Rock & Roll Globe Presents the 32 Great Music Videos of 2024
Yes, Virginia, videos still exist despite the gutting of MTV
We can all agree that it’s been a pretty hectic, disrupting, anxiety-filled year so maybe one way to deal with it occasionally is with some aural/visual distractions.
Yes, there are the kitty videos that we all love but there’s also ye olde long and short form music videos. As my editor notes, with no MTV or Much Music around anymore to tout these, it’s good to have these little bits of entertainment corralled. So for your enjoyment, we have Ukrainian surrealism, decapitations, a jazz/pop legend, a metal/folk epic, romantic dismemberment, mountains of panties, cannibal stew, inexplicable animations, a chase scene, a skyscraper serenade, martial arts moshing, suburban angst, a potentially illegal diss, Shakespeare modernized, a biofeedback improv, a pro-choice anthem, NIN reconfigured by kids, sword fights, sci-fi surrealism and a diva parody-medley. Some of them have millions of views while others are cult viewing at best, but all of ‘em are unique in some way or another. As an unrepentant horror fan, I do have a weakness for the graphic and edgy stuff, as you see here.
And if you’d like to see all the videos in one place, we have them all lined up for you in this YouTube playlist.
1. Armand Hammer “Doves ft. Benjamin Booker”
Kind of arty and proud of itself, repping a bonus track no less. But it’s still in line with the Hammer mission to stretch our idea of what rap could be, heard here with extended feedback/shoegaze passages. Visually, it’s sad, reflective and slightly disjointed, seen through a series of still or barely moving black and white images of pigeons, the World Trade Center, planes taking off, a cloudy sky and AH’s Billy Woods wandering down snowy train tracks. No complete story or answers, again all keeping in AH’s mission.
2. A$AP Rocky “Tailor Swif”
Notable enough for being filmed in the Ukraine, it’s a genuinely bizarre WTF collage of Fellini-ish scenes flashing by so quickly that we don’t have time to actually see many of the strange bits happening- you’ll need to review and pause it just to catch a lot of it. But it’ll be worth it. The sky-fall outhouse, the car that barely flies over him, the hood ornament that doubles as a beer tap, the air-lifted donkey, the car crashed into the 4th floor of a building, the egg hair guy, the upside down guy in the bathroom and on and on. Even Rocky has to stop and marvel at it all near the end.
3. Louis Armstrong “Hello Dolly”
Just coming out now, this legendary session was recorded live at the BBC on July 2, 1968, just weeks after Armstrong hit the #1 spot on the UK charts with “What a Wonderful World.” Even near the end of his life, he was still the consummate entertainer, treating the staid Brit crowd to three consecutive takes of his hit or maybe he threw in the second, third versions as mini-encores. And dig how the trombone player twists and solos. A wonderful world indeed.
4. Magdalena Bay “Image”
Crazy fun for a dance pop tune. Our leading lady is having a chill time in her hip living room with her fella casually reading, until she’s entranced by their old fashioned TV and ads for a disc with a dancing latex couple and a mysterious doctor who’s a giant starfish that grabs her and drags her into the video world where she keeps getting decapitated and transformed. She also gets pursued by the doctor through a checkered land and gets poked and prodded at all sides by kiddie scissors. She’s terrified one moment and having fun the next and maybe it was all a dream.
5. Blood Incantation “The Stargate”
A multi-part 20-minute epic from this Midwest death metal band. Their musical guests include Swedish prog-rockers Hällas and German synth legends Tangerine Dream. An entertaining, unique way to spend a third of an hour with sequences including a medieval sword fight, wandering minstrels, a ‘navigator’ who seems to control the elements, some cosmic travel (where the Dream guys come in no doubt), a desert quest, a torture chamber and more. To their credit, it might sound like a Spinal Tap video but it’s eerie and odd enough not to be.
6. Sabrina Carpenter “Please Please Please” and “Taste”
Shedding her goody-two-shoes background in a glorious way, these pair of graphic videos (the 2nd one starts with a “parental advisory and viewer warning”) are of a piece. In the first, she pleads with her guy (actor Barry Keoghan, who is her boo) unsuccessfully to not be a bad boy as he mauls a bunch of gangstas behind her while she chirps out the song, later leading to an S&M session between the two. In “Taste,” she and Jenna Ortega fight over a guy in hilariously gory detail, including one shot where we’re looking through a hole that Jenna left in Sabrina’s body. Someone needs to queue her up for a guest shot on American Horror Story.
7. Charli XCX “Guess featuring Billie Eilish”
Coming off the summer that bears her album’s name, a few months later, Charli heads up a steamy, slamming electro house party with booze flowing and panties flying. Just to up it a notch, her buddy Billie comes smashing through the wall with a backhoe loader (yep, that’s the name of the construction vehicle she rides and I bet that’s not a coincidence). Instead of disrupting things, the party goes on as Charli joins B outside, climbs a mountain of panties and bras and then rolls down and rejoins the party. And at the end, as the credits roll, we’re told “all unworn undergarments will be donated to survivors of domestic violence through I SUPPORT THE GIRLS.” Now that’s hella brat.
8. A.G. Cook “Soulbreaker”
Probably the most inexplicable thing here, which is saying a lot considering A$AP’s entry above. For this synth-pop confection (think Daft Pop), we see…? A past/present/future pegged to 1000 AD, 2000 AD, 3000 AD in the description, including a magic sword, transforming men/animals, cities celebrating and disintegrating, a family seen through the ages. What does it all mean? It’s some kind of video game that came to life maybe and riffing off of Studio Ghibli visually, but in a much less benign way. Whatever it is, animator Gustaf Holtenäs and his team did quite a job.
9. Cuts “Onions”
Done as a cheesy suburban horror film, the chirpy little synth-pop number is buoyed by the zombie husband, Little Shop of Horrors flower chorus, body parts in the fridge, blood splatter, flying knives and a gory ending that even freaks out the flowers. Definite shades of the movie Pearl here but much funnier.
10. Da Beatminerz, De La Soul & Pharoahe Monch feat. Rasheed Chappell & Corey Glover “My Year”
This impressive line-up deserves the eye-popping series of animations here, with each line of the song getting several speedy, shaky, disorientating still-life variations of a pic, including everything from cotton fields to drug needles. And as the commenters note, there’s a nice tribute to Dave from De La here, too.
11. Kim Deal “Nobody Loves You More”
Just in case you were captivated by the cover of the indie goddess’s long-time-coming solo album, here it is, come to life. In a vast, swaying electronic sea with a darkening dusk in the background, Deal floats on a small raft with a few speakers and a flamingo as she strums and sweetly croons away. Her voice is cracked and strained but that just makes it sweeter. During the horn break, she sways along with her birdie friend and otherwise looks skyward as she serenades her unseen sweetheart. It’s just freakin’ adorable, really.
12. Lupe Fiasco “Cake”
A crafty video where you don’t just get to hear a banging song with good flow but you also get a built-in behind the scenes look at how the video is made, within the video itself. Lupe’s on a platform, with a smoke machine blowing around him and a sliding camera to get the angles, while different backgrounds are shifted around him. Very postmodern. Around the same time, Post Malone would do something similar in his “I Had Some Help (Extra Posty)” video, but not quite as well.
13. FKA twigs “Eusexua”
Office Space for the post-millennium age, hence its viewership at nearly four million. The glitchy techno track helps, too.
14. Aaron Fraser “Payback”
An extended chase scene with some pretty good stunts that puts you in the perspective of a pursuer, following a perp through an alley, park, barbershop, bowling alley, dry cleaner and alleyway. And when they finally get the thief, what do they find? A bunch of CD-R’s of the song we’ve been listening to. How old school.
15. Billy Idol “Rebel Yell, Live From the Empire State Building”
For all of us who aren’t exactly thrilled about the 40th anniversary of “Rebel Yell,” you still gotta be impressed by BI and his guitarist tethered to the 103rd floor balcony of NYC’s and the US’s (the world’s, I guess) most famous building with no safety net past the rail in front of them and with the wind whipping around them as he serenades the near-by clouds, NYC and all of us through some daredevil drone fly-bys. As a follow-up, I suggest an anniversary video of “Dancing By Myself” at the Pink Pussycat adult boutique.
16. Knocked Loose ft. Poppy “Suffocate”
Consequence of Sound headlined this as “The Most Extreme Late-Night TV Performance Ever?” in their daily newsletter and they might be right. Props to Jimmy Kimmel Live for putting this on, at an outdoor stage. The band cranks it up in the rain with a mosh pit in front of them that looks like it’s breaking out into martial arts moves. Later, Poppy skips out in a nice white dress and slippers but screams like a banshee, ending the song in a howl match with KL singer Bryan Gravis. If this doesn’t push the Kentucky head-bangers over the top for their Grammy nomination for this song, nothing else will.
17. Lady Gaga “Disease”
I know, we’re supposed to write her off after the disaster of the recent Joker movie but don’t be hasty. She’s an expert provocateur, not just like Madonna, but also Marilyn Manson, who she occasionally resembles here. After an encounter with a demonic driver in suburbia, she’s pursued by another frazzled woman, who gets into cuffs and torture-mode. And yes, they’re all her likely and that makes it all the more wonderfully unsettling. The video’s now at 16M views so again, don’t even think of counting her out.
18. Kendrick Lamar “Not Like Us”
What’s so remarkable about this song of the year contender is that it might be the most popular diss track ever made, inspiring analysis and articles about it. Drake’s dress-down got it attention for sure but the hook definitely drives it home. The visualization here also drives home the point that the tune is a West Coast/Compton pride thing too, with the best appearance there coming from Tommy the Clown. Another thing that the song’s inspired now is a Drake lawsuit. Should be a real fun trial, especially if Drizzy and K-Dot get called to the stand.
19. The Last Dinner Party “Caesar on a TV Screen”
One of the current buzz bands and their slow-burning ballad turned rocker is soundtracked to a joyous, hilarious stage version of the Bard’s “Julius Caesar.” Performed in three acts and filmed at a reformed church in London, the group take a well-deserved bow at the end. Spoiler alert: JC gets shanked by his buddies.
20. Les Savy Fav “World Got Great”
A kiddie-like animation with cardboard, crayons and a phone used to create it. We get an alien invasion and monsters thwarted by the band as they transform into superheroes. They overcome the bad guys with flowers, hearts, fireworks and tickling. It’s adorable. And of course, there’s a kitty too.
21. Nehan “Live in Tokyo (Official Video)”
Featuring members of Japanese psych/noise ensembles Ghost and Acid Mothers Temple. Leader/guitarist/’hypnotizer’ Masaki Batoh (who later seems to light up a blunt) starts out explaining that they’re doing “a medical, biological feedback – a pure improvisational ceremony” where singer/dancer Satri is hooked up to a device that amplifies her brain waves which a quartet improvises around. Later, she sheds the device to sing “Caledonia,” not the Louis Jordan swing classic but the drone-rock stomper by the mysterious ESP-Disk band Cromagnon, which solidifies the Tokyo group’s obscurist credentials.
22. Stevie Nicks “The Lighthouse”
Even if you wish it could be more graphic and unsubtle, it also makes you wish that other celebs would use their star power to make a statement like this about abortion rights. Now with Project 2025 firmly in place and ready to strip away more reproductive freedoms, this song might become a resistance anthem.
23. O’Keefe Music Foundation “Kids DESTROY ‘Wish’ by NIN”
Kids doing head-banging tunes is usually just click-bait but to be fair, they really do destroy the Trent song here, plus it’s a good cause- a non-profit that provides education, instruments and more for impressionable young minds. And young ones they are- the keytar player is 8, the bassist is 11 and the singer and rhythm guitarist are both 10. Wonder what they’ll sound like when they ‘grow up’?
24. Autumn Paige “Topless”
The title probably makes you think that we’re gonna see all kinds of flesh flashing around to make us drool… but psych! It’s just the opposite. She’s frustrated that it’s just what her guys wants and she doesn’t. She even goes as far as insulting him with other parts of his anatomy- feet, johnson. She’s not anti-sex but is interested in another body part- the heart. “All these guys wanna get into my pants / they don’t know shit about sex and romance,” she sings in this R&B ballad as she floats in and out of flannel, button downs and a sexy, teasing fake-anatomy shirt.
25. PFG “G.U.C.C.I (Official Short)”
What makes this so damn intriguing is that it really is short (all of 52 seconds), making us wonder about the advice/cautionary tales of the NC rapper and the kids posing there. There’s gotta be more to what he says than this, right? He lets us wonder but also makes us wanna find out more, which we can here at his sites.
26. Sturgill Simpson “The Making of ‘Turtles All the Way Down’ (Vevo Footnotes)”
Behind the scenes, we learn that the song was inspired by a shower fall and a bump on the head and elf angels. Later, he teases, “to appease lazy music journalists I’ve always said this song was about drugs,” even though narcotics are mentioned later in the song.” The inspiration for the video? “…nothing to do with the song, which really doesn’t matter since nobody really ever knew what the song was about. It’s just four guys pretending to play, with Electric Sheep screensaver graphics overlaid on the performance.” Hilarious and subversive in the great tradition of De La Soul “Ego Trippin’ (Part Two).”
27. SZA “Kill Bill”
Since it’s named after a pair of Tarantino movies, no surprise that there’s a bloody sword fight sequence but the fact that you don’t miss the original movies is a testament to her work here. Also, lines like “I just killed my ex / not the best idea” and “rather be in Hell than alone” get some poignancy when she’s holding his bright meaty heart right in front of us. Even Quentin wasn’t usually that graphic.
28. TisaKorean “lOvE LeTtEr (feat. Don Toliver)”
Strange in a lowkey way as the characters admire each other via TV, while space travel backgrounds are seen elsewhere along with odd found footage video bits. But most bizarre of all is that all of it is centered around the guy ACTUALLY WRITING A LETTER, with a pencil and paper. I mean, who the hell even does that now nowadays? I don’t, and I actually kind of miss it.
29. Amon Tobin “Only Child Tyrant: Long Down” and “Figueroa: put me under”
It always amazed me how wildly creative this Canadian techno artist is, not just with his music but also with his visuals The first one here has a post-apocalyptic world where the oil or elements seem to bubble up to create two ugly cars in a skeletal form that race away. Seems like a car commercial until they crash into each other and merge into some kind of blob, maybe making it a comment on these commercials themselves. For the 2nd one, we have two astronauts exploring an alien landscape with a rover robot. A crater appears and sucks them down into a world of flowers and plants before they land at an urban landscape which has the pedestrians and vehicles levitate and then off to a desert-like world of hand-plants, elephant/giraffe hybrids and grounded ships, ultimately with the explorers gently shattering into pieces. Both are directly by Tobin himself under an alias and though he claims the videos have nothing to do with the ethereal music, we have to think that he’s wrong, or lying.
30. “Weird Al” Yankovic “Polkamania!”
Al says that he’s done with albums and who can blame him? He does a record’s worth of material here in less than four minutes, with 13 tunes covering the decade span since his last album. A different animator gets roped in for each song and the playlist mostly concentrates on divas’ tunes (including Ariana, Olivia, Miley, Adele), which is appropriate since this is their era. The Bill Plympton segment and the “WAP” cover are more suggestive than he usually is, and good for him. The medley ends up with Taylor on trumpet and Billie on banjo joining in, and of course, they both get covered and skewered here otherwise.
BONUS FLICKS: a few unofficial things to track down:
- Tyler, the Creator’s great Camp Flog tribute to MF DOOM, which was originally streamed on Amazon Music but some clips are floating around.
- The Rolling Stones with Irma Thomas, performing “Time Is On My Side” at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, helping to get the NOLA legend some long-due respect over the song.
- Representatives Jasmine Crockett and Jared Moskowitz getting back at Marjorie Taylor Greene with their own diss track, “J&J (Jared & Jazz).”
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