Being the sole music video Solid Gold Hell ever produced, the Flying Nun band made sure it was top shelf. However given conspicuous consumption levels, one might conclude they hadn't intended the clip for a mainstream audience. "We shot some of it at the Las Vegas Strip Club. Not sure why we are playing cards and smoking a lot - it seemed like a good idea and worked well for the lighting. I'm particularly proud of my custom made sock garters, which make a brief appearance." Guitarist Matthew Heine -  March 09

Set in a Grey Lynn fish'n'chip shop, this clip delivers a killer kai moana concept, when it's revealed that the greasy takeaway is merely a front for the club downstairs. Winner of Best Music Video at the 2006 Vodafone NZ Music Awards, the video features a host of cameos in addition to the members of Fat Freddy's Drop: including Danielle Cormack, Ladi6, John Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld. It was directed by Mark 'Slave' Williams, sometime MC for the band. The track was part of Fat Freddy's first studio album Based on a True Story, one of the biggest-selling in Kiwi history.

In the 1990s Maree Sheehan was one of a small number of Māori women who used Māori instrumentation to create their own special flavour of dance music, hip hop and R'n'B. The video for this highly percussive R’n’B track from 1995 features performances by kapa haka group Te Ao Hurihanga. The stylish monochrome clip was partially shot on Auckland's One Tree Hill, before it lost its famous tree. Josh Frizzell, who directed this, had recently helmed one of the most played Kiwi music videos of 1994 — System Virtue, for Māori singer Emma Paki. 

Salmonella Dub’s roots, dub, and drum’n’bass cocktail is shaken up on this single from their fifth album One Drop East. John Chrisstoffels’ energetic video won Juice TV’s Best R’n’b/Urban award in 2003. It borders on the claustrophobic as the camera gets right in amongst the band and an enthusiastic audience (swathed in appropriately rasta red, gold and green lighting). An apple-munching brass section might be a first but it’s megaphone-wielding singer Tiki Taane who is the centre of attention as he toasts up a storm.

Recorded at the Galaxy in Auckland for a Radio With Pictures special in May 1987, Hamilton rockers Knightshade perform ‘The Physical You’. The song made it to number 14 on the New Zealand charts as part of an EP of the same name. Soon after, the band signed an ill-fated deal with Australia's Mushroom Records, before finally releasing their self-titled debut album — featuring this song — in 1995. The band’s performance is archetypical 80s hard rock — which makes sense of their long list of support slots for acts including Guns N’ Roses, Bon Jovi and Jimmy Barnes.

Luke Sharpe’s video for the 2008 number one hit sets out to educate audiences about the Nesian style: replete with graffiti hibiscus, hawaiian shirts ... and hot teacher. The band is shot in front of a green screen, with totems uniting their central Auckland upbringing with their ancestral Polynesian past shown behind them. From baggy jeans to greenstone pendants, corned beef to fish’n’chips, the references nod to the South Pacific influences on the Mystik sound: “Just keep it fresh no matter where you be.” It won Best Hip Hop Video at the 2008 Juice TV Awards.

With a super-simple yet thrillingly impressive concept, Gareth Edwards makes a rock'n'roll dream come to life in this technicolour smash up. Impressive editing and lighting, and gung-ho performances combine to embellish a terrific punk-pop song.  

Hammond Gamble’s Street Talk were a star attraction in the late 70s Auckland pub scene. Their debut album had a heavyweight producer in LA scenester (and Runaways svengali) Kim Fowley. This TVNZ video uses an alleyway set to reflect the band’s “street music” rock’n’roll (with a dash of Springsteen-style bruised romanticism). The band might look new wave, but the rootsier Gamble is after a more conventional look. Whether any self-respecting bluesman would keep his guitar in a rubbish bin is another matter altogether. 

The song title is literally animated in this Ned Wenlock-directed promo for a track from Wellington electronica explorer Rhian Sheehan. Sheehan's lounge beats are set to a lunar day-trip plot, where a chilled-out Right Stuff ends in satellite-gazing reverie.

One minute and 57 seconds of fast, furious and fully fledged rock n roll behavior - a video clip that beautifully represents The D4's mission statement. Frenetic editing, testosterone pumped performances and gritty lighting push the song forward at a frantic pace, while Alex Mench's subtle inclusions like a boot to the camera and askew framing place the viewer centre front of the mosh pit.