Best Music Videos: 14 Top Music Videos

Music videos are a way for musicians to promote their songs. They can be wildly creative, out there, and sometimes just plain weird.

They’ve changed the way we listen to music, the way we watch television, the way we think about video technology. They even changed music itself.

The video is now a part of the song, in some cases it even influences its popularity.

Sometimes a song becomes popular because of its video and not because of how good the song is!

We call them Best Music Videos because they are, in our opinion, the music videos that have lasted.

What a music video is

There’s an art to the music video and, like other art forms, it can be a source of great creativity.

The MTV generation was a time when artists in the music industry had their work showcased to the masses by way of a visual representation which allowed for greater exposure for several reasons.

Through this medium, fans were able to connect with their favorite artists on a more personal level as they got a glimpse into their lives and personalities through the use of music videos.

The quality of music videos increased and as we entered the digital age, it was no longer restricted to television as we saw its transition to VHS tapes, DVDs, and finally YouTube.

Best Music Videos

What’s the best music video ever? It’s tough to pick a favorite, but we’ve rounded up some of the best music videos of all time.

Let’s dive right in with a classic!

Michael Jackson, Thriller

Michael Jackson’s Thriller album has been called the best-selling album of all time, and with good reason. Although his death in 2009 brought him renewed attention, the King of Pop was a cultural fixture for more than three decades.

Touted as “the greatest selling album of all time,” Michael Jackson’s 1982 Thriller is still in demand more than four decades after its release.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller short film, directed by John Landis and co-starring Ola Ray, runs nearly 14 minutes and includes narration by Vincent Price. MTV premiered it on December 2, 1983.

At the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, Thriller won Best Overall Performance, Best Choreography (Michael Peters and Michael Jackson), and Viewer’s Choice. Video of the Year went to the Cars’ You Might Think.

The album Thriller won Album of the Year at the 1984 Grammy Awards, one of eight Grammys Jackson received that night. At the 1985 Grammys, the documentary Making Michael Jackson’s Thriller won Best Video Album. In 2009 the Library of Congress added the short film to the National Film Registry, the first music video in the collection.

Nine Inch Nails, Closer

Closer, from Nine Inch Nails’ 1994 album The Downward Spiral, is the Mark Romanek video that MTV played in a heavily cut version. It first aired on May 12, 1994.

Romanek’s set is dressed like a 19th-century laboratory. He shot it with hand-cranked cameras and vintage lenses so the picture would look worn, with religious imagery and animal remains around Trent Reznor. The video’s unease is that room, and the picture’s wear is the point.

Radiohead, Karma Police

In the fade of Karma Police, Thom Yorke repeats “For a minute there, I lost myself.” Earlier, the chorus is “This is what you get when you mess with us.” The fade isn’t the chorus sung over again. It’s Yorke’s line about losing himself.

Jonathan Glazer directed the video, largely from the driver’s point of view: Yorke rides in the back of a car that follows a man down a dark road, the man lights a trail of fuel, Yorke vanishes, and the car burns. It won Best Direction at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards.

Glazer’s clip doesn’t gloss the lyric. You’re left with the driver’s view, the man’s flight, and the car’s ending, which is why the video’s stayed with people who already knew the song’s chorus.

Kanye West, Runaway

Runaway is less a music video than a 35-minute short film, self-directed by Kanye West to accompany several tracks from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Filmed over four days in Prague, it stars Selita Ebanks as a phoenix who crash-lands on Earth and is drawn into West’s world, building toward the centrepiece ballet sequence set to the title track.

West previewed the project with a teaser at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, then screened the full film in Paris and at BAFTA before it aired on MTV, BET and VH1 that October. It’s frequently cited as one of the most ambitious pieces of visual album promotion of its era, blending fashion, ballet and surreal narrative in a way few artists have attempted since.

Björk, Big Time Sensuality

Big Time Sensuality, from Björk’s 1993 album Debut, has a video directed by Stéphane Sednaoui and shot in black and white on October 26, 1993. Björk dances on a flatbed truck moving through New York, in a white sweater and a long skirt, with the picture speeding up and slowing down. Sednaoui also cut a night version to the Fluke remix.

Fans who know that she has a history of dramatic about-faces won’t find a life story in this clip. The video’s idea is the performance. She doesn’t leave the truck, and the picture won’t hold one speed. It’s a portrait of the song, not a biography.

White Stripes, Hardest Button To Button

It’s the perfect time of year to stay in, drink a beer and reminisce about the White Stripes.The garage rock duo, who haven’t released an album since 2007, played their last concert on July 31, 2007, at Snowden Grove Amphitheater in Southaven, Mississippi.

They announced the split on February 2, 2011. The band’s last night on stage was that Southaven show.

That’s all fine and dandy, but we’re here to talk about their music. The White Stripes’ discography is short but sweet.

Their sixth and final album Icky Thump is full of gems that deserve to be played again and again before being forever tucked away in your record collection.

There are so many songs from the White Stripes that deserve your attention but these are some of my favorites:”You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)” – This song will get stuck in your head very quickly, which is unfortunate because it’s so damn good you’ll want to keep it there forever.

The White Stripes’ best song off their best album by far.

The Hardest Button to Button is the clip this entry is here for. It’s on Elephant (2003), the band’s fourth album. Michel Gondry directed it, after Fell in Love with a Girl and Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground. Pixilation makes another drum kit and amplifier appear on each beat as Jack and Meg White play. It received four nominations at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards.

Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit

The first track on Nirvana’s breakthrough album, Nevermind, Smells Like Teen Spirit was the song that fueled an explosion of interest in the Seattle-based band.It has since become one of the most imitated songs of all time.

The song opens with its instantly recognizable riff, played on electric guitar by Kurt Cobain. Krist Novoselic played bass, and Dave Grohl played drums.

The lyrics for the song were written by Cobain while he was living in Olympia, Washington.

He had been a fan of 1970s punk rock bands such as the Sex Pistols, according to Rolling Stone magazine.Nirvana recorded several versions of Smells Like Teen Spirit with producer Butch Vig before reaching their final arrangement.

Cobain said he was trying to write a pop song by using the Pixies’ shift from quiet to loud.

Samuel Bayer directed the video, the first he made. The band filmed it on August 17, 1991, at GMT Studios in Culver City, as a school pep rally that collapses into a riot.

Missy Elliott, The Rain (supa Dupa Fly)

Missy Elliott, The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) Missy Elliott – Supa Dupa Fly This is the exact same thing I do whenever I want to hear a song that I used to love back in the day. It’s like stepping into a time machine and going back to some classic era in your life only to find that you loved it even more than you remembered and then poof, it’s gone.

I’m talking about the greatness of Supa Dupa Fly by Missy Elliott. For the sake of anyone who may not know what I’m talking about, here’s a quick history lesson.

The year was 1997. The place New York City.

Hip-Hop/R&B was dominant at that time as a few major artists were topping the charts with their hits.But there was one person who wanted to take her place among them: Missy Misdemeanor Elliott.

Missy came out swinging with Supa Dupa Fly which would later be known as her debut single off her debut album Supa Dupa Fly released in 1997 on The Gold Mind Inc./EastWest Records/Elektra Entertainment Group label.

The single reached No. 4 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. In 1997 the Billboard Hot 100 still required a commercial single, and this release went to radio only, so it didn’t enter the Hot 100.

Hype Williams directed the video. Elliott wears an inflated black patent-leather suit, filmed with a fisheye lens, while dancers wear yellow raincoats. It was nominated for Best Rap Video at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked the clip No. 1 on its list of the 150 best rap videos.

Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer

Sledgehammer is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So. It was released in April 1986 as the lead single, reached No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart, and became his only No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song has since become one of Gabriel’s most well-known songs, and remains a staple of classic rock radio.

Stephen R. Johnson directed the video, with stop-motion and clay animation by Aardman Animations, including Nick Park, and by the Brothers Quay. Gabriel performed under a sheet of glass while the objects around his face moved. At one point the frame is crowded with those moving objects. The clip isn’t a Marilyn Monroe impersonation, and that costume story shouldn’t be repeated as if it had come from an interview. The video won nine awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year.

The videos in this article

Elastic Heart By Sia (2015)

The video for this entry is the January 7, 2015 clip for the solo version of Elastic Heart, from Sia’s album 1000 Forms of Fear. Sia and Daniel Askill directed it, Ryan Heffington choreographed it, and it stars dancer Maddie Ziegler and actor Shia LaBeouf, dancing inside a cage. The solo single reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.

An earlier recording, released on October 1, 2013, features the Weeknd and Diplo and comes from the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

There’s no scripted Los Angeles scene in the 2015 video. The set is the cage, and the clip’s drama is the dancer’s and the actor’s movement set against Sia’s vocal.

Come to Daddy By Aphex Twin (1997)

For all the music out there, it’s not often that you find something that’s truly unique. There are plenty of songs that do different things with the same formula, but few stand out as being completely different.

That is, however, the case with Aphex Twin’s Come to Daddy. This song has been remixed, sampled and covered more times than I can count.

This song is really good because it represents a lot of what makes electronica so great. It doesn’t sound like anything else out there because it was made to be different.

The combination of the creepy vocals and the odd strings give this song a really dark feel. Listening to this song just leaves you feeling uneasy, which is probably why people continue to remix it.

I know I’m in the minority here, but this is one of my favorite Aphex Twin songs. It’s a little offbeat, but I like that about it.

It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’ve never listened to it before, give it a shot. You might be surprised by how much you enjoy something so strange.

The single was released in October 1997. Chris Cunningham directed the video on the Thamesmead estate in London. It peaked at No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 10 in Denmark.

Teardrop By Massive Attack (1998)

Teardrop is a 1998 single from Massive Attack’s album Mezzanine. Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins wrote the lyric and sings the lead. Risingson is a separate Massive Attack single from 1997. The song is featured on the soundtrack for the film The Jackal and was also released as a single.

It was released as a 1-track CD and 2-track CD; the latter included an edit of the song Black Milk from Mezzanine. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart, the band’s only UK top 10. Walter Stern directed the video, in which a foetus in the womb mouths the vocal. In the United States, the track is the opening theme of the series House.

Tori Amos covered Teardrop at her Tiny Tour in 2000 and it appeared on her 2001 album Strange Little Girls. She also recorded a piano version and released it on the website Music For Tori, Vol. 1.

The song was used in the TV series Psych, in episode 9 of season 4 titled Mr. Yin Presents, aired on 19 January 2010.

It also appears in the 2011 film Paul, directed by Greg Mottola and starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Kristen Wiig; at the end of the film Simon Pegg’s character sings along to it in his car.

It can also be heard playing from a record player during a party scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and can be viewed playing from an iPod nano in a deleted scene.

If you’re a fan of the song, it’s probably not because you’ve heard it before in a car commercial.

But the original version of Massive Attack’s Teardrop was used on an episode of The Sopranos, which led to it becoming the theme song for Volkswagen’s 1999 European campaign. The song was re-released as a single in 1999 and became an instant success.

What Is Best Music Video Of All Time?

The best music video of all time is a subjective topic. This is always going to be a question of opinion rather than facts.

However, there are certain aspects of music videos that are appealing to the general public and there are other things that turn people off.

Telling A Story

One of the biggies for getting people excited about your music video is telling a story.

It’s all well and good to have great music in your video but it has to be wrapped up in something that makes people want to watch it over and over again.It can be anything from a sad love story type of song, through to something funny or political.

Anything that can grip the viewer and make them want to watch it multiple times will score highly with the public as this kind of thing generates word of mouth marketing.

Being Current And Staying Relevant

If you have released a new album then you need to ensure that your music video reflects what you’re doing musically, so that it matches with the tone and mood of the song itself.The more closely matched they are, the more people will like it too.

What Is The Most Famous Music Video?

Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the usual answer. MTV named it the greatest music video of all time in 1999, and VH1 did the same in 2001. In 2009 it became the first music video on the National Film Registry. The home-video release Making Michael Jackson’s Thriller was named the best-selling music video by Guinness World Records in 2002.

Other clips have piled up huge view counts since then, but they haven’t taken Thriller’s place in that older consensus. People mean the short film’s length, its choreography, and Vincent Price’s narration — not a single week’s chart position.

Who Made The Best Music Videos?

Nine Inch Nails’ Closer was directed by Mark Romanek. Jonathan Glazer’s Radiohead video is Karma Police, with Yorke in the back of a pursuing car. Glazer had already directed Street Spirit (Fade Out). His features include Sexy Beast, Under the Skin, and The Zone of Interest.

Romanek’s Closer is remembered for its symbolism — the laboratory, the religious images, the remains — not for a chase through London. The director’s cut story about lovers, a thief, and a graveyard isn’t this video. That plot was pinned on the wrong song. The clip’s power is the room Romanek built, and the way the picture looks damaged on purpose.

Who Is The Most Famous Music Video Director?

The music industry is a tough one to get into. Especially if you want to be a famous music video director.

There are many people out there who want to do the same thing and they are all extremely talented. But who has achieved more than the rest?

Teddy Riley is a producer and songwriter, one of the people behind new jack swing. He produced records on Michael Jackson’s Dangerous (1991). He didn’t produce “Bad”; Quincy Jones did. Riley’s reputation isn’t from directing. Janet Jackson’s Let’s Wait Awhile was written with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and Dominic Sena directed that video.

The directors of the clips in this article are in the table above, among them John Landis, Hype Williams, Michel Gondry, Mark Romanek, Chris Cunningham, and Jonathan Glazer.

Further reading

Release years, credits, and list history should be checked against a catalogue, not copied from memory. Start here:

• IMDb
• BFI
• Wikipedia: Film
• AFI Catalog