Hello everyone out there in Music Video Land!

Is it just me or were there a lot of sick ass music videos in April? I did my best to list them all but honestly there were a few cool ones I had to leave off because the length of this list was getting intense. I also included a couple videos I hated to prove I watched everything all the way through. These are just my personal opinions and not the opinions of my employer or best friends.

Best Music Videos of the Month

When I first saw frames from this video circulating I was worried it was going to be boring. But the subtleties in the style, movement, and atmosphere really elevate this into something spacial and a worthy counter balance to the bigger, in your face videos from GNX. Director Karena Evans feels in full control of every move Kendrick and SZA make, and is a brilliant choice to direct one of the more timeless tracks from the album. Although, it’s hard not to see some subtext with the decision, noting that Karena burst onto the scene in 2018 after being hand picked to direct a million Drake videos.

The Hives are a garage band from Fagersta, Sweden that I’d never heard of until yesterday but don’t care because this video rips. It’s the perfect amount of tongue-in-cheek self indulgence mixed with physical comedy and weird violence. The lead signer gives a spirited star performance, but it’s the integration of the rest of the band that is especially satisfying. Very dialed in direction and amazing detail that the guy wears the boxing gloves throughout the whole video.

On paper this is a standard performance video on a cyc with minimalist art department and styling. But directors Claudia Calderón and Joshua Rivera get maximum value from all of these elements. Every few seconds it feels like we get some new trick or fun camera gag, but it never gets in the way of Young Miko’s incredible performance. Extremely precise and entertaining video while keeping on brand for the artist and genre. Long live the high concept, high energy, white cyc performance video.

I can’t tell if I’m just millennial brained but these old goofballs still have the juice. OK Go videos are a genre of their own and every time a new one drops I convince myself it’s gonna flop, and then it literally never does. This is the type of idea that only makes sense as a music video and has no other logical application, and if not for the art form just simply would not exist. It’s the most rewatchable thing I’ve seen all year and really hope these dudes never stop getting brands to fund their wacky ambitious music videos.

There are few directors with the level of name recognition that Bradly & Pablo have that actually deserve it, but these guys are the true extension of the music video golden era of the early 2010s. If not for these two, all the high profile videos would go to directors named Aiden. This may be the most restrained we’ve seen B&P, but their fingerprints are still all over this, and the music video community is lucky folks like Bradly & Pablo, the producer Jason Baum, and the DP Larkin Seiple are still willing to break their backs to elevate this art form.

The last band I thought would have a video on this list is OneRepublic. Their music feels like it’s designed to be played in a Target, and their work doesn’t usually offer much emotional depth or complexity. They don’t want to challenge you, they just wanna be safe for a retail environment. They also usually play it pretty down the middle and don’t often get very weird. Even their more comedic videos read like the Will Ferrell Paypal ads. That’s why I was so caught off guard by the charm and silliness of this video. I guess it’s from the soundtrack of a Manga series, but as someone who came to this fully cold as a music video consumer, it brought me a lot of joy.

We’ve seen several “breaks the 4th wall” videos in 2025, but what makes this one stand out is that Coco Jones is an actual TV star. It’s her background in this world that not only give context to the concept, but it also is a vehicle for her to showcase the comedic skills and timing that she developed through years in front of the camera. The steady hand and experience of director Sebas Coto helps maintain a level of class and sophistication that feels rooted in classic R&B, while seamlessly weaving in the comedy and fun without being too heavy handed with any of it.

One of the most difficult things about making a video for artists at this level is integrating the production process into their lifestyle. You have to be adaptable and extremely quick on your feet to maintain a plan and keep everyone motivated. You can feel that in this video, where there is a sense that the production team is doing everything they can do to keep up with artists that are notoriously impossible to pin down. But they do so without sacrificing artistry and the manage to treat Young Thug’s first single since being released from prison with the significance and importance that the moment deserves. I can’t believe they pulled this off.

This video is kind of a slow burn at first, especially when you’re speed running through April trying to watch as many videos as you can in one night. What initially may come off as a bunch of friends making a run and gun video, suddenly twists into a beautiful, stylize, springtime classic. It never loses the organic, friends-shooting-a-video-on-the-weekend energy, but the cinematography, color grade, and location choices all feel really inspired. Big time sleeper hit for April.

This video manages to pull off the impossible where the outrageous physical comedy is legitimately funny, but they still maintain enough of the hot girlie star moments to make it a pop banger. Charlotte Rutherford has owned this lane in photography for years, but at this point she’s a fully realized directorial force as well. She’s one of the most sharp witted and stylistically locked in directors working, and she seems to have just enough online brain rot to keep setting the trends.

Very much in the same world esthetically and tonally is “Malibu Pier” by The Living Tombstone. A band that predominately lives online, they require a video that understands online culture enough to exist in their world. But as only their second live action video to date, they need something that can bring them into the physical form in a way that will help their online presence translate to their live shows. Enter Danin Jacquay aka Deathcats, a director with enough context and reverence for this band, but with enough of her own voice and style to help bridge their physical forms into their own cinematic universe.

Just making the cut for the end of April was “Gnarly” by KATSEYE. This is such a wild girl group I am still kinda wrapping my head around it. It’s like as if a copy of a copy of a copy somehow turned out better than the original. They are an LA-based act with artists from the Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States. They’re US based, but very K-Pop coded, which itself is extremely influenced by US pop culture. The video itself draws from all the right elements of the genres and aesthetics that the band is influenced by, and the fusion absolutely works. This is the future the libs want and it’s gnarly.

Worst Music Videos of the Month

There is a part in this video where a CG version of OT7 Quanny in a MAGA hat gets on a private jet with skinny Donald Tru*p. And even with that context, the most offensive thing about this video is the style and quality of the animation. It’s like they tried to replicated the look of AI with the computing power of a Sony Gamecube.

If you are curious why some Gen-z boys are turning MAGA, watching these two fail sons ride misogyny and cultural appropriation to a million YouTube views should help you understand.