10 great animated music videos

Long before the music videos reached the popularity and importance they have today, the Beatles, tired of traveling to the United States to play their new songs in the most popular TV shows, decided instead to produce short films and send them to the television shows. 

Known as "illustrated songs", "promotional clips", "song videos", … Since the 60s, music videos have evolved a lot and today a wide range of styles and contemporary video-making techniques are being used, including animation.

So I have selected 10 great animated ones that you must have watched!

01. “One More Time” by Daft Punk (2000)

Very special video as every Daft Punk music clip they used to release. This one features scenes that would later form part of “Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem”, a 2003 anime film that acts as a visual realisation of Discovery. The video features a pop band of humanoid blue-skinned aliens performing the song to a crowd on their home planet while a mysterious force approaches it. Like the rest of the feature film, it was directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi under the visual supervision of Leiji Matsumoto.

02. “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz (2005)

Is there anyone out there who does not recognize Gorillaz imaginary?. Probably not! In this clip, Jamie Hewlet´s (designer) famous character “2D” yearns for the freedom to join Noodle on her floating island. The characters lying on the floor represent those who have already been "dumbed down", while the band members are the ones who have awakened. “2D” is trying to wake all the people from their half-dead state by yelling at them through his megaphone, in the style of a political activist. The floating island is chased by ominous helicopters, monitoring the behaviour inside and ensuring that no one escapes. The music video for "El Mañana" is a continuation of this video, depicting two helicopter gunships catching up to Noodle's floating windmill island and attacking it.

03. “Little Talks” by Of Monsters And Men (2012)

“Little Talks” was created by Mihai Wilson and his production firm WeWereMonkeys (they also produced the band's 2013 single "King and Lionheart"). The clip is a snowbound fantasy with spectacular landscapes and tons of imagination that reminds of Tim Burton's imaginary. It starts with five sky-sailors (played by the male members of the band) spotting something falling from the sky. When they investigate, the object splits open to reveal a beautiful female creature (played by Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdóttir). She joins the sailors on their sky ship to experience all kinds of adventures and challenges. The music video was nominated in the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Art Direction in a Video, but lost to Katy Perry's "Wide Awake".

04. “Medicine” by Bring Me The Horizon (2019)

I was personally involved in the creation and production of this one, so I just could not leave it out of the list. Bring Me The Horizon counted with famous designer extraweg to animate the Medicine music video, the third single of “amo” album. The song goes about toxic relationships or toxic people and how they keep us trapped and absorb all our energy and the music video represents the feelings and emotions that someone can experience while going through a toxic relationship. It shows a 3D generated of frontman Oliver Sykes in a more real world versus another world that represents his memories and feelings. The animated face goes through this process of pain, loss, suffering, angriness and anxiety. It is a hypnotic and disturbing visual trip where viewers can see and experience extreme emotions and feelings.

05. “Do The Evolution” by Pearl Jam (1998)

Co-directed by Kevin Altieri (Batman: The Animated Series) and Todd McFarlane (Spawn), "Do the Evolution" music video was written and developed by Pearson and Altieri with input from McFarlane and Vedder and took a total production time of 16 weeks.

Throughout this amazing video, a black-haired woman dances and laughs, representing "Death" as it follows mankind through all of its history. The video begins with the evolution of life, from the smallest cell to the extinction of dinosaurs and reign of homo sapiens, and then cuts back and forth throughout human history, depicting man's primitive, violent nature has essentially unchanged over the centuries. Every scene portrayed complements the song's meaning and tightly follows the lyrics. The video concludes in what seems to be future scenarios of the self-destruction of the human race. However, near the end of the animation, the earth is briefly seen as an ovum, suggesting a rebirth and the perpetuation of the human condition.

06. “Fell In Love With A Girl” by White Stripes (2001)

This music video “The White Stripes” is a Lego animation directed by Michel Gondry. The clip was shot frame by frame with each frame having the Lego bricks rebuilt, sometimes in a complex manner to seem as if it were an actual shot, and then formed together to give the illusion of motion. Brilliant idea, lot of work and great result. As a curiosity, Gondry’s son is featured at the beginning of the video, building Lego blocks.

And as anecdote, frontman Jack White once said that the White Stripes contacted the Lego Group in hopes of having a small Lego set packaged with each single of the record, with which one could build a LEGO version of Jack and Meg White. The Lego Group refused, however, once the video became a hit, Lego contacted the White Stripes again and asked if they could reconstruct the deal to have Lego packaged with the single. But this time, it was Jack White who refused.

07. “Do I Wanna Know?” by Arctic Monkeys (2013)

Directed by David Wilson and animated by British agency Blinkink, the "Do I Wanna Know?" music video, released in June 2013 today has almost a Billion views on YouTube.

The video begins with a black background and simple visuals of white sound waves (similar to the AM cover art) that vibrate in synchronization, first with the percussion and lead guitar, then with the lead singer, Alex Turner. As the band enters with the chorus, colored sound waves illustrate new voices. Simple sound waves then give way to fast-moving, representational line-drawing animations that morph between a variety of female, race car, race car engine, and road racing images. At one point, the undulating white line becomes the "trucker's Mudflap girl", seen in the single's cover art. The increasingly complex video creates, by turns, a somewhat jarring and psychedelic experience ending with the familiar white line becoming two crossed checkered flags, which join together in a single line with the "AM" initials.

08. “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead (1997)

The music video for Paranoid Android was created and directed by Swedish animator Magnus Carlsson, best known for the animated series Robin, which show Radiohead were fans themselves so they connected with the Robin character. Magnus set aside the high-concept videos from the band’s previous album while highlighting the nightmarish absurdity of the lyrics. The music video uses very simple cel animation. It is remarkably similar to the animation used during the 1960s Saturday Morning Cartoons, which is often referred to as "illustrated radio". 

Like Robin, the "Paranoid Android" video is drawn in a simplistic style that emphasises bold colours and clear, strong lines. It features Robin and his friend Benjamin venturing into the world, running into miserable EU representatives, bullying pub patrons, a prostitute, two kissing leathermen, a drug addict, deranged businessmen, mermaids and an angel who plays table tennis with Robin. The band appears in a cameo at a bar, where they are shown drinking while watching a man with a head coming out of his belly dancing on their table.

09. “Go With The Flow” by Queens Of The Stone Age (2002)

The music video for “Go With The Flow” was filmed in England by Shynola, a collective name of a group of three visual artists based in London who have worked for many artists (Radiohead, Blur, Beck, Coldplay, etc…). The video was awarded by MTV for Best Special Effects and got a nomination for Best Art Direction and Breakthrough Video.

The clip, rendered in black, white, and red, features the band performing at the back of a Chevrolet pickup truck driving through a desert highway. The video also has sexual themes such as a metaphor of two cars colliding with each other, symbolizing intercourse, and an image of a bident (weapon associated with Hades, god of the dead and the king of the underworld) like the one on the cover of the album, showing some erotic attributes.

10. “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles (1968)

After “A Hard Day's Night” and “Help” movies, The Beatles had to release a third one due to a deal with United Artist. But it's no wonder that they didn't feel like it at all, so George Dunning and Al Broadax (same two responsible for the Beatles cartoon TV series) together with Heinz Edelmann (art director) and Lee Minoff (story) came up with the idea of this pop art animated masterpiece where the fab four only gave their voices to their psychedelic caricatures. This clip is the “Yellow Submarine” music video of the extended animated movie that even today feels like a lot ahead of its time.

Cover animation by Jamie Hewlett