WATCH | 11 music videos with cool cars in them

Music and cars? Those two are downright inseparable. Some motors are more rhythmic than others obviously, but the truth is that every machine has its own distinctive tune. Yes, that includes electric vehicles and their unique brand of whirrs and whines.

Of course, beyond the mechanical tunes, most of us enjoy cruising about with our favourite ditties reverberating through the speakers. Heck, Karl Benz probably carried along a Sony Walkman for that first drive in the seminal horseless carriage.

Prompted by such an interesting speculation, we decided to compile a shortlist of music videos where cars featured alongside the singing stars. As always, not a definitive anthology, but a compilation to spark petrolhead banter, which we all love.

Also, you could probably guess which decade the author of this listicle was born in. In no particular order, here it goes.

1. Robbie Williams — Millennium

A 007-themed film backgrounded the hit from Williams’ 1998 album, I’ve been expecting you. Appropriately, it featured a spiffy-looking Aston Martin DB5 in the appropriate shade.

2. Morcheeba — World Looking In

A BMW 2002 seemed like the perfect vehicular accompaniment to this trippy sequence for a track best enjoyed on lazy Sundays.

3. Coldplay — The Scientist

Chris Martin pilots a sleek BMW E28 — and enjoys what looked to be a scenic drive with his bae — before an ending that still jars the unsuspecting viewer today.

4. Jay-Z featuring Jermaine Dupri — Money Ain’t a Thang

It unfolds like an early Need For Speed game intro, replete with exotics and country lanes. Great lyrics too: “In the Ferrari or Jaguar, switching four lanes, with the top down, screaming out ‘money ain’t a thang’.”

Disclaimer: TimesLIVE Motoring recommends safe driving (and spending) habits.

5. The Cardigans — My Favourite Game

Hard to deny that Nina Persson looked like a genuine outlaw piloting this large, open-air Cadillac along an archetypal, deserted American road.

6. 340ml — Midnight

Ironically, there’s not a “midnight drive-in” to be seen in this track by Mozambique-based dub band, 340ml. One can only assume that they're heading to one at the end of the video where our gang hops into what appears to be a tired old Datsun 120Y wagon.

7. Jamiroquai — Cosmic Girl

This could very well be the definitive motoring music video. Is there anything cooler than a purple Lamborghini Diablo racing through a mountain pass, flanked by a Ferrari F40 and F355? As fans know, J-Kay has great automotive taste in real life, too.

8. Notorious B.I. G — Hypnotize

Puff Daddy (as he was then known) deserves acclaim for piloting the Mercedes-Benz C124 cabriolet at high speed (in reverse) in this getaway scene.

9. Ronan Keating — If Tomorrow Never Comes

What is it with British artists and music videos with macabre car crashes? See point 3 for reference. With its boxy frontal area, that Jaguar XJ was clearly from a time before pedestrian safety was factored into design.

10. Usher — Burn

Another Aston Martin DB5 in a music video. This time, with less of a James Bond theme — and more of an Usher’s-personal-life-in-ruin theme.

11. Thebe — Bula Boot

A SA kwaito classic, it is a mystery how Thebe managed to squeeze his tall frame into the driver’s seat of an old Mini. There’s more car-related goodness, as you’ll see — even hear — as he references certain models of cars in the end.