Videos by two Canadian artists are including on the Rolling Stone list of "The 100 Greatest Music Videos" of all time.
According to the publication, "all of these picks are perfect examples of how pairing sound and vision created an entire artistic vocabulary, gave us a handful of miniature-movie masterpieces, and changed how we heard (and saw) music."
Drake’s 2015 visual for “Hotline Bling” ranked No. 32 and the video for Neil Young’s 1988 song “This Note’s for You” is at No. 86.
Inspired by the work of artist James Turrell and the 2002 video for Sean Paul’s “Gimme The Light,” the “Hotline Bling” video was helmed by Drake’s fellow Toronto native Director X (aka Julien Lutz). It has been viewed more than 1.7 billion times on YouTube.
English filmmaker Julien Temple directed Young’s “This Note’s for You” video, which poked fun at pop stars who appeared in commercials in the ‘80s. In the U.S., MTV initially refused to air the video for fear it would tick off advertisers (Young called MTV execs “spineless twerps”). It went on to win Video of the Year at the MTV VMAs.
At No. 45 is Adele’s 2015 video for “Hello,” which was directed by Canada’s Xavier Dolan and filmed entirely in Quebec.
Taking top honours on the Rolling Stone list is Beyoncé’s “Formation” video, which debuted in 2016. The rest of the Top 5 is made up of Johnny Cash’s “Hurt, Madonna’s “Vogue,” Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” and New Order’s “The Perfect Kiss.”