12 Legitimately Innovative, Groundbreaking Music Videos
![12 Legitimately Innovative, Groundbreaking Music Videos](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/6/0/903460_320x180.jpg)
Way before the official terms “music video” and “music television” existed, artists were known to put out promotional clips to help their single’s success. Musical short films have been around since the 1890s, and once TV hit peoples’ homes in the 1950s, it really helped hawk the popular music of the time. Especially if the artist happened to be decent looking and charismatic. Lookin’ at you, Elvis. The Beatles had a couple of the very first color (sorry, they’re British… colour) promo videos, but they didn’t become what we know them as today until the mid ‘70s. You’ll see.
Since then, the popularity of these full-on “music videos” have helped fans connect with their favorite artists.
Before social media, unless you went to see musicians live, the only way to see them was the pic on the album cover and this 3 minute window into their world. We caught a glimpse of their style and their overall vibe, and once artists and directors got involved, we got cinematic storytelling and legitimate works of art. Here are 12 of the most innovative and groundbreaking music videos of all time.
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Hmm, it seems as though this whole “music video” thing is here to stay.
![MTV had a very fitting first music video. At 12:01a.m. on August 1st, 1981, Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles became the very first music video on MTV. The video was released in 1979, so the band definitely saw the changing of the guard and capitalized. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/8/902868.jpg)
If his fans hated him for going electric, we wonder what they thought of going video.
![Bob Dylan was an early pioneer of the music video. In 1965, 16 years before MTV, Dylan filmed a video for his song Subterranean Homesick Blues, where he held cue cards with lyrics. Several bands have used the cue card approach since, most notably INXS with 1987's Mediate. GET BORN CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/9/902869.jpg)
Bob Dylan/YouTube
Of course it was Bowie.
![ASHES TO ASHES by David Bowie is the music video's first art piece. Bowie co-directed his 1980 video, which cost £250,000 to make (a massive price tag at the time). It was a prime example of how music videos can be interpreted as art, and allowed artists to do more than just film themselves playing their instruments. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/1/902871.jpg)
David Bowie/YouTube
There’s a lot of debate about when the “promo clip” became the “music video.”
![Rolling Stone said that Queen's BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY invented the music video. It only took four hours and £3,500 to make, but its success in 1975 had every record company thinking about video! Director Bruce Gowers became a star, and went on to make videos for the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, and Prince. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/3/902873.jpg)
"Thriller" changed the game in so many ways.
![Michael Jackson's THRILLER is so much more than a music video. In December 1983, the 13-minute short film was solely responsible for increasing MTV's ratings tenfold. It is the only music video to be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/5/902865.jpg)
Depending on who you ask, every Madonna video could be on this list.
![The world first saw an empowered female artist through Madonna's videos She is cited by Encyclopedia Britannica as the first female artist to fully exploit the potential of the music video. Her '80s videos for Like a Virgin and Material Girl paved the way for every female artist to follow. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/6/902876.jpg)
They can be cartoons too, you guys!
![Elvis Costello had the first fully animated music video. Released in 1979, Accidents Will Happen was made by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, who created a cartoon version of the band using 35mm stills as reference. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/6/902866.jpg)
We don’t think we’d even know this song if it weren’t for the video.
![A-ha's TAKE ON ME blended live action and animation. Director Steve Barron and animators Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger used a technique called rotoscoping, which involves tracing over live-action footage, frame by frame. Four months and over 3,000 drawings later, they had arguably the most iconic music video of all time. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/6/7/902867.jpg)
They kept that “Suburbs” title vague for a reason.
![Arcade Fire's interactive SUBURBS video For their 2010 song We Used to Wait, fans could plunk in their address on thewildernessdowntown.com and see Google Maps images of their house in the video for a personalized experience. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/0/902870.jpg)
Yes, “America” can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
![THIS IS AMERICA by Childish Gambino sparked a ton of controversy. Lones Le . Joes In 2018, the Hiro Murai-directed video was discussed to no end. A very apt review said, It tackles police brutality, gun violence, and the use of African Americans as a brand shield, all while dancing in Jim Crow-style caricature. It won the Grammy for Best Music Video that year. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/5/902875.jpg)
Honestly, pick any OK Go video, and we’ll prove its innovation.
![OK Go was a pioneer in viral music videos. Their treadmill choreography in 2009's Here It Goes Again was a massive hit that led to their rube goldberg machine video for This Too Shall Pass. With a crew of 60 people, the machine synced up with the song itself and took roughly 60 takes to complete. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/4/902874.jpg)
OK Go/YouTube
That’s a lot of clapping along.
![Pharrell's 24-hour music video. ISE 08:57PM08 AM SHARE THIS MOMENT Directed by We Are from LA, the full length version of Pharrell's 2014 hit Happy is 24 hours long. It filmed hundreds of regular people and celebrities dancing to the song overll days of shooting and 42 separate locations around L.A. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/2/902872.jpg)