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Top 10 Best Music Videos (2026)

Hearing the record and watching the performance are two different purchases, and the best music video picks earn their disc when the camera adds something. Sometimes that is a crowd, sometimes a face at the microphone, sometimes a stage built to be filmed. Ten discs sit below, each one a different answer to why anyone would watch instead of listen.

The Last Waltz is the disc to own first: Martin Scorsese filmed The Band's farewell like a feature, and the 4K edition holds up on a big screen. Viewers who would rather have a whole festival than one stage should start with The Complete Monterey Pop Festival instead.

Concert films, festival documentaries and video collections all get sold under one heading, and they behave nothing alike once the disc is in. One wants two hours and a dark room. Another is a run of short pieces you can leave playing while people talk over it.

1.The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (Criterion Collection) - starring Band of Gypsys

The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (Criterion Collection)
A festival line-up gets assembled once and then never exists again, which is the whole reason these films keep selling. All three were shot by crews who had no idea what they were about to record. Three discs cover a single June weekend in 1967, and The Complete Monterey Pop Festival uses that room for far more than the short film everyone knows. Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix each play a set that made them, and the extra footage carries acts the theatrical cut had no space for. Viewers building one festival shelf get the most rewatch value out of this one.
$50.99$69.95-27%
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2.Woodstock (DVD) - starring Crosby

Woodstock (DVD)
Split screen was the practical answer to filming three days with no second chance, and Woodstock uses it to hold a performer and the crowd in the same frame. The long cut runs close to four hours, so it is a weekend sit rather than an evening one. Unlike Gimme Shelter, it ends with the audience still intact. Reach for it when the crowd matters as much as the line-up.
$20.99$24.98-16%
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3.The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter (Criterion Collection) - starring Ike Turner

The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter (Criterion Collection)
A camera crew followed the Rolling Stones across their 1969 American tour expecting a victory lap, and came home with Altamont. The stage footage is loose and close, then the last stretch stops being about music at all. Viewers who want the era's dark half rather than its sunshine should watch this before Woodstock.
$29.99$39.95-25%
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4.The Last Waltz (Criterion Collection) (4K Ultra HD) - starring Mavis Staples

The Last Waltz (Criterion Collection) (4K Ultra HD)
These three keep a single performer at the centre and leave the camera running through the parts that are not the show. What you are buying is access, not a setlist. Seven cameras and a Hollywood soundstage were an unusual amount of equipment for a farewell gig in 1976, and The Last Waltz is what Martin Scorsese did with them. Interviews sit between the songs, so it moves like a feature rather than a filmed set. The whole thing is built out of faces in close-up, which is what the 4K transfer is actually doing work on. Buy this one first if you own no others.
$38.99$49.95-22%
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5.Michael Jackson's This Is It - starring Bashiri Johnson

Michael Jackson's This Is It
Rehearsal footage is normally a bonus feature, and this is the rare case where it became the film instead. Shot across spring 2009 for London shows that never happened, it catches Michael Jackson marking his way through a routine and then suddenly not marking it. Viewers who only know the singles get the working version of them here.
$11.99$14.99-20%
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6.Elvis on Tour (DVD) - starring Pierre Adidge

Elvis on Tour (DVD)
Fifteen cities in fifteen nights is the shape of Elvis on Tour, and the film keeps cutting away to hotel corridors and car windows between the numbers. The set list swings between rock, gospel and ballads without pausing to explain itself. It suits viewers who want the 1972 road version rather than the Vegas one.
$15.99$19.98-20%
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7.Beastie Boys Video Anthology (Criterion Collection) - starring Adam Horovitz

Beastie Boys Video Anthology (Criterion Collection)
Two discs here were never really about being in the room. Both were cut like films, and both look better on a screen than they would from row twenty. Eighteen promo clips, several of them directed by Spike Jonze, are what the Beastie Boys Video Anthology collects, and the set lets viewers switch camera angles and audio mixes mid-song. Unlike Through the Never, which wants a full sitting, nothing here runs longer than about four minutes. It is the closest thing here to an evening of actual music videos.
$22.99$29.95-23%
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8.Through the Never (DVD) - starring James Hetfield

Through the Never (DVD)
Metallica built a full arena show for cameras and then ran a fictional roadie storyline through the middle of it, which is why Through the Never plays as a film rather than a document. The stage machinery is the real spectacle, and it was designed to read on screen first. It fits viewers who want scale over intimacy.
$13.99$19.98-30%
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9.David Byrne's American Utopia (Criterion Collection) - starring David Byrne

David Byrne's American Utopia (Criterion Collection)
The last two strip the arena away and let the arrangement carry everything. Both were staged deliberately, and both are quieter than anything above them. A grey stage, eleven musicians and not one visible cable is the entire design of David Byrne's American Utopia, and Spike Lee shot it from angles no theatre seat gets. The programme moves between Talking Heads material and the 2018 album, choreographed rather than blocked. Viewers who find older concert films murky will notice this is the sharpest picture on the shelf.
$38.99$49.95-22%
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10.Unplugged in New York - starring Cris Kirkwood

Unplugged in New York
An acoustic set, a stage dressed with lilies and candles, one evening in November 1993: Unplugged in New York is the least arena-shaped performance here. The band leaned on covers much of the audience did not recognise and left the obvious singles out. It is the pick for viewers who want a room instead of a stadium.
$16.99$19.99-15%
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Pick the performance you want to watch

A whole festival, one artist filmed end to end, and a performance staged for the camera are three different evenings, not three versions of one. The music video collection holds a good deal more of each kind.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is any of these a good first concert film for someone who has never sat through one?
Start with The Last Waltz. It breaks the songs up with talking, so it never asks anyone to watch ninety unbroken minutes of a band playing. Michael Jackson's This Is It is the other easy way in, because the rehearsal framing gives a newcomer something to follow beyond the music.
Does the 4K version of a concert film really look better than the DVD?
On older material the gain is smaller than people expect, since Woodstock was shot on 16mm and no transfer invents detail that was never there. On something staged and lit for cameras it is obvious, which is why David Byrne's American Utopia and The Last Waltz are the two here where the format is worth paying attention to.
What works for a night when nobody wants to commit to a full film?
The Beastie Boys Video Anthology, since every piece on it ends inside four minutes and the disc survives being talked over. Nirvana's Unplugged in New York runs under an hour and does the same job at a lower volume.
Are the 1960s festival films hard to watch now?
Not hard, but slower than a modern edit. The Complete Monterey Pop Festival gets around it by breaking into separate sets you can take one at a time, while Woodstock is genuinely a four-hour commitment and works better across two evenings.
What should I add if I already own The Last Waltz?
Gimme Shelter is the natural next one, same era and the same documentary crew instinct, pointed at a much worse night. If you would rather move forward than sideways, Through the Never covers the same one-band idea with forty years of stage technology on top.

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