Since then we’ve had nearly every music video imaginable, from Dire Straits’ iconic Money for Nothing that used (now painful to look at) early computer generated graphics to Michael Jackson’s incredible footwork in Billy Jean.

Here you will find 8 of the best music videos produced over the last 30 or so years.

Rage Against The Machine – Sleep Now In the Fire (2000)

Directed by rotund political activist Michael Moore, Sleep Now In The Fire was Rage Against The Machine’s fifth release from their album, The Battle of Los Angeles. The video kicked up quite a stink when the band decided to play an impromptu gig at the New York Stock Exchange, in true RATM style.

Of course the Machine wasn’t too pleased about being Raged at and this resulted in the early closure of the stock exchange and the forceful removal of the band from the area. It also makes for a cracking music video!

Look out for: The dude in the suit and tie jumping around like he’s at Glastonbury.

Faith No More – Easy (1992)

Everything a simple back-to-basics music video should be and more, Faith No More’s 1992 cover of The Commodore’s classic hit Easy has it all. There’s humour in the form of a man in drag, a depressed Mike Patton taking drugs on a sofa and some electrifying shots of the band performing live.

Look out for: Mike’s on-stage antics and the crowd’s euphoric faces.

Daft Punk – Da Funk (1995)

Directed by Spike Jonze, a master of the art of music videos, the video for Daft Punk’s Da Funk focuses more on making an interesting short film and less on the music, which at times is barely audible.

Da Funk was a massive hit that featured on the 1996 album Homework and whilst you’re bound to recognize the song there’s a good chance you’ve not seen this dog walking around town with a radio. Wait, what?

Look out for: The sign and sense of hopelessness as the bus drives away.

Pearl Jam – Jeremy (1992)

Critically acclaimed for its handling of a very sensitive subject matter, Jeremy by Pearl Jam tells the tragic tale of 15 year-old Jeremy Wade Delle who killed himself in front of his classmates at Richardson High School, Texas in 1981. The song also took inspiration from songwriter Eddie Vedder’s similar personal experience involving a shooting at his high school.

Look out for: “64 degrees and cloudy in a suburban neighborhood”, which appears at the start and end of the video. Vedder explains: “Nothing changes. The world goes on and you’re gone. The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself.”

Foo Fighters – Learn To Fly (1999)

Dave Grohl has long been known as rock’s “nice guy” and in addition to this the man has quite a sense of humor. In this video for the band’s ‘99 hit Learn to Fly, Dave and the band really let their hair down and take on the role of nearly every nightmare airline passenger, a drugged flight crew and yes – that iconic spotty teenage Grohl.

Look out for: The coffee incident and those pigtails!

UNKLE (feat. Thom Yorke) – Rabbit In Your Headlights (1998)

The collaborative machine that is UNKLE have a habit of writing haunting, contemplative electronic music and here’s a suitably fitting music video for their 1998 rendez-vous with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. The “Rabbit In Your Headlights” metaphor has been stripped bare and laid on a main road, complete with some painful-looking accidents.

Look out for: The second time he’s hit by traffic, ouch.

Ricardo Autobahn – The Golden Age Of Video (2009)

So it’s not really a music video, and qualifies more under the music made from video category but Ricardo Autobahn’s YouTube hit can’t be left out for its bounty of classic references and that oh-so-catchy looping chorus.

Look out for: Your favourite TV shows, because this video is full of them.

Boards of Canada – Dayvan Cowboy (2005)

Scottish duo Boards of Canada have a habit of writing beautiful, thought-provoking music and Dayvan Cowboy is one of their finest accomplishments. Melissa Olson who directed the video chose suitably apt footage of Joe Kittinger’s famous descent to earth from a hot air balloon 31.4KM in the air, as well as some waves and a beautiful sunset.

Look out for: The earth’s curvature at the beginning of the video, as the jump commences.

Conclusion

This is just a small sample of some of music’s finest visual moments, and it was hard picking so few. Really, the list could have gone on forever and I’m sure you’ve all got your own personal favorites so please help us add to this by sharing recommendations in the comments below.

Next week we’ll be taking care of some of the worst videos ever, so get ready to cringe.

Fortunately, I’ve found four videos for you to check out that are unique, well-crafted (well, most of them are), and very interesting to watch. So make sure your bandwidth is clear, because here are four of the most bizarre music videos found on YouTube.

Basil Marceaux – “Come Christmas”

I just really want to go ahead and get this out of the way. The chorus of this Christmas tune, which states “Christmas turns me on,” over and over, is not sexual in in any form or fashion. To be honest, I don’t think the original creators would have intended any innuendo, but it is still awkward all the same.

Perhaps you may remember Basil Marceaux (dot com), the infamous candidate for governor of Tennessee (my home state) that had a rather interesting spot on a local news station about an half-an-hour from where I live. Well, it turns out that Mr. Marceaux decided he would make a home-grown Christmas video last year, and I’m sharing it with you just in time for the holidays.

The Guild – “Game On”

Felicia Day is definitely one of my favorite actresses (she’s just real), and she has a web series called “The Guild” that you might have heard of. The show is centered around her group of gamers for an online MMORPG – pretty cool idea.

The Guild will occasionally make music videos, and this one may very well be my favorite. Done completely in a Bollywood style, this video brings out the joy of gaming with an Indian flair. It’s not bizarre because it’s bad, but it’s bizarre because of its concept.

Rhett and Link – “The Perfect Bathroom Trip”

Rhett and Link are probably the finest Internetainers out there, and they actually have quite a few music videos already out there. There are their epic rap battles, and then their song about pillows. However, this one takes the cake for being the most bizarre.

Bent entirely on describing the perfect bathroom trip, Rhett and Link serenade fellow YouTube star Julian Smith as he takes care of his business and during the events that follow after. Seriously, it’s terribly awkward. Oh, and iJustine makes an appearance in the water closet.

J. Kap – “I Owe?”

J. Kap, who’s “just an artist living in the basement of his parent’s home” seems like an interesting guy, and I can relate to his worries of finances – it’s hard to choose between doing what you love and diving into something that is considered stable. Both are great choices, but they each have their pros and cons.

However, I don’t think I’d actually make a music video about my money situation. One, it costs a lot to make a music video, and that could be used elsewhere. Two, I guess I just like dealing with my financial issues myself. However, J. Kap did, and you can watch it right now.

Conclusion

I love music videos, but there are a lot of crazy ones out there, and these are exclusive to the Internet. They are all fairly well done (save for Basil), but they are just bizarre!

What other bizarre music videos on the Internet do you know about? What do you think of the ones shown here?

But I still really want to get to know new artists and listen to new music. MySpace used to be a pretty good place to discover new and budding indie artists, but MySpace is not what it used to be anymore. I used to also love discovering music on AllMusic, but using the website was always a bit of a clunky experience.

Band of the Day for iOS gives you everything these services provide, and more. It’s a great place to get to know less-known singers and bands, read about them, watch their videos, listen to some music and view entire discographies – all wrapped in a beautifully laid out app which is a joy to use.

The Costs and Benefits

What Band of the Day basically does is introduce you to one new band (or artist) per day. That’s 7 band a week, 365 bands per year. The app is free to download, but only free to use for one week. If after the said week you’re happy and wish to continue getting to know a new band every day, it will cost you $0.99 a week or $9.99 a year. Not bad considering what you get.

The app also lets you rate bands, collect favorites and share on Facebook, Twitter or e-mail. There’s also a hidden gem which makes the whole thing even more appealing – the Band of the Day mix tape. Read on to learn how to find it!

Discovering Music

Band of the Day is built around a calendar where each day of the month is associated with a different band. You can browse a month back to all the already featured bands, and the best part –  you get a brand new band every day.

You can simply tap the days of the month to get a one-liner bio about each artist, and if you’re interested, tap the name or the day of the month again to view more in-depth information.

The Q&A part is a bit raw, but it provides an entertaining read and a way to get to know the actual people behind the songs. You can also read a nice bio, complete with pictures, and of course, watch some videos and listen to songs (some full, some excerpts).

In the “Albums” section you can view the entire discography and listen to excerpts from each and every song. A single tap on “Buy” will open the iTunes store where you will be able to buy the songs or album (providing you live in the right country, which I don’t).

Wherever you are in the app, tapping the tab icon at the bottom left will bring you the previous page (using beautiful transitions).

The  videos section includes some full YouTube videos of the band which you can watch from start to finish.

Rating and Sharing

Tapping the star icon on a band’s main page will lead you to your lists. These are your favorites, you recent views and you Facebook Band of the Day friends. The favorites section will remain empty until you rate some bands – a task which is surprisingly not intuitive.

If you wish to rate a band, go to the bio or Q&A section and tap the small red “Share” button at the top. You can do the same in videos , but this will rate and share a specific video, not the band.

You can then select how many stars you want to give this band (or video), and choose how (if at all) you’d like to share it.

Rating and sharing songs is a bit more tricky: For this you have to access the featured songs, which are full songs you can listen to by each band without buying anything. To access these, you need to tap the “Play Song” icon that’s hidden at the top left of each band’s page.

Here you’ll find some full songs you can also rate and share by tapping the “Share” button.

Mix Tape!

Earlier in this post I mentioned the mix tape. I didn’t find any mention of this in the app’s iTunes page, but this is one of the coolest features the app has to offer. When in the Featured Songs page, tap the arrow and note icon on the top right. This will flip the screen over and give you access to the coveted Mix Tape.

The mix tape is basically a playlist consisting of songs from last month’s bands. I even found songs from future dates, which might give you a glimpse of the upcoming bands. I’ve been listening to the mix tape for the entire duration of writing this post, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s like your very own private radio of obscure indie bands. You can continue browsing the app or even other apps on the device (that don’t require sound) while listening to Band of the Day’s music.

Bottom Line

It’s been a while since a single app has made me so happy. Band of the Day is every indie music lover’s dream, and even though it’s still not perfect (some slow moving mix tapes, missing top charts), it’s still an awesome app for both music lovers and music creators.

What do you use for music discovery? Have an experience with Band of the Day you want to share? Tell us all in the comments!

That’s where the browser extensions we review today come in really handy. They allow you to listen to songs on YouTube together with lyrics.

Lyrics for Google Chrome™

Lyrics for Google Chrome™ is a fun Google Chrome extension that loads lyrics for the current song on request. Lyrics are automatically fetched from LyricsWiki™.

When you open a music clip on YouTube, notice the extension icon that appears in the Address Bar (omnibox). Click it to load the lyrics right next to the video and start singing!

If nothing was found in the database, you can do a manual search.

The options page lets you choose whether you want to load lyrics next to the YouTube video or open it in a new tab.

The extension also supports: Last.fm™, Google Music™ and Grooveshark™

Besides, the extension adds lyrics quick search that lets you search for lyrics from the omnibar by typing “lyrics …” + a title, artist or a couple words from the lyrics.

Another great thing is that the extension is actively supported as the developer answers all the comments on the extension page and seems to quickly implement all the suggestions (full support is provided here).

Obviously, it won’t fetch lyrics for any song under the sun, so it won’t always work. Besides, LyricsWikia isn’t licensed to display the full lyrics for some popular songs. However it ran pretty smoothly and found lyrics for most music clips I came across.

Here’s another similar extension that seems to be a little bit more simplistic: Lyrics for YouTube™

Music Video Lyrics for YouTube

Music Video Lyrics for YouTube is another similar extension that seems to have a bit smaller database of lyrics.

It installs an icon in the toolbar that signals when a YouTube page has some lyrics in the database (thus it saves you a few extra clicks as you only click the icon when it claims to have the associated lyrics).

It will also change the icon and load the lyrics even if you have opened the YouTube page in the background tab.

Clicking the icon will fetch the lyrics on the foreground of the page:

Unlike the first extension on our list, this one promotes itself more actively offering you to rate and share it each time it loads the lyrics.

Are there any other fun extensions for Google Chrome to offer that almost Karaoke experience? Please share them in the comments!

Other web-based applications to find lyrics we have previously covered at MakeUseOf:

• YouLyrics: Listen To YouTube Songs With Lyrics
• TubeOke: Find Song Videos With Lyrics
• Lyrics.com: Song Lyrics With Videos

Image NinjaPhoto

But do you know what the problem is with YouTube as a music-listening platform? It wasn’t really built for that, and because it wasn’t, it lacks a few key things that a typical music platform would have, like the ability to save music playlists. Okay, so YouTube does technically have a playlist feature for music, but you still have to wait for the video to load in order to listen to your song, and sometimes that can be a pain. I’ve found a simpler way to do things, and it’s called SongSprite.

What Is SongSprite?

SongSprite (directory app) pulls the audio from YouTube videos and lets you make your favorite tracks into a playable playlist that you can share with others. You simply get the URLs of the YouTube videos you’d like to play or share, paste them into SongSprite and then you will be able to listen to them or send a link to your newly created playlist to whoever you like.

SongSprite allows you to connect, collaborate and share playlists on YouTube in real time with your friends.

The process of creating a playlist is SongSprite is extremely simple.

How Do I Use SongSprite?

The first place you need to go is YouTube and start browsing for music you would like to add to your new playlist.

Once you find a song that you like, just go up and copy the URL for it. Shortened links won’t work, so make sure the URL you grab is of normal length. Paste the link into the box on SongSprite and click the Add button to the right. If you’re using Google Chrome as your browser, the Split Screen extension would be great for this. Check it out.

You’ll know you entered the information correctly because it will place the name of the song into your list below. You can keep adding songs in this way until you are happy with the playlist you’ve created.

To share your playlist once it is done, just copy the URL below the player and paste it in an email or IM, or click the Share icon to send the link to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or StumbleUpon.

Conclusion

While having the ability to take content from YouTube and listen to it via a site like SongSprite is extremely convenient for all of us, I doubt that YouTube would really take kindly to this type of “extension”, seeing as none of YouTube’s ads or copyright permissions seem to come with the music you’re getting with the service. Having said that, I do think SongSprite is a great resource and a site that I could see myself using again and again. I invite you all to check it out and let me know what you think.

Note – this music sharing site is US-only, but perhaps as membership builds, the site’s reach will expand.

The LaLa Music Player Menu & Recommendations

First off, learn and take advantage of the blue player menu bar at the top of the Lala member page. This feature allows you to play music while also browsing through the site. So you can play, change, and stop songs no matter what page you’re visiting on the site.

You’ll also notice, as you’re browsing, that you can add songs to a queue. All you have to do is click the hotlink word “Queue” under the play button, and the song will be added to the queue list. And remember, you can listen to an entire song once for free on Lala, and then after the first listen, you can play it again for 30 seconds. I sample about three or four albums per week for free this way.

This is somewhat obvious, but be sure to notice that you can star/rate currently selected music. This is a great way to build playlists of favorite songs.

Finally, in terms of the player menu, notice also that you can share/recommend and post titles of songs to your Twitter and Facebook accounts and to other Lala members.

Song recommendations are one of Lala’s most useful attractions. Since I rarely listen to music radio stations anymore, recommendations from other Lala members are the way I learn about music I haven’t heard. So after you sign up and start hanging around Lala, you will want build a good contact list. Search for members who share your musical tastes, and you’ll be rewarded with some great recommendations. Also, of course, be sure to share your own recommendations.

View Recently Explored

Right under the player menu there’s another set of menu features. Clicking the little clock icon will reveal a pop-up window of the songs and albums that you have recently listened to and explored. This feature is really useful because when you’re browsing the site, you can revisit your browsing history. However, it would be useful if Lala made a way for members to create a wish list of songs on their account.

Collections

You don’t have to purchase a single song to be a member of Lala.com. You can actually upload existing songs on your computer to your Lala account for free. All your songs get added to your Collections. When you do purchase websongs and MP3s on the site, they too get added to your collections. You can easily click the My Collection button to get a linear view of your library, but I personally recommend using the album view of your collection. You do this by linking to your profile page and clicking on Collections. This album view will reveal only songs you’ve uploaded or purchased, not that the ones you have recently sampled.

Build Playlists

As you browse and listen to songs, you have several options for building playlists. This feature makes the online Lala music player almost like iTunes. Clicking on the Playlist button, you get a drop down menu where you can click, “Add to new playlist.”

When you use Lala”˜s Music Mover to copy songs on your computer to your Lala account, it will automatically create a playlist of those copied songs. You can also click on the My Collection>Add Songs button in the menu bar, and create new playlists, as well as add and remove songs to and from lists, as you do in iTunes. Though you can’t create smart albums like in iTunes, your Collections does include a few smart playlists of your recent adds and uploads.

Videos & Blurbs

Like other advanced websites, Lala.com includes a multimedia feature. Songs you listen to may include a related video, typically coming from YouTube.

Blurb Feature

Lala also features a Blurbs section, similar to Facebook. This is where you and your contacts can post messages to one another, and you also get to see the listening activity of your contacts. You can of course select to make your activity private by linking to the Privacy Settings of your account. The one option missing from this feature is that you can’t star favorite blurbs and link comments to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Nevertheless, the Blurbs feature makes Lala.com more than a simple music listening site. It’s great way to share and talk about music.

Lala.com doesn’t fit the needs of many music listeners, but if your computer is your main music player, Lala.com is a great option.

Let me know, if you’re a Lala.com listener, how you like the site.

The makers of this Internet music player have perhaps got the right note when they describe it as iTunes meets YouTube meets Spotify.

TubeRadio.fm is YouTube at its core with the look of iTunes. And functionally it offers the streaming access to millions of songs like Spotify. It’s better as an alternative because Spotify is not available in a lot of countries including my own. The free web app has Last.fm behind it.

We have many online jukeboxes and we can always go to YouTube and “˜listen’ to the tracks”¦

So Where Exactly Should We Put TubeRadio.fm?

TubeRadio.fm wraps it all up and comes out as a slick dedicated Internet music player for YouTube. But the power of the web app is not merely playing the music but it’s in the way it lets you find and organize the music videos. Search for your favorite artist or band and add the track to your custom playlist. From just this single search, you can get all their available albums and build a complete playlist with a couple of clicks. And another click can take you to Amazon if you desire to purchase the albums. The whole process takes seamless seconds.

Let’s Build Our First Playlist

Let’s dive in (with a free registration) and see if TubeRadio.fm can walk the talk. Let’s build a playlist with some tracks of a favorite band of mine.

1. The first snapshot is of the TubeRadio.fm interface. The iTunes like interface should be intuitive enough for a music lover.



2. Start by searching for your favorite artist or band using the YouTube/TubeRadio.fm search field. The search yields a lots of tracks and you can mouse over them to see thumbnail previews of the videos.



3. You can click on any of the video tracks to listen to the track or watch it in the YouTube player at the bottom half of the screen. Or better you can make yourself a playlist. Making a playlist is simple ““ give a name in the new playlist box and click Add. Playlists can be renamed, moved up or down, deleted and shared.



4. To build the playlist, you can individually add the singles by clicking on the Add to Playlist button next to the track. But if you want to really build up the playlist go for the Discography tab. The Discography search gets you the entire catalogue of albums released that’s available on YouTube. You just need to click and select the albums you want and then click the little plus which says Add Albums to Playlist. From the little box which pops up, you can build a new playlist or add it to the existing ones.



5. The videos get processed into your playlist and a notification pops up with the status.



You can get into your playlist and fine tune it (Edit, Delete, and Find Replacement) by clicking the little gear icon next to each track. Your own playlists (My Playlists) are searchable from the search box on top.

The Shared Feeling

These days no web app is complete without a community. TubeRadio.fm lets you share public playlists. Enter the name of the band and click on Public Playlists. Click on it to see the tracks and click on the Subscribe button to bring it under your Shared Playlists. Shared playlists also get updated across the board if there are any changes to it. Unsubscribing from one also takes just a click. You can also rate the shared playlist by giving it stars.

What about the Player Itself?

If it’s the visual experience you want, you will be disappointed because the YouTube video player gets the shrinking treatment. It takes up very little space at the bottom of the browser. TubeRadio.fm is more about listening rather than watching. Of course, you can click on that little video and open it up in all its YouTube glory in a separate browser window. What I liked though was the extra information (Lyrics, Bio, Similar bands, Releases) that’s available with a click.

The track management features are simple. You can sort the tracks by clicking on the columns or custom sort them to play in definite order or just keep them shuffled. You can move the videos around between playlists and edit video information by clicking on the gear icon. Don’t like the video; then just replace it with another one from the same gear icon.

The Final Note

TubeRadio.fm is a wonderful attempt to bring all of YouTube’s musical goodies under one interface. It’s smooth and not difficult to navigate. For iTunes users it will be easier still because of the similar looking interface. The video player does not get much prominence but then it was supposed to be about the audio in the video anyways.

The only problem that might raise its head is with the quality of audios themselves. Not all YouTube videos have high bitrates. Bitrates in the region of 128kbps should be good for casual listening. Little things like the high definition tag on the playlist videos and YouTube star ratings for the videos would have made selection and sorting easier. But that’s minor bellyaching when the web app has the other nice things on offer.

Play TubeRadio.fm and let us know if this Internet music player struck the right chords with you.