Music videos are constantly criticized for their unoriginal format, featuring musicians lip synching while dancing cringey choreography. However, when done right, a music video can add to their song’s meaning by providing a visual representation of the lyrics. Seeing stellar storytelling carried out via stunning cinematography and impressive acting makes the song significantly more impactful. Here are five music videos that enhance their respective songs:
- she’s all i wanna be- Tate McRae
Merely glance at McRae’s new song, and you’ll probably brush it off as yet another song lamenting a significant other’s new interest. The chorus feels all too familiar, with lines like “She’s got everything that I don’t have/ How could I ever compete with that?/ I know you’ll go and change your mind/ One day wake up and be bored with mine.” While I loved the song’s catchy tune, I wasn’t sold on the song until after I watched the music video. Inspired by 1985 film A Chorus Line, McRae is pitted against famous dancer Bailey Sok at a grueling dance audition. Every scene captures the pressure of auditions and paints Sok as enviable for all the right reasons. You’re not made to hate her character. In fact, she and McRae connect rather positively towards the end of the music video, placing the emphasis on the pressure in McRae’s own mind rather than any detrimental flaws in Sok’s character. The music video is also the perfect opportunity to showcase McRae’s dancing ability, a throwback to her time on the 13th season of So You Think You Can Dance where she placed 3rd, further than any Canadian had during the course of the series, at the age of 13. The video, having already reached over four million views since its release two weeks ago, has helped transform a good song into a great one.
- Are You Lost in The World Like Me?- Moby & The Void Pacific Choir
Released back in 2016, this video’s critique of our obsession with technology and fame still holds up really well today, if not even more than when it first came out. The video is a master class in animation, following a young boy as he watches the horrific nature of a society that dehumanizes their peers and encourages conformity. Definitely not for the faint of heart, the animation style allows the song’s topics to be visualized through intentionally uncomfortable images, depicting sexual harassment, suicide, and addiction. These visuals provide examples for the failing systems hinted at in the song’s chorus and leave viewers questioning the moral and ethical dilemmas we face in modern society regarding technology and its many uses.
- Josephine- Joey + Rory Feek
“Josephine” is an amazing song, inspired by letters found in the Feek’s home that were written in 1861 by John Wesley Robinson, a Civil War soldier who was writing to his wife after he left home. The lyrics cover the horrors of war, with lines like “You know, I killed a union boy last week, but he wasn’t fourteen/ He looked just like our son, forgive me for what I’ve done, Josephine.” It’s one thing to hear about war, but it’s quite another thing to actually see the violence described in the song. Watching a man suffer while dreaming of returning to his loving wife and children is heartbreaking, especially knowing that Robinson was a Confederate soldier and thus on the losing side.
- Â Brother- Kodaline
This music video highlights the many ways that “Brother” can be interpreted. If you look only at the lyrics, the song seems to be an ode to soldiers, comrades of war who fight for and protect each other. However, the music video takes a different, although just as emotional approach, centering on a young boy as he mourns the death of his older brother. The video opens next to the grave and transitions through the funeral before spending a majority of its runtime at night. The boy comes downstairs to meet the ghost of his brother, who spends the night playing games and building forts before disappearing the next morning, replaced by a memorial photo. Devastatingly gorgeous and equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, this is definitely a video to add to your watch queue.
- Mess It Up- Gracie Abrams
Significantly more metaphorical than the other entries on this list, this video features Abrams baking an ungodly amount of cakes—implied to be intended for her lover—before consistently dropping them as she attempts to leave. Abrams’s first few attempts are meticulous, carefully measured and delicately decorated. But as time goes on, she becomes more frantic and more messy, less intent on being perfectly presentable and just trying to get her creation to its desired destination. It’s a perfect representation of trying too hard in a relationship, striving to be the perfect partner instead of being vulnerable and trusting our significant others to love us despite our flaws.