And what’s great is that the artists mentioned in this article are able to translate that same creativity and energy to their live performances. Kanye also comes to mind as well.

Kanye def should b in this post also. He’s amazing visually but agree with all who you posted about! I miss the good ole days when videos were supposed to be on point. GaGa is the only one who gives me vintage video greatness as far as production and loJok.

Kanye (in all his creative greatness) came AFTER this era of singers. Just look at when these vids were made. Kanye isn’t in this list, as he shouldn’t be. These are the early 2000s.

Video killed the radio star and iTunes/YouTube/VEVO/etc. killed the “Video star” … and MTV and BET, as far as them displaying music vids. LOL. Some of these record companies don’t put much into making vids because who’s going to watch them? And where is the exclusivity? Michael Jackson’s vids were so GREAT that network/primetime television had to cordon off a slot for his vids to play…and be viewed BY MILLIONS all at once…long before the era of YouTube. Then MTV and BET had their “first time ever” premieres of vids by David Meyers, Marcus Nispel, Little X, Francis Lawrence, Spike Jonze, Hype Williams, etc. Music videos back in the day WERE AN EVENT.

Today they are fodder for product placement, blog hits and Twitter trending.

I think we should rank according to those music video directors I’ve listed, because they worked with a number of these artists and gave us some of the best visuals this side of short film and feature film.

I think you should do a followup post highlighting artists with creative music videos who are current with today’s scene…Kanye being one of those artists and Beyonce (minus the bulk of her BDay vids including Deja Vu and Run the World (Girls) which wasn’t as “epic” as expected.) being another.

Great post, as always Trent

I agree with everyone with the exception of Pink.

lmao @ Bey stans! this is the OGs level, so im sorry Beyonce don’t come close my loves

Them two Jackson siblings u know der names by now they are just different, they define epicness!

Missy always did some of the best ever music videos ever!

Where’s TLC??

Madonna’s Vogue – Glamorous but she doesn’t have many

What happened to Brits?

Pink’s always been the female Eminem

Huh. Sorry. I didn’t get the complexity of it all…so thanks for breaking down the [her]story of her music video release.

Trent! You were being a shady queen!!! How DARE YOU!

Tonja says: “Kanye (in all his creative greatness) came AFTER this era of singers. Just look at when these vids were made. Kanye isn’t in this list, as he shouldn’t be. These are the early 2000s.”

That argument is not valid when Lady Gaga (who came out after 2008) is on this list. Kanye has been making great videos since 2004…
The artists that are listed in this article are not there necessarily because they predated the digital age, but because they exemplify. And I know not every artist could be including but was just mentioning Kanye as one

With the turn that the music industry took after 2005 it’s a bit of a risk for labels to let their artist do big budget videos for a single or album that may not pay for itself. A lot of artist today come out of pocket to do videos. Also I think the directors should be aknowledged because they often send the artist a treatment or ideas for a video.

@ kingphoenix, I am NOT feeble-minded. LOL See I got “that shade” (insert INSULT, gee thanks). I just don’t live, eat, breathe all things Beyonce like y’all do.

@ Bee, thanks for pointing that out with Gaga. I just looked over her completely…shows how much I’m ‘awed’ by her work.

@ T, yes, let us recognize those who write the treatments most definitely! *dust off shoulders* Maybe Trent will make a new post featuring the directors (too).

“Lose Control” SLAYED – even Ciara’s part. And everybody knows those Jackson kids were manufactured to be creative geniuses. And yes – Kanye NEEDS to be on this list. “Touch The Sky”, “Paranoid”, “Monster”, “Heard ‘Em Say”, and even the simple video for “All Falls Down” was great.

MISSY FUCKING ELLIOT. NO OTHER RAP FEMALE COULD EVER.

Aside from Gagas, Rihanna has probably put out the best videos for the past few years.

This one is hard since it’s easy to hear a lot of songs but not to see a lot of videos. I think Kanye’s lil movie, Gaga’s Bad romance or Snoop’s Sensual seduction are great videos. Also nowadays the most creative and artsy videos come from indie rock bands with a just a few dollars. Think MGMT, OK Go… I don’t know if Foo Fighters The best of you was really expensive but is Beautiful.