10. Drake – ‘Hotline Bling’
Video by: Director X
Drake’s unabashed dad dancing launched a thousand memes, his jacket caused many a spike in sales, but the video was also a triumph of set design ( even if it was too closely “inspired” by the work of James Turrell). ‘Hotline Bling’ was 2015’s best example of pop culture as conversation.
9. Future Islands – ‘A Song for Our Grandfathers’
Video by: Jay Buim
An emotional music video about family for a song about family.
8. Shamir – ‘Call It Off’
Video by: Philip Hodges
Shamir Bailey’s exuberant electro pop in puppet form.
7. Girl Band – ‘Paul’
Video by: Bob Gallagher
Juxtaposing escapist debauchery and profanity with the sanitised world of kid’s TV programming is an obvious idea but Gallagher, digs deeper to show us that costumes and masks are of course, a front for the reality of the person behind it, in a thoroughly convincing and entertaining way.
6. De Staat – ‘Witch Doctor’
Video by: Studio Smack, Floris Kaayk & Torre Florim
A rallying headfuck of a video from a Dutch band who came the closest to the kind of video that Rammstein would have been proud of.
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Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the cohost of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, event curator and producer of gigs, parties & events.