Storytelling in Music Videos: A Lost Art?

PSA TO ARTISTS AND VIDEO DIRECTORS – BRING BACK STORYTELLING IN MUSIC VIDEOS!

These days, it’s mostly about flashy aesthetics: beautiful women sitting by the pool or lying on the bed, smoking or holding bottles of alcohol, wearing massive bling to blind the viewers with luxury, and fast cars—definitely fast cars, very important.

But let’s be real—why are you singing about life and challenges, yet the video is filled with vixens twerking? How? Where? Why?

Please take me back to the days when music videos matched the storytelling in the song lyrics. I mean, as an artist, why are your lyrics saying something else, and the music video is narrating something else? As a viewer, I feel confused the entire time because they don’t match and I’m having a hard time trying to comprehend it.

Growing up, I remember before cable TV or the internet became a thing, asides learning lyrics to songs from songbooks, we mostly looked forward to music videos on TV stations. 

Most music videos back then used to feel like short films, with a little dialogue at the start, the main music video, and then something sweet to wrap it up. Some of them don’t even follow this pattern but you can tell intentionality was put into crafting the music video and when you watch them you understand the lyrics better because the visuals tell a story.

It feels like the production team sits together, drafts, and writes a script or sketched out a cohesive direction for the music video because of the in-depth details we see in the videos.

Honorable mentions from back in the day? Iya Basira by Styl-Plus, My Car by Tony Tetuila, and Mo’Hits classics like Pere—when Mo’Hits could drop a drama-packed video that had everyone talking!

We’ll watch the music videos and narrate them to our friends or classmates who hadn’t seen them yet. Now, I only look forward to music videos from specific artists.

Don’t get me wrong—there are still a few artists and directors investing in storytelling. Look at videos from 8 to 12 years ago: Pakurumo by Wizkid, Aye by Davido, Pick Up by Adekunle Gold, No Forget by Simi and Adekunle Gold, and Johnny by Yemi Alade, just to mention a few.

Looking at it now, I understand the argument that viewers might not have the time or patience for long videos, but is that enough reason to skip storytelling altogether? 

My prime example here is Soldier by Simi and Falz from 8 years ago. The music video was more a 14-minute short film. The first half of the video was a short story that built up to the main song and a cliffhanger at the end. Rewatching that cinematic masterpiece today didn’t feel like 14 minutes had passed. A short plea to Simi and Falz, we’re still expecting the concluding part of that story.

Recently Joeboy had a three-part short film for his single with Qing Madi titled Adenuga. Trust me if the entire thing was merged into one video alongside the music video, I would watch it over and over again. Another honorable mention is Young Jonn’s ‘Stronger’ music video directed by Perliks.

For me, aside from marketing and publicity, a well-executed music video is the cherry on the cake for most of the audience. A song with a proper music video that explains the lyrics of the song or the plot of the song feels like a complete package. After listening to a song I love, I already start to envision the music video. If the actual video matches or even exceeds my vision, it completes my day (or my entire week).

To this end; dear artists and video directors, visuals are a way to the minds of your audience. It feels amazing as a listener to hear something meaningful and pair it with visuals that tell a story. Please, invest in storytelling in your music videos.

Huge shoutout to the few artists and video directors still investing heavily in storytelling, please continue to do so. You’re making people like me happy. Thank you!