When MTV first came out, I was thrilled by the creative mix of music and cinematography. Granted, there were a bunch of musicians (or their agents?) that mistakenly viewed this as a channel to broadcast live concerts filmed in abandoned warehouses - no need for additional creativity. But some musicians "got it."
Remember back to early television, which was little more than radio shows retooled to accommodate a video camera? MTV, or more precisely, music videos, started with the same problem all over again. We continue to learn that each media is unique, and only borrows concepts from the previous media.
Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie - Oren has done a lot of writing about this song which is worth reading if you're interested in backstories. As for me, I find the combination of story, animation and song appealing. By the way, this chord progression (Bminor, G, A, D) shows up again in a later video.
Camille - Ta douleur (clip) - There is a great interview with Camille on NPR - she's creative and willing to take a chance on her musical expression, watch some of her other videos. Although I haven't heard the entire album, each song is connected by a drone note common to the entire set of songs. You can hear it at the very beginning, and the end of this piece.
Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around the World - These filmmakers recorded a band that never existed.
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) - No, Matt is not a hoax, and they did not use animatronic puppets
Jill Barber with Oh My My - I don't know much about Jill Barber, but her song has a nice pocket, and a good storyline that gets fleshed out in the video.
4 Chord Medley: Bm-G-D-A - Remember the chords from Your Morning Elegance? These two vocalists run us through a brief lesson on Current Pop Music and the basis of four chords.
Lily Allen / Alfie - speaking of bringing the unreal world to your doorstep in video, Lily combines polkas and puppets.
Sesame Street: Outdoors with Jason Mraz - Did I mention four chords? They appear again in this song by Jason Mraz. The original video and song is interesting - but Sesame Street always brings things to a amusing place.
Sixteen Military Wives - The Decemberists - The Decemberists are a local Portland band made good. This video came out in 2005, shortly after the United States showed their unique new stand on diplomacy. Poor Carl.
Ok Go - Here It Goes Again (The Treadmill Video) - A recent exceptional dance routine by "OK Go." If you like this one, check out "This Too Shall Pass"
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (1986) - Peter Gabriel endorsed the "Clever Video" category WAAAYY Back. As I recall, this was the first impressive video I ever saw. In 1986, this animation was cutting edge, and to see it synced up with a great song was stunning enough to cause me to make the bartender wait for my order until the video was finished.
KT Tunstall vs Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer & The Cherry Tree (DJ Schmolli Mashup Mix) - So if you liked Peter Gabriel, this mash-up of two videos does a spectacular job of staying in the pocket.
Peter Gabriel - Steam - You probably don't remember "Lawnmower Man" or "Max Headroom" - the first real jumps into use of 3d mapping applied to faces and bodies. Here's Peter (again) jumping around on the cutting edge of video. Most every scene is using layers of static and animated artwork, new animation techniques (at the time) and a great beat!
Mother of All Funk Chords - At some point, all media performs a self-referencing backflip. Painters who include paintings, photographers taking pictures of photographs.YouTube videos that consist of youtube videos...
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