Vimeo has become the go-to platform for filmmakers and musicians who want to push the boundaries of what a music video can be. Unlike mainstream platforms, Vimeo encourages creators to experiment with cinematic storytelling and promote the very best in the Vimeo Staff Picks channel.
Whether you’re searching for emotionally charged performances, visually arresting short films, or excellently crafted animation, Vimeo’s music video category is overflowing with gems. Below, we’ve handpicked 10 of the best music videos on Vimeo that prove this short film category is as alive and visionary as ever.
1. A$AP Rocky – Tailor Swif
Creator: Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia
Categories: Music Videos
Watching this music video feels like riding a slow-moving rollercoaster through an adult funhouse. Directors Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia won a Vimeo Best of the Year award for this eye candy featuring hundreds of absurd ideas and details to accompany A$AP Rocky’s song, Tailor Swif. A$AP’s charisma anchors the whirlwind of visual tricks, blending satire with fine art influences. It’s bold, strange, and unforgettable.
Watch “Tailor Swif” now →
2. Mitski – A Pearl
Creators: Saad Moosajee and Danaé Gosset
Categories: Music Videos
Rendered in fluid, painterly animation, A Pearl is a vibrant and textural interpretation of Mitski’s music and emotional storytelling. The ever-shifting landscapes echo the lyrics’ themes of anxiety, memory, and vulnerability, immersing viewers in a dreamlike world. The transitions feel organic, as though each environment bleeds into the next, making the visuals as restless as the song itself. It’s a poetic pairing of music and motion design that highlights the immense talent of directors/animators Saad Moosajee and Danaé Gosset.
Watch “A Pearl” now →
3. Leningrad – Kolshik
Creator: Ilya Naishuller, FANCYSHOT
Categories: Music Videos
Kolshik is a technical marvel: a single reverse-take shot that unspools the chaos of a circus gone wrong. With every second, new layers of drama, violence, and absurd comedy reveal themselves. The choice to film in reverse adds suspense and surprise, transforming an outrageous sequence of events into a captivating puzzle. It’s both funny and dead serious, demonstrating how bold direction can elevate a music video into a short-film spectacle.
Watch “Kolshik” now →
4. BADBADNOTGOOD – Beside April
Creator: Camille Summers-Valli
Categories: Music Videos
BADBADNOTGOOD’s music is atmospheric, and Beside April translates that energy into a gorgeous experimental film. Camille Summers-Valli directs with the eye of a photographer, capturing fleeting moments of movement and melancholy. The video’s film-like quality makes it feel like a memory that’s fragile, fleeting, and open to interpretation. It’s a reminder that music videos don’t need a linear narrative to resonate; sometimes abstract storytelling leaves a lasting impression.
Watch “Beside April” now →
5. DJ Shadow ft. Run the Jewels – Nobody Speak
Creator: Sam Pilling
Categories: Music Videos
This music video is an all-time classic. Nobody Speak imagines a diplomatic summit collapsing into an all-out brawl. World leaders swap speeches for fistfights in a tongue-in-cheek critique of politics and power. Sam Pilling captures the descent with sharp editing, high drama, excellent casting, and rogue farm animals. The video balances its absurd premise with real bite, exemplifying how music videos can double as cultural commentary.
Watch “Nobody Speak” now →
6. Skrillex ft. Nai – Xena
Creator: Amara Abbas
Categories: Music Videos
Xena is a visceral burst of energy, pairing Skrillex’s pounding beat with electrifying choreography. Directed by Amara Abbas, the video centers on women dancing with relentless intensity, channeling raw power and physicality into every movement. The sharp cuts, dynamic camera work, and expressive performances build a sense of urgency that mirrors the track’s explosive sound. More than a backdrop, the dancing becomes the story, turning rhythm and motion into the video’s driving force.
Watch “Xena” now →
7. UA – お茶 (OCHA)
Creator: SOJIRO KAMATANI (鎌谷聡次郎)
Categories: Music Videos
Minimalism becomes transcendent in OCHA. With meditative pacing and serene imagery, director Sojiro Kamatani crafts a piece that feels as much like an art installation as a music video. Each movement, whether a slow gesture or a flowing shot, echoes UA’s ethereal sound. The result is calming yet powerful, inviting viewers into a vast and beautiful space where music and motion achieve harmony.
Watch “OCHA” now →
8. Childish Gambino – This Is America
Creator: Hiro Murai
Categories: Music Videos
Hiro Murai’s This Is America is a cultural landmark in the form of a music video. Through a seamless blend of dance, performance, and shocking shifts in tone, Donald Glover delivers a biting critique of racism, violence, and media in America. Every frame is layered with symbolism, making it one of the most dissected videos of the 2000s. It’s also a fantastic display of Donald Glover as a quadruple threat: he’s an amazing dancer and actor in this video, in addition to the fact that he composed and recorded the song. If you dig This is America, don’t miss the other fantastic music videos that Murai and Glover collaborated on here.
Watch “This Is America” now →
9. The Blaze – Territory
Creator: The Blaze
Categories: Music Videos
Territory is an engrossing music video about family, identity, and belonging, told with the cinematic depth of a feature film. The rhythm of the song sounds like a heartbeat, which perfectly underscores the emotional intensity of this video that Jonathan Alric and Guillaume Alric, the two musicians behind The Blaze, self-directed (!). From an intimate homecoming to raw expressions of affection, every shot carries weight. It’s not just a music video, it's a moving portrait of life and connection that resonates across cultures.
Watch “Territory” now →
10. Macgray – Backbone
Creator: Aline MAGREZ
Categories: Music Videos
Backbone opens with an unsettling scene: a woman in a studio methodically stabbing fruits and pumpkins, as if recording foley effects for a film. The rhythm of her actions builds with the track until the objects shift from harmless produce to raw meat, splattering blood across the space. The violence soon moves beyond the studio, with shots of her wandering through a forest, her face marked with blood, and a gun in her hand. While the narrative remains ambiguous, the imagery suggests something darker has taken place. Director Aline Magrez blends performance, sound, and suggestion to create a video that feels raw, disturbing, and hard to look away from, matching the intensity of Macgray’s haunting soundscape.
Watch “Backbone” now →
Vimeo: The home of artistic music videos
Vimeo continues to prove that music videos can be more than just promotional tools; they’re works of art in their own right. These 10 videos highlight the platform’s ability to nurture creativity, whether through animation, satire, experimental storytelling, or pure emotion.
If you’re looking to discover more visual gems, head to Vimeo’s music video category and see what’s next in the evolution of the music video.
