Video of the Year
A look at this year's nominees for CMA Video of the Year.
Music videos have become a large part of country music, who will take home this year's award for the best of the bunch?
As the CMA Awards approach, (the big day is November 6th), we will be taking a look at each category and each nominee. Today, the focus is on Video of the Year.
Here's the finalists -
“8th of November” - Big & Rich
“Believe” - Brooks & Dunn
“Jesus Take The Wheel” - Carrie Underwood
“Kerosene” - Miranda Lambert
“When I Get Where I’m Going” - Brad Paisley (Featuring Dolly Parton)
First let's examine “8th of November” by Big & Rich. This video is a salute to the soldiers in the Nov. 8, 1965 battle in War Zone D. It's inspirational and well done, but I don't think it did anything earth shattering in it's tribute, even if Kris Kristofferson is in it.
Now let's look at “Believe” by Brooks & Dunn. What a great song! Great message, great story, but all it's meaning and message can be felt in the lyrics and the delivery of the song. The video doesn't really add to the song, (or take anything away.)
That takes us to “Jesus Take The Wheel” by Carrie Underwood. This was our first look at Carrie, the country star, and it was a great debut. As debuts tend to do, the video focused on Carrie and her reverant singing abilities. A solid video, but not what I would call a video of the year.
“Kerosene” by Miranda Lambert is a song and video that left viewers on fire. The song is catchy, but not spectacular, until you see the video. Amazingly, the video is a simple concept, but the anger and fire in Miranda's eyes takes the song to another level. I think that's what a video needs to do, take a good song and use the pictures to create a feeling that can't be duplicated by audio alone. This is my pick for Video of the Year, but I wouldn't call it a clear cut winner.
And here's why "Kerosene" night not get the prize, Brad Paisley's video of “When I Get Where I’m Going." Another video that is simple in style and message, but done perfectly. As pictures of the famous figures who have left their mark on this world are dislpayed, the song escalates to a new level. Like "Believe" the message of the song, doesn't need any interpretation, but unlike the "Believe" video, this one raises the emotions of the song.
The reason I choose "Kerosene" over Brad is that Miranda's song needed that video to tell a story, Brad's video was reinforcing a point. I think the Video of the Year award deserves to go to the girl who burned up last year's CMA show - Miranda Lambert.
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