My Top 10 Favorite Story Driven Music Videos……
06 January 2015
Last Updated on 06 January 2015
Written by David Cantu
Since I was little I loved watching music videos. It fascinated me that someone could take a song and basically create a short film around it. Yes, there are other music videos that are just full of imagery or people “Poppin Bottles” but the ones that really had me interested were the ones that told a story. There are so many to choose from but here are my 10 favorite ones in no particular order:
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Into The Great Wide Open
A story about a young man (a young Johnny Depp) and his rise and fall from stardom. If you stick around till the end you’ll see a cameo from a young Matt Leblanc as well.
Ed Sheeren – Lego HouseI admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Ed Sheeren when I first heard this song but after coming across the video my first thought was: Man this Sheeren guy looks a lot like the red headed kid from Harry Potter…haha! My second thought was: Wow this is a pretty dark story that is being told here. For shits n giggles I’m adding two versions of the video. One is the basic version and the other is a Lego version lol.
Aerosmith – Janie’s Got A GunJanie is a girl that gets revenge on her father for sexually abusing her. The song was one of those that was so commercial and upbeat that often times people wouldn’t snap at the dark story in the lyrics. The video itself shows the story play out as such.Bastille – Of The NightThis is a recent favorite of mine. This song is a cover by Corona from 1993 but this version shows a police detective on the beat and all he sees day in and day out is death which becomes the “Rhythm of his night”. He sees it so much that he can’t take it anymore and commits suicide. It’s so dark (I think there’s a theme here apparently) but tells a compelling story of a man that unfortunately just can’t take it anymore.Eminem – StanThis is about a fan that takes it to another level and becomes obsessive. This story had me following along as it unfolded in the video and had my eyes glued to the screen. I’m posting the longer version of the video here to get the full effect of the storyline.Hozier – Take Me To ChurchThis one show a same sex relationship and what happens when a group within a town find out about it. It’s heartbreaking to see but it’s something that happens all of the time unfortunately. This video doesn’t sugarcoat it at all.Miles Fisher – This Must Be The PlaceA cover of a David Byrnes song, this video is clever in the fact that it is a recreation of American Psycho. A very good one I might add. Fisher looks so much like Christian Bale in the video that it’s pretty scary. So good and so clever!
No Doubt – Don’t Speak
The song was written based on the ending of the relationship between Gwen Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal. The video however shows the band’s stability coming in question as Stefani begins to come to the forefront of the group. It shows the real life turmoil that the group was going through at the time.
Slipknot – SnuffThe video shows a man that is engulfed in a relationship that no longer exists and his need to keep it alive. Slipknot is known for their more brutal and “out there” kind of songs and videos but this one actually has a sad and twisted story to it.The Shoes – Time To DanceThis one was a video that took me completely by surprise. Jake Gyllenhaal makes an appearance in a video by a band that I honestly knew nothing of before but it made me want to look them up a bit more. He basically plays a character that is a bit of American Psycho and a bit of All American Guy. It’s really worth checking out and is a great performance in Gyllenhaal’s acting career as weird as that sounds.There’s my Top 10. Like I said, it’s in no particular order or anything but these were my favorites that came to mind. There are many other I’m sure that I’ve missed so please let me know what yours may be.
