Remember when music videos were actual events? Not just background noise while scrolling, but moments that made you stop everything and watch. There’s something special about the videos that defined generations, the ones that became part of our cultural DNA. They weren’t just promotional tools. They were art, rebellion, and sometimes pure genius wrapped into three or four minutes of visual storytelling.
Michael Jackson’s Thriller – The Video That Changed Everything
In 2009, Michael Jackson’s Thriller became the first music video inducted into the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. Think about that for a second. A music video sitting alongside classic films in the National Film Registry. Michael Jackson’s 1983 music video for “Thriller” has surpassed one billion YouTube views, marking the first artist in history to have four 20th century music videos surpass 1 billion views on YouTube: Thriller, Billie Jean, Beat It, and They Don’t Care About Us.
Debuting on Dec. 2, 1983, the “Thriller” video was a smash success, doubling Thriller’s domestic album sales to 20 million by October 1984. The impact here was massive. The music video, which became a cultural phenomenon, is 14 minutes long and had an $800,000 budget. Networks initially thought it was ridiculous, but Jackson knew better. The video doubled sales of the Thriller album, which sold a million copies a week following the video debut and became the bestselling album of all time.
Beyoncé’s Single Ladies – Put A Ring On It And Break The Internet
Let’s be real, if you’ve ever been to a wedding in the past fifteen years, you’ve seen someone attempt this dance. In the three-and-a-half-minute black-and-white video, Bey – flanked by two other dancers in leggy black leotards – dances her heart out for the entirety of the empowering, insanely catchy I Am… Sasha Fierce single. Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ defined viral before it was a term and it continues to accrue wins almost 16 years on. The ‘I Am… Sasha Fierce’ smash dominated the pop cultural landscape and danced its way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as charts worldwide. With the release still reverberating today, its Jake Nava-directed music has hit a seismic new milestone on YouTube. Beyoncé’s iconic music video for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” has surpassed one billion views on YouTube a full 15 years after it was first uploaded.
Here’s the thing about this video that still amazes me. Although the video for “Single Ladies” was the cheapest and quickest of all her videos to produce, Beyoncé felt that it ended up being “the most iconic … something special”. No elaborate sets, no costume changes, just pure choreography and attitude. In the months following the debut of “Single Ladies,” the music video grew into a cultural juggernaut: People all over the world were recording themselves trying their best to drop it low like Beyoncé, Everett, and Williams – including the President of the United States.
OK Go’s Here It Goes Again – When Treadmills Became Art
Sometimes genius happens by accident. The video debuted on YouTube on July 31, 2006, and has been viewed over 67 million times as of April 2025. The music video won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video and the 2006 YouTube awards for Most Creative Video. What made it so special was its simplicity.
Shot in one continuous take, it took the band 17 tries to get the treadmill dance right. This was one of the first truly viral videos, racking up more than 50 million views and earning OK Go a Grammy along the way. The band never expected it to become what it did. The band was like, ‘It’s okay that it looks shitty. We don’t want anyone to mistake this for a real, high-budget music video. More than 1 million people viewed “Here It Goes Again” during its first six days on YouTube, and it eventually became YouTube’s seventh-most-“favorited” video and the No. 1 most favorited music video of all time.
Childish Gambino’s This Is America – Four Minutes That Shook The World
If you haven’t watched this video, stop reading and go watch it now. Seriously. Written by Gambino, Ludwig Göransson and fellow American rapper Young Thug, it was released on May 6, 2018, at the same time that Gambino was hosting an episode of Saturday Night Live. Racking up almost 50 million views in under five days, Childish Gambino’s This Is America has struck a chord with audiences all over the world. In just five days, Childish Gambino’s latest video – This Is America – has racked up almost 50 million views.
Known for its political stance on gun violence, police brutality and racism in America, the song debuted at number one on Billboard Hot 100 chart, won four prestigious Grammy awards, and has nearly 520 million Youtube views today. One can watch the video and be somewhat hypnotised by the dance moves from Gambino and the school children. Between them perfectly hitting the Gwara Gwara and the shoot dance, it is easy to not take note of the madness ensuing directly behind them all. This was Gambino’s point. There are policemen, riots, fires, but in all this, it is Gambino who holds our attention captive.
The video is layered with symbolism that requires multiple viewings to fully appreciate. Every frame carries meaning, from the way guns are carefully wrapped in cloth while bodies are dragged away, to the choreography that references both African dance and Jim Crow caricatures.
A-ha’s Take On Me – The Sketch That Came To Life
This Norwegian band gave us one of the most visually distinctive videos ever created. The rotoscoping animation technique, where roughly 3,000 frames were hand-drawn to create that iconic pencil-sketch aesthetic, was revolutionary for its time. The video tells a simple love story between a real woman and a comic book character, but the execution was anything but simple.
What made Take On Me so memorable was how it blurred the line between animation and live action, creating something that felt magical. People had never seen anything quite like it before. The technique required painstaking attention to detail, with artists tracing over live-action footage frame by frame. This wasn’t just a music video, it was an animated short film that happened to have an incredibly catchy synth-pop song attached to it.
The video won six MTV Video Music Awards in 1986 and helped propel the song to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Decades later, it remains one of the most recognizable and beloved music videos ever made. That’s the power of taking a creative risk and fully committing to a bold artistic vision.
Madonna’s Vogue – Striking A Pose Into History
Madonna took ballroom culture from underground New York clubs and thrust it into the mainstream consciousness. The black and white video, inspired by Hollywood’s golden age and the photography of Horst P. Horst, was pure elegance and attitude. Director David Fincher crafted something that felt both timeless and urgent, showcasing voguing dance moves that originated in Harlem’s LGBTQ ballroom scene.
The video wasn’t just visually stunning with its geometric patterns and dramatic lighting. It was a cultural moment that gave visibility to a marginalized community while simultaneously becoming one of Madonna’s most iconic works. She surrounded herself with actual voguers, bringing authenticity to the performance while introducing millions of viewers to an art form they’d never seen before.
Vogue became more than a song or a video. It became a movement, with people everywhere striking poses and trying to replicate those fierce, angular moves. The cultural impact extended far beyond music, influencing fashion, dance, and LGBTQ visibility in mainstream media.
