This inaugural edition of Music Video Monday is dedicated to two of my favorite music videos of all time. Both feature motorcycles, death and lip liner. ---
Music videos have gotten me through quite a few hard periods of my life. When I was laid up with a broken tailbone in the sixth grade, The Box was my salvation (I never called the 1-900 number to request a video; I simply relied on my fellow Americans to ensure I saw the video for “I Want it That Way” at least three times an hour). If I’m feeling down, I cue up “Mo Money Mo Problems” and instantly feel better. If I can’t sleep, there’s at least the silver lining that 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. is pretty much the only time that MTV and VH1 play music videos (but beware: MTV sometimes runs Parental Control marathons in that slot—truly a waking nightmare). And, at a former newspaper job, we found that the best way to take a break from the silence (don’t let the movies fool you; newsrooms, especially at night, are soul-crushingly quiet) was to find ridiculous music videos to watch as a group. So, I’ve seen a lot of music videos. And they definitely do help brighten the day.
And so, to share that tradition with the daytime working stiffs, every Monday around lunchtime I’ll post a music video that’s awesome or awesomely bad, both classics and overlooked gems. So, grab a bag of Funyuns, settle back down at your desk, and enjoy.
This inaugural edition is dedicated to two of my favorite music videos of all time. First: “Unbreak My Heart” by Toni Braxton (who is currently taking a stab at relevancy with a new reality show, Braxton Family Values. Here’s a tip, Toni Braxton: if you want relevancy, don’t go looking for it on the We channel).
Items of note:
Next up is the video for Celine Dion’s “All Coming Back to Me Now,” a video that is so damn awesome that it almost got its own post. But these two videos are so spookily similar that it’s hard to pass up the chance to feature them together. (They came out within months of each other in 1996.)
Items of note: