Catherine's post on Lady Gaga's new music video - which I totally love, BTW - made me think about some of my favorite music videos over the years. I love videos. They're not as tied to narrative as the other major film forms, they can really experiment with a lot of fun things and actually be quite innovative, and finding ways to interpret a song is always a creative challenge that, when it pays off, is quite awesome. These are in no particular order.

Smashing Pumpkins - "Tonight, Tonight"

Gorgeous. If you're not familiar with this video and its iconography, this is based on the very influential George Méliès film "A Trip to the Moon" from 1902, generally considered the first science fiction film. The Smashing Pumpkins manage to perfectly capture the look of the original film while still making it work in video form - it's absolutely right for the song, as well.

Kenna - "Hell Bent"

The video was originally an Academy Award-nominated stop-motion animated short film, which was recut and used by Kenna a few years later. I would never have guessed, because it works with the song so seamlessly.

Sigur Ros - "Glósóli"

When you're an Icelandic band, all you have to do is point the camera outside for an amazing, scenic, epic video.

Radiohead = "Street Spirit (Fade Out)"

My favorite music video of all time. The black and white cinematography is unreal, the moving in and out of slo-mo within a shot, the jumping women and breaking glass - all of it, perfection.