These are the 10 hottest music videos today. Check them out to see what pop music fans are watching and check out the state of the art in pop music video.
1. Lady GaGa - "Paparazzi"
Courtesy Interscope
Lady GaGa's video for the fourth single from her smash debut album The Fame was put together by veteran Swedish music video director Jonas Akerlund. He is perhaps best-known for a series of Madonna videos including her landmark "Ray of Light." The "Paparazzi" clip is styled as a mini-movie with eye-popping imagery of death, murder, and, most of all, fame. It has been hailed by some as Lady GaGa's top artistic accomplishment thus far.
2. Miley Cyrus - "Party In the USA"
Courtesy Hollywood
The video for Miley Cyrus' huge hit single "Party In the USA" was directed by Chris Applebaum. He is known for his work on Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten." The video is set in a drive-in in part because, according to Cyrus, she wanted to pay homage to Grease.
3. Owl City - "Fireflies"
Photo by Pamela Littky, courtesy Universal Republic
Steve Hoover directed the witty video that accompanies Owl City's breakthrough pop hit. It is appropriately filmed in what looks like a bedroom with a variety of normally inanimate objects coming to life in different ways.
4. Jay-Z featuring Rihanna & Kanye West - "Run This Town"
Courtesy Roc Nation
Prolific music video director Anthony Mandler put together the clip for "Run This Town" with an epic feel. He has filmed the majority of Rihanna's music videos including the landmark "Disturbia." Anthony Mandler pulled together a small army of extras at New York City's Fort Totten Park to illustrate "Run This Town." He has said of this mini-movie, "There's a tone and feeling to the song, there's a militia, a march and a kind of rambunctious energy to it that, for me, I immediately wanted to tap into."
5. Death Cab for Cutie - "Meet Me on the Equinox"
Courtesy Atlantic Records
Walter Robot directed this Death Cab for Cutie video to accompany their song "Meet Me on the Equinox" which is featured on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack. It captures perfectly the moodiness of the film in sound and the clips included from the highly anticipated film.
6. Black Eyed Peas - "Meet Me Halfway"
Courtesy Interscope
will.i.am calls this the Black Eyed Peas' "arty" video. The clip for the group's latest single "Meet Me Halfway" finds the quartet separated from each other in different parts of the universe. Fergie is in a lush forest somewhere. apl.de.ap seems to be on a very barren planet. will.i.am is riding an elephant on what appears to be a moon of Jupiter, and Taboo is in a spacesuit seemingly a little too close to the sun. The clip was directed by Ben Mor.
7. Green Day - "21 Guns"
Courtesy Reprise Records
Green Day's music video for the song "21 Guns" was directed by Marc Webb, the man behind All-American Rejects' humorous clip for "Gives You Hell." His first feature film (500) Days of Summer was released in the summer of 2009. The music video depicts part of the story of the characters Christian and Gloria that runs throughout Green Day's album 21st Century Breakdown.
8. John Mayer - "Who Says"
Courtesy Columbia Records
With the release of John Mayer's video for the song "Who Says," we get to see two artists at top form in presenting their art. Mayer's song is simultaneously one of his simplest recordings and one of his most affecting artistic statements. The music video was directed by Anthony Mandler who recently gave us stunning imagery in the "Run This Town" video. The overall effect is highly cinematic and the mood fits perfectly with the song John Mayer says sounds best between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night.
9. Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me"
Courtesy Big Machine Music
The music video that accompanies Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" tells a very sweet high school Cinderella story. Young actor Lucas Till co-stars in the clip with Taylor Swift.
10. Shakira - "She Wolf"
Courtesy Epic
Jake Nava, the man behind Britney Spears' video for "If U Seek Amy," put together Shakira's "She Wolf" video to represent the metamorphosis of a woman into a sexual animal. The primary content of the video is Shakira's own interpretive dancing.
