The 40 Greatest Music Video Artists
Music videos are the perfect fusion of art and commerce, even more than pop music itself. A promotional visual accompaniment to a popular song doesn’t need a coherent narrative (although on rare occasions, they do). It just needs to suit the song, sell the record, and possibly make the artist look cool. But since the launch of MTV 40 years ago this week, a select few recording artists have helped raise music videos to an art form — sometimes by accident, and sometimes by carefully curating the work of brilliant directors like Mark Romanek, Hype Williams, and Spike Jonze. Here are 40 artists from the last four decades that helped video kill the radio star.
40. Lil Kim
Although earlier female MCs like Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah used music videos to help launch their careers, Lil Kim’s instantly iconic 1997 video appearances positioned her as something like the Madonna of hip-hop. From the color-coded sets, outfits and wigs in Lance Rivera’s “Crush On You” to her spotlight-stealing appearance in Paul Hunter’s video for Puff Daddy’s “It’s All About The Benjamins,” Lil Kim became the reigning queen of MTV Jams. And the Black Barbie theme in Francis Lawrence’s video for 2000’s “How Many Licks?” inarguably inspired a couple generations of rap dolls. From the color-coded sets, outfits and wigs in Lance Rivera’s “Crush On You” to her spotlight-stealing appearance in Paul Hunter’s video for Puff Daddy’s “It’s All About The Benjamins,” Lil Kim became the reigning queen of MTV Jams. And the Black Barbie theme in Francis Lawrence’s video for 2000’s “How Many Licks?” inarguably inspired a couple generations of rap dolls.
39. Pearl Jam
Music videos were not just the best, but practically the only way to thrive in popular music in the early ‘90s — but Pearl Jam challenged that status quo by becoming MTV’s most famous holdouts. Their performance-driven videos for “Alive” and “Even Flow” pushed the band’s 1991 debut album, Ten, to platinum sales. But Mark Pellington’s dramatic clip for “Jeremy” was what made Pearl Jam into a cultural phenomenon, winning Best Video of the Year at MTV’s 1993 Video Music Awards. Then the band hit the brakes. Their next video, “Oceans,” only aired outside of America, and they refused to shoot a video for “Black” or any song from their next three albums. Nonetheless, Pearl Jam remained a hugely popular band on radio and the touring circuit without MTV. When they finally did return to making videos, they did things their way, including comic book icon Todd McFarlane’s animated 1998 clip for “Do the Evolution.”
38. Drake
Following in Rick Springfield’s footsteps, Aubrey “Drake” Graham was a TV star before he was a music video star. He rose to fame acting on Degrassi: The Next Generation before taking the hip-hop world by storm in 2009 — although the Kanye West-directed video for his breakthrough hit, “Best I Ever Had,” was an unfunny misfire. Eventually, Drake found his footing with Director X, who helmed 2012’s Bar Mitzvah-themed “HYFR” and the 2015 video for “Hotline Bling” that made Drizzy’s dance moves a viral sensation.
37. Split Enz
Though national treasures in their home country of New Zealand, Split Enz were far less known in other parts of the world — breaking into the Hot 100 just once with 1980’s “I Got You.” But they were an unusually image-conscious and visually imaginative art rock band when they started out in the mid-‘70s, with percussionist Neil Crombie creating outlandish costumes, hairstyles, and stage sets while directing many videos for the band. Being so far ahead of the curve on music videos eventually paid off, as four different Split Enz videos aired in MTV’s first 24 hours of programming on Aug. 1, 1981.
