What are some really good music videos? I don’t just mean “the video to a song you really like” but one where the video itself as well as the song is just great.
There is obviously Aha’s Take On Me that raised the bar for music videos when it came out in 1985 and won MTV’s “Best video of the 1980s” award on New Year’s Eve 1990…
One I’d recommend is Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Face to Face from the Batman Returns soundtrack. GORGEOUS video.
What are some others you’d like to share?
Tom Petty has done a number of very good videos. My favorites:
Don’t Come Around Here No More (Alice in Wonderland setting, with TP as the Mad Hatter)
You Got Lucky (Post- Apolcalyptic setting, and my favorite video of all time)
Into the Great Wide Open (starring Johnny Depp)
The most awesomest video of all time: Knights of Cydonia by Muse
Meat Loaf’s videos are usually better than the songs.
Likewise Mariah Carey.
Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby, One More Time” sure made Catholic school look good. But, then, I’m a guy. YMMV.
Prince’s “When Doves Cry”.
Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.
Sting? The Police? “Wrapped Around Your Finger”. The one with all the candlesticks.
Yes, I am an old geezer.
Daft Punk’s Around the World
Orbital’s The Box
Orbital’s The Saint
Orbital’s Halcyon
Deep Forest’s Sweet Lullaby
You can see the Orbital videos on his official site, under the video catagory.
Mr. Brightside, by The Killers. Wonderful!
Dispatch never did a music video for The General, but their live performance here is excellent.
I always liked:
Criminal by Fiona Apple. Very creepy video and I love the slow panning shots on all the weird stuff like the stuffed animal with the phallic nose and the car. Also, I wish I owned the house that they’re hanging out in. And it has a TV that comes up out of the floor.
Black and White Town by the Doves. That video really does fit the song very well because it captures the sense of boredom and frustration of the lower class British kids trapped in a dead end town. I love the way the video “climaxes” at the end with the two girls kissing and the boys fighting each other.
The Rest Will Follow by And You Will Know Us By Our Long Pretentious Fucking Name, I mean, The Trail of Dead. I think the song sucks, but the video is badass. I mean, it has Zeppelins, Bravehearts, nuclear bombs, a black knight, a quasi-Communist workers’ movement…did they realize how unintentionally ridiculous this video is?
Your Life Is Now by John Mellencamp. And not just because my sister and I are in the video, either. (She’s holding the plate at :10 and I am carrying the cross in the parade at 0:58.) I think the video fits the song really well. Some radio versions of this song, for some reason, have a guitar solo instead of the violin solo. That pisses me off. Why did they do that? John Mellencamp is the man.
Regina Spektor strikes me as an artist who has consistently good videos. Check out reginaspektor.com. Especially look up “Us”, “Fidelity”, and the second version of “Better” (a field full of Reginas!)
Whenever somebody asks this, my first response is Hell Bent, by Kenna. It’s a great song, too.
Tool does some pretty awesome videos too, my personal favorite is the one for Schism.
I’m also a fan of the video for Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails.
A sillier video that I love is for Want You Bad by The Offspring. It’s not exactly a cinematic masterpiece by far, but my enjoyment of it went up tenfold when I realized that Shane from Survivor was in it. 
Paranoid Android, Radiohead
Sabotage, Beastie Boys
Triumph, Wu-Tang Clan
Innuendo by Queen
My favorite has always been “Smack My Bitch Up” by Prodigy.
It is NSFW, and you can watch it here if you have a Youtube account.
Chemical Brothers:
Let Forever Be
Believe
Beck:
Girl
That was something else. We need more videos like that.
Just - Radiohead
Sweetest Thing - U2
Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice. Christopher Walken dancing? HELL YES.
Paul Kelly (an Australian singer-songwriter who is a legend over here but barely known elsewhere) with God Told Me To. An amazing, but very dark, one-shot video.
In the interests of full disclosure, I had some minor involvement in the creation of this video, but I honestly think it’s one of the coolest clips I’ve seen in a long time. And it won the Inside Film award for Best Music Video. Yay!
I must concur. That video for Knights wins, hands down. I didn’t even pay attention to the song. Just the riffs and watching that video is all i needed.
The Ghost of You, by My Chemical Romance.