According to one esteemed arts critic, 2014 was a year in which music videos spanned “the sublime, sinister, silly and sleazy”. As for 2015? Much of the alliterated statement still applies, only the cultural climate has shifted slightly, and more emphasis has been paid to the clever, candid and creative methods of entertainment.
After the trail of destruction that followed Blurred Lines, not to mention the wider discussions regarding cultural appropriation - there has been a heightened fear awareness of the repercussions of making a reductive video this year. The arrival of streaming services like Tidal has also increased the worth of video in terms of assuring exclusives are worth the subscription fee (nothing will prevent the internet from obtaining music’s most essential videos, however). It has been a quiet year for big statement’s too: queen of controversy Miley Cyrus spent most of the year smoking bongs and sporting dodgy quasi-political prosthetics, and the all round absence of albums from most of the music’s major players (Rihanna, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Kanye, Frank Ocean) means this year’s videos have been relatively low-key. Gone is the desire to break the internet with bum-orientated premises and in its place something a little more abstract and in many cases, amusing.
Watch some of the best music videos in the player below:
Notable mentions must go to Björk, who decided not to offset the heartbroken savagery of her album Vulnicura by making videos featuring babies cuddling owls, and instead aimed to emote further: there was Mouth Mantra, shot from within the artist’s own gob (a relatively distressing take on intimacy); while Stonemilker’s 360-degree virtual reality video plonked fans directly into her home turf, with the viewer able to navigate their way around her back yard.
It was also a year in which certain societal contexts inspired artists to make videos with a more politically conscious message: MIA’s recent self-directed comeback, Borders, symbolised the struggle of refugees, while Kendrick Lamar’s monochrome masterpiece for Alright further contextualised his message of hope and power in the face of police brutality.
2015 saw the brief but return of human glitter-ball Missy Elliott for WTF, the queen of rap whose videos have always been just as much an event as her tracks. Elsewhere in the classy choreography section, a special mention must go out to Bruno Mars and his pink blazer, as well as Kelela for the restless romance of Rewind, a video which flickers under-broken strip lights and adds to the nocturnal yearning of her music.
Surreal epics
In terms of cinematic epics, there was David Bowie’s Blackstar, a video, according to the film desk’s Andrew Pulver, that visually “belongs in the surreal, dream-logic era of the music video that Bowie himself mastered in the early 80s with Ashes to Ashes. Music videos have moved on – through the Spike Jonze, Hype Williams and Chris Cunningham eras – but Bowie’s have basically stayed the same, even if the budgets have gone up.”
Rihanna ignited the internet with the blockbuster brilliance of BBHMM - the feminist thinkpiece sparking gangster parody that temporarily distracted fans from her still non-existent album, Anti.
NSFW
If it is NSFW you are after, Tame Impala’s The Less I know The Better features some strangely sensual sex scene sequences starring a massive gorilla, while Peaches’ video for Rub is best consumed as far as possible from any kind of human being capable of blushing/being disgusted by the female form.
Going viral
In terms of viral success stories, Drake’s James Turrell-inspired Hot Line Bling video was a masterstroke harnessing an audience. His ridiculous dance routines - spanning dad drunk at a wedding, cod-Bollywood and beyond - triggered countless parodies and subsequent Buzzfeed lists.
Simply better
Simplicity and performance was key to Skepta’s Shutdown – shot amid the brutalist architecture of London’s Barbican – cost £80, while Kanye West pared-down his production and settled on muddy field and a winter walk with his little girl, North, for Only One.
Away from the stark light of reality, nightmares were a source of inspiration for many: Skrillex spent a million dollars on his video for GTA’s Red Lips, while Oneohtrix Point Never’s Repossession Sequence captured a misty, dystopian digital world described by Ben Beaumont-Thomas in this office as being trapped in a “really glossy dentist’s waiting room but with something very, very bad happening”. Also worth checking their video for Sticky Drama, if you’re feeling particularly stable.
Grimes created less of a nightmare and more of a fantasy (dressed as a cowboy angel, Marie Antoinette, cyber-goth gamer, 80s gangster), and, on a similarly trippy strand, A$AP Rocky’s narcotic-fuelled Tokyo dream was realised magnificently for L$D (2m 30s and you’re trapped in a chandelier).
Lyric videos
Last year the often awful lyric video rose to prominence – a tactical way to clock up YouTube streams before the official video was released. This trend seems to have died down a little, but Demi Lovato’s hedonistic spring breaker lyric video proved even better than the generic night out, driving in a drop-top narrative of the original.
Directed by Eric Wareheim (of Tim and Eric cult comedy fame), Charli XCX’s Famous was a video that addressed anxieties about the online world. It told the familiar story of a young girl who escapes to the artificial world of her mobile to avoid the ugliness of humanity (just one of many readings of its meaning, take a look at the confused YouTube comments), while Mini Mansion’s Double Visions exposed a worryingly familiar world in which we are all so involved in our timelines that we let chaos consume us.
Boot camp
A late addition goes to Fat White Family, whose video for Whitest Boy on The Beach involves the band hiding out in dank caves for some warped types of military initiation. Shot at a cold-looking Beachy Head and directed by the acclaimed artist Tim Noble, the squat rockers prove that if you can’t afford a glass suit or trip to Tokyo; then a slap round the face with a dead eel will probably do.
