The Best and The Worst 

Music videos are creative and engaging media texts capable of being just as strong artistically as the songs they are accompanying.

There are music videos in our world that are as strong as the song they are portraying and sometimes can even cause a more meaningful impact on the viewer, then there are those videos which destroy the artistic strength that the song originally held.

Impactful Videos

Cinderella

                The first video that displays a song well pertaining to its true meaning is the video for “Cinderella” by Steven Curtis Chapman. There is two versions of the song. The first being one about how Chapman had felt guilty about not reading his two youngest daughters a story one night after recalling how he missed moments with his 20 year old daughter like this. The second version is when the song came about with a new meaning. Chapman’s youngest daughter was part of an accident in the family’s driveway resulting in her death. Emphasizing the message of cherishing the moments that won’t always be there. The video has Chapman singing while silhouettes act and dance out the story in the background. At the end the daughter in the silhouette disappears leaving the father standing alone. This happens while Chapman is singing the line, “… and she’ll be gone.” It’s as if the viewer is watching the story play out before them, having this in the video makes the song even more meaningful because it gives the audience a visual of what they’re supposed to be connecting to. Their heart breaks for the singer as the events play out from start to finish.  It’s meant to relate to different audiences. It’s perfect for getting the message across to different audiences. If a daughter watches it, she’ll picture her father and she’ll be impacted because she would imagine what it would be like for her father in Chapman’s position. If fathers watch the video they will relate to the lyrics and watching the story will make them see themselves and their children, it will give them the realization that those moments won’t last forever and they have to treasure them as much as they can. This song and video together really reach a place in the heart that a lot of people might want to avoid thinking about. They don’t want to feel sadness. But sometimes it’s good to think about what you’ve got because honestly, you never know when it will be gone.

Do Something

                The second video that is perfect for artistically leaving a message is “Do Something” by Matthew West. It’s such a simple video with regular everyday people holding up a sign on how they can make a change. This simplicity is a great way to make it relatable. Taking those average people out there who are living their lives just like everyone else and putting them on screen, really becomes a true inspiration to the viewer. People don’t want to see someone who isn't real, who are getting paid millions of dollars, telling them they can make a change just like them. Because the truth is nobody’s just like them. The way celebrities portray themselves onscreen conduct a false sense of reality. But seeing that realism is the best way for people to really consider the message and take action from it. Which is important in this song because it’s about doing something to change the world. You can ask God why he doesn't just fix everything, why doesn’t he do something, but the truth is, he did. He created us.

Story of My Life

                “Story of My Life” by One Direction has a video that makes the song even better. The group of them each have tableaus that display moments in their past. Some happy, some touching and sad. Compiling all of these moments was the perfect display of the video because similar to Chapman’s video, the viewer gets to visually see what the singers are talking about. What they’re thinking of when they sing the lyrics. It gives them the idea to go back to photo moments in their past. Making them love the song even more because it brings back memories. Therefore making it more personal, leaving more of an impact with them.

Artistically Ruined Song

This is the best example I could think of and I don’t think I know any that are worse, so that’s why there’s just one for this section

Wrecking Ball

“Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus is definitely one of the videos that had a negative impact on the song. The song wasn’t half bad, but once the video released it became popular, but because people hated it. It was like Rebecca Black’s song “Friday” it wasn't talked about because it was good. Miley jumping from Hannah Montana to whatever that was, was just not what people wanted to see. The video was disturbing. I think that’s the best way to put it, so people were affected by it but not in the way a real artist trying to send a message would want it to affect them.

To Conclude 

From these examples we can conclude that there are both impactful artistic videos and some not so much. Though, I still believe music videos are a great way for an artist to add more meaning to a song so the audience can see how they see it. Giving them more of an understanding of the context. Music videos are an important part of our pop culture. People obviously enjoy them for some reason or else they still wouldn’t be around.