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Aug 27, 2020 · Here is our list of the 100 artists who have made the music video eternal, with a YouTube playlist of videos from all the artists available at the end.
- Born Free
M.I.A.’s “Born Free” video was unveiled this morning (Apr....
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The week's most popular artists across all genres, ranked by...
- Born Free
- Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance” (dir. Francis Lawrence, 2009) By the time she crawled out of your mom’s Volvo roof box to deliver her first rah-rah-rahs, Lady Gaga had already hosted a poolside orgy, transformed the subway into her debaucherous lair, and sought poisonous revenge on Alexander Skarsgård for throwing her off the edge of a castle.
- Missy Elliott, “Work It” (dir. Dave Meyers, 2002) While most of her contemporaries settled for music videos that made them look tough or sexy, Missy Elliott got strange with hers, and “Work It” is a perfect distillation of her idiosyncratic vision of warped world.
- D’Angelo, “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)” (dir. Paul Hunter, 2000) Naked as the day he was born, save for a gold chain and bracelet, D’Angelo is the entirety of the simple, single-take video for “Untitled.”
- Beyoncé, “Formation” (dir. Melina Matsoukas, 2016) Beyoncé stopped the world for the umpteenth time when she dropped the explosive song and video for “Formation,” just a day before performing the anthem at Super Bowl 50.
As the '70s came to a close, the first wave of singer/songwriters had dispersed into soft rock (James Taylor), more experimental avenues (Joni Mitchell), or straight-ahead mainstream pop (Carole King, Paul Simon) and rock (Jackson Browne).
- Lil Kim
- Pearl Jam
- Drake
- Split Enz
- Kate Bush
- Foo Fighters
- Eminem
- Aphex Twin
- U2
- Britney Spears
Although earlier female MCs like Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah used music videos to help launch their careers, Lil Kim’s instantly iconic 1997 video appearances positioned her as something like the Madonna of hip-hop. From the color-coded sets, outfits and wigs in Lance Rivera’s “Crush On You” to her spotlight-stealing appearance in Paul Hunter’s v...
Music videos were not just the best, but practically the only way to thrive in popular music in the early ‘90s — but Pearl Jam challenged that status quo by becoming MTV’s most famous holdouts. Their performance-driven videos for “Alive” and “Even Flow” pushed the band’s 1991 debut album, Ten, to platinum sales. But Mark Pellington’s dramatic clip ...
Following in Rick Springfield’s footsteps, Aubrey “Drake” Graham was a TV star before he was a music video star. He rose to fame acting on Degrassi: The Next Generationbefore taking the hip-hop world by storm in 2009 — although the Kanye West-directed video for his breakthrough hit, “Best I Ever Had,” was an unfunny misfire. Eventually, Drakefound ...
Though national treasures in their home country of New Zealand, Split Enzwere far less known in other parts of the world — breaking into the Hot 100 just once with 1980’s “I Got You.” But they were an unusually image-conscious and visually imaginative art rock band when they started out in the mid-‘70s, with percussionist Neil Crombie creating outl...
When a teenage Kate Bushsigned to EMI Records, she spent some of her advance on interpretive dance classes and mime training — filling her first tour in 1979 with complex choreography and frequent costume changes. But then she didn’t tour again for 35 years, focusing her energies on recording an ambitious series of albums and transferring her theat...
Anticipation for Dave Grohl’s post-Nirvana solo project was sky-high in 1995, but he declined to make a video for the first Foo Fighterssingle, “This Is A Call.” But the Foo Fighters soon became known for entertaining videos with a much lighter tone than Nirvana’s, like the “Big Me” video that parodies the then-ubiquitous Mentos commercials and was...
From the moment “My Name Is” aired for the first time, Eminemwas a star. The bright, playful visuals directed by Philip G. Atwell and Dr. Dre helped give the Detroit rapper’s dark sense of humor a cartoonish all-ages appeal. But the video for “Stan” also allowed Eminem to flex his storytelling skills, turning one of his most ambitious songs into an...
Early Aphex Twinvideos like the Jarvis Cocker-directed time-lapse film for “On” highlight the otherworldly beauty of Richard D. James’s experimental electronica. But when the late ‘90s explosion of the genre brought bigger video budgets, Aphex Twin and director Chris Cunningham teamed up for a series of confrontationally bizarre videos like “Come T...
Few acts used videos to reinvent themselves as much as U2 did. In the ‘80s, the Irish quartet were earnest political rockers who paid tribute to their American influences and political heroes. But in the ‘90s, U2 reemerged as a hip, ironic band with Bono poking fun at the cable TV age of information and his own rock star image in a series of postmo...
Britney Spears ruled the Total Request Liveera with an iron fist. First, it was ‘80s hair metal director Nigel Dick’s campy clips for “…Baby One More Time” and “Oops! I Did It Again” that dominated the airwaves. But as Y2K pop evolved, so did she, with stylishly choreographed videos like the Francis Lawrence-directed “I’m A Slave 4 U” and Joseph Kh...
- Kareem Gantt
- Ariana Grande. 12,511 votes. With powerful vocals that allow her to hold her own alongside legends like Aretha Franklin, this pop sensation has achieved great success in a short time span with hits topping charts worldwide.
- Dua Lipa. 8,604 votes. This London-born artist with Kosovar-Albanian roots brings a fresh take on pop, blurring genre lines by infusing elements of electronic, retro, and dance music into her sound.
- Taylor Swift. 9,201 votes. Sensational singer-songwriter known for her catchy melodies and relatable lyrics, she transitioned from country darling to pop superstar seemingly effortlessly.
- Billie Eilish. 11,327 votes. At just 19 years old, this Los Angeles native has redefined pop by defying conventions with her moody, haunting sound and unapologetic image.
Oct 4, 2021 · At the top of the list, you’ll find “The Icons,” the 50 artists whose influence has changed music forever, in alphabetical order, followed by “The Essentials,” 150 nearly-as-important ...
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The week's most popular artists across all genres, ranked by album and track sales as compiled by Luminate, radio airplay audience impressions as compiled by Luminate and streaming activity...
