Music videos are an integral part of music culture. There are plenty of times where they feel phoned in and like an afterthought to the song itself, but a great music video enhances the song. It allows the artists to make their art not only confined to audio, but into the visual realm as well. Artists like The Weeknd and Dorian Electra bring visuals to their already great audio, while people like Beyonce and FKA twigs are making maximalist, heart wrenching statements with their videos. In a year where the music industry has shut down, music videos have still be able to be everything from extremely detailed stories to hilarious homemade videos. Here are my 10 favorite music videos of the year and why each one deserves a watch.
10. Gorillaz - “Pac-Man” (Feat. ScHoolboy Q)
Half of the fun with Gorillaz is getting into the videos and lore behind the group, so they make sure that their visuals don’t dissapoint. The “Pac-Man” visual may not be anything that special on the surface, but all the little things about it make it worth the watch. The video itself is just the characters hanging out around the house doing everything from boxing to texting, but the animation is just so great that even on the surface it just looks fantastic. Things like 2-D getting fuzzier and looking more distant during the airy breakdown and Russel punching the bag at the exact same time every beat hits are examples of the small things that make the video great. ScHoolboy Q also has these extremely detailed and colorful animations that are on him during his verse that make you wonder how much time went into just doing that one miniscule thing. That’s the question this entire video leaves the viewer with, and the fact that it’s almost all animated makes it even cooler.
9. Teyana Taylor - “Bare Wit Me”
Teyana Taylor’s music has been pretty hit or miss for most people, but she easily has some of the most cinematic music videos out now. This video revolves around it being a parody of “a bad hollywood movie”, but the special part is her and her crew dancing at about three minutes in. It proves that you can still have a great video by just putting five people in a room that are amazing dancers. She was credited for choreographing Beyonce’s “Ring The Alarm” video when she was just 15 years old, so it’s not a surprise that she’s an extremely talented dancer and choreographer. Teyana somehow seems fluid and robotic at the same time, to the point where it looks almost inhuman. Her and her dancers even all have multi colored suits to likely pay homage to Michael Jackson’s iconic “Smooth Criminal” visual. Although she just announced her retirement only a few weeks ago, hopefully she ends up making more videos sometime in her lifetime. Teyana has always been someone that brings extremely cinematic visuals, but this video is a level above the rest.
8. Rico Nasty - “Own It”
The most normal outfit that Rico wears in this video consists of a detailed box made out of her hair while in a greenscreen with lemons and candles. If that doesn’t tell you what type of video this is, I’m not sure what will. It feels like Rico is playing dress up in the most random, but also fashionable outfits ever. There are plenty of insane fashion statements in this video including a full face mask with clear stalagmites pointing out of every direction, her name put into her hair, foot tall heels, nails so long they look closer to claws, and much more. The most outrageous one includes squid looking heels, extended squid fingernails, jewelry on her eyelashes that hangs down over her eyes, and a crown full of lit blunts. Everything Rico does is to the max and solely herself. No one else out there can wear these outfits or have a video like this work so well. It's yet another example of how unique Rico Nasty is in everything she does.
7. Dorian Electra - “Gentleman/M’Lady”
Dorian Electra has always put a lot of effort into their videos and outfits, especially when it comes to playing with traditional gender stereotypes. They do it so much that when they dressed up as a traditional Starbucks-drinking valley girl, it was somehow the most surprising yet. This video, on the other hand, shows Dorian portraying this incel-like character through both the male and female sides. Their character is talking about how much of a gentleman they are and how they deserve this perfect, almost nonhuman woman. So, Dorian decides to give this to them in the later half of the video, as they become this elf-like, Doritos eating, Mountain Dew drinking idea of the perfect girl for these incels. It perfectly encapsulates the craziness and over-the-topness of Dorian’s music, and in the best way possible.
6. Rosalia - “TKN” (Feat. Travis Scott)
This is a video that works on both the simple visual level, and the deeper symbolic level. The visuals on the base level include Rosalia and Travis Scott surrounded by kids both inside the house and out on the street. There’s this sense of aggression from each side, but also love and caring for one another and the kids that surround them. On the deeper level, the video plays out the story that they’re telling in the song, which is one of loss. Travis is murdered because of his ties to gang life, and Rosalia is left to take care of the kids, which is why there’s so many kids around. The quick shots of the wall with what originally appear to be kid drawings, are actually showing what happened to Travis. Most of the video is Rosalia caring and dancing with the children by herself. They are all looking to her for strength, and she succeeds in helping them become strong. It’s only when we see the kids asleep is Rosalia able to let her guard down for a second and show the grief that is in the song and video. It may not be Rosalia’s best single of this year, but it’s for sure her best video of the year and one of the deeper videos of the year.
5. Thundercat - “Dragonball Durag”
Sometimes, homemade videos can be amazing, and this is one of those scenarios. Throughout the video, Thundercat finds a dragonball durag next to the dumpster, puts it on, and then tries to seduce his famous female friends in the funniest ways possible. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to not smile and laugh while watching this video. Whether it’s Thundercat failing to moonwalk in the middle of the road while Kali Uchis dials 911 from her balcony, popping out of the dumpster after creeping on the HAIM sisters, or crawling on all fours, this video is full of meme-able moments. It all works because nothing in here feels forced. Thundercat is about this weird in real life, and the song helps play into the outrageousness that the video has. It also helps that he has comedian and internet troll Zack Fox directing the video, which makes all the craziness feel even more authentic. Even though this was filmed and made before the coronavirus pandemic, this video is perfect relief for a mental and emotional break from this year.
4. The Weeknd - “Blinding Lights”
The Weeknd has done everything right with this era, and these videos are no exception. The whole string of videos from this album are in chronological order and feature some incredible cinematography and symbolism, but “Blinding Lights” takes the cake for best video. There are the extravagant lights of Las Vegas that help backlight the whole video. The character is slowly losing his grip on reality throughout the video. He’s trying to keep the party going when there’s no party. Instead of the casino party in the previous video with Metro Boomin, Abel is hopelessly trying to keep the party going by himself, whether that be speeding around the city in his car or dancing in the middle of the street. It’s Abel’s slight movements and facial expressions that helps this character come to life and show that he could become a solid actor if he wanted to. There’s no multiple video, character building, cinematic world like The Weeknd’s in 2020, and I’m not sure it’ll happen to this quality in a long time.
3. SZA - “Hit Different” (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign)
SZA returned with new solo music for the first time since 2017, and even though the song proved once again that she’s still one of the people to beat in the new age of R&B, the visuals are likely better than the song itself. It’s not like there’s much that's inherently special about this video, as it's a combination of group choreography, symbolic messages, and ends with SZA just singing straight to the camera for 90 seconds. It’s really all the little things about this video that make it stand out. Things like the color palette of the video is just perfect, especially with the main setting being a car junkyard. The flashes of symbolism, like SZA covered in blood are striking compared to the Aaliyah inspired outfits and dance a lot of the video seems to be revolving around. The ending with a snippet of a new song is somehow so transfixing, even though it’s so simple with SZA just singing to the camera while barely moving around a pommel horse. But things like the beaded hairstyle and the detailed pile of chairs and wood in the background help bring this captivating vibe to the video. Just watching the video with SZA’s effortless vocals and all the details in the video over this gorgeous color palette makes it one of the most entertaining videos of the year and a fantastic directing debut for SZA herself.
2. Beyonce, Blue Ivy, SAINt Jhn, Wizkid - “Brown Skin Girl”
Considering Beyonce’s previous two visual albums, there’s no way that a best music videos of the year list shouldn’t include Beyonce. You could argue that the 85 minute Black is King is too long to be considered a music video, but this is one of two excerpts she’s put on Youtube for everyone to see in it’s music video format. The video is rich with symbolism, references to African culture, showcasing the beauty of Black women, and much more. It’s an emotional video to watch. Beyonce herself describes the song and visual best, “It was so important to represent all different shades of brown. And I wanted every character to be shot in a regal light.” America constantly pushes women of color down, and so much so that we saw someone spew racist and sexist rhetoric for four years as our president and almost elected him again. I can’t imagine what that looks like to women of color, and the effects of constant racism from people in power would have on a person. And trying to raise kids that are learning about racism with the most important person in the county telling them they’re less than is impossible to imagine. This video is here to show those little girls that they’re beautiful too. Aside from celebrity cameos from people who’ve been subject to discrimination because of their skin color, like Kelly Rowland and Lupita Nyong’o, the video is best summed up by Blue Ivy singing the chorus of the song all by herself in center stage. It’s the little Black girls like her that need to be told that they’re beautiful and worthy of love too, and this video is here to show them that.
1. FKA twigs - “Sad Day”
It only took one watch of this video and I knew nothing was going to top this. It’s almost insulting to call this just a music video when it’s really closer to a short film. The video revolves around FKA twigs and her love interest, but instead of actually talking about their relationship problems, they have a wushu sword fight that slowly gets more unrealistic as the video goes along until she finally snaps out of her dream. The symbolism in the video is clear, that they know they’re going to break up and clearly would rather express their emotions nonverbally than sitting there and talking about. Even knowing the overarching symbolism, every detail in the video enforces some aspect of this falling apart.
The fighting itself is amazingly choreographed and is made even more impressive that Twigs herself actually did all the fighting. She had been studying the blade for three years before they started and took six months of practice and planning for the video to even be possible. That amount of time and dedication is not something that can be faked, especially when the other participant in the fight is a trained professional. After her dream fight with her love interest, the pain on her face when she hears that fateful doorbell ring of his entrance is truly heartbreaking. There’s so many little moments that help with this symbolization that I can’t even go into detail on, like how they don’t attack each other with the swords literally at their throats or increasingly unrealistic leaping through the London sky.
It’s no surprise either that the cinematography is breathtaking as well. Hiro Murai is the director, so it should be no wonder why it’s amazing. He directs all of Gambino’s stuff and is the reason why things like “This is America” and Atlanta have become so embedded in 2010s culture. There are so many unbelievably gorgeous moments. When FKA twigs floats over the puddle and flies over the car is probably the most beautiful visual moment I’ve seen all year. Without spoiling it too much, the end of the sword fight where they finally get each other is so surprising, but also ends up being amazingly shot as well. There’s not really too much to say about the video without spoiling it, but it’s easily one of the best visuals I’ve seen in 2020. It’s something that you have to see and is easily a level above every other music video of 2020.
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