Billie Eilish's Music Video Evolution, From "Ocean Eyes" To 'Barbie'

“Ocean Eyes” is Eilish’s first music video, and calling it simple would be an overstatement (she’s just singing into the camera as hands move a purple latex sheet behind her). But it was enough to captivate a millions-strong audience — maybe because of the intensity of that gaze.

Have you ever been on a beautiful, sunny stroll but then gotten stopped by police because you stuffed your friend’s bodies in the back of your car? Well, that’s what happens to Eilish in the video for “Bellyache” — pay attention to the lyrics — the first sign of the singer’s dark streak.

Per Eilish, the black goop she drinks in “when the party is over” is a mix of Xanthum gum and charcoal water, a concoction she found “miserable.” She then had tubes taped to her inner eye ducts to deliver the tears — but all that effort came together for what’s still one of her most visually striking videos to date.

Knowing that the singer loves spiders and even once owned one as a pet might make the viewing of Eilish’s terrifying but impressive “you should see me in a crown,” in which she lets a tarantula crawl in her mouth, more bearable. But then again — probably not.

“Bad Guy” is the singer’s most colorful video to date but you can still count on the Billie classics: blood coming out the nose, creepy backwards crawling across the carpet, and decapitated heads (that are CGI, thankfully).

Billie Eilish slicked herself and 25-foot-long wings in black slime to deliver a message on climate change, and in turn, share her vision of what real music horror could look like.

There might not be much going on in “Xanny” but it’s important as her first-ever self-directed video (she directed nearly every video after this). Sitting on a bench, she’s a bonafide ash tray for a bunch of hands putting out their cigs on her — a compelling vision for a first-time director.

Dedicated to her brother Finneas, the music video for “everything i wanted” is genuinely one of Eilish’s saddest. In it, she emotionlessly drives them both into the ocean. It’s a simple premise, but impactful enough to compell multiple rewatches.

I know what you’re thinking: Are we ever going to see Billie happy for a change? Well, yes, in “Therefore I Am,” in fact, which sees her causing chaos in a deserted mall. Y’know, the teenage dream.

Entering Eilish’s ‘Happier Than Ever’ era, we’re finally getting to see the star go outside and embrace nature. Great! But it’s still Billie, which means there’s also a real 80-pound anaconda slowly wrapping itself around her neck.

As her sophomore album’s most beloved track, “Happier Than Ever” deserved a video spectacle to match, and it got one. An opulent indoor set gets demolished by water as Eilish swims out to safety, a stunt she did herself, of course. Then, she screams it out on top of a roof as it rains down around her. Out of all of her videos, this feels like Eilish at the apex of her powers.

“What Was I Made For?” isn’t an official Billie Eilish release but its video marks a significant shift for the artist, hueing towards a pastel color palatte with no horror themes in sight. But it’s still powerful and not without message; dressed as a ‘50s secretary, Eilish puts away doll-sized miniatures of clothes she’s actually worn in public before a gust of wind threatens to blow them, and her, all away. Simple, but with a tinge of melancholy, a quality that might ultimately be Eilish’s signature.