I don’t know if entertaining music videos are even a thing these days, but I was thinking about how back in the day, the video to a song was often a big driver in the sales of the song.
It got me thinking about memorable videos - and how sometimes the videos are more memorable than the song itself. Some videos were ahead of their time, some funny, some just plain entertaining - even when the song they were attached to was not very good at all!
So please post any music videos that you remember that you found interesting/funny/revolutionary or whatever...
I’ll start with a few...
First up, possibly the most famous music video of all time:
https://youtu.be/sOnqjkJTMaA
Comments
😂😳
Not much has really changed, there is still a huge variety of music videos from just the artist/band performing the song, something totally unrelated to the music or using the video and song together to create a story/message. The only main change is how music videos are consumed, mostly through Youtube and social media, instead of getting airtime on TV.
One music video that I find very memorable from recent years, is Childish Gambino's 'This Is America', a very powerful piece of using the music video as an art form to make a statement and reflection on his feelings on the current state of America (as per the song title).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY
That Childish Gambino video is interesting. I can see why you find it memorable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvrZJ5C_Nwg
The coastal scenes were filmed at Pett Level, East Sussex, in May 1980. The video featured several 'faces' from the Blitz nightclub in Covent Garden.
https://youtu.be/HyMm4rJemtI
the difference now is that thousands of videos and clips “go viral” every day. But that was one of the early examples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmGxh1FhtxE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShN8qT4lk
Madness - Baggy Trousers (airborne saxophonist)
Madness - House Of Fun (Monty Python-esque "women" dance routine)
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Two Tribes
A-Ha - Take On Me (combining animation and live action)
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Moving into the 90s and 2000s I'm struggling to think of too many ...
Tool - wonderfully weird, surreal, arty videos, often animated/stop-go animation e.g. Prison Sex; Sober; Schism
Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows
Wild Boys - Duran Duran
Hour Glass - Squeeze
We'd be together tonight - Sting
Big ‘Mad Max’ vibes going on?
https://youtu.be/r-rgIPIkCl4
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nNh51G84WZY
This is over 60 years old, but is still one of my top 10 records ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzgbcyfJgfQ