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Top 10 Best Music Videos of 2015

Top 10 Best Music Videos of 2015

Music videos are often just as much a part of artists’ careers as albums and singles, so we decided it was high time we count down some of the best music videos in country music in 2015. In no particular order, here are our picks.

Old Dominion ‘Break Up With Him’

Old Dominion broke out this year with the help of the #1 single ‘Break Up With Him’, and the quirky video had a good deal to do with the song’s success. While the song tells a love interest that she needs to break up with her no-good boyfriend and instead be with the narrator, the video takes things one step further with a Back To The Future theme. It finds the band playing at a high school dance set in the 1950s, with lead singer Matthew Ramsey serenading a girl there who has been fighting with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend notices and tries to sabotage the performance, but the girl eventually wises up and punches him in the face – leaving her to go off with Matthew into the sunset… in their time-travelling car, of course. It’s a bit of fun and an interesting accompaniment to the song.

Luke Bryan ‘Strip It Down’

Like Blake Shelton’s ‘Sangria’ video, Luke Bryan could have gone the obvious way with the video for ‘Strip It Down’. He could have had him getting sexy with a girl, or even watching a young couple getting sexy with each other, but instead he decided to keep it classy. He produced a story video that showed two middle-aged couples – one corporate city-dwelling, one rural farm-dwelling – going on a special date that saw them embrace the opposite life. The men in the video are friends and agree to swap clothes, cars and venues in order to give their wives a special date night they won’t forget, and instead of getting all down and dirty they’re pictured dancing and smiling.

Dierks Bentley ‘Riser’

‘Riser’ is already an emotional song, but Dierks Bentley upped the ante with the music video by showcasing the real life story of a woman who became homeless for a period along with her two kids. It shows her having to leave her house and the three of them sleeping in her car, brushing their teeth at rest stops and the kids hiding the news from school. If there’s a dry eye left by the end of this clip I’d be very surprised. Sometimes we all need a little reminder of the harsh realities going on in the world.

Brad Paisley ‘Crushin’ It’

Brad Paisley had a whole video in the bag for ‘Crushin’ It’, but decided to scrap it altogether and start self-animating a brand new video himself. He drew his various friends in the country music scene all turning into different superheroes that would often be plays on their names (or in the case of Florida Georgia Line, Beavis and Butthead), saving the world by crushing cans in various fashions. It was funny and creative, and enjoyable to spot the different country stars in their “alternative” forms.

Kacey Musgraves ‘Biscuits’

Kacey Musgraves went real country for the ‘Biscuits’ music video. It was to be her first music video in well over a year, and she went all out with a Hee Haw/Louisiana Hayride-inspired set-up that included a huge cast of country characters. Kacey played a few of those, such as a butter churner and a farmer, and there was even a “break” for a “word from our sponsors”, mimicking the variety shows of old. It’s a lot of hoedown fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s even a muppet making a cameo!

Cam ‘Burning House’

The obvious theme for Cam’s ‘Burning House’ video was fire, but the effect they created with billowing smoke and flickering flames inside an old house looked truly authentic. Cam is wearing a wedding dress and the burn appears to feel bittersweet for her, as she roams the house through a party where she sees her ex and eventually comes to lie with him in the attic as the flames rise. It follows the storyline quite rigidly, but it’s a really accompaniment for a sad and pensive song.

Sam Hunt ‘Take Your Time’

While ‘Take Your Time’ might be a song about talking to a girl at a bar, Sam got ambitious for the music video. The clip begins with snippets of a fight between Sam and another man, before backing up and unveiling a rough neighbourhood where the fighting man is regularly abusing his girlfriend, a mother of a young child. Sam sees these occurrences from afar and often goes to step in but is always too late, until finally he holds back the abuser by fighting him as the mother makes her escape to a new life. It’s emotional and really strikes a chord – something totally removed from the original narrative of the song.

Brothers Osborne ‘Stay A Little Longer’

‘Stay A Little Longer’ is about hooking up with someone and wanting them to stay but having to suffer the heartbreak of them leaving without commitment, until they return another day and the cycle begins again. In the video, the duo incorporated multiple couples, all visible in little box bedrooms in one huge building so we could see their interactions from one to the next. However, this video is a little different to others of its type, as the couples show true variety; we have a white couple, a black couple, an interracial couple, an older couple and even a gay couple, with all of them making out and undressing each other before fighting as the night comes to a close. They wanted to represent a wider variety of people than most country videos do, and it comes off really well without seeming like they’re trying to fill a quota. It’s just love.

Miranda Lambert ‘Little Red Wagon’

The video for ‘Little Red Wagon’ was nominated for Music Video of the Year at this year’s CMA Awards, so it’s a given that it would make our list. While it’s a bit of a strange video with no real narrative, it’s got so much sass and swagger that it’s hard to resist. Miranda turns up at a motel in the desert with her Chihuahua looking totally glam, and she bribes the owner (who likes to air guitar) to let her bring her dog in. She then checks out the sexy maid who spends more time dancing around than cleaning rooms, before heading down to sit by the pool and eye up a sexy shirtless guy who’s actually doing his cleaning job. She later rolls around on her bed in a kimono and finally leaves the motel smiling coyly at the pool guy while wearing a “Mrs Shelton” encrusted belt (oops). It sounds ridiculous as a concept, and it is, but she just looks so good throughout the video that it’s a winner in our eyes.

Kip Moore ‘I’m To Blame’

In the video for his comeback single ‘I’m To Blame’, Kip Moore plays a wedding crasher who has come to take the bride away from a lifetime of woes with a cheating, douchebag groom. When he and his band enter they tear off their smart wedding clothes and start playing music, as Kip struts around on top of the tables drinking the guests’ wine and smoking their cigarettes. The song is about not being sorry for his reckless nature, and the video matches it perfectly while adding another interesting element of narrative to proceedings. By the end of the video, Kip has got the girl and they drive off in the wedding car, leaving the groom alone to eat cake.

Annette Gibbons
Hi, I’m Annette, I have been a huge country music fan since the early 90s those were the days we were lucky enough to have CMT in the UK. I enjoy nothing more than listening to country music whilst having a cold beer (or a moonshine) with friends. I try to as many gigs as I can here in the UK and in the USA; I think of Nashville as my second home and I am lucky to have made some amazing friends in Tennessee. Think Country is something I am very proud of, I just want to share my love and passion of all things country music related with you all.
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