Music videos aren't what they used to be. Contemporary artists and their collaborating directors are breaking down barriers and reaching fans in exciting and experimental ways. Despite relatively low return on investment, the format continues to be crucial for the development of an artist's identity.

The artist is on the stage, but who is behind the stage itself? Since the mid-90s the entertainment architecture firm Stufish has maintained a design practice shrowded in mortality, reaching for an afterlife through audience memory. In this article, employees at Stufish give a glimpse into the complex arrangement and assemblage involved in staging for Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

The history of art is fraught with instances of erasure. What is not present, or what is pushed to the background, says as much as what is in focus. With their music video for "APESHIT", Beyoncé and Jay-Z take over the Louvre and draw our attention to what we should have seen all along.

Presenting signifiers of dysphoria and disassociation, Ariana Grande's video for "No Tears Left to Cry" prompts a dive into Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism. What are the ways difference is sought out in a time when nothing seems to be here? How might these desires for something else be coded within whiteness and projected upon trans* subjectivities?

In Beyoncé and Jay-Z's artistic occupation of the Louvre for "APESHIT", they challenge the history presented by the museum and the art world writ large. Moving, dancing in close proximity to the colonial, they open up space for knowledge generation and new potentialities. The art museum serves as a point of contact between the material and social.

Kahlil Joseph has worked as a director of visual accompaniments to music by artists such as Arcade Fire, Beyonce, Flying Lotus, FKA Twigs and Sampha. Through his collaborations, he creates a framing that gets to the heart of Black life. This article by Hilton Als looks at two of his earlier works and elaborates upon the emotions conjured up by his storytelling.

From "Formation" to "Just Dance", director and producer Melinda Matsoukas' portfolio is nothing short of prolific. But what sets her apart is an unmatched ability to create works that exude emotion. Normally behind the scenes, this interview brings Matsoukas front and centre.

MTV made the music video a (brief) fascination of media studies. In the time since the channel's launch, this initial enthusiasm has faded. In Music Video after MTV, Korsgaard brings a scholarly lens to the academically neglected medium. A mountain of untouched history means there is much to be analysed.

The music video is a melange of high and low culture, living before, in, and beyond the contemporary. As a medium, it can be a space for the manifestation of the not-yet or a reaffirmation of the established order. Recognising the complexity of the music video as a mode of cultural expression, this collection takes an appropriately multi-sided approach.

The task given to designers of nightclub venues is to create a space that exists outside the everyday. This exhibition at Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein explored the history and contemporary state of nightclub design. Moving from the space behind the screen to that in front of it, how might design allow for participation in alternative realities?

Ana DuVerney and Jay-Z present us with a future of The United States that is radically different from its past. When all seems lost, imagining and visualising what can be helps to stay away feelings of political apathy and misanthropy.

Television has been crucial for the proliferation of the music video. This exhibition at Museo Jumex in Mexico City presented an artistic exploration of the medium.

Dance music, traditionally reliant on spaces of congregation, would seem to be ill suited for an increasingly digital world. However, artists and collectives are finding ways to utilise the affordances of an online environment for their ends. Creating worlds, these virtual pioneers are making a space for dance music across digital networks.

Brother Portrait's video for "seeview/rearview" is a multilayered tableaux of Black British experience. Roots and a London-based upbringing merge to create a space requiring rediscovery and reconciliation in the creation of a self. At the same time, the individual and social mix to form a sense of history that affords difference and resonance.

With a reflection upon the architectural history of performance spaces used in popular music, Kronenburg investigates the role of the spatial in musical performance. From the improvised to the thoroughly planned, stage design has become an industry in its own right. With many hands involved in the process of conceptualisation, production and implementation, stages present all the complexities of traditional architecture and more.

What are the ways in which the music video reflects and shapes our lives? Carol Vernallis traces the dialectic between lived reality and artistic expression via the music video. Paying equal attention to the visual and auditory opens up a web of relationality that reveals as much about us as it does the artist.

Will popular video games such as Roblox and Fortnight become two of the hottest music venues on the planet? Rethinking live performances for a (post)pandemic future, video games give artists the ability to reach fans regardless of distance. In the interactive, virtual environment of the video game possibilities await to be explored, together.

Music videos aren't what they used to be. Contemporary artists and their collaborating directors are breaking down barriers and reaching fans in exciting and experimental ways. Despite relatively low return on investment, the format continues to be crucial for the development of an artist's identity.

Having an on-screen crush can be complicated. Even more so if that crush's actions conjure a long line of problematic appropriations of lesbianism. With Arianna Grande as a starting point, Rosanna Mclaughlin dives into the history of the entertainment industry's exploitation of lesbian sexuality.

Coachella stands as one of the world's most well known and well-attended music festivals, but headlining does not mean all that it used to. In addition to live performances, artists are putting out prolonged, digitally distributed visual accompaniments to reach their audience beyond the span of two weekends in the Coachella Valley.

Presenting signifiers of dysphoria and disassociation, Ariana Grande's video for "No Tears Left to Cry" prompts a dive into Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism. What are the ways difference is sought out in a time when nothing seems to be here? How might these desires for something else be coded within whiteness and projected upon trans* subjectivities?

Restricted to their homes, unable to host large on-set production teams, artists are devising new ways of shooting music videos during a pandemic. With a low-budget aesthetic or an increased focus on post-production, pandemic-proof music videos show that artistry does not stop even under the most isolating of circumstances.

MTV made the music video a (brief) fascination of media studies. In the time since the channel's launch, this initial enthusiasm has faded. In Music Video after MTV, Korsgaard brings a scholarly lens to the academically neglected medium. A mountain of untouched history means there is much to be analysed.

The music video is a melange of high and low culture, living before, in, and beyond the contemporary. As a medium, it can be a space for the manifestation of the not-yet or a reaffirmation of the established order. Recognising the complexity of the music video as a mode of cultural expression, this collection takes an appropriately multi-sided approach.

Television has been crucial for the proliferation of the music video. This exhibition at Museo Jumex in Mexico City presented an artistic exploration of the medium.

Dance music, traditionally reliant on spaces of congregation, would seem to be ill suited for an increasingly digital world. However, artists and collectives are finding ways to utilise the affordances of an online environment for their ends. Creating worlds, these virtual pioneers are making a space for dance music across digital networks.

Simulating the spatial, a YouTube channel under the name "Cecil Robert" adds another level of affectual weight to beloved tracks. Rather than being spoonfed a high-quality stream of hand-picked songs, the audience of Robert's channel can re-experience a lack of control and fidelity that seems to have faded in today's Spotify world order. In many cases, the results are a shock to the emotions.

What are the ways in which the music video reflects and shapes our lives? Carol Vernallis traces the dialectic between lived reality and artistic expression via the music video. Paying equal attention to the visual and auditory opens up a web of relationality that reveals as much about us as it does the artist.

In the second edition of their Video Vortex series, the Institute of Network Cultures expands its investigation into online video and digital distribution platforms. Sourcing contributions from across disciplines (including an article by For The Record research fellow Albert Figurt), Video Vortex Reader II presents a multifaceted study of the state and implications of online video beyond YouTube.

Will popular video games such as Roblox and Fortnight become two of the hottest music venues on the planet? Rethinking live performances for a (post)pandemic future, video games give artists the ability to reach fans regardless of distance. In the interactive, virtual environment of the video game possibilities await to be explored, together.