Wilco’s new video for “Dawned on Me” combines some of the things dearest to our hearts: Jeff Tweedy and old black-and-white Popeye shorts. It’s a clip that’s both fun and visually interesting, not to mention the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon that’s appeared in the last 30-something years. But Wilco is far from the first band to hit upon the idea of including animation in their music videos. Cartoons in videos stretch back from the days of a-ha’s “Take On Me” through Björk and Radiohead. After the jump, check out ten of the best animated music videos we’ve ever seen — tell us about your personal favorites in the comments.
“Take On Me” by a-ha
A-ha’s pencil-sketched 1985 “Take On Me” clip was one of the first animated music videos to air on MTV. It’s also the one we watched multiple times throughout our teen years.
Comments (23)
No TOOL?
Regarding the Daft Punk one: The film Interstella 5555 actually was created specifically to go along with the album Discovery. Both members of Daft Punk are credited as writers for the movie. Which means you might want to change this sentence: “Though the animation in Daft Punk’s “One More Time” wasn’t created specifically for the band-the scenes are cribbed from anime film Insterstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem”.
“Do the evolution” where is?
Ah, the 80s—”Take On Me”—creativity was at it’s peak. It seems everything was okay to experiment and try out. I don’t get the same feeling of creativity nowadays. It is a more tech world.
Great list! I’m a big fan of animation, and was happy to see you include some of my favorite videos on this list, as well as some I haven’t seen before.
I was surprised you were missing the Gorillaz! But there are so many wonderful animated music videos, narrowing them down was probably very difficult.
Although I think all of the ones of this list are really good, anybody who enjoys these should also see Breakbot – Baby I’m yours. Not only is it an awesome animation it was actually completed by the artist who made the music as well.
I expected to see Squirrel Nut Zippers’ “The Ghost of Stephen Foster”
Queens Of The Stone Age – Go With The Flow.
Nice Weather for Ducks, by Lemonjelly. Guaranteed to make you smile.
Even though the animation is hokey, this got me to wondering if anybody had finally posted The Replacements’ “When It Began” to youtube. I checked years ago and it wasn’t there. Thankfully Warner finally allowed it. Not the best video, but one of the best songs ever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS-1waMLk9k
Ummm, where’s Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer…
Tool’s “Sober” & SNZ’s “Ghost of Stephen Foster” are great videos. But one of my favorites is Tupac’s “Do for love” (very underrated song/video)
Do the evolution and Sledgehammer are great too!! should’ve read the comments before I posted.
Um, “Girlfriend” by Matthew Sweet?
d.a.n.c.e. by justice!!
Want to echo the commentator who brought up the fact the anime film used in the video for Daft Punk was actually created for the same album. Another example of the generally poor level of research that goes into the lists on flavorwire.
Definitely agree that Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and Tool’s “Sober” should have made the list (although “Big Time” bears mentioning as well). Also agree that the exclusion of Gorillaz is puzzling. I’d cast a vote for “El Manana”, but perhaps Gorillaz are like an MVP candidate on a team with too many good players. “Clint Eastwood”, “DARE”, and “Feel Good, Inc.” are leaps and bounds better than “Take On Me”, which is essentially a 3 and half minute rip off of the film “Altered States” with William Hurt.
How about “Runnin Down a Dream” by Tom Petty, with its’ great tribute to one of the very first animators, Windsor McCay?
As it was pointed out before, the video for “One More Time” was created as a collaboration between Daft Punk and Leiji Matsumoto (Starblazers, Galaxy Express 999 and a ton of other shows Americans have never heard of but which were very big in France). It is exactly what you will see if you see the movie, which covers the whole album. It is incredibly freakin good and I hope this site will do a story on it to make up for the erroneous info in this one.
Matthew Sweet’s “Girlfriend” is more like what this site suggested: it’s made up of footage taken from an anime feature (one of the “Urusei Yatsura” movies) that was made years before the song came out.
No Do The Evolution.
The greatest of all, Minnie the Moocher!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHqjMhD04uA&sns=em
Sometimes simple is best-
Regina Spektor – “Samson”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA7IiSs1eJU&sns=em
The greatest of all- Cab Calloway and Betty Boop’s “Minnie the Moocher”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHqjMhD04uA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
And Koko the Clown sings “St. James Infirmary Blues” in Betty Boop’s Snow White
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDATXtewPrg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
No “Mosh” by Eminem? List officially has no credibility.
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