For one reason or another, music videos- or at least their impact on Pop culture- just aren’t the same.
Perhaps down to the scarcity of cash in the industry, it’s fair to say that the music video has felt the full force of the business’ switch from shifting albums to selling singles.
Economically it makes sense with most of today’s act hardly bringing in enough to warrant budgets the likes of Michael Janet were afforded, but can you really put a price on creativity?
Are lack of finances to blame for videos which- quite frankly- are as generic as the singles they are in aid of?
How many of these will stand the test of time?
Peep a few memorable videos and weigh in after the jump…
So what do you think?
![New Video: Shawn Mendes - 'Heart of Gold' [Dedicated to Liam Payne]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/shawn-mendes-thatgrapejuice-heart-of-gold-2024-music-video-464x260.jpg "New Video: Shawn Mendes - 'Heart of Gold' [Dedicated to Liam Payne].")
… what!? as well as the music!? Videos these days at the most part are lame, and all they seem to do is throw up Illuminarti signs
Of course it is in decline as todays video have only two concepts:
1. Selling S**
2. Demonic images.
and of course DRUGS and violence themed music videos !!!
True I forgot about those. There is nothing positive out there nowadays. The last artist who portrayed positive images and lyrics was Michael Jackson and look how they have harassed him.
This new TGJ staff aint serious putting goat lame ass video in the middle of those so called “memorable videos”.I mean smh
Dont be so obvious …………
To answer the question,the world does not care anymore,There is a economic crisis no one gives a s*** about the ent in general like they used to do(unless you have a buzz a la Adele or avengers).The ent is wack also,music trends are beyond garbage and movies are all “deja vu”.
That music has been slip sliding since 2007 when people would just get hella people on a whack remix and then be in a studio with the top and bottom borders showing another clip ie ( check on it (even though I’m a stan) every lil wayne, fat joe, and etc) Hopefully this will pass! I’m tired of fast food music! Beyonce & Kanye seriously needs to take everything to another level because yeah whyb is great but there’s no plot! Ye and Bey actually have plots! If they come 3000 times harder they will be like michael and them. I hope people wake the f*** up.
Mehh, music videos isn’t what gives me life. I live for live performances, what’s the point of having a million dollar budget video if you sound like a dying hyena when you’re performing the song? The last music video that I was impressed by was Mary the Night by Gaga, other than that music videos aren’t really something that I ask for.
you are sayin that and pretending videos dont matter because ur fave has been stealing a lot lately. if she were not a thief and produced great videos with her own creativity, u wud be praising her and not saying that
When I was a kid, videos used to be so exciting. Nowadays, it’s just girls getting naked or boys showing off their jewelry. And most of the time videos don’t even correlate to the message of the songs. I don’t even think it’s a budget thing, it’s laziness. Also, I think many of these artists are just singing songs that they are given rather than being apart of the songwriting process so they have no connection to what they’re singing and it translates to the videos.
If you want to watch amazing, creative, inspirational music videos with a story line check iamamiwhoami. http://www.youtube.com/iamamiwhoami
“iamamiwhoami is an electronic music and multimedia project headlined by Swedish singer-songwriter Jonna Lee. Videos released from the project’s YouTube channel have spread virally. The first clip was uploaded to YouTube on December 4 2009, and was forwarded to a number of music journalists and blogs. ”
And there is a lot greatness to find on the internet! Just look further than what you see on the TV! I am watching the greatest videos every week.
i swear to GOD i had the same thing in my head , i even mentioned her name before seeing your comment.
she’s so DOPE when it comes to creativity !!
THiiiiis!! Creativity is not In Decline, is just cause most of people are into POPULARS Artists, if people were more open mind and apprecied talent, there are: Die Antwoord, Systeme overdown, Infected Mushroom, Fears factory…. who stiil give us some freakin videos!
I think people forget that the idea of music videos is still relatively young. The first video to air on MTV was in 1981. So I think naturally it was easier to be creative back then when the possibilities were practically endless, as opposed to now where so much has been done with music videos already.
That being said, I think there are still people doing great things with music videos. Lady GaGa with Marry the Night, Bad Romance, and Paparazzi; Dawn Richard with Bombs; Rihanna with Where Have You Been; Beyonce with Upgrade U, Single Ladies, and so many others. Granted I wasn’t alive during MTV’s heyday, but I’m perfectly content with videos nowadays.
KATY PERRY HAS THE MOST CREATIVE MUSIC VIDEOS TODAY!! WE ALL KNOW THAT
Well when you sound like a yodeling goat in heat when you perform live you have to make up for it in million dollar budget videos. Your fav sounds like s*** live so she has to compensate by having big budget videos, nothing creative about it.
b**** first of all live shows have NOTHING to to with videos so stfu….what is ur point exactly katy has large budget videos so their not creative??? do u realize how stupid that sounds?????? HAHA go watch katy’s videos and then talk their all different, all unique, all have a story line and no one does it like her
I think I have alzheimer’s, because none of these videos are memorable (bar Michael Jacksons’). Sorry, but what are MIA and Rihanna doing there? Wait a decade and ask yourself if these videos are “memorable”. These two are barely relevant today…
I think no one is creativity since late 90’s. Everything. I mean, EVERYTHING has been done. Anyone who says is creativity and original, he/she is a f****** liar. MVs are pretty boring thesedays. Just see Katy Perry’s videos. Urgh! She just walks, uses tricks to distract people, look pretty etc. Rihanna, Britney, Ke$ha do the same lazy thing. ZZzzZZZzz.. I think most of these artists are worried about the visual art concert of the video, but they completly forget about a plot, choreography, presence, etc. And if I see another video on a club, I’m going to slap someone’s face. If the video isn’t about hitting the club, then it’s about drugs, s**, a teenage experience or other foolishness. Even Beyoncé is lacking of good music videos. I’m tired of her low budget videos. The videos of the 4 era look that they came from another decade. We aren’t living in 80’s anymore, b****! Make something modern like RTW, Crazy In Love! Ya all know you have money to make better videos, Queen B. It’s quality over quantity.
MJ shits on beyonce.
THIS !! but Beyonce’s music videos usually translate ONLY what the song is about , let’s take for example ” Party” , it was cool , and it translated the idea ” partying whatever your financial status is” so well ! “dance for you” translated ” dancing for her man” so well , etc ….
but yeah , she should give us some quality music videos !!
Rihanna should not be in the same category as Britney spears or Kesha, probably a comparison to Katy Perry or Rita Ora would be more consistent with who she is!
Britney has better videos than all these together don’t pretend that Rihanna is somehow above her. Britney is a bigger artist.
@MissImpartial Replied:
May 27th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Britney has better videos than all these together don’t pretend that Rihanna is somehow above her. Britney is a bigger artist.
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THIS! I totally agree with you! Britney is a much better dancer and and her vids are more creative than rihanna’s stiff moves and crazy videos!
Artist just don’t care about really making art anymore. All about making money for the least amount of cost. And the fans and stans eat it up because they are brainwash into believeing that what they see is the best they are going to get and don’t demand better.
why isn’t Katy Perry E.T and nicki minaj david gutter turn me on up there,just saying.
kayne west have some great videos too.
Yes, I disn’t like ET but the NM &DG video was one of the best I’ve seen in awhile!
YES DUH
Am I the only one who can´t see the “memorable” feeling about those Rihanna and Bobby Brown videos???? Hell even Mariah has better vidoes than those ones haha
Anyway, it is so clear the artist that has been making the best videos the last years is Lady Gaga. She has had an impact and she made people excited about the music videos like they weren´t since the 90´s. Who is saying Katy Perry??? lmao
Her videos Are awful, they are just long spread out idiocy that is something that the Madonna wannabe loves!
Who does better videos nowadays then? Waiting so I can have a laugh…
i have never imagined i would be defending katy perry’s generc ass one day , but to give the h** her credit , actually katy perry is so damn good when it comes to music videos ! just because they are not so complex like gaga’s doesn’t make them bad.
i like all of her videography from TD to be completely honest. that’s how music videos for pop songs be like. Gaga goes all the way up with theatrics and visuals.and sometimes it is ” too much” for some like that god damn bad music video for ” born this way” !!
Katy videos for Teenage Dream have been good… but no where near Gaga´s impact since 2008 when it comes to videos (or any other thing really lol), like I said she made it exciting again
There is not one iconic video of Mariah. She is great vocalist and songwriter but she does not have great videos. They all fade together. Whitney has iconic videos.
Obviously, what i wanted to say is she does have better videos than the ones Sam posted about Rihanna and Bobby Brown. Honey, My all and Butterfly are great videos for example
decline , Overall : YES !
for mainstream artists : yes , and they keep repeating the same old s*** over and over and over till you get sick of seeing any damn music video.
for the unknown/underrated artists : NO ! cuz artists like iamamiwhoami for example has some sick creative skills but no one gave her a chance !! they copy her stuffs and those artists come off as creative.
so …… the music industry is dying and it is showing TBH. and MIA’s “bad girls” is one of the Sickest music videos ever this year. i really appreciate MIA’s creativity ! 🙂 , the same goes to GAGA ……..
I agree creativity has been lacking for years in mainstream music, videos and songs (same happens with commercial movies. But I blame the labels for pushing generic material and artists instead of the more talented ones like they did more before. Maybe it happened with the beginning of the downloadind era
it happened since 2005 specifically.
and i blame artists as well for their lack of connection with their projects , what i like about gaga ” from new artists” is that she’s involved with everything she do from “A” to “z” as they say. hope other artists do it like her.
and i feel so GOOD because of the main pic of this post and you all know the reason …………..
I know I know… cos of its Norwegian influences right? 🙂
LOLZ , no , because it is so Japanese 😆 😛
i don’t think creativity is declining only music compagnies don’t put enough money for creativity to be used as part of a video
As long as your fave 4lop queen keeps pumpin out her swaggerjacked “inspired” videos, yes creativity will always be in decline. I mean how can art live when BeYAWNce is pumping out 7 videos a year. None of them were singles tho. They’re all just promos right?
LOL that’s what they say!
She was just ‘tryin s*** n tryin s***’ *in Katt William’s voice*
…hopin for a hit but they ALL FLOPPED!
Kanye West “All Falls Down” and “Touch The Sky” should be on this list too. He used to have great videos before he became a “h** uplifter”.
I think labels and artists don’t want to waste too much money on videos, they are no longer trying to make history, they want that Itunes money quick and fast. It has become very hard to find a video that gives you anything you want and more because nobody goes the extra mile.
On the other hand, everybody nowadays can get his flip phone, act up in his bathroom and call it “a music video”. Therefore you have music videos that come and go every sungle day. There’s nothing special and unique about music video no more. I’m no longer looking for epic music videos but for epic moments in music videos.
lol
The videos suck because the music sucks. and all people want to do is Recycle the same lame ideas! The notion of low budgets = bad videos is wack. Creativity is free and with all this technology there are plenty ways of producing great videos at a low cost. Artist need start working with up and coming video directors w. fresh ideas instead of these big names who charge millions to do the same thing over and over
MTV stopped pushing videos….so that’s it…
rihanna good video man down russian hard we found love etc
Please what manner of madness is this?
Most of the music is generic garbage. The music videos match the noise in 99% of the cases. But let’s not be fooled, there were a bunch of crap videos back in the day too. Sabotage by the Beastie Boys was a great song but the video was CRAP! Many videos were low-buget. Mike Jack, Madonna and a few others had the means and the ability. Most of todays so-called talent lack both.
sidebar: TUTM shoulc have been among the grreat videos you listed. I am also feel Sweet Love. I like Missey Elliot but I90% of her videos made any sens to me and matched nothing of the song!
Videos don’t have to match the song *blank stare*
*DEAD* at TUTM being a good/memorable video
KATYS VIDEOS ARE UNIQUE , DIFFERENT , RELATABLE and not copies of other people (uhm uhm)
gaga has been going down hill after bad romance all her videos have been C.R.A.P! come on people, she may have gotten people excited but her video days are OVER.
THIS! And I never understood what was so good about Bad Romance..*shrugz*
YES videos have declined and like someone already said the whole industry has declined when you have:
The arguably hottest artist out right now can barely perform live (Rihanna),
the “greatest performer of this generation”(Beyonce) is a reductive version of Tina/Diana/MJ,
the pop stars are all phony try-hard carbon copies (Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber),
The male stars are all tired mimicks (Usher, CB, Bruno mars)
And the only person selling records right now is a fat white woman singing soul music………..I can’t.
to be honest certain artist are becoming very lazy when it comes to having new ideas and putting thoughts in a video..
the ones who are actually putting thoughts in their music and music videos get bashed, puts down, oh she/he can’t sang, oh she’s a flop, its always the same b*******..
than the ones who gets praises are the ones who comes up with the same b******* music theyve been doing since 2000
people like rihanna are not the best singers out there, but she always changing her style of music and music video..people like keri hilson, jazmine, so on all have meaning in their videos, but the get put to the side and get bash
People get over your hate for Rihanna and realize she does AMAZING videos and she needs to because her stage presence is s***. Go watch RiRIs videos she does a better job than Beyonce and a lot of other artist at bringing a song to life in a video, sure she has had some rare duds but she has far more hits.
Going back and watching ‘Shes a B****’ has reminded me that when it comes to music videos Missy E. is on a Michael Jackson level she is truely amazing you can’t wait to see a missy video cause u never know what she gone do love that lady.
Random, but I just wanted to add..if this generation will leave any type of legacy, i feel it will be that they have single handingly redefine the standards of whats good, what’s considered art, and what’s considered legal. And its forced us, the ppl who care at least, to actually use our freedom to make a chose of what that standard is and should be and make a stand for it. I feel like this generation is our George Bush. You can’t get or see better unless you see what your worst looks like when you’ve done nothing about it
here we go with people going on about something thats so stupid! if you want to see amazing music videos then look for underrated artist their videos get overlooked so much that everybody misses out on them!
the only mainstream artist who have done some kind of hot video in the last yea or two is rihanna, beyonce, lady gaga and madonna!!
run the world (girls)
we found love
girl gone wild
marry the night
where have you been
you and i
they were arguably the top videos of this and last year!
MissE video required!!
2012 – Kelly Clarkson – Dark Side
= Cheap video, I reckon (bunch of actors, some stock footage, only two looks for the artist)
BUT a powerful message relating strongly to an already meaningful and awesome pop song. See? It is possible!
Mjs smooth criminal video shits on every video
To be honest it’s not the creativity in the music video that’s in decline. It’s the creativity in the music itself. Rihanna’s video “Where Have You Been?” was pretty creative and unique. I honestly loved it and it matched the rhythm and the pacing of the song and kept things interesting, so there’s nothing lacking with the choreo or the artistic direction. But if you don’t have any songs that tell of great love (Remember the Time) or have revolutionary impact (U2- Bloody Sunday) or just a generally great story (Paradise- Coldplay) then you don’t really have that much to go from in the ways of a music video. Great music is out there but not tapped for promotion or heavily financed by record labels or even appreciated by the populous at this point. There are many factors to blame for the decline of good music, but as far as I’m concerned music video artistic potential and creativity will always be around.