2025 has been nothing short of a dreamlike fever vision — a year where music videos became portals to strange, beautiful, and unsettling worlds. From whimsical fairy-tale homages to disorienting, reality-bending visuals, artists embraced the surreal to reflect a world that feels increasingly unreal.
Here are the 10 best music videos of 2025 that prove the medium still has the power to transform, reinterpret, and elevate music into pure visual poetry.
10. Charli XCX ft. John Cale – House (Dir. Mitch Ryan)
Dark, moody, and dripping in gothic tension, House pairs Charli and John Cale’s haunting duet with visuals of shadowy interiors and fog-laced forests. Clever match cuts link Charli’s flowing hair to the mane of a black horse and the wings of a tethered vulture. The repeated refrain — “I think I’m gonna die in this house” — hits harder as the imagery grows more intense.
9. Perfume Genius – It’s a Mirror (Dir. Cody Critcheloe)
A surreal exploration of emotional turbulence, It’s a Mirror transforms depression, recklessness, and ennui into a dreamlike biker odyssey. Mike Hadreas drapes himself over a motorcycle in leather and heels, sipping gasoline, embodying a fluid and chaotic vision of masculinity.
8. ARTMS – Icarus (Dirs. Moon Seokho & Seong Wonmo)
This 14-minute short film blends mythology, crime drama, and futuristic fantasy. A breathtaking mid-scene shows the protagonist surrounded by luminous, human-shaped constellations in an endless static desert. Themes of loss, solidarity, and rebirth tie together the hand-drawn prologue, gritty street realism, and passionate dance sequences.
7. Daft Punk – Contact (Dirs. Epic Games & Magnopus)
More than a decade after the song’s release, Contact gets a dazzling cosmic makeover. Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo hurtle toward a mysterious diamond-shaped force, reliving iconic moments from their career in a kaleidoscopic rush of imagery.
6. Doechii – Denial Is a River (Dirs. Carlos Acosta & James Mackel)
Mixing absurdist humor with raw emotion, Doechii’s Denial Is a River begins as a quirky house party gone wrong and descends into a breaking of the fourth wall, confronting her past struggles with addiction head-on.
5. Chappell Roan – The Subway (Dir. Amber Grace Johnson)
A love letter to New York City’s quirks, The Subway moves between romantic realism and absurd visuals like a giant green wig and a runaway red tumbleweave. Roan swims in fountains, naps on trains, and captures the city’s chaotic charm.
4. Rosalía ft. Björk & Yves Tumor – Berghain (Dir. Nicolás Méndez)
Rosalía navigates a world where orchestras materialize in her living room and fairy-tale creatures turn nightmarish. Symbolic imagery — reminiscent of Renaissance paintings — swirls around her, but her composed demeanor anchors the surreal chaos.
3. FKA twigs – Striptease (Dir. Jordan Hemmingway)
Shot in Marseille, Striptease shifts between gritty realism and ethereal, floating imagery. A near-collision with a speeding truck echoes past iconic videos, but here, twigs’ reclaiming of personal power feels both physical and spiritual.
2. Charli XCX – Party 4 U (Dir. Mitch Ryan)
An extravagant, unreciprocated gesture turns into an act of fiery self-destruction in Party 4 U. Charli stages the ultimate party for someone who never arrives, ending with an unforgettable blaze of defiance.
1. Clipse ft. Kendrick Lamar – Chains & Whips (Dir. Gabriel Moses)
Distorted faces and warped bodies become metaphors for systemic oppression in Chains & Whips. Everyday scenes of incarceration and survival are rendered alien, underscoring the disorienting impact of racial and economic injustice.
📌 Final Thoughts
These videos prove that in 2025, music videos are more than promotional tools — they’re cinematic works of art that can completely redefine how we experience a song.
