Farquar. A splendid triptych.
Great song and a nicely tongue-in-cheek video from The Smiths.
That New Order really captures what a superb band they are. Erratic at times perhaps, but when they are on form they sound like nothing on the planet.
And a new favourite from The Smile. I admit. My initial reaction was to cringe.
But then I really began to enjoy it. The kids were responding in such a wonderfully honest way.
How can I possibly not like a band who play for an young audience like that and film an honest record of their reaction?
It would have been so easy to have played for an audience of jubilant fans.
I was somewhere else at the festival when they played in the Arena tent at Roskilde. More fool me!
I don’t know what the French word for “kitchen sink” is. But the director of this video by Indila threw it in, and a lot more besides. Melodramatic, heart-wrenching, seriously OTT. And the use of Paris is superb.
And of course, I love it. As does my daughter’s dance teacher who now plays it every week at the beginning of the lesson.
Here’s German-French duo Poom with another gem from the other side of La Manche. It’s a great pop song and this video is full of all kind of playful visual references
I still find this astonishingly outre and genuinely difficult to watch.
I don’t think that would have got shown on TOTP too often. @Black Type.
I see that the director is Chris Cunningham (new name for me). Basically, he’s made a mini horror film. Pretty scary and a lot of nice touches like the dog peeing on the TV and the screen stretching as the demon tries to emerge. I don’t think that Aphex Twin is hoping for a Number One spot.
The stuff of nightmares…
Flowered Up – Weekender. Not so much a music video as a rave culture documentary.
Wonderful stuff @fentonsteve. This thread is magnificently varied.
Time to visit Norway.
And going a little further north: the magnificent Mari Boine.
Yesterday, I watched the ‘making of’ I Am Weekender documentary on the blu-ray. An hour of talking heads, mainly saying “he’s dead… she’s dead”. Don’t do drugs, kids.
currently queen of creative videos Janelle Monae
the dancing in this is next level
and this is too funky and glam to ignore
There’s also the Pink video with the “interesting” dress.
Great choice @exilepj. I’m lucky enough to have seen her live (twice!) at Roskilde and she is stupendous! Preposterously charismatic!
Especially for @mikethep as mentioned on the Beatles thread, here’s Françoise Hardy on Scopitone.
Thanks Hubes! Not on a big wheel then…hell of a swing boat though. I’d forgotten the stockings and suspenders action.
I’m on a roll now…
You are on a spring roll @Beany! That is in a class of its own and completely transcends language. Magnificently bonkers.
Incidentally, after hearing their wonderful version of Flanders and Swann’s Slow Train, I’ve been listening to a lot of Stackridge.
Did they never do a video?
From a DVD EP they released.
Here’s Billy Lee Riley with High Heeled Sneakers on Scopitone.
Then there’s this…existentiel, n’est-ce pas ?
Just spotted the one you posted above, Hubes – same song, different vid…
I have to say , @fitterstoke, that this video does a far better job of catching the mood of the song rather than the big swing and all that stockings and suspender belt malarkey.
Here’s another French lass with romantic problems. Not quite sure what is going on with the large aquarium-like glass cube and the water.
Is Alizée impersonating her goldfish?
Who cares? She is so wonderfully charismatic.
Also…
Actually, I might have strayed into the wrong area here – not really a music video at all…
“Strayed into the wrong area” indeed!!” What is happening on this site?
Gallivanting hither and thither, gadding off all over the map, roving down the primrose path, rambling raucously into every nook and granny in the building …..
Gorgeous clip! Anna Karina and Eddie Constantine as Lemmy Caution in Godard’s Alpaville 1965. What an icon she was!
Well, y’know, people complain sometimes…I’m sufficiently diffident to want to get my disclaimer/apology in early.
This one by Novelty Island always raises a smile. I’m a big fan of low-fi stuff that doesn’t take itself at all seriously.
And I always thought this was a good concept, done well.
Always liked this…
OK Go: a band I own no records of, but I know two of their videos.
This Too Shall pass:
Upside Down & Inside Out
OK Go invest some time and thought into their videos. Here’s another example – Here It Goes Again
Many thanks @fentonsteve and @Rigid Digit!
What a joy it was to watch those OK Go vids.
A band I took an immediate shine to. How could you not?
Here they are helping NPR move their Tiny Desk to new premises.
I’ve got a new favourite band! Yippee!
loved that one.
And also that (If I remember correctly) the singer in the video is actually the drummer. Not the singer. Just to mess with us.
Tom Tom Club’s videos for the Power of Love and Wordy Rappinghood are wonderfully playful and imaginative.
And a little more recent, this Wolf Alice pub karaoke visit is stupendous. A real tear-jerker.
While we’re discussing videos, I have a question. Blondie’s Rapture contains all the visual clues you might expect from a rock/rap crossover in 1980: a NYC block party with a DJ, spray-cans, the Native American fella from the Village People, and, erm, a woman walking a goat (at 3:20).
Is taking your goat for a walk a thing in New York City?
I think you’ll find the answer,@fentonsteve, in either an urban slang dictionary or in Lou Reed’s lyrics. It has to be either sex or drugs!
I’m waiting for my man. Got a big, hairy billy goat in my hand,
I blame the nanny state.
Very good. Take the rest of the day off, you deserve it.
Starts as a performance video…then the drugs kick in…
And now, by way of contrast, a few vids from the ECM label.
Yes that’s right, the wonderful German label famed for it championing the likes of Arvo Pärt, Jan Garbarek, Anouar Brahem and the Hilliard Ensemble.
And why on earth not? These videos do an excellent job of bringing out the beauty of the music.
Wolfgang Muthspiel Quartet
Tarkovsky Quartet
Anouar Brahem
That is brilliant, @MikeH.!
And if we are going to do Irish horse videos…
The Stuff of Nightmares…
Edgar Wright’s The Sparks Brothers made me very aware of how many fine videos the Maels have created.
Time now for two wonderfully imaginative creations that have a thematic link.
Propaganda’s videos also often have a story to tell. What a wonderful song this is too.
I think a few mash ups would fit in nicely on this thread…
This is a curious video…
Also a curious video…
Time to add a few Nordic vids to our visual smörgåbord.
Röyksopp feat Suzanne Sundförs – What else is there? (Norway)
The Knife – Pass this on (Sweden)
Mew – The Zookeeper’s Boy (Denmark)
And of course, Finland’s Eurovision winner! It still makes me smile.
KFD – you’re just trolling Chiz now, aren’t you?
Still, a thread called ‘Music Videos’ is just catnip, isn’t it? Literally any (every) music video ever will end up on this thread.
Trolling? Moi? I wouldn’t know how to!
Mew, Röyksopp and The Knife (and its successor Fever Ray) are all stupendous bands with oodles of visual and musical imagination.
And the wonderfully tongue-in-undead-cheek Lordi achieved the impossible and won Eurovision for Finland.
This thread is rather short of vids from your neck of the woods, @Salwarpe and @FatimaX.Berg. How about some vids from Neu! Rammstein, Can, Nina Hagen, Die Toten Hosen, Kraftverk, Nena, Faust, Tangerine Dream etc???
Or indeed Max Raabe und Palast Orchestra?
No.
This thread already crashes most times I open it, and I can hardly type this message on my phone. I’ll keep my powder dry for more focused threads.
Fair comment, @Salwarpe.
But this thread has been very educational and opened my eyes to a lot of artists and songs that I didn’t know.
Something that is interesting is that not one director has been named, not any company that specialised in making music videos. There must have been companies that were to videos what Hipgnosis was to album covers.
With an artist like David Byrne, I suspect he was doing the directing himself.
But in other cases, it feels like an outside director has had a lot to say.
That John Cale Close Watch for example. In the credits, Abigail Portner is named as the director, and a lot of the other very talented people involved are also named.
A quick Google led led to this rather useful article about the history of the genre.
Quite a few of the videos that we’ve named on this thread are pointed out as milestones of the genre. And the author, Matheus Siqueira, knows the names of a lot of directors and is good at describing various trends.
https://matheussiqueira.com/a-brief-history-of-music-video/
Well worth ten minutes of your time!