Animated music videos only crop up once in a blue moon but when they do they can really bring a song to life. As the number of animation techniques and styles has increased over time, the videos on offer have become increasingly diverse. Spanning through the decades, here are fifteen of the best animated music videos for your viewing pleasure.
The Killers - Miss Atomic Bomb
Black Label Society - Concrete Jungle
Zakk Wylde from Black Label Society is a rather unpredictable character. From the angry viking image he creates for himself you wouldn't expect the mock 70s, kung-fu video for the song 'Overlord' and you probably wouldn't expect the best to experiment with an animated video here either for the song 'Concrete Jungle'.
A-Ha - Take On Me
The song is just truly awful. But it's a classic and probably the textbook example for animated music videos.
Lamb Of God - Ghost Walking
This animation has everything you'd expect form a metal band; gory violence, highly stylised scenes. The animations have an incredibly clear and crisp style which makes this one well worth a watch.
Robbie Williams - Let love Be Your Energy
This is hands down the best Robbie Williams video as well as song ...easily. I think there's a 'outtake' accompanying set of clips for this video floating around somewhere on youtube.
Pearl Jam - Do The Evolution
This is one of the most cited examples of a great animated music video which says a lot given it was made a good while ago now.
Superman Lovers - Starlight
This one is a bit of a blast from the past. With a really unique animation style, this wall a surprisingly cool video.
Pink Floyd - Welcome To The Machine
Ah.. the don't make them like this anymore, and probably never will do again. Pink Floyd's accompanying movie for 'The Wall' featured a lot of great animated sequences. Unfortunately, these scenes were interspaced by clips of Bob Geldof trying his best at acting. Here though, is the video for 'Welcome To The Machine' from the album 'Wish You Were Here' which features some characteristically Pink Floyd-esque imagery.
Massive Attack - Atlas Air
This is probably the coolest of the bunch, which is to be expected when the video is coming from Massive Attack. Through the strobe-like effects throughout the video, some of the awesome animations can be lost in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it style. But it's worth keeping your eyes peeled throughout as the animation on display here is truly awesome.
Radiohead - Go To Sleep
This animation is unusual in that is goes out of it's way to make it look like an animation and less life-like through the harsh jagged lines that the people are sculpted with. Not like this is a bad thing though as the video looks excellent.
Korn - Freak On a Leash
I saved this one for last because it does things a little bit differently to the rest of the videos here. By only using animated sequences at the beginning and end, the video resolves and concludes really well when it re-enters into the animated scenes. The non-animated middle section of the video is also a delight to watch as well with the fantastically filmed slow motion bullet sequences.
Add your favourites in the comment box below and we'll add them to the list if we agree!
