Music Videos

I find music videos very interesting. At the very same time I am completely baffled by them. What I mean by that is the bands I would expect to have creative stories told through their video tend to have really crappy incoherent videos. The bands I'd expect to have generic crappy videos actually have surprisingly good ones. I'll give a few examples of each.

#1 Good video
Stick with me here, I know there are a lot of Nickelback haters out there. I have become one myself recently since I found out he's dating Avril Lavigne who I consider to be the worst person in music. I got to give it to them on music videos, the guys they hire to make them know how to tell a story in about 3 minutes and pretty darn well.

I know right?! Pretty awesome storytelling for a short video by a mainstream band. It has a 6th-sensy charm to it.

#1 Bad
Now I love Breaking Benjamin, which is why it hurts me to write this video into the mix. There was a lot of story potential here.

 

Glad you wasted 4 minutes of your life to see what you already knew you were going to see in the first 30 seconds? The video is visually great, however it's just them walking in a swamp for 4 minutes and then a guy drowns in the last 2 seconds. No surprise, no story.

#2 Good
This video may not be an incredible story, but there is a fun story here with a beginning, middle and end. My standards for dubstep videos is very, very low. So when I see a video that is not only visually fantastic, engaging but also has a good story, I have to give it credit.

What happens when a pedophile follows a little girl into a basement? Awesome happens apparently. This video really gets your emotions going. Our society hates a lot of people, but I don't know that anyone gets more hate than pedophiles. People are disgusted with them, so when we see the opening shot we are immediately worried for the little girl and want to do something to stop him. As she enters the basement we see that this doesn't seem like a place she would be purposefully going to, and then we get the magic demon throwing him around before he's finally, and satisfyingly killed. We think to ourselves good, he deserved it. Few music videos can play with your emotions this much.

#2 Bad
For the sake of time and my sanity this will have to be the last one. Three Days Grace doesn't write the most intriguing songs however this is just, just watch.

They didn't even try, this has not story whatsoever. It's just guys standing in front of a green screen and then paint later. Zero to do with the song.

I have worked on music videos before, never on the story aspect but they have all had to do with the song. I don't get why some of these videos even get made.