The best animated music videos

1.Radiohead – Paranoid Android

If Radiohead‘s six-minute single wasn’t enough of a risk, its animation was about to push the boundaries even further. Interestingly, Swedish animator Magnus Carlsson, who was commissioned to create an animation based on his Robin character, came up for the video’s concept when he’d heard it without any lyrics.

2.The White Stripes – Fell In Love With A Girl

The second track to come from the duo’s White Blood Cells album certainly grabbed your attention with its simple-yet-effective frame-by-frame Lego animation. Fun fact: the kid building lego blocks at the very start of the video is actually the director Michel Gondry’s son.

3.Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer

No best music videos list (let alone best animated videos list) would be complete without without Peter Gabriel‘s Sledgehammer. The clip features every technique in the book – stop motion, puppet animation, pixellation and even a bit of treated live-action to add a bit of spice. The visuals were created by Aaardman Animations and the Brothers Quay and went on to provide the benchmark for music videos artistry in the future.

4.Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.

Gorillaz weren’t the first animated band to come around, but they were probably the best drawn, thanks to the work of Jamie “Tank Girl” Hewlett. Feel Good Inc. was pretty impressive when it came out in 2015, but now it’s been re-released with a new and improved HD version, it looks better than ever.

5.Daft Punk – One More Time

If the Japanese-style superhero animation looks authentic, that’s because it is – the clip was produced by the legendary Toei Animation studios, under the direction of Kazuhisa Takenouchi. The footage was part of a feature film called Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, which served as a visual companion to Daft Punk’s second album Discovery.

6.Bjork – I Miss You

This 1997 single was accompanied by a cartoon video directed by John Kricfalusi, who was then best known for his anarchic series Ren & Stimpy. It’s a typically bizarre and edgy combination of animation and live-action.