Madonna and Michael & Janet Jackson made them big in the 80s, Boy bands and pop princesses in the 90s attempted them to some success but could never quite match up to contemporaries in the late 90s and early 2000s RnB scene and pretty much every child who had access to a television has wanted to star in one/tried to recreate one at some point in their life. Yes my friends, I am referring to the illustrious dance music video. A genre of music video where the main component was dancing and expressing the music through group choreographed dance. Seeing as how trends are cyclical it was only a matter of time before the dance music video clawed its way back into the mainstream. As a child of the late 90s/2000s I loved watching the likes of TLC, Britney Spears, Salt ‘N’ Pepa, Usher, Aaliyah, The Backstreet Boys and Nsync tear up the screen with their dance routines. You can imagine my excitement when I started to notice an unprecedented amount of dance music videos popping up in all of my social media feeds. The difference between its revivals now and the videos of yesteryear is that it doesn’t appear to be contained to only one genre of music as it seemed to be in the 90s/00s. Usually you would see these types of music videos for RnB and Pop music but in 2015 alone there have been dance music videos for RnB, Rock, Hip Hop, Dance and Pop acts AND they incorporate multiple styles of dance. Check out some of them below:

Kehlani – The Way 

Kehlani can do no wrong in my eyes and this video was just another thing she did very right. Still modern yet referencing the 90s greats like TLC, her video for The Way ft. Chance The Rapper is exactly what you want to see in a dance music video, equal parts swagger and equal parts uncontrollable sex appeal. I guess it helps that she started as a serious professional dancer until an injury made her give up her first love and pursue her second which was music.

Tinashe – Player

Tinashe grew up dancing. She began studying ballet, tap, and jazz dancing at the age of 4, and continued to compete in various styles as a part of a dance company until she was 18 so it’s only natural that she would create dance music videos that could rival the greats. Her latest clip for Player with Chris Brown (a dance music video veteran in his own right) effortlessly melds this futuristic vibe with traditional and contemporary dance styles to make an awesome video about ultramodern dance battles. What about that doesn’t sound awesome as fuck?

Hopium – Right Now

This is probably one of my favourite videos of the year let alone being an amazing dance music video. The Aussie guys from Hopium referenced James Turrell’s light installations (probably similarly to Drake for Hotline Bling) for the video for their banger Right Now. They managed to make the video vivid, bold and stirring despite the rather dark subject matter of the song.

Muse – Dead Inside

I’m sure you thought you would never be reading an article about dance music videos and think you would see a Muse video, well neither did I. The band used a pair of dancers doing a very edgy and jerky, contemporary dance routine that somehow works so well with the dark track titled Dead Inside. Covered in white powder and white clothes, wearing contact lenses that black out their eyes, the dancers look exactly as the title suggests, dead inside.

Justin Bieber – Sorry

A rare occasion indeed when Justin Bieber doesn’t make an appearance in his own video but for the video for his new track Sorry Justin instead opted for the use of a New Zealand choreographer whose previous choreography had gone viral as well as a bunch of female dancers, dressed up in clothes that looked like an Adidas rainbow vomited on them, doing probably one of this year’s most exciting choreography. I don’t know anyone who didn’t watch this video and somewhere deep down wish they could dance like that (yes even you boys).

Oscar Key Sung – Brush

It’s nice seeing local acts getting in on the fun that is dance music videos. Oscar Key Sung’s video for his track Brush mirrors the simplicity of Kehlani and Drake’s dance videos, using colour and dance as the main focus. What makes it so good is just how simple it is, it really is about the song and the dance. I kind of like how the dance is a metaphor for that initial meeting and trying to converse with a potential gf/bf, the dance that goes back and forth  between two people who have met at a club for the first time.

Drake – Hotline Bling

I can’t really say anything more about this video that every meme and gif that has been created doesn’t already say but somehow Drake made Dad dancing cool again. We can’t forget the fact that the director, Director X, was referencing the exact type of videos I was talking about in the intro, Sean Paul videos he had made from the 2000s.

Any Sia video but mainly Elastic Heart

It seems Sia has difficulty expressing herself in any form that isn’t some insane artistic expression. I am just imagining her trying to convey some super simple, mundane emotion e.g. perhaps Messina has finally brought back her favourite flavour of gelato. To explain her excitement she does this performance that involves an acrobat wearing a blonde wig covering her face, dancing on the back of an elephant down the street with an aeroplane sky writing code that translates into saying “Fuck yes Messina has my flavour again”. Lately Sia has been at the forefront of using dance in videos to express the meaning of the song. She started it with the video for Chandelier and then began using Maddie Ziegler for the majority of videos after that. The video she made in 2015 for Elastic Heart gained a ton of attention not only for using Shia LaBeouf as well as Ziegler but also for the semi-paedophilic vibe the video ‘apparently’ gave off (although obviously my mind doesn’t automatically take it to the darkest place because I thought it was stunning).

Peking Duk – Say My Name

Now this isn’t your typical dance music video but I just can’t leave out a video that sees Orange Is The New Black and How To Get Away With Murder’s Matt McGorry dressed like a 70s cross-dressing gigolo/hillbilly hybrid showcasing his unabashed dance moves down a crowded street. I just love watching him slut drop on top of a car.

Year and Years – King

This video though! I wish this was how we all walked around in the world doing everyday things, with the help of a group full of dancers making the ordinary seem a little more artistic. I’ve never seen a dance video like it before and anything after will be a cheap copy, the perfect track to one of this year’s biggest tunes, well done Years and Years, mad props.

Major Lazer – Lean On

Putting money on this track coming in at #1 on this year’s Triple J Hottest 100, Major Lazer’s Lean On video borrows moves from Bollywood and puts this western twist on it. Watching Mø and Diplo dance like the token white people at an Indian wedding is almost as good as the awesome scenery in which the video is shot.

Hayden James – Something About You

Showing that dance music videos can span multiple musical genres, here is Hayden James’ video for Something About You. Once again the simplicity of dancers on a white background with little splashes of colour here and there just works so well. This track and this video speak for themselves.

Aston Merrygold – Get Stupid

Previously of the boy band persuasion, Aston Merrygold uses what he learnt in JLS to bring some James Brown soul and Michael Jackson groove back into dance music videos. He specifically references MJ’s Thriller and even uses moves from the original video; need I explain more how these videos have made a comeback?

These next few clips get honourable mentions for almost being awesome dance music videos. They either have a bit more of a story line, they just don’t focus as much on the dance aspect of the video as a purely dance video does or they involve dance but aren’t that great (sorry Silento):

Kendrik Lamar – King Kunta

Kendrik, like Drake, has his own style of dancing. He first introduced it to us in his video for i and then kind of brought it back with his video for King Kunta. It’s nice watching someone who you think wouldn’t bust a move, bust a move. He’s got a groove like few others which is evident in the funk of the track and the few little moments we see Kendrik grooving in the clip.

Jojo – When Love Hurts

With the track that is heralding her return to music, Jojo’s video for When Love Hurts is as much about herself as it is the dancing but fair enough both rock. Plus there is also the question of whether or not flailing your arms about and moving your fingers is dancing but I think it looks awesome. I’m just happy she’s back!

The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face

Ok so this isn’t really a dance video but The Weeknd does dance in it so that kind of counts. The main focus of the video is Abel dancing and performing on what looks like a stripper stage and considering this is also one of the biggest songs of the year I couldn’t not use it as an example that dance videos have made a comeback.

Silento – Watch Me

Silento wasn’t the first musician to garner success from using a viral dance move in a song. We had Soulja Boy, GS Boys with The Stanky Legg, Cali Swag District with Teach Me How To Dougie, New Boyz with You’re A Jerk and many more. Yet Silento’s is different in that he incorporates MANY viral dance crazes into one song guaranteeing maximum amount of exposure and maximum amount of unco-ordinated white people thinking they can do the dance just as good as the people in the online videos.

- Words by Courtney Worrell.