Five Best OK Go Music Videos

In Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki writes about how McDonald’s is actually a real estate business. They buy or lease land in prime locations, and lease it to the franchisees.

Just like McDonald’s is a restaurant, OK Go is a band. Their 1980s-inspired indie rock is fine, but they’re best known for their elaborate music videos, often shot in a single take. Here we count down five of their most memorable efforts.

Lead singer Damian Kulash and bassist Tim Nordwind met at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. Their teacher’s assistant was often high and would repeatedly say “OK… Go!” while they were drawing, inspiring their band name.

Five Best OK Go Music Videos

Here It Goes Again

from Oh No, 2006

OK Go’s breakthrough music video was recorded on eight treadmills and cost $4,000. It took two or three days of practice and 17 attempts to capture. The band put it aside for a year, unwilling to be pigeonholed as a “goofy dancing band”, before their webmaster suggested they upload it to a new video platform named YouTube. OK Go would create more elaborate videos, but ‘Here It Goes Again’ put them on the map.

Love

from And the Adjacent Possible, 2025

OK Go filmed ‘Love’ at the Budapest train station. It features 29 robotic arms and 60 mirrors. The band used robots to achieve the precision needed for infinite reflections, but it still took 39 attempts to achieve the perfect take.

Upsidedown and Inside Out

from Hungry Ghosts, 2014

‘Upside Down and Inside Out’ featured a zero-gravity environment created by flying in a reduced-gravity aircraft. The Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft took parabolic flights, each one providing 27 seconds of zero gravity. The group designed a routine that could be spliced together to look like one continuous take. Two aerialist acrobats appear as air hostesses.

I Won’t Let You Down

from Hungry Ghosts, 2014

A visit to Tokyo’s Robot Restaurant, where robots move in time to heavy metal, inspired the epic video for ‘I Won’t Let You Down’. The video features dancers dressed in traditional Japanese school uniforms and carrying colored umbrellas. The video’s final shot included over 2,300 participants. The final section took between 50 and 60 practice runs to get the timing correct.

This Too Shall Pass

from Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, 2010

The video for ‘This Too Shall Pass’ features a giant Rube Goldberg machine. The machine was built in a two-story warehouse from over 700 household objects, traversing an estimated half-mile course over the four-minute video. Impressively, parts of the machine sync with the music.

Did I miss your favourite OK Go video?