The title of She & Him’s latest music video may be “Don’t Look Back,” but the clip itself is all about nostalgia for the ’60s. Just when we thought Zooey and M. Ward couldn’t get any more adorable right? From the bright, Technicolor-like tones to the mid-century sets and wardrobe to the retro narration, “Don’t Look Back” is a quick and comforting vacation to a simpler time. After the jump, check out the She & Him clip, plus nine more music videos that will transport you back to the swingin’ ’60s.
She & Him — “Don’t Look Back”
Favorite bits: Zooey’s pink-rimmed eyes and lips, that orange chair, the robot hands that play the keyboard.
Jenny Lewis — “See Fernando”
We can’t quite follow the plot of this faux ’60s pop-flavored film based on Jenny Lewis’s music-video trailer for it… but we do know she makes one hell of a Brigitte Bardot-style international woman of mystery.
Lauryn Hill — “Doo Wop (That Thing)”
In this very cool split-screen video, Ms. Hill simultaneously serenades a New York City block party in 1967 and 1999. The take-home, we think? Times may change, but guys who “are only about that thing, that thing” never will.
Animal Collective — “Grass”
If you were really lucky in the ’60s, you might have tripped out to a psychedelic audio-visual experience like this AC clip. Back then, though, it would have been projected on the wall of a crumbling Victorian house somewhere in the Haight-Ashbury. It’s also worth noting that this comes from 2005, a few years before everyone and their pothead roommate was in a chillwave band, producing music videos just like this one.
Crystal Stilts — “Love Is A Wave”
And here’s the video that would make that trip turn bad. Monsters and car crashes and wholesome neighborhood kids biking down the street in scary masks, oh my! Don’t worry: the psychedelic patterns, monkeys on the beach, and groovy lady in a bejeweled poncho will you bring you down from the ledge. “Stop driving us crazy,” indeed!
Beck — “The New Pollution”
In a video that perfectly complements the retro feel of Beck’s 1997 single, we’re in a Bizarro World version of The Lawrence Welk Show and American Bandstand. There’s a big band onstage and plenty of psychedelic graphics… but what’s the deal with those lawnmowers and strongmen and dudes who look like Kraftwerk? Hey, where’d that hair metal band come from?
The Avalanches — “Frontier Psychiatrist”
When you build your song on a pile of campy retro samples, you’ve really got no choice but to populate the music video with characters out of a ’60s drama. The Avalanches’ clip may share its TV variety-show setting with “The New Pollution,” but it’s significantly weirder, to say the least — like, turtle with a human head weird.
The Pipettes — “Pull Shapes”
It’s no surprise that the clip for the breakthrough single by this neo-girl group is set as a mod ’60s party. From their polka dotted dresses to the crowd’s groovy dance moves to the song’s clap-along melody, this video just makes us want to jump into a time machine and go back in time about 45 years.
Nirvana — “In Bloom”
The Ed Sullivan Show probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Nirvana’s reproduction-obsessed single “In Bloom.” And yet the eerily faux-innocent, Beatlemania vibe kind of works for them here… especially once they start running around the Taj Mahal-inspired set in dresses…
Beyoncé — “Why Don’t You Love Me”
Beyoncé stars a B.B. Homemaker — a character that is one part classic pin-up girl and one part desperate, martini-swilling Mad Men-era housewife — in this video for “Why Don’t You Love Me.” Hey, our girl decided to spin this off into a real TV show, we’d watch it.