Music videos used to be MTV’s and pop culture’s lifeblood. While YouTube videos are still extremely popular, the art form has suffered in recent years as MTV and VH1 have stopped airing them.
To be honest, we miss the days when music videos were significant. The best ones told a story that used a visual medium to connect a song’s words to the listener. With that in mind, BuzzPedia decided to compile a list of the greatest music videos of all time.
Here’s a quick rundown of the criteria we used. The song had to be good first and foremost. What good is a wonderful video if it’s accompanied by a poor song? We also saw an increase in the number of videos that were unique or even pioneering.
No matter how fantastic a performance video was, it wasn’t going to make the cut. Strong, fascinating visuals, as well as concepts and direction, were important.
Enough with the explanations. The greatest music videos of all time are listed below-
1. Every Single Lumineers’ Video
The Lumineers’ album features their signature sound, with piano and Schultz’s gruff vocals pushing to the front. The songs aren’t overly manufactured, giving them a raw, emotional sense.
The plot itself has a few optimistic moments, but it makes no guarantees.
2. The Wisp Sings (The Winter Aid)
Although there is an almost painful thrust of melancholy carefully buried at the core, there is also an inherent kind of beauty to the entirety of what it is – something that doesn’t fade easily.
The entire composition looks like a floating kite on a lush, green valley – no strings attached, or a white handkerchief embroidered by a few loving fingers that you encounter for only a brief period of time, or a white dove’s wings glistening in the morning sun, and ‘Murmur of the Land,’ which is also a line from the song, is a really catchy phrase but yet so deep when matched with “This is the sound of love’s marching band,” which is a line from the song.
It becomes quite difficult for people who love indie/alternative to figure out flaws in something so prominently beautiful.
3. Oceans (Seafret)
Jack Sedman’s agonized vocals may rest on a bedrock of calm, soothing guitars laid down by Harry Draper.
The song aches with longing and grief, reaching out over its imagined ocean; at the chorus, it sores, stretching out an inconceivable distance in search of someone it can’t quite grasp. The music paints a picture of longing that is very beautiful.
The video follows Maisie Williams’ character on Game of Thrones as she returns home to find a message on the side of the table. This small gesture creates a massive amount of context.
They convey a picture of childhood loneliness and job pulling a parent away from her child with just a few simple phrases. Maisie’s face is so lost and lonely that it effortlessly portrays her character.
4. Heather (Conan Gray)
This isn’t a glamorous video. In truth, it’s the unprocessed, natural moments that draw you in. The swell of the acoustic guitar is well-matched by each intimate closeup.
Conan sitting in the bathtub while dreamy harmonies pour over the production evokes an all-too-familiar feeling of vulnerability and rejection. From the set to the cinematography to the clothing featuring the legendary sweater, the overall aesthetic is flawless.
There’s a natural element to “Heather” that makes it feel more like a narrative told by a close friend than a song as if you’re sitting at the end of Conan’s unmade bed as if every lyric is a secret he’s confided in you.
5. Cold/Mess (Prateek Kuhad)
This song marks a significant turning point in the album. When the instrumentals develop and Kuhad’s voice is heard louder than ever before, it takes the listener by storm in the second half. Indeed, the album’s second half is infused with a bolder, more vibrant energy.
“Would you be able to unlock your doors?” “Can we climb out your windows?” he asks again, evoking memories of his adolescent years and mentioning climbing out of bedroom windows.
When you listen to these songs, you can’t help but feel like you’re in a coming-of-age movie, and this album is the soundtrack to your life.
6. I Love You, Baby, I Love You Doll (Parekh and Singh)
The sun-kissed single, a lovely folk-inspired ode to a loved one, is sonically frivolous, while the subject matter chronicles the agony and joy of insecure young love — innocence tempered by experience.
Nischay Parekh and Jivraj Singh, two Kolkata-based musicians, have had a significant year. Their tune ‘I Love You, Baby, I Love You Baby’ (from their 2013 album Ocean, re-released this year by Peacefrog) caught the attention of filmmaker Wes Anderson due to its unusual flair.
7. Anchor (Novo Amor)
Novo Amor, a.k.a. Ali Lacey, is a British songwriter whose music has always had a mysterious feel to it. His hushed vocals and dreamy production provide an otherworldly feel to his work, resulting in lush and immersive atmospheres with each piece. “Anchor,” his song, is the embodiment of its delicacy and artistry.
His acoustic guitar’s strings hum sorrowfully as he fingerpicks, and he sings quietly above it all. In the background, soft electric guitar tones drift like sluggish waves crashing on the shore.
The song is captivating, therefore it’s only natural that the music video would take on a mythological tone.
8. All Too Well (Taylor’s version)
Swift vividly recalls the autumnal journey upstate, the late-night dance in the kitchen, and the scarf that became her lover’s keepsake during a failed relationship.
She connects them with witty one-liners that, largely through accusations, explain why the relationship ended: He was “casually brutal in the name of honesty,” and she “asked for too much,” perhaps.
The song is a testament to a young woman’s resistance to being forgotten, proclaiming the love she felt and offered to be genuine.
Swift closes with a conventional perspective shift—from the first person to the second person—to emphasize her point. She not only remembers, but she also knows he does. For some reason, he maintains her scarf.
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