South African Animation Studio Toon53 Productions.
Best Animated Music Videos
Animated Music Videos: Great Examples
This is our list of best animated music videos of all time. Music videos are made to promote an artist or song, and to give them extra air time in order to increase sales and awareness. And due to the current global situation, many artists have chosen to use an animated format to accompany their recent releases. After all, you don't need to social distance in an animation, and production is much less of a headache in the time of a pandemic.
The MTV Generation was audience to the creation of many animated music videos, however as technology became more accessible and platforms for showing media grew, the possibilities for animation in music videos increased even further. Our list includes a diverse range of animation styles. Actually, not all of them are strictly 'animation' (in the cartoon sense) – there's also 3D, lo-fi, hand-drawn, pixel art and so on. Oh, and they are presented in no particular order.
Our favorite animated music videos of all time
Ever since the early 1980s and the introduction of MTV, musicians have been releasing videos to accompany their singles. It’s hard to imagine Michael Jackson’s Thriller or Beyoncé’s Single Ladieswithout their famous videos, right? There are so many brilliant music videos from the 21st century, but there’s one particular genre that we want to highlight today—animated music videos.
Visualizing sound with animation can be traced back to Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies (1929 – 1939). The series of 75 musical short films combined playful cartoons with synchronized sound and perhaps inspired future generations of animators with a love of music. Throughout the '80s, '90s, and the early '00s, bands and musicians of all genres released iconic animated music videos that are still loved today.
However, as the new millennium progressed, the popularity of animated music videos dwindled in favor of high-production, live-action visuals. For those of you who watched MTV growing up, you’ll probably always remember the iconic music videos from Britney Spears, Fat Boy Slim, Blink 182, and others.
Flash-forward to the current day, and animation has made a comeback. Animated music videos experienced a recent boom in popularity during the pandemic when in-person shoots were no longer possible. Artists like Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and The Weekend all embraced the meticulous art form to bring their songs to life with cartoon characters and fantasy worlds.