I surely can’t be alone in finding certain songs to be far better when watching an accompanying well-crafted video, and I often feel the song would not be as moving/memorable without it. Equally there are some videos that detract from the song when you least expect it.
Kate Bush, what can I say? So many fantastic videos, some oft ridiculed but glorious.
Queen…the videos just bring me memories.
Whether or not the album was that good many of the videos for Duran Duran’s Rio stuck with me for years as pinnacles of the medium, I’d probably add Ultravox, Visage, Bowie and many others of the time to the list.
Katy Perry has gone off the boil but has had some lovely videos in recent years, and I particularly like her Harlems in Hawaii.
More unusual maybe but System of a Down, Queens of the Stone Age, StoneSour and in particular Rammstein stood out some years ago when I went a bit ‘metal’.
Oh and shock/awe, many Marilyn Manson videos have just blown me away.
Big fan of Joe Bonamassa, but since he’s invariably at his best live in front of an audience, I do find that I do watch more of his “in concert” bluRay discs on the telly, though I do have an augmented speaker system hooked into it.
So yes, I’d agree, sometimes the whole audio / visual thing works best.
Music videos were most definitely great at that time of late 70s to late 80s.
What with the start of music video channels like MTV gaining superiority at this time.
I can honestly say that I haven’t witnessed a contemporary version within at least a decade. What with broadcasters dropping a format to play such, and most online sources just play a live studio version - which in all considerations is so much better.
There will always be those more arty types that like to challenge with interesting visual representations, but you would have to really dig to find them unfortunately.