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A couple of minutes are enough to tell a story, promote the singer, and ensure that the content is fresh, groundbreaking, and personal. Despite the arduous task, some have survived, and with honors.
“Have something to say, and say it” –Oscar Wilde wrote down as a maxim when creating, developing, or giving life to any kind of idea. Such a valuable saying The same applies to prose as to the art of video clips.: three or four minutes needed to tell a story, to carry out covert advertising and also get the resounding and unanimous applause of critics and the public, with that so difficult and vague that it is the author's own style (even more so in a society where image saturation and, ultimately, information overload prevail).
Of course, as for Wilde in literature There are also tricks, KISS for exampleWe owe the acronym to Kelly Johnson, an American aviation engineer, and he came to say that the simpler the better: Keep It Simple Stupid (There are versions that add a comma before the stupid ending, but in reality, the original version did not include it.) It happened that during the 1970s This axiom became popular –How much does minimalism owe to it?– and it reached the days of the video clipAn idea that has a strong impact, has become popular, and has caught the audience's attention; in short, a powerful and well-developed idea is all it takes to make a good music video.
However, this idea must be developed. It is essential that it include clean images and clear, concise messages –It seems that the tandem has worked better than many people thought– Well, many of the videos on the list share this DNA, but at the antipodes of simplicity there is also room the most exaggerated baroque style: cluttered videos, exuding aesthetics. It is true that not all those who are are here, but all those who are here are here. Music raises passions (and sometimes even generates fervor), so forgiveness comes first. Yeah some masterpiece The audiovisual in the format of musical promotion has been left in the inkwellWe repeat that, at least, They are all who are.
Singer: MINE
Director: Romain Gavras
Why? The load of violence against redheads It is a most absurd argument. A ruse, that of Romain Gavras, that would not be understood if it were not for the envy generated by the nicest hair of all those that populate the face of the Earth.
Singer: Michael Jackson
Director: Spike Lee
Why? It made an entire favela sound like it was changing. a day of misery and a bleak future for a shoot turned into a party. And in passing, he placed a social alarm on the agenda of the show bizz.
Singer: Pearl Jan
Director: Mark Pellington
Why? The clip that rolled Mark Pellington for the Seattle rock band It helped them a lot to make themselves knownThe story is heartbreaking but reality always surpasses fiction. It was A real news story, from the newspaper, that inspired Eddie Vedder to compose the lyrics of Jeremy.
Cluster: Beastie Boys
Director: Spike Jonze
Why? His name is one of the most repeated in this gallery: Spike Jonze, the music video director most famous (and also most original) of all those who have devoted themselves to the task of musical filming. To the Beastie Boys turned them into a band of cops incognito with well-ironed pinstriped trousers, a mustache and a cap-like haircut like Ken's, in the style Charles Bronson.
Cluster: The Cure
Director: Tim Pope
Why? There is a pineapple at the bottom of the sea, as well as a closet with the band The Cure insideA twist – in a gothic key and catchy rhythm – to the tale of the Little Mermaid.
Cluster: Blur
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Why? If you have to imitate someone better emulate the finest, most elegant and precise conductor in aesthetic matters: Stanley Kubrick. The Universal Blur's is a review of the mythical scenes of A Clockwork Orange (with a wink to 2001: A Space Odyssey at the beginning of the audiovisual).
Singer: Madonna
Director: Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Because? Mondino is, was and will be the oracle of impeccable taste. In his hands everything is possible; and also, fine and elegant, like no other photographer or artistic director will not even come close to touchingHe has worked with “blonde ambition” on several occasions, but the following deserve a separate chapter:the two mentions on the listThe first one is this: Justify My Love, a catalogue of sexual paraphilias (one of the most well-known and popular) black and white. Bites, touches and gasps with grateful shots of Tony Ward, who was her boyfriend at the time.
Cluster: Daft Punk
Director: Spike Jonze
Why? Spike Jonze had already been A few years shooting videos for bands and top singers (Björk or Beastie Boys, both are on this list) when it hit the screens Charles's story, this creature with a human body –bad leg and crutch included– and a dog's face (sic) that He walks through the streets of New York with a transistor radio. So attached to him that he missed an appointment because he was forbidden to take him on the bus. And that's it, there's no need to look for veiled readings or intricate arguments.; or at least that's what he said Thomas Bangalter, the 50% of Daft Punk.
Singer: Kanye West
Director: Takashi Murakami
Why? The video of Good Morning, a song included in his third album –Graduation– brought to life through animation all the drawings that the Japanese artist had created for West's albumOnce again, the teddy bear, a recurring mascot in West's imagery, comes to life in Universal City. Whether you like these new-fangled rappers, lazy rich people, and textbook egomaniacs, But they have managed to establish themselves on the throne of current music and are true kings.
Singer: Janet Jackson
Director: Dominic Sena
Why? Possibly they are The “fifteen minutes of glory” of the sister. And because this video of post-apocalyptic military aesthetics is based halfway between the Express Yourself that David Fincher filmed for Madonna that same year (1989) and any of Michael's own choreographies. Further proof that there was life – and a lot of it – before the Alexander of Steven Klein for Lady Gaga.
Singer: David Bowie
Director: Floria Sigismondi
Because? David Bowie, Tilda Swinton, Saskia de Bauwn and Andreja Pejic together and mixed in a video clip inspired by the American middle class It's a lot of work for just 4 minutes.
Cluster: The Fugees
Director: Aswad Ayinde
Why? The entire content of the video, with the nods to Roberta Flack were Laryn Hill's idea. The version of The Fugees of this classic of rhythm and blues came and swept away.
Cluster: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Director: Tony Kaye
Why? The director of American History X took the theme from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and made them take a broad look at the history of rockTo this end, the California band mutates into legendary icons: Elvis, Jimmy Hendrix, Bowie, etc. And finally them.
Cluster: The Beatles
Why? They are still seen as what they were: the most famous – and relevant – band of all time. Together, with that air hippie that they spent at the end of their career together to the sound of one of their catchiest songs. Beatles on the street, in the East End or Chelsea. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Singer: Chris Isaak
Director: Herb Ritts
Why? These are big words. When the genius of photography Herb Ritts holds a camera can only leave excellent material. And there you have it., Helena Christensen in black and white running naked and wet on a beach, lubricious material for a Chris Isaak who asks like a mourner not to fall in love again. Although Ritts –master of anatomy at the stroke of a pen click– worked for Madonna in the video Cherish or for Michael Jackson in the of Into The Closet, with these scenes he forged a resource that has been imitated to the point of satiety.
Cluster: The Chemical Brothers
Director: Michael Gondry
Why? It is one of the most celebrated videos (if not the most) from the Manchester electronic band. What this piece of music tells is irrelevant, since the comings and goings of the girl in question they do not arouse passions. What does raise them instead is thethe display of angles in which each plane dissolves, like a fan that opens, playing with the depth of field.
Cluster: Blondie
Director: Stanley Dorfman
Why? The video opens with shots of NYC. On the dance floor, Blondie in action; and she, the beautiful Debbie Harry dressed by Stephen Sprouse. Red lips, long hair Bob and cat eyes never seen before –nor ever afterOh! And the location. It's not Studio 54 although images of the legendary nightclub appear in the introduction.
Singer: Björk
Director: Bill Cunningham
Why? Between the select bouquet of cools they are unredeemed (and with mention): Björk and Bill Cunningham. Others like Aphex Twin, with whom Bill has also worked repeatedly, complete the galaxy of popes of creative eccentricity. But this tab belongs to them by right. the first couple of artists: Björk and Bill. The love between two video machines All Is Full Of Love He won every award he could get, and it's no wonder: a polished, aseptic, and at the same time fiery and passionate audiovisual.
Cluster: Blur
Director: Pedro Romhanyi
Why? The song was the title track of the British band's third album, and the video – like the album – was not inferior. Scenes from a typically English life with the car on the way to work, sandwiches and coffee from a thermos, to show a portrait as acidic as possibleAlmost a quarter of a century later, it's still funny to see Phil Daniels and Damon Albarn in the role of two commercials.
Singer: Jamiroquai
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Why? Not everyone is lucky enough to live through the turn of the century, or even the millennium, while still being a professional. at the top of the crest of the wave. Jamiroquai yes. That's why the video of Virtual Insanity crystallized its success and its momentum. Great atmosphere of what he imagined the future would be like, with zero-gravity shifting rooms.
Cluster: Coldplay
Director: Mat Whitecross
Why? They just passed two days between filming and release. Because the video only has that: the band members dressed as “one-man bands” playing the song in front of his fans. Well, that and a shower of colored confetti (something that is already on its way to becoming a catchphrase in the Coldplay universe, but oh well). The summary is that with so little on the screen, it generates a huge good vibe.
Singer: Björk
Director: Spike Jonze
Why? Crane cameras and well-studied choreography for a video clip that draws on the musical genre. Chromatic extravagance and vocal outbursts with the Björk seal, for that She was, is and will be the queen of eccentricity and the champion of the cultured avant-garde.
Cluster: Aha
Director: Steve Barron
Why? The The song is a pop legend; the sanctum sanctorum of synthesizer pop. Also from animation. And time, which sometimes does not give the exact perspective, makes it look with a certain paternalism, but At the time, that was “the ultimate.”
Cluster: Nirvana
Director: Samuel Bayer
Why? Andl grunge was (or is) this, just like that. A convention at a high school that ends in a riot without further explanation. Boredom, weariness, dire feelings that move a generation, aka grunge.
Singer: David Bowie
Director: Mick Rock
Why? It always was a genius before the letter. Just one fact: 1973. Now a new viewing of the clip and the sentence is confirmed.
Singer: Britney Spears
Director: Nigel Dick
Why? What would it be like? the script of Lolita If instead of Nabokov they had thought of it at the Disney factory. Well, the hallway with lockers, the basketball court with parquet flooring, and the odious uniform. What a getaway by car, what a Humbert Humbert, a good choreography - braids by means of - and a bustier with sweatpants. It doesn't matter what happens to her from now on, Britney will always be that “promising Lolita.”
Cluster: Metallica
Director: Jonas Akerlund
Why? It's more of a short film than a music video for a band. Porn actress Ginger Lynn Allen becomes uA mother desperate to raise her son, of the pole dancing to prostitution. With great aesthetic taste, the video narrated a heartbreaking story with all the flavor of the 80s in Los Angeles.
Singer: Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson
Director: Mark Romanek
Why? We hadn't worked together since 1982 and They had a great time with each other Scream. An absolute pleasure for the eyes In the nearly 5 minutes of the video. Unrepeatable. Unique. A masterpiece. Any adjective, no matter how grandiloquent, it fits and adjusts to him.
Singer: Eminem
Director: Phillip Atwell
Why? Eminem became known with the album The Slim Shady, and the white rapper stormed in. Each song on their first album rose to the stratosphere in the 1999 music charts, but for My Name Is orchestrated a music video that is still funny today (even if it's just Eminem in the skin of a thousand and one television characters and playing the role of Bill Clinton, the former president of the United States).
Singer: Madonna
Director: Jean-Baptsite Mondino
Why? This is the second mention among the French director and the queen of pop. Because ideas from Mondino and others from Madonna were mixed; perhaps the black legend says and tells that There were words higher than the others trying to impose criteria, but the truth is that the video is impeccable. Aesthetics YE, a nuclear target site and an uncontrollable desire for sensuality.
Singer: Elvis
Director: There isn't, because it's part of the live show.
Why? To anyone who claims to be a republican and a skeptic: a play and will agree that Elvis is “the King.”
Cluster: These New Puritans
Director: Saam Farahmand
Why? It never had such an impact. see human skin up close. A jet of compressed air and a slow motion camera in front of a body illuminated by a pendulum lamp are all that this video clip has to offer. And the result is unbeatable.
Singer: Michael Jackson
Director: Martin Scorsese
Because? Sonly with Michael Jackson There would have been plenty of material to gloss over this gallery but variety is the spice of life. Specifically, this video lasted 18 minutes and was directed by Martin Scorsese.
Cluster: Joy Division
Why? It's nothing more than a simple rehearsal of Ian Curtis's band. And it had to be.
Singer: Natalie Imbruglia
Director: Alison Mclean
Why? The whole music video is a fixed camera in front of the room of an apartment (which in reality is not one, you can see it at the end. Sorry for the spoiler) and in the center Natalie Imbruglia. People coming and going, a boyfriend –handsome, by the way– who gives her a kiss. Just like what happens to Bittersweet of The Verve (a few tabs later), pure KISS
Cluster: Guns 'n' Roses
Director: Andy Morahan
Why? To date it was the most expensive music video in history (just over a million dollars), with the top Stephanie Seymour in the lead role. Lots of evocative scenes, desert landscapes in New Mexico, and one misleading detail:why does Axl Rose wear it a leather jacket with a drawing of the Madonna of the Justify My Love on the back?
Singer: Kanye West
Director: Chris Milk
Because? CIt was (more or less) the same as the previous video And this one has already moved up to number 25 in the rankings. Anyway, time and money. Kanye, Pamela and a carefully curated 70s-inspired aesthetic. It could very well have been the Supreme of Robbie Williams (You change the decades and the locations, and the effect is the same. But you had to choose one, and Here comes Pamela Anderson).
Singer: Lady Gaga
Director: Francis Lawrence
Why? It doesn't matter what the video says, in fact, it's better not to know, because If someone tried to weave so many scenes and so much waste of costumes into a plot, the result could be an absolute nonsense.What matters is the effect, the result; and with it, she laid the foundation for her success.
Singer: Beyoncé
Director: Jonas Akerlund
Why? Akerlund – who is on this list thanks to Metallica, but it should also be for the Ray of Light of Madonna– was the author of this story, where a Gucci (from the first batch of Alessandro Michele) on Beyoncé's body He starts hitting a car. Well, that's more or less what the video is about. Then there is another version, which says that all the videos on the album are part of a cough, but the summary is that.
Singer: Rihanna
Director: Rihanna and Megaforce
Why? This is the sign of the times: violence, bad language and a lot of money to tie. It is certainly not ideal, or optimal, but it is what it is.
Singer: Jay-Z & Kanye West
Director: Romain Gavras
Why? The video is loaded with images that exude violence, but with a brutal violence typical of a street invasion at the highest level; and instead in each plane It exudes beauty. Bravo Romain, the video is flawless.
Cluster: Depeche Mode
Director: Anton Corbjin
Because? Dave Gahan, emulating the Princeling (they say, although it is more like a dress King Melchior's outfit), the balloon is kicked far and wide looking for a remote place where enjoy the silence, from the Algarve to the Swiss Alps. The video is very nice; a topic like this one Depeche Mode These landscapes are well worth it.
Cluster: The Caradigans
Director: Jonas Akerlund
Why? Although it has already been demonstrated that Akerlund is a genius, It is worth endorsing it with this clip for The Cardigans. A violent one road movie with a Swedish woman driving a convertible through the Mojave Desert.
Cluster: Aerosmith
Director: David Fincher
Because? David Fincher (director of Se7en, Fight Club, and Gone Girl) invented for Aerosmith a mini short film with abuse and revenge as the main theme. In between, that's what a video clip is for: Steven Tyler, her wavy hair, her rings and her scarf hanging from the microphone, and at times the rest of the band.
Singer: Beyoncé
Director: Jake Nava
Why? It's now a milestone. More than a decade after its launch, the video clip of Beyoncé (or her alter ego more courageous: Sasha Fierce) is a prominent part of pop cultureAnd the curious thing about the case It is how recognizable it is with the few elements that compose itOf course the music is crucial, but there they are: three girls with jerseys black, with quiffs and loose manes and a grey background.
Cluster: The Verve
Director: Walter A. Stern
Because? Richard Ashcroft walking oblivious to everything else (he doesn't give a damn, he doesn't give a damn, as they say). The video couldn't be simpler and at the same time more powerful.. KISS paradoxes, we return to it again and again.
Singer: Cyndi Lauper
Director: Edd Griles
Why? We spend our time reviewing, praising, highlighting the large investments; pharaonic productions that leave the Cleopatra of Mankiewicz at the level of a communion video. But there have also been cases to the contrary., very modest productions that have achieved a lot with very little, and Cyndi Lauper's video is an example of this.
Cluster: Queen
Director: Bruce Gowers
Why? The entire music video can be summed up as follows: 1. basic lens effects (like any manual, homemade camera could make) and 2, medium shots of the band members at a concert.
Cluster: Spice Girls
Director: Johan Camitz
Because? It marked a before and after, and specifically this video was the starting gun for the race girl band most famous of all timeThe girls – the athlete, the funky, the spicy one, the mellifluous one, and she, Victoria the posh one – making mischief in the middle of a dinner that oozes ancestry. A marvel that marked –and greatly– an entire generation.
Singer: Michael Jackson
Director: John Landis
Why? As the alpha and the omega, We're done. A full stop to this review of audiovisuals and music with the first music video of the pop era.
Original article date: 2017.
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