
My favorite video of the year isn't really a video, at least in the current sense of the format: It's for multiple songs and only available on Netflix: Thom Yorke "ANIMA," directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and it's beautiful and powerful and a must watch. And another non-traditional favorite is Melanie Martinez "K-12," which is a film in the form of an album suite of music videos directed by Martinez herself (with co-director Alissa Torvinon) and is an impressive example of distinctive world-building for an equally distinctive artist.
In the more traditional lane, here's 25 videos from 2019 from all genres and styles to help celebrate a shortlist of the best and biggest videos of the year.
- Lil Nas X f/ Billy Ray Cyrus "Old Town Road" (CALMATIC, dir.)
- FKA Twigs "Cellophane" (Andrew Thomas Huang, dir.)
- Billie Eilish "bad guy" (Dave Meyers, dir.)
- Joywave "Obsession" (Laura Gorun, Cooper Roussel, Dimitri Basil, dir.)
- Harry Styles "Adore You" (Dave Meyers, dir.)
- The Chemical Brothers "We've Got To Try" (Ninian Doff, dir.)
- Gary Clark Jr. "This Land" (Savanah Leaf, dir.)
- Maren Morris "Girl" (Dave Meyers, dir.)
- Haim "Now I'm In It" (Paul Thomas Anderson, dir.)
- Tierra Whack "Unemployed" (Cat Solen, dir.)
- Lil Dicky "Earth" (Nigel W. Tierney, Federico Heller, dir.)
- J. Balvin, Bad Bunny "CUIDAO POR AHÍ" (Colin Tilley, dir.)
- Residente & Bad Bunny "Bellacoso" (Grégory Ohrel, dir.)
- Lana Del Rey "Doin' Time" (Rich Lee, dir.)
- Post Malone "WOW" (James DeFina, dir.)
- ROSALÍA "A Palé" (Jora Frantzis, dir.)
- DJ Khaled f/ Travis Scott, Post Malone "Celebrate" (Joseph Kahn, dir.)
- Billie Eilish "all the good girls go to hell" (Rich Lee, dir.)
- Hot Chip "Hungry Child" (Saman Kesh, dir.)
- Lizzo "Juice" (Quinn Wilson, dir.)
- Ariana Grande "7 rings" (Hannah Lux Davis, dir.)
- Jonas Brothers "Sucker" (Anthony Mandler, dir.)
- Taylor Swift "Lover" (Drew Kirsch, Taylor Swift, dir.)
- Coldplay "Daddy" (Åsa Lucander, dir.)
- LANY "Thick And Thin" (Isaac Ravishankara, dir.)
- Sam Fender "Hypersonic Missiles" (Vincent Haycock, dir.)