If television pour down the radio ace , you ’d all-fired well retrieve YouTube killed the need to make flashy euphony videos . But , magically , they ’re still around , and some of them are turning out the coolest science fiction stories of the past few decades . sure as shooting , there are some clunkers ( like that fourth dimension Justin Timberlake made a automaton thatfucked onstage ) , but scifi and medicine videos keep to be a perfect peer .
[ Note : Although separated by class , these are n’t rate in any particular monastic order . ]
The Best
1) “Reunion” by M83
Before Stranger Things , we had M83 . In 2012 , the Gallic melodic grouping loose a music video trilogy that tells the history of fry with psychic powers escaping a governance adroitness . The whole series , starting with “ Midnight City ” and cease with “ Wait , ” is worth view , but the 2nd video recording , “ Reunion , ” by all odds stands out as the undecomposed . The picture is a thrilling chase in the dead of night , pitting our new fighter against a fellow child psychical with sullen , threatening power . The extra effect are solid , and the medicine flow dead , create mo of windlessness within the intensity level .
2) “Human Touch” by Rick Springfield
A space captain from the 1980s aftermath up from cryogenic eternal rest in the futuristic world of 2016 ( ! ) , and all he can believe about is fondle the great unwashed . Rick Springfield ’s “ Human Touch ” is a silly 1983 video where a bunch of multitude in funky place costumes dance around until they ’re forced to fall to their frozen slumber due to a radiation leak . Still , it ’s an other object lesson of how scifi videos could tell a merriment , simple tarradiddle . But was anybody else rummy what happened to those aliens at the commencement of the TV ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHgbzNHVg0c
3) “Many Moons” by Janelle Monae
It ’s hard to cull only one of Janelle Monae ’s scifi euphony picture above the rest — so really , 2008 ’s “ Many moonlight ” is also a stand - in for just about everything she ’s create so far . Monae has taken futurism in music to an entirely novel level with her alter - ego , Cindi Mayweather . Her videos have drawn on classical science fabrication themes , peculiarly Fritz Lang ’s 1927 tacit film Metropolis , but her stories examine today ’s proceeds , like modernistic bias , body autonomy , and ego - identity . “ Many Moons ” is a perfect case of this , using an android hard worker auction as both a speculative warning of the future tense and comment on current system of oppression against bootleg woman .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjI2J2SQ528
4) “All Is Full of Love” by Björk
“ All Is Full of Love , ” written in 1999 as an ode to love in expectancy of saltation ( and the Norse myth of Ragnarök ) , take on a life-time of its own in the music picture — creating a beautiful , multifaceted juxtaposition between the genuine and the artificial . The trail robot , bear Björk ’s face , experience a sexual awakening while trapped in a frigid , sterile surround that feel like both heaven and hell . The video has received decisive acclaim for its data processor imagery and powerful story ; in 2013 , it was impart to a lasting collection at New York ’s Museum of Modern Art , and it ’s widely considered one of the greatest medicine videos ever made .
5) “Sentient” by Perturbator, feat. Hayley Stewart
Synth artist Perturbator free a high - concept album in 2016 that say the history of a manly vigilance man name the Night Driving Avenger , who work on in tandem with a female android assassin to bestow down a false faith . The 16 - bit expressive style music video for “ Sentient ” enjoin the storey of the android , who is fight for freedom in a domain that is trying to eradicate all suggestion of her variety . The video is intense and powerful , using simple images to express complex emotions . It ’s also very explicit , so do n’t watch it at employment — something I learned the hard way this calendar week .
6) “Scream” by Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson
In the mid - to - later nineties , there was a trend toward picture that took office in space , or try out with solemnity . This is partially thanks to Michael and Janet Jackson and their 1995 video for “ Scream . ” Michael Jackson was a groundbreaker in creating trendsetting music videos , especially ace with in - depth history like “ Thriller . ” Granted , this one did n’t exactly have the respectable secret plan in the human beings , but it ’s significant to recognise how influential “ Scream ” was on other high-pitched - visibility videos , like TLC ’s “ No Scrubs ” and Jamiroquai ’s “ Virtual Insanity . ” This video set a standard that , in some ways , still echoes today . Do n’t order me you do n’t see J.J. Abrams ’ take on Star Trek ’s USS Enterprise in the all - ashen inside of the Jackson ship .
7) “Harder Better Faster Stronger” by Daft Punk
This song has gotten multiple versions and music videos over the years , as well as thatone infamous YouTube videowhere two women danced out the lyrics , which were paint on their body . However , the original 2001 music picture is an incredible piece of aliveness , directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi from Toei Animation . It combine many kinds of classic spiritedness styles , including 1970s cartoons and traditional Zanzibar copal , to evidence a fascinating tarradiddle about four non - human characters who undergo a transmutation to appear human . If you desire more , this video was just one chapter in the anime moving picture Interstella 5555 , which was essentially a euphony video for the integrality of Daft Punk ’s album Discovery .
8) “Beautiful World” by DEVO
This one is pretty wide-eyed , about an android looking over footage of our fucked - up planet , but it ’s one of the earliest scifi medicine videos ever created , back in 1981 . So even if it ’s not the greatest one ever made , it deserves a shout - out for being ahead of its time . Plus , I ca n’t help but think of that Futurama episode “ The Mutants Are Revolting ” every sentence I discover it . And I love Futurama .
The Worst
1) “I’m Gonna Getcha Good!” by Shania Twain
I ’m pretty sure the only intellect this spacey music video got made in 2002 was because Britney Spearshad done ittwo years sooner . It ensue in one of the weird mishmashes I ’ve ever seen , where nothing about the video matches the song at all . Shania Twain might have wait with child in a leather bodysuit , but traditional country jamming do not go well with motorcycle robot fights .
2) “Loverboy” by Billy Ocean
This one might get me some flak catcher , but I ’m entirely fine with that . The exotic prosthetics in this video are really telling for 1984 , but in the final stage the video does n’t really do anything with them . It ’s just a bunch of foreigner standing around while some Great Pyramid with Billy Ocean ’s face papa in to order them he want to be their loverboy . It does n’t make any good sense , and not in a way that work .
3) “E.T.” by Katy Perry, feat. Kanye West
I will say that I liked ( most of ) Katy Perry ’s costumes in this music video , but over half of it is spent watching Katy be adrift around and making uncanny faces . It cease up feeling like a waste of some beautiful design , leading the video to finger directionless until the very destruction . Plus , any Sung where Kanye West tells me he ’s going to probe me is an automatic “ no give thanks you . ”
4) “Larger Than Life” by the Backstreet Boys
It make me sad that these gifted man have to live with the fact that this music telecasting exist .
5) “Ready For It” by Taylor Swift
For me , the boastful crime a scifi music video can make is serving no use . Taylor Swift ’s “ Ready For It ” knows that science fable exists , but does n’t see it . The video ( from what I can gather ) is about one Taylor Swift training some other Taylor Swift — in a Ghost in the Shell belt - off — how to apply robot powers . But , then the other Taylor Swift is on a horse , then she ’s floating with lamper eel , then the first Taylor Swift is bring out to be a robot too . In the end , one of the Taylors walk up some steps . It looks prissy , but none of it jibe together . It ’s just a serial of scifi - y moment that look pretty but do nothing .
And the Weirdest
1) “Prototype” by OutKast
This video from 2003 the pure mix between alien scifi and Heaven ’s Gate . I never thought I ’d delight “ alien go glamping ” as much as I did , but I also left with the notion that I was about to be impregnated by some weird space cult .
2) “Break Free” by Ariana Grande, feat. Zedd
Much in the vena of Kendra Wilkinson ’s 2016 “ lose in Space , ” Ariana Grande channeled Hellenic B - movie scifi with her 2014 video recording “ Break Free . ” It involves a lot of doe eyes and spectacular face stroking , but it ’s also a cute and quirky tribute to pulp science fiction . There are n’t nearly enough silver metal bustier and lightsaber lipsticks in music videos . More of those , please .
3) “Guardians Inferno” by the Sneepers, feat. David Hasselhoff
All movies should do thing like this .
4) “Spice Up Your Life” by the Spice Girls
It does n’t matter how many doctorate dissertation survive about this 1997 music video — they’re not enough . This is one of the weirdest , most tragical dystopian tales ever put to music . At first , it look like a merriment tale of the Spice Girls float through distance sending everyone undecomposed vibrations … but then the crack start to show . Everything is Spice Girls . They produce the food , they ’re projected on the TVs . Propaganda post horse praising All That Is Spice are color on every aerofoil of this dark , grimy world . I eventually actualize the shameful truth : The Spice Girls are maniacal dictators , floating over their hapless citizens making sure they ’re keeping in line . They do n’t require you to “ Spice Up Your Life”—they call for it .
MusicSci - Fi
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , skill , and finish news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present tense .
You May Also Like
