Shall We Watch 5 Fascinating Single-Shot Music Videos?

Believe it or not, music videos have been around since the late 1950s. The format as we know it goes back at least to the early 1960s, but it wasn’t until the 1980s when the form really came into its own and became an essential part of promoting an artist. Over time, it has become increasingly tricky to try new things and capture people’s extended attention—it’s all in how you execute.

The one-shot video is a classic example. Whether it’s a simple shot focusing on a performer or a heavily-orchestrated scenario with moving camera work, a one-and-done video can draw attention if done right. They can also be harder to make than you think. Here are five standout one-shot music videos.

1. OK Go, “Here It Goes Again” (2006)

As the title at the start announces, this is “Ok Go, on treadmills.” The indie rock band have done many one one-shot videos, but this clip is particularly impressive because of how much personal and group coordination it required. According to frontman Damian Kulash, the group made the video with his sister, Trish Sie, who had recently retired from professional ballroom dancing. They spent eight days working on the routine at her dance studio in Orlando. Out of 17 or 18 takes, they only made it through two or three times. Four band members, eight treadmills, continuous dancing and aerobic motion, and no CGI. Still hella fun. (The band did an amazing zero gravity video for “Upside Down & Inside Out,” too, although CGI and some editing seems to have been involved there.)

2. “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Tacky” (2014)

Yankovic’s take on Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” starts with the satirist entering the loft of a building. Then subsequent performers each take a solo turn lip-synching his words while attired with questionable color choices. After Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho, and Eric Stonestreet vamp it up while the camera dollies with them, Kristan Schaal takes us down a couple of floors in the elevator where Jack Black takes over and makes us watch him rapid-twerk. Yankovic finishes off the clip. It’s a lot of fun.

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3. Billie Eilish, “When the Party’s Over” (2018)

This hauntingly effective video features the singer dressed in mostly white in a white room with white furniture—it’s very THX-1138—before imbibing a glass of black liquid. As Eilish sings of a dissolving relationship, black tears stream down her face and onto her clothes and she wipes it away. Eilish reportedly had tubes attached near her eyes so the dark streaming is real, but CGI must have been used to hide their presence. It’s incredibly striking—and eye-popping (sorry)—and makes the clip feel shorter than it is. 

4. Childish Gambino, “3005” (2014)

A number of artists have chosen to have a single shot on their performance, but the approach to “3005” is a little different. Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) sits with an oversized mechanical teddy bear as they ride a ferris wheel. He doesn’t lip-synch his singing, only the rapping. The remote camera pans around to capture the different lights and nighttime sky. At the end, Glover has vanished and the teddy bear is left alone. Simple and effective. (The performer’s powerful video for “This Is America,” which bluntly addressed gun violence in America, is sometimes considered a one-shot clip, but is made up of about four shots cleverly edited together.)

5. Spice Girls, “Wannabe” (1997)

The splashy debut from the “girl power” quintet was shot at London’s St. Pancras Grand Hotel. Simply put: The lovely ladies race into the hotel and disrupt the proper social proceedings of this swanky British establishment to prance, dance, and cavort through a series of rooms, gleefully disrupting everyone’s dinner plans and spreading mirthful mayhem everywhere. It was a retro idea even for the late ‘90s, but the Spice Girls pulled it off with panache. Bonus points to the sterling Steadicam operator, and to Geri Halliwell for not once tumbling in her spiky heels.

Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for LACMA