Congrats to every artist who made it into this year's Rage FIFTY. And thanks to everyone who tuned in over the weekend!
2018 has been a great year for music videos, and as per tradition, Rage rounded up the best of the best in an eclectic retrospective.
As we always do with the FIFTY, we've dug into all genres and visual styles – from DIY, electronica, pop, punk, metal, hip-hop and indie to everything in between – to bring an end of year retrospective as diverse as the Rage audience.
Childish Gambino’s 'This Is America' was unanimously voted as number one by the mysterious Rage panel. Directed by industry veteran Hiro Murai, the video appears to be done in a single, continuous shot. It’s incredibly immersive, packed with provocative imagery, and is a video that deftly reflects the political, cultural, economic, environmental and social anxieties and conflicts of Trump-era America and the continuing legacy of the country's troubled history.
There was a good local showing in our top ten. We were impressed by Murray the original Red Wiggle’s show stealing appearance in the very fun and slightly unhinged DZ Deathrays video 'Like People'. We were awed by the mythic and iconic imagery in Mojo Juju’s 'Native Tongue' and its powerful message of identity, displacement and belonging. And we were enchanted by Sampa the Great’s 'Black Girl Magik', an elegant, empowering and uncompromising piece of music video... well... magic!
Rounding off the top five was The Chemical Brothers 'Free Yourself', bringing us a factory floor robot rave. We also marvelled at Beyonce and Jay-Z’s majestic video 'Apes**t' which was filmed in the Louvre museum – perhaps the classiest and biggest mic drop ever?
Pop also had strong entries in our top 10, we couldn’t go past the sheer teen movie amazingness of Ariana Grande’s internet breaking 'Thank U, Next' and Troye Sivan’s fierce, powerful and sexy 'My My My!'.
Dark horses like Jon Hopkins’ affecting and physics-defying 'Singularity', The Prodigy’s mini-action movie in 'Need Some1' and Gesaffelstein’s unsettling and hypnotic 'Reset' brought the vibes of the electronic and sub-cultural to the Rage FIFTY.
So, without further ado, here’s our FIFTY for this year:
As we always do with the FIFTY, we've dug into all genres and visual styles – from DIY, electronica, pop, punk, metal, hip-hop and indie to everything in between – to bring an end of year retrospective as diverse as the Rage audience.
Childish Gambino’s 'This Is America' was unanimously voted as number one by the mysterious Rage panel. Directed by industry veteran Hiro Murai, the video appears to be done in a single, continuous shot. It’s incredibly immersive, packed with provocative imagery, and is a video that deftly reflects the political, cultural, economic, environmental and social anxieties and conflicts of Trump-era America and the continuing legacy of the country's troubled history.
There was a good local showing in our top ten. We were impressed by Murray the original Red Wiggle’s show stealing appearance in the very fun and slightly unhinged DZ Deathrays video 'Like People'. We were awed by the mythic and iconic imagery in Mojo Juju’s 'Native Tongue' and its powerful message of identity, displacement and belonging. And we were enchanted by Sampa the Great’s 'Black Girl Magik', an elegant, empowering and uncompromising piece of music video... well... magic!
Rounding off the top five was The Chemical Brothers 'Free Yourself', bringing us a factory floor robot rave. We also marvelled at Beyonce and Jay-Z’s majestic video 'Apes**t' which was filmed in the Louvre museum – perhaps the classiest and biggest mic drop ever?
Pop also had strong entries in our top 10, we couldn’t go past the sheer teen movie amazingness of Ariana Grande’s internet breaking 'Thank U, Next' and Troye Sivan’s fierce, powerful and sexy 'My My My!'.
Dark horses like Jon Hopkins’ affecting and physics-defying 'Singularity', The Prodigy’s mini-action movie in 'Need Some1' and Gesaffelstein’s unsettling and hypnotic 'Reset' brought the vibes of the electronic and sub-cultural to the Rage FIFTY.
So, without further ado, here’s our FIFTY for this year:
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- 1.CHILDISH GAMBINO This Is America (LIBERATOR MUSIC)
- 2.DZ DEATHRAYS Like People (I OH YOU)
- 3.MOJO JUJU Native Tongue (Independent)
- 4.SAMPA THE GREAT Black Girl Magik (Independent)
- 5.THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS Free Yourself (EMI)
- 6.ARIANA GRANDE Thank U, Next (Universal)
- 7.THE CARTERS Apes**t (explicit) (Sony)
- 8.TROYE SIVAN My My My! (EMI)
- 9.JON HOPKINS Singularity (EMI)
- 10.THE PRODIGY Need Some1 (BMG)
- 11.GESAFFELSTEIN Reset (Sony)
- 12.SEVDALIZA Shahmaran (Twisted Elegance)
- 13.KALI UCHIS ft. TYLER THE CREATOR, BOOTSY COLLINS After The Storm (EMI)
- 14.CHARLI XCX and TROYE SIVAN 1999 (Warner)
- 15.ARCTIC MONKEYS Tranquility Base Hotel _and_ Casino (EMI)
- 16.JANELLE MONAE Pynk (Warner)
- 17.TRAVIS SCOTT Stop Trying To Be God (Good Music)
- 18.JOHN GRANT He's Got His Mother's Hips (Bella Union)
- 19.GOLDEN VESSEL ft. ELKKLE, E^ST AND DUCKWRTH Bigbright (Exist Recordings)
- 20.TROPICAL FUCK STORM The Future Of History (Independent)
- 21.DONNY BENET Love Online (Dot Dash / Remote Control)
- 22.CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS Girlfriend (Universal)
- 23.LCD SOUNDSYSTEM Oh Baby (Sony)
- 24.MUNICIPAL WASTE Slime And Punishment (Nuclear Blast)
- 25.MGMT Me And Michael (Sony)
- 26.PARCELS Withorwithout (Kitsune Records)
- 27.FEVER RAY Wanna Sip (Etc Etc)
- 28.JACK WHITE Corporation (Sony)
- 29.COURTNEY BARNETT Need A Little Time (Milk! Records)
- 30.JUSTICE Love S.O.S. (Caroline)
- 31.DMA'S Time and Money (I OH YOU)
- 32.A$AP ROCKY ft. FKA TWIGS Fukk Sleep (Sony)
- 33.SZA ft. KENDRICK LAMAR Doves In The Wind (Sony)
- 34.TYLER, THE CREATOR See You Again (Sony)
- 35.PEKING DUK Fire and Distant Arizona (Sony)
- 36.SUPERORGANISM Everybody Wants To Be Famous (EMI)
- 37.TRAVIS SCOTT ft. DRAKE Sicko Mode (Good Music)
- 38.ARIANA GRANDE God Is A Woman (Universal)
- 39.BROODS Peach (Island Records)
- 40.REBEL YELL Pressure Drop (Rice Is Nice)
- 41.FLASHER Material (Domino)
- 42.THE INTERNET Come Over (Sony)
- 43.MAC MILLER Self Care (Warner)
- 44.BAKER BOY Marryuna (Independent)
- 45.DRAKE In My Feelings (Universal)
- 46.KWAME No Time (Independent)
- 47.KENDRICK LAMAR ft. JAY ROCK, FUTURE, JAMES BLAKE King's Dead (Sony)
- 48.APHEX TWIN T69 Collapse (Warp)
- 49.GHOST Rats (Loma Vista)
- 50.CONFIDENCE MAN Don't You Know I'm In A Band (Heavenly)
We've got more planned for you before the year is over, including our best of the guest (programmers) NYE special and a couple of xmas specials that will yuletide you through into 2019!
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