I had a sudden realisation the other day. My daughter is going to see Mamma Mia the musical soon. After she’d watched the film version, I thought it would be fun to show her some original ABBA performances. This led to a bit of a fun chat about how music videos have evolved over the years, and how much of a big deal they were when I was young.
Nowadays, of course, music videos are consumed very differently. The likes of Top of the Pops, the Pepsi Chart Show, and even just MTV, are simply not available anymore. I’m 41 now, and it isn’t especially obvious how to discover great new music now. I listen to a wide range of new music, but I couldn’t tell you how I found out about some of the newer bands I like. I’ve been listening to Kingfishr recently, but I really don’t know how they found their way into my music rotations.
In the 1990s, when I was in my peak discovery phase, I knew what the routes were. The aforementioned music video programmes were reliable, and I often tuned into MTV2 to the Sara Cox or Zane Lowe shows to find out interesting new tunes. There was also a plethora of trendy music magazines, reliable radio channels and also a thriving mixtape community at school.
In 2026, how do we consume music videos? the landscape has certainly changed. If you’re relying on YouTube, then you’re in luck. 99% of the entire history of the music video is there, usually in at least HD quality. Also, you’ve got a fair amount of live footage, TV appearances and anything else you can think of.
The catch? You need to know what you’re searching for in the first place. I knew there was a new Rolling Stones single on the way, so knew to search the video out on YouTube. The video itself is a wondrous piece of art, with Ana Taylor-Joy and Charles Melton playing out an intense argument with a luscious Mick Jagger falsetto accompanying it.
With all this in mind, I started to wonder if other people would be interested in a curated list of music videos to sit back and play on their TV, allowing them to focus on the music video without the need to have a phone at hand to click onto the next song. So, I decided I’d do it for you.
Cinema Etc’s New Music Videos Monthly
Hopefully if you click through to the above link, you can access the playlist on Apple Music. You can either watch it on your devices or sync to your TV.
The first playlist is a fair mix of established acts, A-list pop stars and a few upcoming artists that I think you’ll enjoy.
Let me know how you find the list and if you know of anything else I should be checking out, especially if there’s a cool new video to enjoy!
Radiohead are set to take Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage by storm this weekend, so I thought it would be a great time to give a chronological run through of their greatest music videos. I was able to choose my very personally-opinionated list from an eclectic output, which has never felt like it was conforming to anything like the norm.
Take a look and feel free to challenge me if you think I’ve missed anything.
1. Just (Jamie Thraves, 1995)
Jamie Thraves’s breakthrough announced his work to the world and made him one of the most sought-after music video directors on the planet. He has since contributed some brilliant short films to bands (Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’ and Sam Smith’s ‘Stay With Me’ are amongst his more popular work), though his feature film career remains highly underrated.
It’s worth watching before anyone tells you anything about it. Then you can Google “What does the guy say at the end of Just by Radiohead?”. Then in 22 years’ time you’ll be where I am now.
Utter genius.
2. Street Spirit (Jonathan Glazer, 1996)
Jonathan Glazer’s visually-stunning black and white video for ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’ was a masterpiece at the time and it has certainly stood the test of time. The slow frame rate mixed with regular or fast-forward shots creates a really effective result, and if the overall impression doesn’t do it for you then you can at least wonder how it was achieved technically without the use of computer imagery.
3. Paranoid Android (Magnus Carlsson, 1997)
Paranoid Android is an epic saga of a tune that fused three separate crunching progressive rock song and juxtaposed them with some darkly humorous lyrics. It’s essentially Radiohead doing a song like Bohemian Rhapsody but doing everything they can to not do a song like Bohemian Rhapsody.
The video that accompanies it, created by Swedish animator Magnus Carlsson, is just as bizarre. The band were fans of his animated series Robin, and asked him to create a video featuring the character. The dark playfulness of the songs lyrics and composition marries perfectly with the visuals, which could easily trick a young person into thinking it was a regular cartoon. They’d soon see a man with a head foetus poking out of his belly, or a bare-breasted mermaid swimming around.
4. No Surprises (Grant Gee, 1998)
No discussion of Radiohead videos would be complete without mention of the visually iconic ‘No Surprises’ music video. Thom Yorke’s head is slowly submerged in a tank that fills from the bottom, with some subtle slow-motion work causing it to feel even longer to increase the feeling of tension and suffocation. I guarantee the first time everyone saw it they all took a breath as the water was eventually released. Simple but very effective.
Gee was also involved with Radiohead during the infamous OK Computer tour, which almost led to the band breaking up. It was covered in the engrossing feature-length documentary ‘Meeting People is Easy’, released on VHS in 1998.
5. Knives Out (Michel Gondry, 2002)
Michel Gondry’s one-shot video for ‘Knives Out’ feels like a thematic predecessor to ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, Gondry’s 2004 masterpiece that must surely be one of the best films of the decade. Thom Yorke is in a hospital bed next to his partner, played by Emma de Caunes (who later appeared in Gondry’s The Science of Sleep). She’s undergoing some operations but her body is represented by an oversized version of the Operation board game. Thom looks on in a nightmarish panic, underpinned by a feeling of repetition and inability to escape.
The marrying of two of the most creative artists in their respective mediums was inevitably going to lead to greatness and ‘Knives Out’ doesn’t disappoint.
6. There There (Chris Hopewell, 2003)
The first of two Chris Hopewell videos on this list. There There is a stop-motion animated video that features Thom Yorke venturing into a dark forest and encountering some small mice having a dinner party. He steals some magical shoes, gets attacked by some crowd and turns into a tree.
Brilliant.
7. Nude (Adam Buxton and Garth Jennings, 2008)
British comedian/podcaster/beardy cyclist Adam Buxton joined forces with music video and film director Garth Jennings to produce a beautiful and simplistic music video for Radiohead’s ‘Nude’ single.
Each member of the band performs against a black background, filmed in slow motion as the space they inhabit fills up with white feathers.
If it sounds simple, it’s because it is. And it’s wonderful.
8. House of Cards (James Frost, 2008)
No cameras were used in the making of James Frost’s mesmerising video for ‘House of Cards‘. Instead, 3D plotting devices were used to collect, collate and interpret data on the positional relationship between objects.
It’s hard to visualise and harder to forget once you’ve seen it.
9. Lotus Flower (Garth Jennings, 2010)
Because who doesnt want to see a black and white Thom Yorke dancing around like a maniac for five minutes and eight seconds?
10. Burn the Witch (Chris Hopewell, 2016)
One of the best music videos I’ve seen recently was for ‘A Moon Shaped Pool‘ lead single ‘Burn the Witch’. It is, specifically, Trumpton does The Wicker Man. It was created by Chris Hopewell of ‘There There’ fame. Another dark video that belies the cutesy animated façade.
Cinema, etc. 