The Best Music Videos of 2014

By Cedar, Confusion, and Constant Gardner

Music videos are an increasingly important component of an artist's career, especially new artists introducing themselves via social media and blogs. Whether showing a twerking pop star or a stand-in actor for an anonymous artist, videos send an important message to an audience of fans and potential fans. Usually, this message is strongest in visual form, whether or not it is literal or directly relates to the lyrics. As we've learned from the most visually stunning, effective videos from the past year, expanding on a song's meaning or mysteriously leaving room for further interpretation is more impactful than showing us what we expected to see all along.

Some of the best videos of 2014 powerfully introduced new artists, like Jungle's "Busy Earnin'," Ibeyi's "River," and Raury's "Cigarette Song." Others showed us that artists we've loved for years can continually reinvent themselves and their images in brilliant ways, like Lykke Li's "Gunshot" and St. Vincent's "Digital Witness." All of the videos on this list are genuinely art pieces, like Woodkid's "The Golden Age/Embers" and FKA twigs' "Two Weeks." Here are The Best Music Videos of 2014.

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2. 30. HAIM - "If I Could Change Your Mind"

Director: Warren Fu

Most of HAIM's videos have the three sisters dancing at some point in them (like "Forever," "Falling," and "Don't Save Me"), but when they decided to go all out and make full-on choreographed dance sequences for their throwback "If I Could Change Your Mind" video, they neatly encapsulated just what we like about them so much. They're having fun, they're seemingly unconcerned with being cool, and they wear their '80s influences proudly. Here's to lots more dance routines in future HAIM videos.

3. 29. Kendrick Lamar - "i"

Director: Alexandre Moors

Kendrick Lamar shocked his fans by releasing the single "i" in September of this past year. In contrast to the dark, aggressive raps of Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, "i" is an uplifting song meant to promote positivity, happiness, and loving oneself. Beginning in a club where people are dancing on each other, the video transitions into scenes where Kendrick leads everyone with funkier dance moves onto the streets. Everyone ends up on a roof overlooking the skyline of Los Angeles before scenes of Kendrick having fun and dancing on his own appear. Kendrick's joy in this video is tangible and inspiring; it expands on the message of "i" without being corny or overdone.

Related: Kendrick Lamar's Best Guest Verses

4. 28. JJ - "All White Everything"

Director: Olivia Kastebring

Asylum or mental hospital-type settings have often provided inspiration to directors, but rarely have the results looked this stunning. With the color scheme staying almost entirely faithful to the song's title, JJ's Joakim Benon and Elin Kastlander, and others, appear in an institution where the beautiful and mystical qualities are suddenly shattered by the violent and forceful nature of the guards. Just like JJ's music, this video is gorgeous and inviting but has an omnipresent edge of darkness and tension.

Related: Sincerely Yours, The Viking Futurists

5. 27. Ibeyi - "River"

Director: Ed Morris

Twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz, who comprise Ibeyi, have released some beautiful videos after being introduced to the world in the summer of this past year. In "River," they both lay clothed underwater, and sing as they dip their faces in and out of the water. It's a simple concept with perfect execution. Even in its direct, more literal connection to river water, the video triumphs with piercing gazes and a mysterious aura.

6. 26. Hawk House - "Chill Pill"

Director: Thomas Razi

Sam, Eman, and Demae, the three members of UK hip-hop group Hawk House, are cooler than you. The "Chill Pill" video plays out more as a series of moving stills than a scene-by-scene video, with Hawk House's tongue-twisting tales being delivered in front of simple, abstract backdrops, all in stark black and white. Sometimes, the simpler route is better.

7. 25. Glasser - "Shape"

Director: Jonathan Turner

"Shape" comes from Glasser's 2013 album, titled Interiors, and further explores her relationship with the space around her. Returning to the album's first single, director Jonathan Turner and producer Mitsu Hagiwara created a CGI world that reflects and plays on the line, “my home has no shape,” as Mesirow navigates an ever-moving, unstable house. It’s both beautiful and unnerving, and works perfectly as a visual reflection of the song’s themes.

8. 24. Sylvan Esso - "Coffee"

Director: Dan Huiting

Sylvan Esso’s “Coffee” is a gorgeous song, but it’s deeply bittersweet in tone. It’s pretty upbeat and one of the catchiest tracks of 2014, but it’s a depressing song lyrically and talks about the cyclical nature of relationships. The video, however, is pure beauty—an ode to dance that captures humanity in a uniquely simple way. On dancing, lead singer Amelia Meath said in an interview with Wondering Sound: “There’s something magical about it, and I don’t think anyone knows what it is except that it’s about letting go.” Producer Nick Sanborn adds: “Yeah, why do we get in rooms and move around like that? It’s super weird when you think about it.”

9. 23. M.I.A. ft. The Partysquad - "Double Bubble Trouble"

Director: M.I.A.

In addition to M.I.A.'s amazing grills in the video for "Double Bubble Trouble," she's actually making a point about new technologies and the way young people consume information. She begins with a DIY 3D printed gun infomercial before showing young people smoking, dancing, and making out. Despite showing easily duplicated weaponry as a normalized part of society, she points to a new kind of trouble through these new, accessible forms of violence. In typical M.I.A. fashion, the cool clothes and imagery draw you in to make more important social and political commentary—in this case, a warning flag about kids' increasing access to violence.

10. 22. Action Bronson - "Easy Rider"

Director: Tom Gould

Action Bronson proves that he's got rockstar credibility in the video for "Easy Rider," where he roams the desert on an acid trip, stops at his lady's house, and runs from the cops. He ends the entrancing narrative with a history-making guitar solo as the sun sets. In a time when rap videos often rely on hot girls and nice cars to make a visual, Bronson shows that having fun and telling a story is way more effective and intriguing.

11. 21. Holly Herndon - "Home"

Director: Metahaven

Holly Herndon has studied and mastered the aesthetic of online communication, and more recently, she's geared her music and videos toward specific discussion of surveillance and the invasion of civil privacy. In "Home," she begins with the lyric, "I can feel you in my room," before showing a barrage of logos and imaging that alternately hides and reveals her portrait. At one point, the viewer sees an actual camera filming her, but throughout, her gaze confronts it strongly. Herndon and her videos are a reminder of the dark side of digital technology and the increasing lack of control over our information.

12. 20. How To Dress Well - "What Is This Heart?" Trilogy

Director: Johannes Greve Muskat

The "What Is This Heart?" trilogy takes songs from How To Dress Well's album of the same name and unites them in a three-part film juxtaposing old age with young love. In addition to being beautifully shot, each part is meaningful without losing its mystery—allowing the viewer to attach his or her own ideas to the narrative. The music videos embody the introspective questioning in How To Dress Well's album as a whole and gave fans a more substantial explanation of its new direction.



15. 19. Arca - "Thievery"

Director: Jesse Kanda

The match of Arca and Jesse Kanda is one that's already making visual history. While their previous collaborations have been untraditional—featuring scary babies, open mouths, and the like—when "Thievery" came out this year, it showed that they were willing to take their projects even further. After a year of excessive ass-bending, shaking, and twerking in music videos, Arca inverted it all in the form of a computer-generated dancer doing a lot of the same moves but with a lot less embellishing.

16. 18. TÄ€LÄ€ - "Alchemy"

Director: Kate Moross

With the help of creative visionary Kate Moross, TÄ€LÄ€ went to Morocco and created a beautiful video for "Alchemy," one where she finally shows us more of her actual self (although in small, quick shots). As she sings "baby I love you so" over and over, you get the sense that she's talking about the landscape of this country and the colors she and Moross have imbued onto its sand and skies. It's a perfect balance of TÄ€LÄ€ and the nature she inhabits.

17. 17. Lykke Li - "Gunshot"

Directors: Fleur & Manu

2014's continued twerking phenomenon made its way into a Lykke Li video, but of course in a more artful and tasteful way than we've seen over the past year. Only when a kid points gunfingers at her does the "gunshot" feel literal, making the video more about the intensity of a feeling than the actual act of shooting. Lykke sways with zombie-looking makeup around a deserted, divided parking lot full of people biking, arguing, exercising, and generally existing, but they all seem to be representing physical and emotional extremities. She eventually disappears into the chasm and then falls flat to the ground as motorcyles race around her, completing a video that's as visually mysterious and indirect as it is energetic and impactful.

18. 16. clipping. ft. Cocc Pistol Cree - "Work Work"

Director: Carlos Lopez Estrada

Clipping. just love to toy with people's expectations of hip-hop. Set to their unique take on west-coast rap, the video for "Work Work" thankfully avoids two of hip-hop's worst music video stereotypes: the objectification of women and the endorsement of violence. In the video, Cocc Pistol Cree is in charge, pinning Daveed Diggs' jaw to the curb before shattering his hollow skull in a decidedly non-gory fashion. There are a lot messages that can be decoded from the video's subtler touches, and unraveling them is what makes it worth repeated viewings.

Related: Clipping. Are Finding The Sweet Spot Between Experimental and Accessible (Interview) 

19. 15. Little Dragon - "Pretty Girls"

Director: Nabil Elderkin

Earlier this year, we predicted that the treatment for "Pretty Girls" said something along the lines of, "Zombie movie meets weird sex trade beauty pageant." The video further proves Nabil's greatness as a director, allowing crisp cinematography and disparate, enthralling scenes to culminate in a visual that doesn't yield an answer or a real ending; it just gives you an expanded idea of the song's meaning. The lines "Pretty girl, don't get stuck" and "Pretty girl, don't get struck" repeat throughout the video, which displays the twisted nature of beauty and prettiness. The end is surprising, but it also doesn't give any answers. Frankly, it doesn't need to.

Related: Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano Talks Sweden, Women, and the New Album

20. 14. Raury - "Cigarette Song"

Directors:Andrew Donoho and Carlon Ramong

Raury had an amazing year, and it's continually been about more than just his music. Everything he did in 2014 embodied the youthful spirit of a new artist looking to stray off the beaten path. This isn’t an uncommon goal for an artist, but Raury did it all on a level that most inexperienced musicians could never pull off. His sound is polished, his messaging is consistent, and his visuals are powerful and striking. The video for “Cigarette Song” is the perfect example.

Related: Watch Raury Perform "God's Whisper" at His First NYC Show

21. 13. Blood Orange - "You're Not Good Enough"

Director: Gia Coppola

After writing the score for Gia Coppola's Palo Alto film, Blood Orange (Dev Hynes) had her direct his video for "You're Not Good Enough," a standout track from last year's Cupid Deluxe album. Dev performs on a stage with Samantha Urbani as dancers do choreographed sequences in front of them. Eventually Dev gets in on the dancing before the video cuts to behind-the-scenes footage of Dev walking around the set and improvising his own solo sequences. Dev has successfully kept the momentum for his 2013 Blood Orange album with beautiful, playful videos like these.

22. 12. FKA twigs - "Two Weeks"

Director: Nabil Elderkin

"Two Weeks," another video showing FKA twigs' unique style and visual sensibilities, slowly reveals twigs before showing many more duplicates of her in a golden, almost Biblical scene; it's as if she's the subject of a moving painting. The central twigs shows us the power of her subtle, intentional dance moves, while the smaller versions surrounding her show her dancing more expressively. The singular image is enough to captivate viewers in her mesmerizing, multiplied versions, yet at the end, it transitions into an underwater scene that provides a powerful, mysterious ending.

23. 11. Brodinski ft. SD - "Can't Help Myself"

Director: Megaforce

Brodinksi's not playing when it comes to his forthcoming album. The single, "Can't Help Myself," featuring Chicago GBE-affiliated rapper, SD, has a video directed by Megaforce, who's responsible for some of the best contemporary music videos in general. The video begins in a tunnel and focuses on a character who's dripping black oil and only wearing boxers. He cleans up before getting mysteriously eclipsed in a metallic purple bubble and becoming a younger version of himself. The scenario repeats itself, showing him getting younger yet having no less complicated of a life. By the end, you've witnessed a strange, reverse life cycle that represents the range of human existence.

24. 10. St. Vincent - "Digital Witness"

Director: Chino Moya

St. Vincent has always had strong aesthetic sense, but she took it to the next level with her most recent self-titled album. More than just a new hairdo and clean designs, St. Vincent created a world for her sharp, angular music to live in. For the “Digital Witness” video, she takes us to a sterile world where everyone is straight-faced and all actions are repetitive and robotic. Without going over the top with storytelling or trying to match up to the lyrics perfectly, the video reflects the internal paranoia discussed in “Digital Witness.” And it does it strikingly, just like everything else surrounding Annie Clark’s latest album.

25. 9. Woodkid ft. Max Richters - "The Golden Age/Embers"

Director: Yoann Lemoine

Yoann Lemoine continues to impress viewers with the videos he makes for others (Lana Del Rey, John Legend, and more), while executing some of the strongest concepts for his own music as Woodkid. As the final video for his album, The Golden Age, "The Golden Age/Embers" feels more like a short film than a music video (it's 10 minutes long). Shot in black and white, but stripped of any of the post-production magic that made videos like "Run Boy Run" fantasy epics, "The Golden Age" video reflects all the same themes as the album—youth, lost innocence, and the end of childhood.

26. 8. Jungle - "Busy Earnin'"

Director: Oliver Hadlee Pearch

Many people weren't sure who was behind the band Jungle, and this semi-introductory video, "Busy Earnin'," didn't really help anyone figure it out. People wondered if Jungle was the group of dancers in this video, or perhaps one or two of them. As they started getting photographed on tour, it became clear that Jungle is two guys, Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson, who have a band and an amazing creative director, Oliver Hadlee Pearch. Pearch directed this and the following videos Jungle released this year, but "Busy Earnin'" really set the tone for their throwback sound and style. With a slow build that ends in an incredible, captivating dance routine, this video has given people a reason to pay attention to Jungle despite the initial mystery.

27. 7. Shabazz Palaces - "#CAKE"

Director: Hiro Murai

"I'm having my cake, and I'm eating cake," repeats Shabazz Palaces at the beginning of "#CAKE," introducing a man running through an alley, an abandoned space, and blurry, ephemeral images. He encounters large characters in these desolate spaces before falling into the surreal, golden cityscape. This video provides a mood as much as it provides a narrative, and even if its story is unclear, the feeling is definitely one of desperation—being the last man alive and searching for answers. "#CAKE" reinforces the eerie, soul-searching nature of Shabazz Palaces' music.

28. 6. Childish Gambino - "Telegraph Ave"

Director: Hiro Murai

“Telegraph Ave.” is a beautifully shot video featuring Jhené Aiko and the gorgeous scenery of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. But the ending of this video? Fuck. We won’t give it away, but if for some reason you’ve never watched the entire thing, prepare yourself. There were plenty of crazy music videos this year, but none with an “oh shit” moment this wild. Shot by rising L.A.-based director Huro Murai, "Telegraph Ave" is exactly the kind of video we want to see more of in 2015—abstract, visually engaging, and surprising.

29. 5. alt-J - "Hunger Of The Pine"

Director: Nabil Elderkin

Nabil just keeps killing it. He had one of the best music videos of 2013 with the brutal, beautiful video for Foals' "Late Night," and he hasn't slowed down in 2014. This year, he directed Little Dragon's dark "Pretty Girls," FKA twigs' rich "Two Weeks," Nicki Minaj's fashion-forward "Lookin' Ass," and even Beats by Dre's big budget commercials that were played during the World Cup. That's what's so great about Nabil—you never know where he might appear next.

From a crop of impressive work, his best work this year is alt-J's "Hunger Of The Pine," a vicious, pulse-raising effort that starts with the kind of scene you might find in a typical action movie but gets more and more surreal, right up to the bizarre ending. The video leaves us with more questions than answers, but that's typically the case with a lot of great art.

30. 4. FKA twigs - "Video Girl"

Director: Kahlil Joseph

By the time the visuals for “Video Girl” came out, we already had multiple stunning visuals from FKA twigs in the form of videos like “Water Me” and “Two Weeks.” Somehow, she one-upped herself again. “Video Girl” combines twigs’ dancing skills with bold imagery and a badass Travis Scott cameo. As twigs dances over a man being executed, what normally might be interpreted as sexy becomes powerful and sinister. It’s FKA twigs’ most intense video to date, although we have a feeling that the forthcoming "Pendulum" video will probably be just as gripping.

31. 3. Jamie xx - "Sleep Sound"

Directors: Sofia Mattioli and Cherise Payne

After a year of many meaningful videos, Jamie xx's "Sleep Sound," which was filmed at the Manchester Deaf Centre, is one that will be remembered for exploring the impact of sound and music beyond hearing alone. London-based artist Sofia Mattioli concepted the video for "Sleep Sound" after a deaf woman on the subway observed her listening to music; the woman wrote Mattioli a letter saying she could almost feel the music through Mattioli's movements. This inspired Mattioli to create a video where she dances with 13 members of the Centre while "Sleep Sound" plays. As a whole, the video shows music's power to transcend limitations, whether they be physical disabilities or any other shortcomings. "Sleep Sound" equally elicits tears as it does a rethinking of how we process sound versus silence.

32. 2. Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar - "Never Catch Me"

Director: Hiro Murai

In the aftermath of racial injustice in America, specifically over the news that the policemen who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner are not being indicted, a video like "Never Catch Me" feels especially relevant. It begins with the dark theme of death, specifically at a funeral for a young black boy and girl, before juxtaposing those scenes with a meaningful celebration of life.

When we asked Flying Lotus about death, he said, "I do believe it’s a beginning. It’s a beginning of another experience that we’ll be just as confused by and have to learn all the rules to again... The influence we leave lives on forever. The love we leave lives on forever." Through choreographed, upbeat dancing and perfectly sequenced shots at a church and around suburban L.A., "Never Catch Me" achieves a message of love and valuing the lives of everyone.

33. 1. Sia - "Chandelier"

Directors: Sia and Daniel Askill

Sia's "Chandelier" is a powerful song about her struggle to get sober, but even without that context, the video she made for it is immediately cathartic and impactful. The video's protagonist, 11-year-old Maddie Ziegler, caught Sia's eye from the reality TV show Dance Moms. Sia reached out to her over Twitter with choreographer Ryan Heffington, and after Maddie agreed to be in the video, they executed this masterpiece of dance, performance, and artistic expression. At over 376 million views, and after being re-created live on Ellen, it's clear that the video has been received with the adoration it deserves. Few videos are able take a few simple elements—the art of dance, a blonde wig, and a breakdown—and turn them into a masterful display of the human condition.

Read our interview with the 11-year-old star of the video here.

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