In September 1985 Satellite Spies released 'Destiny In Motion', their first single. It made waves in the NZ charts, peaking at number 14 and spending 10 weeks in the top 50. The corresponding video is stylishly minimalist. Lead singer Mark Loveys and guitarist Deane Sutherland wander darkened back alleys in the rain, and encounter a mysterious blue triangle. The song proved a good launchpad: in March of 1986 Satellite Spies found themselves opening for Dire Straits when the group arrived in New Zealand. After that, Loveys and Sutherland were destined to move in different orbits.

The first single off mutli-platinum 1998 album Supersystem helped bring Christchurch rockers The Feelers to a wide audience. For the video, director Joe Lonie has been given the resources to pull out all the stops — maintaining momentum with constant motion and cutting, while underlining the pressure motif by having the band performing in a boiler room, and claustrophobically running through a pipe. 'Pressure Man' was nominated for Best Video at the 1998 New Zealand Music Awards. Lonie had first begun making music videos while playing bass for Supergroove. 

Auckland band LEISURE’s statement on the YouTube page for this song says: "with the world in its current state of flux, sometimes we just need to switch off and float away from it all." The video for the group's first single takes note, as a camera roams through a series of tableaux – from street to bedroom, passing various people chilled to a state of inertia – before following their gaze to the next still life. Directed by Joel Kefali (Royals), the clip won Best Music Video at the 2017 NZ Music Awards. The song featured on supernatural teen TV show Shadowhunters and HBO comedy Insecure.

The urgent, pulsating 'Just a Little Bit' was the second single for Auckland electropop duo Kids of 88. On a set lit by suitably retro fluorescent light tubes, director Tim van Dammen's clip echoes the video for the band's debut 'Our House' — but with models fighting each other rather than having paint poured over them. Van Dammen's aim was to create "a fight, but shot to look like an orgy" — and, by the end of the video, the line between passion and aggression is all but indistinguishable. The single and video were both winners at the 2010 Vodafone NZ Music Awards.

This highly charged tale of a domestic appliance with a mind of its own marked The Mutton Birds’ only number one hit. The slightly sinister video — the band’s fourth with director Fane Flaws — hints at Don McGlashan’s time with The Front Lawn. A furtive McGlashan takes the lead, with Elizabeth McRae (then known for playing Marj on Shortland Street) as his mother. The other Mutton Birds have cameo roles: seedy second-hand dealer (David Long) and Salvation Army brass section (Ross Burge and Alan Gregg). Max TV viewers voted the result their favourite video of the year.

Don McGlashan is renowned for the sense of place in his songs. In 'Bad Blood', the trees along the Shore are turning red and immediately the listener is on the bus on Auckland's North Shore, gazing out the window with him. This video was directed by Aucklander Sally Tran (before she relocated to NYC) and demonstrates her love for textiles and cardboard cut-outs. McGlashan 'appears', but in two dimensions, something repeated in the video for his 2015 track 'Lucky Stars'. 'Bad Blood' reveals a master storyteller at work; the 'stranger' he obsesses about is part of himself.

At least 3080 Polaroid photographs appear to have been taken for this piece of animated cleverness, which was created by Kelvin Soh and Simon Oosterdijk from Auckland design company The Wilderness. The clip offers viewers a stuttery cavalcade of beautiful faces, including guest vocalist Anika Moa. The series of scrawled numbers visible below the photos give a viewers an effective lesson in how animation — and filmmaking — is ultimately a series of still images, laid in a row. 'Come Here' comes from Dimmer's second album, You've Got to Hear the Music (2004).

Dunedin band Mother Goose scored their biggest hit with this novelty song extolling the previously overlooked romance-promoting qualities of sauced legumes (and won extra marks for avoiding flatulence jokes). The Australian-made video references Queen's pioneering Bohemian Rhapsody clip and features Melbourne trans-sexual drag show performer Renee Scott as the recipient of one of the more bizarre pick-up lines. In his post Mother Goose career, keyboard player Steve Young (the bearded ballerina) directed The Chills' classic Pink Frost music video.

In this performance-based High Dependency Unit (HDU) music video, directed by Dunedin musician and visual artist Nigel Bunn, a roving fisheye camera lens provides a suitably edgy vibe. The jittery black and white visuals evoke paranoia films like Repulsion, Eraserhead, and local classic Kitchen Sink. The clip builds up a broiling intensity, through judicious use of sped-up motion, original povs, and flash cuts that match the sonic boom tempo of HDU's trademark wall of sound. 

The Listener described the children’s music of Fatcat & Fishface as being “like Tom Waits’ toy cupboard”; aptly this dirty ditty’s subject is not typical fairytale fodder. ‘Flyby’ buzzes into the kitchen to honour the humble house fly, where — all together now — “she was … looking for a place to lay her maggots.” The stop motion music video tribute to the fly is animated lovingly by Robin Nathan and Greg Schmetzer. The song is from the album Horrible Songs for Children, which won Best New Artist for Older Children at the 1999 Children's Music Web Awards (USA).