Asklemmy

Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity is pretty impressive when you find out how they filmed it.

Christopher Walken is so good in Weapon of Choice that he made me like the song https://yewtu.be/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8

Aha - Take On Me ...such a mesmerizing video. A girl reading a comic is sucked into a world in between the two realities. Really cool artistically and you can't help but wish you could see more of the story.

Ok Go, just about any of their videos are worth watching, even if you don't care about their music

Dire Straits Money for Nothing was amazing at the time. Turn Down for What is amazing in its own way. Smashing Pumpkins Tonight, Tonight. Michael Jackson had a few good ones.

Labyrinth.

Sure, they call it a movie, but it's really just an hour and a half long David Bowie video.

From Yesterday by 30 Seconds to Mars is like a whole short film and they went to China to film it. I remember it being a bit of a deal at the time.

Basically every OK Go music video, This Too Shall Pass is particularly impressive.

Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel is pretty impressive the amount of work that must've gone into it.

The face morphing at the end of Black and White by Michael Jackson was cutting edge special effects at the time and it holds up well today (better than the rap verse breakdown in the song itself....)

I don't think anyone has appreciated what Coldplay did with their MV for The Scientist. In which Chris Martin really had to learn to sing the song backwards for the MV.

Here's what Director Jamie Thraves said on his interview with MTV way back on 2003

"I had this idea that I wanted to do a story that's tragic but starts off happy and ends happy, and the video is about rewinding to that happy ending,"

Thraves needed to find a new way to tell a narrative story that moved forward even as the action moved backward.

"The original idea was a straight narrative without the lead singer in the video," said Thraves. "But Chris wanted to be in the video and he was really excited to learn how to sing the song backward."

"He got a tape of the song recorded backward and he listened to it over and over. He's a very passionate guy, so he got really into it. What we learned later on is about the problems with phonetics, because you have to be very careful with the lip movement so that when you end on a sound your mouth is formed in the right way."

I think this would be always the most impressive music video in my book, ALWAYS. The dedication Chris Martin put man, I cant even think how he learned all of that.

R.E.M. - Imitation of Life. The entire song happens in a few seconds, with all parts at the same time. The video keeps rewinding, each time showing one of the parts.

Impressive, maybe!? Crazy? Absolutely! The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist

https://youtu.be/qLrnkK2YEcE?si=e9TAdbnRRgRAzopL

Nothing can top "Ok Go" :)

Beastie Boys - Sabotage My favorite music video of all time, probably

Blockhead - The Music Scene is just incredible

Turn Down For What?

Same directors as Everything everywhere all at Once.

I’m convinced Ok,Go is a music video band that made music to go with their videos.

A few directed by Ritchie Cunningham, he often collaborates with Aphex Twin and Björk.

Prodigy's "Smack my bitch up" That video just had excellent camera work and a surprise twist at the end.

Pretty much all videos of Daft Punk's "Discovery" Album.

Jamiroquai "Virtual Insanity" Simple setup, but great execution.

A few from Peter Gabriel come to mind as well.

Edgar Wright directed a music video featuring Noel Fielding which was guided by the same idea that birthed Baby Driver (and it shows)

Jungle's Back on 74 features some absolutely exquisite choreography.

Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators' Driving Rain would be boring if it wasn’t done exclusively with puppets.

Gojira's Another World is a fun (depressing) Interstellar-inspired animation.

DJ Shadow - nobody speak

DJ Snake feat Lil Jon - Turn down for what

I quite like Around The World by Daft Punk (directed by Michel Gondry of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame). I guess "impressive" isn't the primary word I'd use to describe it but thought it was worth a mention

Goodbye Moonmen

Impressive?

An Unkindness - Anything EASILY.

Why? Shot by one dude, all the instruments and vocals are one dude, shot through multiple seasons, and then you realize the lines on different season are keys on a piano/keyboard, playing the song.

Fuckin masterpiece.

Runner up: Turn Down for What, directed by the directors of Everything Everywhere All At Once.

First thing to come to mind is Childish Gambino - This is America. It's fairly simple on its face. Some people and a few props in a large empty warehouse. It mostly relies on Donald's presence but the filmography and post FX is pretty impressive.

Honorable mention to Radiohead - Paranoid Android just because it's cool.

Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt by NiN

The video is beautiful, but the story, and timeline of cash’s later life, is heartbreaking.

It’s not flashy, it’s not in your face, but it evokes feelings in most people, and tells a story.

Do the Evolution by Pearl Jam is definitely the most impressive that I've seen.

daydreaming - Radiohead

It's Thom York stumbling through historical scenes of his life and career looking old and tired. It took me a hot minute to realize what I was watching but as soon as it hits you it's inescapable and heartbreaking.

It's not "impressive" in the same sense as take on me, Californication, or money for nothing... but in terms of really augmenting the music with a well conceived visual storytelling mechanic? Top notch.

Interstellar 5555 by Daft Punk

Kylie Minogue - come into my wolrd

A few notable classics:

One - Metallica
Thriller - M. Jackson
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Take On Me - a-ha
Hurt - J. Cash
Sledgehammer - P. Gabriel
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Quite a few Ok Go videos.

This one involves drone footage, a fucktonne of choreography, an entire school of Japanese children and a horde of Honda handlebarless e-scooters. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZB_rGFyeU&pp=ygUmSmFwYW5lc2Ugc2Nob29sIGRyb25lIG11c2ljIHZpZGVvIGJhbmQ%3D

Do the Evolution - Pearl Jam

Fever The Ghost - SOURCE: https://youtu.be/9RHFFeQ2tu4

Some of the ones that first came to mind are already mentioned, but I still wanted to include

Depeche Mode - Wrong

It's quite dark, but it still gives me shivers every time I watch it.

Shugo Tokumaru - Katachi

Might be one of my favorite modern music videos (assuming you count a decade-old music video as "modern").

Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel is iconic, the claymation and dedication is insane for a music video from that time period

It's okay to envy by Takayan is impressive for how it plays with the subtitling, trust me turn on Closed Captions for this and enjoy

Loretta by Ginger Root for how perfectly it captures an atmosphere and aesthetics of those late 80s/early 90s East/South East Asian music videos, it's a vibe - plus him playing all members of the band/accompanying orchestra is also impressive in its own right

just a few off the top of me head

the one where robbie williams rips his skin off

edit: rock dj

Porter Robinson & Madeon - shelter

https://youtu.be/fzQ6gRAEoy0?si=5tH9QomRfDje2QbR

Join me, fellow weebs!

They got a pro anime studio to make it. You can feel the caring of the father even though he's only in it a few seconds.

Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson! My favorite by far!

wild boys by Duran Duran cuz of the time it was made

Most of Michel Gondry's music videos are pretty impressive. For example: Cibo Matto - Sugar Water, Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar and Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World

Rammstein - Deutschland