Here are 15 music videos that effectively deliver insightful social messages. The following are presented in alphabetical order.
&More – Whoa (featuring Chuck D)
The video features vocalist Donn T as a news anchor and rapper Chill Moody as a field reporter for the fictional news channel WHOA News Tonight. The visuals satirize the bombardment of the 24-hour news cycle, along with highlighting multiple social injustices.
Black Pumas – Colors
The visuals add emotional weight to the soulful tune by the funk duo. The images highlight both the hardships and beauty experienced in life. It also emphasizes the power of resilience in the face of adversity.
The provocative visuals enhance the Texas bluesman’s scathing indictment of systemic racism.
The video was inspired by a photo of The Black Panthers co-founder Huey Newton hand-cuffed to a hospital gurney while being treated for a gunshot wound as a result of an October 1967 gun battle with Oakland police. The visuals also depict doctors performing open-heart surgery on an AK-47, which provides potent commentary on American gun culture.
Marlon Craft – Gang Shit
The visuals complement the verses which relate the perspective of three different characters, a racist cop, a Klansman and a black incarcerated gang member. Even though all three are involved in “gang shit,” only one is behind bars. A thoughtful exposé of the hypocrisy behind systemic racism.
Hobo Johnson – You & the Cockroach
Both the song and adult-swim-like music video is bonkers (in a good way), but it does contain thought-provoking satire.
The video effectively supports the song’s message concerning the frustration and futility of being a cog in the life-sucking machine of capitalism.
Meek Mill – Ooodles O’Noodles Babies
The gritty video for the track of the rapper’s 2018 album Championships, chronicles the tragic cycle of mass incarceration.
Haviah Mighty – In Women Colour
The stirring visuals support the song’s message of black women empowerment, which the rapper appropriately released on International Women Day.
Tom Morello – Every Step That I Take (featuring Portugal. The Man & Whethan)
The video for the track which appeared on Morello’s 2018 album The Atlas Underground is a modern recounting of November 19, 1915 killing of influential singer-songwriter and labour activist Joe Hill.
Both the song and video addresses those that try to justify the caging of children by comparing it to summer camp. The casting of white children adds weight to the obvious fact that these atrocities wouldn’t be happening if the children were white.
Amanda Palmer – Voicemail For Jill
Both the song and video address the sensitive subject of abortion with compassion. Regardless of a person’s views, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes builds empathy, which helps overcome prejudice.
Jessie Reyez – Far Away
The visuals relate the heartbreaking experience of losing ones due to an ICE raid. It is a poignant reminder of the humanity that is forgotten about when governments institute xenophobic immigration policies.
Sampa The Great – Final Form
The video is a joyous celebration of blackness which is well suited to tune’s anthemic message of empowerment.
Rina Sawayama – STFU
The video and song rallies against microaggressions and the appropriation and fetishization of Japanese culture.