Are there any? I mean…there must be.
I can’t really think of any, but I was curious.
Well, one comes to mind–that Prodigy video, Slap My Bitch Up that’s just from the POV of the main “character.” I don’t think the band is in that one.
Are there any others?
I don’t think Tool has been in any of their videos. There are plenty of others, so this is gonna be a long thread.
The awesome music video consisting of nothing but Christopher Walken dancing, Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim, does not contain Fatboy Slim.
The video for This Is Not America features neither David Bowie nor Pat Metheny, but it does have Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton.
There are probably lots of other examples involving movie themes.
Pretty sure any Gorillaz music video.
The first one that comes to mind is “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie.
Well really, those cartoons ARE the band.
There was at least one album’s worth of music by George Michael where he refused to, or wasn’t allowed to, appear in most of the music videos, due to some kind of contractual dispute with Sony Music.
I don’t think Duran Duran appears anywhere in the video for “The Chauffer.” Quite weird, since videos were such an important part of their career.
The Replacements had a video which was just a turntable playing a record.
An interesting subset of this is cartoon bands, like The Archies and Gorillaz. You’re seeing the band, but you’re not seeing the band.
Sorry to double post, missed the edit window.
New Order - Crystal
I’m on dial-up, so I’m having trouble double checking these. Other possibilites:
White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl
Radiohead - Karma Police
They Might Be Giants - Istanbul Not Constantinople
How about videos like Land of Confusion, where the band is replaced by hideous simulacra?
Actually, I can’t think of any other videos like that. Fortunately.
Daft Punk’s Around the World & One More Time
Chemical Brothers’ Star Guitar
I heard somewhere that when they decided to make a video for **Abracadabra **by Steve Miller he was touring in some other country so they made the video without him in it.
Wasn’t there one by the White Stripes all done in Lego blocks?
Oh wait, maybe that’s this one:
“Stand” by REM.
If “Fell In Love with a Girl” counts, so does “Love Rollercoaster” by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
John Popper was in “The Hook,” but just barely.
Amy Winehouse was either in rehab or “otherwise unavailable” for her Valerie video, so it’s done as lip-synced karaoke.
I don’t believe Elton John appears in the videos either This Train Don’t Stop Here Anymore or I Want Love; in the former he’s played by Justin Timberlake as his younger self, while the latter is lip-synced by Robert Downey Jr.
Portishead - All Mine. Amazing video.
That’s Thom Yorke in the backseat of the car.
Each one of them is in the video for just one time near the end of the video.
Milli Vanilli?
(Ducks and runs.)
Madonna and MTV ran a contest in 1986 inviting people to make a video for her song “True Blue”. Obviously she did not perform in the entries that were submitted, including the winning one.