I almost exclusively picked dance videos this year. Go figure.

charli-xcx-famous-music-video

1. Missy Elliott ft. Pharrell, “WTF” [Director: Dave Meyers] – If more music videos were reminiscent of Being John Malkovich, this would have been a harder decision.


2. Charli XCX, “Famous” [Director: Eric Wareheim] – If Eric Wareheim insists on continuing to direct music videos, I’m going to keep putting them in my yearly top 3.


3. Jack Garratt, “Chemical” [Director: Tom Clarkson] – A lot of music videos are fantasies, but only one of them features a girl fantasizing about dancing with the guy she loves while actually dancing with her lamp.


4. Disclosure ft. Lorde, “Magnets” [Director: Ryan Hope] – Lorde is a witch getting into it and overseeing her castle.


5. Carly Rae Jepsen, “I Really Like You” [Director: Peter Glanz] – Of course the nicest pop song in years got nice guy Tom Hanks to play along.


6. Wolf Alice, “Moaning Lisa Smile” [Director: Ozzie Pullin] – Ellie Roswell’s bandmates pep her up and then they put on a drag show.


7. The Weeknd, “In the Night” [Director: BRTHR] – This tale of tempestuous love appropriately feels like it is from another time – the sort of hidden gem you would stumble across late night at Blockbuster or on Cinemax.


8. Charli XCX ft. Rita Ora, “Doing It” [Director: Adam Powell] – Charli and Rita dance in the desert in their hot pants, colorful tops, and cowboy hats.


9. Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding, “Outside” [Director: Emil Nava] – Ellie passionately sings at a mirror in the middle of the street, while her fight with Calvin is relieved by objects freezing in mid-air.