Sunday 10 January 2021

Special: 2020 In Review: Top 10 Music Videos of 2020

10. Katy Perry - It's Not The End Of The World


Why? Katy Perry is off raising a baby though we do get a quick glimpse of her at the beginning of this music videos that sees aliens wanting to abduct Katy Perry. The only problem? Doppleganger Zooey Deschanel is nearby and gets taken instead. Both celebrities lean into the meme that they look alike as Zooey ends up needing to act like Katy to save the world by unplugging the internet? Weird but still funny they did this.

9. Bring Me The Horizon - Parasite Eve

Why? Bring Me The Horizon's return to heavy music also coincided with this dark video which features the band seemingly turn into the monsters from the game Parasite Eve which was the inspiration behind the song in the first place. It's also impressive that they did this cohesive of a video without the band members needing to be near each other and as for the parasite looks? Those aren't special effects. The band had someone make masks that intense!

8. Run The Jewels - Walking In The Snow

Why? As noted in the previous section, COVID played a big part in music videos in 2020. Most bands could not get together to do music videos and RTJ is a perfect example of this, having to resort to animated, green screen and lyric videos to promote RTJ4 but none were as good as the Walking In The Snow video because lets get real... If you do a music video with toys you're probably going to make it on this particular list of mine.

7. Anti-Flag - The Disease

Why? And right after that we get a band that filmed a video pre-COVID so throw out everything I just said. Released at the turn of the new year, Pittsburg punks Anti-Flag gave us a great video referencing cult hit movie They Live where a pair of sunglasses allows a regular man to see aliens hiding in normal people's bodies. Of course Anti-Flag doesn't deal with aliens so in their version the sunglasses allow the wearer to see the true meaning behind ads, government and media. 

6. The Ghost Inside - Aftermath

Why? Thus far we've stuck to music videos that look cool but if you've seen these lists in the past you know that generally videos that make you feel something gets ranked up high and The Ghost Inside released one such video this year earning them this spot. The band was involved in a scary bus accident in late 2015 which left 3 members in the hospital in critical condition including the drummer who was in a 10 day coma and lost a leg. The band returned to play a show in July 2019 and this year Aftermath became their first new release showing the band struggling to get better, enjoying playing shows again and screaming at the edge of the highway where the accident took place.

5. Pup - Anaphylaxis

Why? Alright enough with the mushy stuff. Canadian punk-rockers PUP released Anaphylaxis as a stand alone single early in the COVID days, only to be bored and record some new songs and release an EP in late 2020, but the best part of that album is the video for Anaphylaxis. Like RTJ's toys above if you have the balls to do a claymation video, even in COVID times, you deserve a top 5 video. Sure it's a little crude looking but it's punk rock dude. It's not supposed to be polished.

4. You Me At Six - Make Me Feel Alive

Why? We hit the part of the list where movie making is A+ which gets these next two up so high. First up is UK rockers You Me At Six with their comeback single Make Me Feel Alive which is through the POV of lead singer Josh Franceschi which is cool enough, except he gets mugged in an alley and they take out his fucking eye! We then get a split screen look where on the left we have the criminal with the missing eye and on the right Josh's mission to get his eye back, add in a Bladerunner esque look and you have the makings of an amazing video.

3. Taylor Swift - The Man

Why? Another early 2020 video where groups of people could actually gather. The Man sees pop sensation Taylor Swift take on the roll of, well a man. Taylor is completely unrecognizable in this video as she acts like a pompous man would and gets praised for the behaviour. Incredible hair and makeup aside we also get a cameo from normal Taylor as the director of the video asking her male self to be more "likeable" and we find out the voice of male Taylor is no other than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

2. Story Untold - From The Outside I Seem Just Fine

Why? Alright let's get serious here before getting to the #1 pick. Big props to Story Untold for releasing my #2 video of the year despite having no budget as an unsigned band. Like TGI above videos should make you feel something and this one has the singer of Story Untold having a miserable time and ignoring texts from his bandmate as he contemplates suicide. In the end right before he goes through with the act he reads one last text which triggers a series of good memories which makes him not go through with it. The moral of the story kids is always reach out to your friends, especially in times like these to make sure everyone is alright.

1. Eskimo Callboy - Hypa Hypa

Why? Okay, it's silly time again. Eskimo Callboy is a total meme band, they know it, we know it but goddamn if I can't get over these Germans in mullets doing ridiculous choreographed dance routines in even more ridiculous outfits. If there was a metalcore version of Psy's Gagnam Style this would be it, video and all and becouse of it's sillyness Eskimo Callboy gets the 1st place trophy for best video of 2020.

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