While we can still debate whether music videos are still relevant or not, we cannot deny that this year has delivered some of the best music videos, from Doechii to Ok Go to Doja Cat to Sabrina!
Paramount-owned MTV has decided to shut down their dedicated music channels by the end of 2025. In the age of Instagram reels, where we barely grab the listener’s attention to listen to a full song all the time, are music videos still relevant? While the question is up for debate and yes, music videos do seem like a dying art form, we simply cannot deny it still matters. Even though 4-minute music videos are not that impactful, in recent times, well-made music videos like Childish Gambino‘s This Is America have created quite a stir. Here goes our top 10 picks from this year’s videos in no particular order:
10. Doechii – Denial is a River
9. Sabrina Carpenter: Tears
8. Doja Cat – Gorgeous
7. Fontaines DC – It’s Amazing to be Young
6. Little Simz – Young
5. Gorillaz – The Happy Dictator ft. Sparks (Official Visualiser)
4. OK Go – Love
3. Rimon – Where Do We Go?
2. Clipse – So Be It
1. Lorde – What Was That
Best Music Videos Released in 2025
10. Doechii – Denial is a River
Director: James Mackel and Carlos Acosta
The video for Doechii’s Denial Is A River, released earlier this year shows Doechii talking to her alter ego therapist, lamenting the ups and downs of her life, relationships, and fame. She talks about her Boyfriend cheating on her before she went platinum. Directed by James Mackel and Carlos Acosta, the frames have been inspired by classic 90s sitcoms like “Family Matters” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air“. Be it the living room sets or characters being thrown out from the window, this is a nostalgic comic take on what seems like her life situation.
9. Sabrina Carpenter – Tears
Director: Bardia Zeinali
While horror movie references are nothing new in Sabrina Carpenter’s music videos, this one still deserves a special mention. The five-minute-long video shows Carpenter dressed in a blue version of Janet’s (Susan Sarandon) pink hat and coat combo from “Rocky Horror,” walking away from a car crash. A drag dance with the spooky souls awaits as she enters an unknown spooky house. Carpenter even kills a man with her stiletto heel – that signature Carpenter move for her music videos. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Bardia Zeinali, who has also been the man behind the camera for Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” music video.
8. Doja Cat – Gorgeous
Director: Bardia Zeinali
Doja Cat’s “Gorgeous”, a song that talks about how it appears to be a “crime to be Gorgeous”, signifying the idea of self-love and the duality of beauty. It focuses on how feeling good about oneself can be judged by people, but we still need the validation from ourselves. It features a host of supermodels, including Paloma Elsesser, Alex Consani, Amelia Gray, Mona Tougaard, Imaan Hammam, Anok Yai, Irina Shayk, Alek Wek, Karen Elson, Ugbad Abdi, Sora Choi, Ida Heiner, and Yseult. Deborah Sawyer, Cat’s mother, appears in the video as well. Another work by Bardia Zeinali, the video mimics the 80s make up advertisments to send an inspiring message.
7. Fontaines DC – It’s Amazing to be Young
Director: Luna Carmoon
Directed by long-time collaborator Luna Carmoon, Irish post-punk band Fontanes DC released the music video to their first song It’s Amazing To Be Young of 2025 earlier this year. The video is the third and last instalment in the coming-of-age love story trilogy. It started in 2024, with Here’s The Thing and In The Modern World. The video shows the main characters, “Spider” and “Martin”, introduced in the previous videos, unite as lovers in the end, despite being separated.
6. Little Simz – Young
Director: David Meyers
Little Simz released the video for “Young” in May, right in the middle of the year. Directed by David Meyers, who worked with her previously in 2023 for the multiple award-winning track Gorilla. The light-hearted video questions our definition of youth. Little Simz plays an old lady with wrinkly prosthetics and rugged yellow teeth, walking around the city without a care in the world. The video shows her creating a menace. She assaults a police officer, jumps on the stage to perform a punk show at a pub, and does everything we don’t imagine an old lady doing.
5. Gorillaz – The Happy Dictator ft. Sparks (Official Visualiser)
Creator: Jamie Hewlett & Swear Studio
The first taste of Gorillaz’s March 2026 album “The Mountain”, Gorillaz’s “The Happy Dictator” is a satirical take on totalitarian control. It was inspired by Turkmenistan’s former dictator. The visualizer, created by Jamie Hewlett & Swear Studio, features WWII-era aesthetics and Devanagari (Hindi) captions, adding layers of cultural commentary to this critique of forced contentment. Gorillaz has worked extensively with quite a few Indian musicians for “The Mountain”. It will be their ninth studio album so far. Collaborators from India include Anoushka Shankar (sitar virtuoso), Asha Bhosle (legendary playback singer) and Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash (sarod maestros).
4. OK Go – Love
Director: Damian Kulash (the band’s frontman), Aaron Duffy, and Miguel Espada
A nomination for “Best Music Video” for the Grammys, as announced in 2025, Ok Go’s “Love” music video is a mind-bending, single-take kaleidoscope of reflections created using 29 programmable robot arms, over 60 mirrors, and intricate choreography in a Budapest train station, that conveys chaotic love. The endlessly evolving kaleidoscope distorts reality and illusion, connecting the band and their surroundings through a trippy, impeccably timed production. Check out the behind-the-scenes video shot from the perspective of each band member to get a detailed idea!
3. Rimon – Where Do We Go?
Director: Gabriel Dugué
Netherlands-based singer-songwriter Rimon’s video for Where Do We Go? is a 4-minute-travel through life, starting as a child and ending as an old woman looking back at her days. A stark suburban street, a block of flats, an empty car park and a desolate beach. And after circling through all of that, it goes back to her old self, reflecting on the past at a phone booth. Such is life; maybe she hints at how the simplest of memories remain with us. Directed by Montpellier-born Gabriel Dugué, the video was nominated by the UK Music Videos Awards for the best international R&B/soul/jazz video.
2. Clipse – So Be It
Director: Hannan Hussain
Classic luxury cars and mansions meet modern rap finesse in this music video for Clipse’s So Be It, another nomination for next year’s Grammys. The duo showcases their dominance in hip-hop here, calling out Travis Scott over his alleged disloyalty. The black-and-white Hitchcock-inspired video has been directed by New York-based music director Hannan Hussain. Hannan extensively uses flash cuts, distortion, and tableau shots throughout the video. It has been shot at Oheka Castle in Long Island.
1. Lorde – What Was That
Director: Terrence O’Connor
Lorde co-directed her own video to the single “What Was That” released this year, along with Terrence O’Connor. The video is as raw, bold and personal as the song, which talks about questioning some experiences after the heartbreak. It also projects the grief and a rebirth. The video shows her wandering around New York City and culminating in an unplanned dance in Washington Square Park. Fans surround her here, all taking her videos, as she moves to the music. Amidst all of this, she finds her escape in between and keeps moving as the camera captures the raw footage.
With so many interesting music videos storming the internet, we can say music videos still remain an interesting form of audio-visual ride, not to die this soon, even more so with their straight-up ability to tell a story so well in such a short time! Maybe the medium has changed from TV channels to social media, but strong, well-filmed content will always find a way to desired audiences.
