Top 10 Most Creative Music Videos of All Time
#10: “Virtual Insanity” (1996)
Jamiroquai
Videos like this show that long before the high-tech era, a little creativity could go a very long way. And, there was practically nothing high-tech here! With some wheels and clever off-camera teamwork, they pulled off the illusion of a moving set. It looks like the floor is shifting, but it’s actually the walls and furniture being wheeled around. Add in a few well-placed camera angles, and suddenly it feels like one continuous sequence. At first, director Jonathan Glazer’s crew thought the idea was completely bonkers, but Jay Kay saw the vision. It's often considered one of the greatest music videos of all time, winning four awards, including Video of the Year at the VMAs.
#9: “Ashes to Ashes” (1980)
David Bowie
Co-directors Bowie and David Mallet really splashed out here. At the time, it was the most expensive music video ever made and still ranks among the priciest today. But every penny went into creating a surrealist fever dream, using a program called Paintbox. It was a spearhead for graphics back then, which they used to play with the color palette and give everything an ethereal glow. The video pushes the envelope by telling a story through abstract imagery rather than a neat linear plot. Bowie drew from cinema, subcultures, and even religion to shape it. The result feels like one of those vivid dreams that haunt you long after you wake up. It redefined what a music video could be.
#8: “911” (2020)
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga has always pushed boundaries, but “911” feels like a league of its own. She’s said it was inspired by her own struggles with mental health and how our conscious and subconscious minds overlap. The video is loaded with symbols and references to films like “The Color of Pomegranates.” At first, viewers are swept into a dreamlike fantasy world, but the final twist reveals it’s all a hallucination in Gaga’s mind. Suddenly, the colorful characters are shown as paramedics, police, and bystanders at the scene of a brutal car crash. That shocking reveal grounds all that abstract imagery in reality. It becomes a powerful yet vulnerable statement about trauma and searching for “heroes within us.”
#7: “Fell in Love with a Girl” (2002)
The White Stripes
This one’s for the Lego lovers. Ever built a Lego set and then tried making a little stop-motion movie? That’s basically what’s happening here, just on a much bigger scale. Funny story: they couldn’t get Lego to sponsor it, so they just bought bucketloads of bricks themselves. Lego’s been popular forever because it lets people turn their wildest ideas into reality, which really comes into play here. It even won them three VMAs. Some shots are real Lego stop-motion, others are digitally tweaked to move, and honestly, you can’t even tell the difference. It’s a perfect mash-up of reality and imagination, and it shows that when it comes to creativity, everything really does click.
#6: “This Is America” (2018)
Childish Gambino
In 2016, Beyoncé took the world by storm when she demanded we all get in “Formation.” She celebrated Black culture while calling out oppression, a theme Childish Gambino would push even further in his groundbreaking 2018 hit, “This Is America.” It’s a powerful commentary on U.S. socio-politics, packed with anti-racism and anti-violence imagery. Not to mention calling out police brutality, which disproportionately impacts the Black community. If we listed every allusion here, you’d probably be shocked at how many you missed. But don't worry, that’s kind of the point. You're supposed to be distracted by the happy dancing at the forefront while chaos erupts behind it all. If that makes you feel uncomfortable, then the video’s doing its job.
#5: “All Is Full of Love” (1999)
Björk
You probably guessed it was only a matter of time before Björk showed up on this list, and here she is. She’s famous for her avant-garde style, both on stage and in music videos, and it’s her commitment to staying true to that vision that makes her work feel timeless, or even ahead of its time. This video features two Björk-esque humanoid robots exploring intimacy, apparently inspired by the Kama Sutra. Y2K had yet to roll around, and we already had a video pondering how love and connection might evolve in a tech-driven world. It’s a brilliant mix of art, technology, and the core of what makes us human. If anything, it’s even more thought-provoking today.
#4: “This Too Shall Pass”
OK Go (2010)
OK, Go find just one music video that highlights this group’s reputation for creativity and innovation! They first made a name with treadmills in “Here It Goes Again” and kept raising the bar with “The One Moment,” “Needing/Getting,” and “Upside Down & Inside Out.” “This Too Shall Pass” even got two music videos! For the second one, they built an enormous Rube Goldberg machine that moves perfectly in sync with the song, all captured in a single continuous take. With a tight budget, they repurposed trash to build it, spending more than a month constructing it. The final result was mesmerizing, went viral immediately, and was even considered for a spot in YouTube and the Guggenheim’s “YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video.”
#3: “Black or White”
Michael Jackson (1991)
It’s tough to pick just one Michael Jackson video, especially with “Thriller” and “Remember the Time” to consider. But “Black or White” really takes the cake for how far it pushed expectations. The face-morphing effect was mind-blowing back then. You just didn’t see that kind of tech outside of Hollywood, and it sent a strong message about unity and equality. But it didn’t stop at special effects. He filled the video with dancers from around the world, showcasing diverse cultures. He was also one of the first major artists to include Native Americans in a video not fronted by Native Americans. Between the bold visuals, clever edits, and unforgettable imagery, it’s brave, it’s risky, and utterly creative.
#2: “Take On Me” (1984)
a-ha
This video is instantly recognizable, but it actually wasn’t the first one made for the song. The version we all know became famous for blending live action with sketch-style animation, giving it that comic book feel. They used a process called rotoscoping, which meant tracing over live footage frame by frame. In total, they apparently traced around 3,000 frames, which took almost four months to complete. While other artists have used animation, this one showed how it could be pushed further to tell a story in a completely new way. It won six VMAs, got covered and parodied endlessly, and proved music videos could be just as inventive as the songs themselves.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
“Breathe Me” (2004), Sia
They Compiled an Incredible 2,500 Polaroid Pictures to Create This Video
“Sabotage” (1994), Beastie Boys
If You Love 70s Cop Shows, Then This Probably Ranks High on Your Personal Music Video List
“Weapon of Choice” (2001), Fatboy Slim feat. Bootsy Collins
Just Christopher Walken Showing Off His Dance Training & Creating Music Video History
“Money for Nothing” (1985), Dire Straits
A Pioneer in Incorporating CGI Animation into a Music Video
“Around the World” (1997), Daft Punk
Brilliantly Using Choreographed Characters to Represent the Band
#1: “Sledgehammer” (1986)
Peter Gabriel
Elvis Costello is considered one of the first artists to use animation in a music video. However, Peter Gabriel really went next-level with “Sledgehammer.” He pulled out all the stops, or should we say stop-motion, even throwing in some claymation for good measure. He teamed up with Aardman Animations, you know, the “Wallace & Gromit” guys, and spent a mind-boggling 16 hours lying under glass to get the shots. In total, filming took around 100 hours, with each moment being created from 25 different snaps. It all leads to this incredible finale, where Gabriel is at the center of a spinning spiral of people. The video became MTV’s most-played and won nine VMAs, including Video of the Year.
Which music video would you have added to the list? Let us know in the comments