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60 Beautiful Music Videos
Imagine if three minutes of video could save your career. That’s what happened to OK Go when the group produced its own film clip after its label threatened to let them go. Gone are the days of multi-million dollar music videos; today they are all produced with love on small budgets by a committed group of creative people.
Below are 60+ original music videos to inspire you and get you excited about the medium again. Some old, some new, but I guarantee you haven’t seen all of them before. Note: these are presented in random order. Just something to relax on a rainy sunday. Please be patient: the page may need some time to load.
You may also want to take a look at the following related post:
The Music Videos
1: TISM: Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me
2: Mansun: Taxloss
3: Queens of the Stone Age: Go With the Flow
4: Aphex Twin: Windowlicker (NSFW)
5: Aphex Twin: Come to Daddy
6: Lenny Kravitz: Are You Gonna Go My Way
7: Prodigy: Smack My Bitch Up (NSFW)
Watch in high quality on YouTube
8: A-ha: Take On Me
9: Beck: Girl
10: Pharcycle: Drop
11: Blur: Coffee & TV
12: Junior Senior: Move Your Feet
13: Royksopp: Remind Me
14: Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer
15: White Strips: Fell In Love With a Girl
Watch in high quality on YouTube
16: Daft Punk: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (fan made)
17: Daft Punk: Around the World
18: Daft Punk: Interstellar 555 Clips
19: Tenacious D: Fuck Her Gently (NSFW)
Watch original Flash animation here
More info here
20: Michael Jackson: Thriller
21: Lemon Jelly: The Shouty Track
22: Justice: D.A.N.C.E.
23: Justice: Stress
24: Justice vs. Simian: We Are Your Friends
25: Justice: DVNO
26: Beastie Boys: Sabotage
27: Radiohead: House of Cards
Get The Code and more info on Google Code
28: Coldcut: Timber
29: Eels: Novocain for the Soul
30: Gorillaz: Clint Eastwood, and Dirty Harry
31: Chemical Brothers: Star Guitar
32: Chemical Brothers, featuring K-OS: Get Yourself High
33: Weezer: Buddy Holly
34: Weezer: Pork and Beans
35: Coldplay: The Hardest Part
36: Bjork: Wanderlust
Official website for the video here
37: Gotye: Hearts a Mess
38: Funstorung: Sleeping Beauty
39: OK Go: Here It Goes Again
40: Metallica: One
41: Verve: Bittersweet Symphony
42: Supergrass: Pumping on Your Stereo
43: Santogold, Julian Casablancas, N.E.R.D: My Drive Thru for Converse
44: Bjork: All is Full of Love
45: Alex Gopher: The Child
46: Paula Abdul: Opposites Attract
C’mon, this was a classic when it came out! Don’t judge me.
47: Unkle: Rabbit in your Headlights
48: DJ Format: We Know Something You Don’t Know
49: Telemetry Orchestra: Suburban Harmony
50: The Bumblebeez: Dr. Love
Directed by my favorite director, Tom Kuntz. A true genius.
51: Jamiroquai: Virtual Insanity
52: Tool: Stinkfist
53: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Give It Away
54: Weird Al Yankovic: Bedrock Anthem
55: The Avalanches: Frontier Psychiatrist
Also directed by Tom Kuntz
56: Basement Jaxx: Where’s Your Head At
57: Wu-Tang Clan: Triumph
Directed by Brett Ratner!
58: Battles: Tonto
59: Sia: Buttons
60: Fatboy Slim: Praise You, and Weapon of Choice
61: Architecture in Helsinki: Do the Whirlwind
62: Softlightes: Heart Made Of Sound
63: Fujiya & Miyagi: Ankle Injuries
64: Yuki: Sentimental Journey
Last Click
Here are three music videos that will get stuck in your head.
Related Posts
You may also want to take a look at the following related post:
(al)
Ashley Ringrose is better known as Mr Truffle and editor of Sleevage a music design blog. He occasionally plays with Mr Potatoheads and dresses up in costumes. He is also a founding member of Soap Creative an Australian based digital agency.
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- 1
- 2November 16th, 2008 4:19 am
Ah nice! Great list!
- 3November 16th, 2008 4:34 am
Very nice list ;) It will take me a while to go through it…
Anyway if you want more I did a similar list a while ago:1. Pearl Jam: Do the Evolution
2. Chemical Brothers: Star Guitar
3. Timo Mass ft. Brian Molko: First day
4. Gym Class Heroes: Cupids Chokehold / Breakfast in America
5. Bob Marley feat. Lauryn Hill: Turn your lights down low
6. Kylie Minogue: Come Into My World
7. The Prodigy: Smack my bitch up
8. Missy Elliott: Teary Eyed
9. Michael Jackson: Thriller
10. Smashing Pumpkins: 1979
10+1. Harvey Danger: Lip Dub – Flagpole Sitt - 4November 16th, 2008 4:40 am
Truely smashing collection! ^^
- 5November 16th, 2008 4:43 am
nice!!!
- 6November 16th, 2008 4:47 am
its a really nice option to spend a sunday with music-videos. and yes you are totally right with your writings above, about ok go and the rest. but honestly you are wrong, maybe im the first who writes this, but i really have seen all videos and the most i have on my psp
again a great list, you made me very happy. but a question to you, did you like all vidoes in your list, could you enjoy them and is that your music style?
- 7November 16th, 2008 4:53 am
I love this post, It is not only Out of the box thinking, it took some time and thought to compile! And you had to watch them to make sure they were great! I love most all of the videos in this collection already! Aphex twins are AWESOME! I am glad that you decided to put them in the list, since they don’t usually get mainstream listening, along with some of the others you placed in the list. Great Job!
- 8November 16th, 2008 4:58 am
Daft Punk & Justice ForEver ! French Touch !!
- 9November 16th, 2008 5:02 am
lol for the last one :D
- 10November 16th, 2008 5:03 am
Great List!
Here are 2 really awsome videos i missed on you list:chibo matto: sugar water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlR1NijJxV4gnarls barkley: whos gonna save my soul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTVSygNKAsg - 11November 16th, 2008 5:30 am
What about Kanye West’s Heartless? http://vimeo.com/2184757?pg=embed&sec=2184757
- 12November 16th, 2008 5:43 am
+1: Smashing Pumpkins: Tonight, Tonight
- 13November 16th, 2008 5:57 am
No Madonna on this list is blasphemy!
1. Bedtime Stories
2. Rain
3. Ray Of Light
4. Die Another Day
5. Vogue
6. Bad Girl
7. Bedtime Stories (Re-invention Tour version)And the list goes on and on. All cinematic masterpieces. She’s also partly responsible for discovering and making big new music video talent, as she’s worked with all the greats from Fincher to Romanek to Cunnoingham and Traktor…
- 14November 16th, 2008 6:15 am
One of my favorites:
Wir sind Helden – Nur ein Wort (English subtitles also available) - 15
- 16November 16th, 2008 6:42 am
@robster :
I think frozen would have been the ultimate Madonna choice, its one of my favourite Chris Cunningham videos.
@smashing:
great collection!
- 17November 16th, 2008 6:43 am
Well, I think Radiohead – Paranoid Android video deserves to be here! ;)
- 18November 16th, 2008 6:50 am
Great idea for a post
Great way to spend a Sunday Morning and afternoon
- 19November 16th, 2008 8:19 am
Great, this post just let my mac freeze 4 times now inside my feedreader (Vienna). Time to delete the feed, together with your german derivate dr.web. Interesting content is already missing for a long time…
- 20November 16th, 2008 9:08 am
Some of my faves are posted here!
LOL @ lionel ritchie and that last guy…*shudders* - 21November 16th, 2008 9:16 am
I think, that Special Cases by Massive Attack is worth looking at, too.
- 22November 16th, 2008 9:50 am
I’ll preface my post by saying that I love this website and these are all some pretty cool videos. However, as a website that preaches good web design practices, etc….putting 60 embedded videos on one page is a little excessive.
Also, the links (e.g. the link to the high quality version of “Smack my Bitch Up”) on some of them don’t open in a new window, so you have people leaving your site that probably wanted to keep the other 59 videos loaded and ready since they waited all that time!
Great list though!
- 23November 16th, 2008 10:47 am
All of Tool’s Video’s should be there. Good list, thanks
- 24November 16th, 2008 11:47 am
Fatboy slim has had some cool videos too. None the less, this was a pretty interesting post.
- 25November 16th, 2008 11:49 am
10. says Pharcycle, it’s Pharcyde. CL = D
- 26November 16th, 2008 12:35 pm
Sorry, but it’s too much. Better reduce it to 20 videos and write it more often (once a week?).
- 27November 16th, 2008 12:40 pm
This is a great list. I really enjoyed Daft Punk’s animated videos. Good to see them on this list.
- 28November 16th, 2008 12:41 pm
love it – I’ve very much enjoyed cycling through these videos! thanks :)
- 29November 16th, 2008 1:01 pm
Good list, unsmashing page design.
- 30November 16th, 2008 1:22 pm
Man, too bad no Linkin Park. In the End, Pts. of Authority, and Breaking the Habit are all excellently animated
- 31November 16th, 2008 1:28 pm
Oh, and RJD2’s Work It Out is very well done as well.
- 32November 16th, 2008 2:13 pm
nice list. fantastic music videos.
HOWEVER – most of these videos are BIG BUDGET music videos created with direction of some of the BIGGEST names in the game – Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham…
…some of the techniques may be lo-fi or animated, but it doesn’t warrant a ’small budget’ label.
Most of these videos can be found on multiple DVD sets available from PALM pictures.
- 33November 16th, 2008 2:33 pm
Haha, Ashley, you betray your age and musical influence here. Definitely an Aussie who grew up enjoying Rage, particularly during the 90s. Nice list.
- 34November 16th, 2008 2:48 pm
Where is Madonna’s Bedtime Story???????????
It’s the very definition of a beautiful and inspirational music video.
- 35November 16th, 2008 3:15 pm
Wow, really stunning! But don’t exaggerate, 60 at once are much^^
- 36November 16th, 2008 3:25 pm
Got some classics here. Could do with having the director’s names though.
- 37November 16th, 2008 4:02 pm
please dont every refer to Samwell again :o
- 38November 16th, 2008 4:10 pm
OK, im used to SM lists, but 60 videos aren’t a list: they r just a mess. I loved the previous posts like this one, but they just don’t keep my browser (FF3) freezing consuming 250Mb of RAM and taking my CPU @ 90% for minutes!!!
- 39November 16th, 2008 4:18 pm
Seen most of it before, actually…
Here’s an alternative to “Star guitar”, “Akai densha” by Quruli:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiIwWR-Bg74Kraak & Smaak’s “Squeeze me”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYqaX3QYXZsKanye West’s “Flashing lights” also deserves a mention IMHO.
- 40November 16th, 2008 5:29 pm
I think Perfect Drug by NIN should be on there somewhere. Good list!
- 41November 16th, 2008 5:58 pm
I agree that A Perfect Drug should be up there.
My personally fav music vid is that of Evil Bee by Menomena:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYU47cfNayA&feature=related&fmt=18 - 42November 16th, 2008 6:55 pm
You left out GHOSTFLOWERS by OTEP. Amazing Video. Like Salvadore Dali
- 43November 16th, 2008 7:01 pm
What about Pink Floyd – “The Wall”?
- 44November 16th, 2008 7:31 pm
Fantastic collection. A hand of great songs to. Thanks
Vítor M.
http://www.pplware.com - 45November 16th, 2008 7:44 pm
smashing pumpkins – 33
?
- 46November 16th, 2008 7:47 pm
Good list… but no Rap clips (except the wu Tang one?) Im suprised. Some of Public enemy’s old clips were amazing political statements.. real storytelling through the art of the clip
- 47November 16th, 2008 8:02 pm
We are an unsigned northern band called Laboratory Noise who release music on our own label and we had a video made for our song ‘You Created A Storm’ by a friend Jon Yeo. It is awsome and can be found here in high quality http://www.virb.com or on our own site here http://www.laboratorynoise.co.uk
There are also lots of other smaller bands around who have their own cool videos and a lot of them are also really good. We managed to get ours on MTV2 after a year of trying!Sorry for the self promotion…
- 48
- 49November 16th, 2008 8:30 pm
Eh. I can’t believe that forgot about the most beautiful music video of all! :]
- 50November 16th, 2008 8:39 pm
haha, now i know where the anderson/fabregas chants came from… agadoo, pure class
- 51November 16th, 2008 9:24 pm
Bjork – Bachelorette – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=x5nNfbTS6N4
Or any Michel Gondry music video really. He also did the “Daft Punk – Around The World” video in this post.
- 52November 16th, 2008 9:45 pm
How could you not include Sigur Ros?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doc1eqstMQQ
That has some of the best cinematography out of any music video ever done.
- 53November 16th, 2008 9:53 pm
Long before the Lego videos got tiresome – Ether Real produced this in 1991
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4oloLHqjd8
It was a little known (but I think rather excellent) tune from the ravey/chillout era of the early 90s and I will do whatever I can in my power to have people around the planet finally give this video it’s due respect.
ajd
- 54
- 55November 16th, 2008 10:37 pm
Nice videos – good to see some aussie bands are up there in the mix!
- 56November 16th, 2008 11:17 pm
You guys need to check out “If You Keep Losing Sleep”, by Silverchair, as well as “Straight Lines.”
- 57November 16th, 2008 11:36 pm
Tool has only one video on the list??! come on, every tool’s video is piece of art, I think they deserve more
- 58November 17th, 2008 12:06 am
Wow guys – great list…
But i’ve missed something… I would suggest NIN – Only. Nine Inch Nails always impressed me with his videos.
rock on!
- 59November 17th, 2008 12:35 am
I really, really like the clips that are made for Tool.
They also have great music. - 60November 17th, 2008 1:44 am
Blue man group have some inspiring videos, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czWqL96yWuo – Sing AlongOh, and btw, the page with nearly 100 embedded videos consumes hell of a resources, you’d really better use image placeholders next time.
- 61November 17th, 2008 2:48 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8qYz20N_yg
Cool MV. from Thai electronic band.
- 62November 17th, 2008 3:01 am
Nice eclectic list there. Thanks.
- 63November 17th, 2008 3:12 am
Acho que faltou “Tonight, Tonight” do Smashing Pumpkins, porém todos os citados acima também são obras de arte.
…
- 64November 17th, 2008 4:10 am
A beautiful music videos list without Sigur Ros = totally useless.
- 65November 17th, 2008 5:08 am
Where are the FEIST videos?
- 66November 17th, 2008 5:43 am
It misses “Sign o’ Times” by Prince… it rocks!
- 67November 17th, 2008 6:18 am
WTF no madonna!
- 68November 17th, 2008 6:26 am
Well i missed Foo Fighters “Pretender” and Garbage “Queer”,
talking about excellent music videos…
but hey…there are about a million ones missing…
collection’s still pretty decent! - 69November 17th, 2008 6:49 am
The Faint: Aganda Suicide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-NbXGjXT4Qthunderheist – jerk it
http://www.vimeo.com/1124192natalie portman’s shaved head – sophisticated side ponytail
http://www.vimeo.com/1507417:-)
- 70November 17th, 2008 7:57 am
Some pretty cool videos on there, although I definitely could have gone without being reminded of “What What (In the Butt)” I think that video scarred me for life.
- 71November 17th, 2008 9:13 am
Good Vids! Another great video from the Chemical Brothers is “Let Forver Be”.
- 72November 17th, 2008 10:53 am
When I saw the title of the post, I thought to myself “this list has no credibility if One (by Metallica) is not on it”. Alas, there is was (#40). Good stuff.
- 73November 17th, 2008 11:12 am
IMO a-ha’s Take on me is one of the best videos ever.
“Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits is also made similar to “take on me” with pencils. Great video and amazing music :D
- 74November 18th, 2008 12:13 pm
LMFAO @ What What in The Butt! A lot of these vids brought back memories though. Nice list!
- 75November 19th, 2008 4:34 am
Where is Michael Jackson???????
- 76November 19th, 2008 8:10 am
great, thanks for those. I searched nr. 13 for a long time
- 77November 20th, 2008 10:24 am
This one is not only a good song but also a fantastic video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ml-jUdIbcI - 78November 20th, 2008 12:07 pm
Fergie’s “Clumsy” is an amazing video too.
- 79November 23rd, 2008 9:14 am
Great list! I love SmashingMagazine! But I would like in the end WATCH these videos!!! My computer hangs when I try to load this (using Firefox in Ubuntu on 3Ghz CPU and 2GB of RAM). I am writing from Vista on a laptop, and it doesn’t hangs, but there’s no sound!!! Could you create a playlist with 60 tags? I’d be thankful.
- 80November 26th, 2008 7:42 am
Sorry about the embedded 60 videos. It’s a little crazy on the browser.
Pretty much all these tracks I enjoy. It was hard not to choose the Michael Jacksons and Madonnas but I wanted to go beyond the obvious ones or famous ones.
Whoever picked me as an Aussie watching Rage is right :)
A youtube playlist would be a good idea too. This list took me about 2 days to compile as everytime I thought I was done (started at 30) i thought of more.
- 81December 1st, 2008 12:11 pm
A fantastic post…. I think that Fatboy Slim – Right here, Right now is also a superb clip
- 82December 5th, 2008 2:12 pm
Great compile
Nothing about kid koala or amon tobin? - 83December 19th, 2008 8:31 am
Where is FEIST: 1, 2, 3, 4 ?
- 84January 6th, 2009 6:38 pm
oh bother, I must be hopelessly out of it. I’ve looked at about 20 on the list and I’m still waiting for one that is simply good let alone beautiful.
- 85February 9th, 2009 5:59 pm
Very good list…love every one of Daft Punk’s videos (amazing stuff there)….but one band you didn’t include is Sigur Ros. They have some very beautiful videos, glosoli, and untitled 1 (vaka). Great list nontheless!
- 86February 25th, 2009 10:03 pm
How can this list leave out Chris Cunningham and Mark Romanek?
Madonna: Frozen
Nine Inch Nails: Closer
Nine Inch Nails: The Perfect Drug - 87February 27th, 2009 6:33 am
Damn, you really listed a lot of my favorite stuff! A pretty thorough job…
The Avalanches love is deserved; they also have “Since I Left You”, which is damn good, and not just
Sledgehammer, but anything and everything by Peter Gabriel is awesome – the man knows how to do videosStill, you’re only human, and some great stuff got left out. Others already mentioned some of it, like
Feist’s “1 2 3 4″ and
“Squeeze Me” by Kraak & Smaakbut somehow forgot
“Knights of Cydonia” by Muse and
The Go! Team’s “Ladyflash”,which is odd, since they’re brilliant. I also crawl YouTube for music videos, so let’s see some of my other favorites…
The “Fan Version” of Barenaked Ladies’ “Wind It Up” totally rocks,
“You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon is totally cute and funny, and
Futureshock’s “Late At Night” is… odd. Oh, let’s not forget
“she loves the CREAM” by m-flo and DOPING PANDA,for when you want some anime lovin’. I really don’t know why we don’t see more anime videos, this one shows how good it could be done. Honorary mentions go to:
Hell Yes by Beck
Cold Hands, Warm Heart by Brendan Benson
16 Military Wives by The Decemberists, and last but not least
Let Me Know by Róisín MurphyAlso, Madonna’s videos for the most part aren’t really that good, but Vogue totally is (David Fincher made it, after all)
Most of this stuff is available on YouTube, by the way. I’d put direct links, but how do you hotlink in comments anyway?
- 88February 27th, 2009 6:38 am
Dammit! Forgot Frozen. Okay, Madonna’s “Frozen” is also totally that good.
Can’t believe I forgot Frozen.
Incidentally, Cunningham wasn’t really all that happy with it:
http://www.director-file.com/cunningham/madonna.html - 89February 27th, 2009 6:40 am
Oh, so THAT’s how you hotlink!
Now, how do you edit posts, so I can link the videos in my list? :-)
- 90March 13th, 2009 6:12 pm
Thanks for the interesting list always fun to watch videos and there are some I haven’t seen for ages! I would have included: We Share our Mother’s Health by the Knife, What Else is There by Royksopp and Evil Bee by Menomena though. Also I think that Blue Lines by Massive Attack is a notable omission as is anything by NIN (and yes I know I am not the first person to say that!)… Tonto by Battles is a killer track beautifully matched by a killer clip.
cheers for the list and the distraction!
- 00
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Really great compile.
Something different and worth a watch…