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Awesome Songs That Have Less Than Awesome Music Videos

-By Chris Carpenter

Music videos can be frustrating sometimes. Why? Because your favorite artists like EminemJustin Timberlake and Lady Gaga don’t read your tweets when they conceptualize their music videos with directors, cinematographers and stuff. It’s quite rude of them, really. But they have the deepest connection to the song, so we suppose their visual interpretation is what we must enjoy and not the versions that we create in our brains. Still, it’s the worst when a song is so super awesome that you sing it all day long, and then its video premieres and it sucks.

You guys saw the “I Wanna Go” video, right? Why did that video happen? We will probably never know —and Britney probably never will, either. But we can remain outraged over it for eternity. Life is a total struggle, just like these 12 music videos that had so much potential to be great…but weren’t.

“Sledgehammer” by Fifth Harmony

After slamming our eardrums super hard with “Sledgehammer” (sorry, cheesy pun totally intended), sadly the ladies of Fifth Harmony served up a painfully stale video to accompany one of the most badass pop songs in recent memory. Oh, man. Those ball gowns. And the wind machines! Go, girls?

“Jealous” by Nick Jonas

“Jealous” served as a groundbreaking moment in time for Nick – as in, the jam made him seem believably cool to people who aren’t moms and people who don’t wear braces. The video was Nick’s chance to prove that his newfound swagger rivaled that of JT’s. Instead, he decided to drive around in a taxicab in one of the corniest videos that we’ve ever streamed.

“Guts Over Fear” Eminem ft. Sia

Hey, in your imagination replace Rabbit from 8 Mile with a boxer. Okay, now you’ve seen this video.

“Rude” by MAGIC!

Before “Rude” was rudely annoying (and yes, there was a time—albeit brief, but it existed), it sort of ruled. We were all, “Why ya gotta be so rude?” Remember? Ah, those few minutes in time were great. Then we wanted “Rude” to go away forever—much like its video, which featured cringe-worthy moments of begging and sobbing, horrible dance moves and so many lanky body parts.

“Tennis Court” by Lorde

We know, we know. Lorde is super artistic and stuff. But for such a wicked song, the one dimensional video for “Tennis Court” was just… flat. Oh, Lorde. We wanted more. Something more.

“The Monster” by Eminem ft. Rihanna

When Em and Rihanna rejoined forces for “The Monster,” the entire world got all, “I’m friends with monster that’s under my bed.” The smash was so colossal that it became the title of the duo’s 2014 summer tour. Sadly, the video was the dullest. Ri forced Em to watch his entire music video collection in her doctor’s office—because she’s a doctor now, you guys. Then Em spent the rest of the video stuck in an elevator.

“Take Back the Night” by Justin Timberlake

Oof. As the most mediocre video that JT has ever released – it proves that even immortal beings can misstep sometimes.

"Adore You” by Miley Cyrus

We get it, Miley wanted to be super sexy in 2013. Duh. And when she straddled that wrecking ball, she most definitely accomplished her mission. The only thing Miley straddled in her video for “Adore You” however, was the borderline of desperate and lewd. And yeah, we know lewd is such a grandma word. It’s cool if you’re judging us.

“You And I” by Lady Gaga

Sure, little monsters. We know that the strange-ass scenes in “You And I” are probably loaded with very deep meanings that we are too dumb to decode. But for one of the gnarliest power ballads of our generation, we wished Gaga served up something equally as beautiful. C’mon, Gags – that barn of horrors? And all that mermaid stuff? We still don’t comprehend.

“I Wanna Go” by Britney Spears

With its banging beat, catchy lyrics, hypnotic chorus (and the whistle—ohh, the whistle!), “I Wanna Go” is a certified bubblegum-pop masterpiece. So great, in fact, it was the third single from Femme Fatale to crack the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. The vid, however, showcased zero shreds of greatness. In the kookiest storyline ever, Brit fled from a press conference after being asked about hating puppies and proceeded to maim some cyborgs with her microphone.

“Radar” by Britney Spears

“Radar” was so good that it made it on to 2 of Brit’s albums (Blackout and Circus). For such a provocative single where Britney sang about tingling over some dude that she was stalking, the video was a major letdown. The only things that Britney did in it was dress like a proper Englishwoman and watch some guys groom and ride horses.

“Imma Be” by The Black Eyed Peas

The Peas dropped “Imma Be” at the peak of being the raddest group in the world. And while we enjoyed watching Fergie Ferg strut around while sing-rapping about taking ‘them pics’ (while looking all fly and shit) – the remainder of the video was a hot disaster that involved one too many breakdancing robots.