My Top 10 Music Videos (2017)

You know when you listen to a song, you sometimes visualize what the music video will look like from that song? I tend to do that. I’m a fan of music videos. It gives me a better understanding of a song or sometimes, it just gives me “WTF” moments. So, I really wanted to reveal my favorite music videos of 2017. Here it is:

What I look for in a music video is the concept, visuals, and if it gave me a great first impression.

#10 Like Me Better by Lauv (Directed by Alex Di Marco)

I’ll start off with Lauv’s hit single, “Like Me Better”. When you put a young sweet couple and an old adorable couple in a music video, you know it’s going to be cute and romantic. This video just shows the young couple roaming around New York and having a really great time together. And what makes it even cuter is that they show their future selves doing the same things that the young couple were doing. I’m a little of a hopeless romantic and I love that there are scenes where young and old couples go to a carnival having fun, having a late night dance in the middle of the street, and just being lovey dovey with each other. It has this “Notebook” film vibe that I really like. Alex Di Marco showed the bright and lovely side of a long-term relationship and explained the song in the music video exactly the way I imagined it would be.

#9 That's What I Like by Bruno Mars (Directed by Bruno Mars and Jonathan Lia)

You know Beyonce’s iconic music video, “Single Ladies”? She just had two backup dancers and her in an empty room doing fierce dance moves; Bruno Mars “That’s What I Like” gave me that vibe. This has to be on my top 10 ‘cause I love how simple and fun this music video is. You just have Bruno in an empty room dancing along with animated drawings that's in tune with the lyrics. Seriously, I thought it would be more of sexy lovers dancing with this song, but it’s just Bruno with his awesome dance skills. That’s enough for me to make me love this video.

#8 What Lovers Do by Maroon 5 (ft. SZA) (Directed by Joseph Kahn)

If you want an unrealistic music video, this is it. It’s one of the most idealistic music videos I’ve watched in a long time, but I love how colorful it is and the editing skills in this video is top notch. It shows lead singer of Maroon 5, Adam Levine and female singer, SZA’s childhood first. He’s trying to chase her. Then they climb a tree, and the young Adam falls and the rest of the video gave me “huh” and “what’s going on” moments. You know when you see singing animals and see weird places they’re going to, you’ll be confused as heck. Joseph Kahn has a vivid imagination of how his music videos want to look like. Take Taylor Swift’s music videos for example. He directed “Bad Blood” and “Blank Space” and it has such exaggerated concepts. I’m a fan of his work ‘cause he takes this simple love song and makes a complex video about chasing love. This video made me watch over and over again and still kept me entertained.

#7 Ready For It by Taylor Swift (Directed by Joseph Kahn)

Coming in #7 is another music video directed by Joseph Kahn. I just love his wild imagination and “Ready For It” took me to whole another universe. I didn’t like this song when I first listened to it, but when I watched this music video, I was suddenly drawn to the song. This video gave me a change of heart for it ‘cause it reminds me of the video games of “Halo” and “Final Fantasy”.  It was such a high budget video that made me watch over and over again. Even though you won’t get the understanding of the video with how it relates to the lyrics, this has got to be one of the best visuals of 2017. I mean, when I see two Taylor Swifts who is a witch and a cyborg with cool looking robots in a music video, I’m sold.

#6 Brother by Kodaline (Directed by Stevie Russell)

The music video of “Brother” directed by Stevie Russell was so compelling and emotional. This is one of the 2017 videos that made me tear up a little. When Kodaline released this single, it really gave me a Bon Iver vibe and I instantly fell in love with the lyrics ‘cause it really is heart-rending. Stevie already directed some music videos of Kodaline like “Honest” and “All I Want” and those were emotional too. Kodaline videos are usually really moving and “Brother” is by far my favorite. The beginning shows a family who lost their son and brother. After the funeral, the younger brother sees his dead older brother at night and they start playing and having a good time. In my opinion, it was the little brother’s imagination of his brother ‘cause once he wakes up, his brother is not there anymore and he starts crying. The last line of the song, “I’ve got you brother” made me tear up a little because the older brother will always be there for him, but not physically. It really is a well filmed music video that gave me chills.

#5 Perfect by Ed Sheeran (Directed by Jason Koenig)

I had to put an Ed Sheeran music video on my top 10 ‘cause have you not seen his 2017 MVs? They were all amazing like “Galaway Girl” and “Shape of You”, but “Perfect” took my breath away. I just love how romantic the concept of this music video is. The production and visuals are incredible. If you put that in HD, whew! I mean Jason Koenig visualized this beautiful ballad perfectly in this video. When Ed is trying to confess his love to actress, Zoey Deutch throughout the entire video at a ski resort, I was sold. If you want to watch something that warms your heart and with “aww” moments, please watch this music video. The part that hit right in the feels is when he sings in front of her and she cries at the lodge then they start slow dancing outside while it’s snowing and kissed at the end of the video. Ugh! What a well produced music video.

#4 Glorious by Macklemore (ft. Skylar Grey) (Directed Jason Koenig)

Another music video that I love directed by Jason Koenig is “Glorious” by Macklemore. This has got to be one of the sweetest music videos of 2017. I smiled throughout the whole video. This song is about Macklemore’s dreams and achievements, but it doesn’t exactly show that in the music video, it’s actually dedicated to Macklemore’s grandma. It’s her 100^th birthday and he wanted to make a music video for her which is adorable and sweet. He surprised her on the day of her birthday so he can do something special. He spent the entire day with his grandma to just have fun like shopping, egging a house, having male strippers at her house with old friends, and finally watching the sunset with her grandson. This music video was original ‘cause I never seen a video like this. It was really enjoyable to watch. It's a video with impressive visuals that I could watch many times.

#3 1-800-273-8255 by Logic (ft. Alessia Cara & Khalid) (Directed by Andy Hines)

Can I just say, Andy Hines, thank you for directing such a touching and powerful music video. My heart was ruined while watching “1-800-273-8255”. I was bawling my eyes out watching this for the first time. My emotions were all over the place. It was just a fantastic and well thought out music video. The story of this just gave me complete goosebumps. If you don’t know why the song is called, “1-800-273-8255”, that’s the number for the national suicide prevention lifeline. The concept of this video really goes well with this song. The story is about a gay teenager who is afraid to come out and also develops feelings with another guy. It’s a battle of figuring out what to do with his life ‘cause he feels out of place. He was dealing with his father not approving, with bullying, and with his sexuality. All of that results to his suicidal thoughts and in the end, he calls the lifeline and finally realizes, it does get better. I love how the video transcends and ends in a good note like the song did. “1-800-273-8255” really is one of the most uplifting and emotional songs and music videos I’ve ever listened and watched in my entire life.

#2 Symphony by Clean Bandit (ft. Zara Larsson) (Directed Grace Chatto and Jack Patterson)

Ugh! This music video went straight to my heart. It was like watching a short film. This is such a touching story about a gay couple. This is another video that made me cry for the first time. He lost his boyfriend at the beginning of the video and throughout the video, he tries to recover with music. His strength with this tragic loss was sharing his music as a conductor. That's the gist of the story and if you want to watch the whole thing, please do. It's worth watching. The lyrics of "Symphony" flows really well with the music video. This is another well thought out concept from the beginning to the end. Directors Grace Chatto and Jack Patterson knew how to make this a beautiful and meaningful video for people to see and they succeeded.

#1 I'm Not Racist by Joyner Lucas (Directed by Ben Proulx and Joyner Lucas)

And my #1 music video of 2017 is "I’m Not Racist" directed by Ben Proulx and the one who wrote and performed this song, Joyner Lucas. Wow. Just wow. If you know how to play with my emotions just by watching a music video, you got me. This wasn't supposed to be on my top 10, but when I watched this during December, I was speechless. Watching this made me slightly uncomfortable from the beginning then made me teary-eyed towards the end. The rap, the lyrics of "I'm Not Racist", all I can say is, Joyner Lucas, thank you. Some people didn't like the video concept and even the lyrics, some do, I'm one of those people who loves the concept of this music video. Even though it's controversial, it shows that there are two sides to every story. You see a white man who is a Trump supporter and begins to rap his racial comments and you see a black man who is listening. Later on, the black man starts to rap his comments to what the white man said to him. If you watch it, it's such a powerful music video. If you put two people together and don't like each other, but they are willing to listen to what they have to say, that's how you understand one another and in my opinion, that's a step to peace.

Those are my top 10 music videos of 2017! Thank you for reading. What was your favorite music video of 2017? Comment below. Until next time.