Music. According to Kim.

Okay. Now. I said that I basically knew what my top three would be when I started making the list for this. Out of those three, I knew that Blake would come in 3rd. I figured that out early. But I have to admit that I went back and forth on the top two for a while. They're pretty equal in my eyes and what makes it harder is that they're both songs I love by two artists I love. What it ultimately came down to is the fact that one of them used "the twist" and the other did not. But really, both videos are fantastic and the difference between the two is pretty small. So let's get to it!

Top 5! I can't believe it! It's taken longer than I hoped it would to get here, but that's okay. I've liked doing this and am thinking of other kinds of countdowns to do at some point. Something that will probably not be happening for a while. In the meantime, before I get into my top 5 videos from 2011, here are the links to all of the other parts of this countdown for anyone who may have missed any of them or for anyone who wants a reminder of what came before. Starting at #50 and going all the way down to #6. #50 - #46:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-of-year-50-46.html #45 - #41:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-45-41.html #40 - #36:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-40-36.html #35 - #31:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-35-31.html#more #30 - #26:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-30-26.html #25 - #21:...

When I first started this countdown, I had no idea that I had so much to say about all of these videos. There's been a few where the words haven't come easily and others where I couldn't seem to stop myself. It's been an interesting experience for me and hopefully interesting for my readers as well. We're now going to be getting into the top 10 and I'm very excited about reaching this point. In a year of great videos, these were the cream of the crop, in my opinion. So let's begin...

What I like about this next part of the countdown is that each song/video kind of highlights one part or aspect of the genre. You have a song about a girl getting revenge on her no-good boyfriend/husband/whomever. You have a song about the end of a relationship that should probably never have begun in the first place. You have a song that features a life lesson and one looking back on days long gone. And you got a love song. All themes that frequently pop up in country music and for good reason. These are the kinds of things that just about everyone can relate to. And if you haven't found yourself in one of these situations yet, just hang in there because I'm positive that you will at some point. So, get yourself a nice beverage, get good and comfortable and come check out the next five videos in the countdown.

Here we go. The top twenty. There's only four more posts left in this countdown, including this one, and then I'll be done and moving on to something else. I think that this part of this countdown was one of the toughest for me to rank. Mainly because a lot of these videos are so close in quality to me. A lot of the others were easier to place, whether they've been in here already or have yet to come. But this batch and the one that'll come right after were probably the hardest ones when it came to deciding what video would go where. And after all that this, this is what I've come up with. So let's get to it.

All right, so this is the halfway point. There's been 25 great videos so far and 25 more to come. With no disrespect to any of the videos from the first half, this is where it gets serious. Well, as serious as a video countdown on a blog can get. These are what I believe to be the 25 best videos of the 2011. So let me get to it.

Okay, so we've had a lot of great artists and videos featured so far and now it's time for a whole new batch of people as we head into the 20s. But we can't get there until we finish the 30s, now can we? I feel like I usually have more to say at this point, but I think I'm just going to jump back in.

Before I go into the next batch of videos, I just wanted to post the links to the previous blogs in the countdown. You can of course find them all just by scrolling down, but I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to put them in here too. Videos #50 - #46:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-of-year-50-46.html Videos #45 - #41:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-45-41.html Videos #40 - #36:  http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-top-50-videos-40-36.html

Well, it looks like the men of country music are going to continue their dominance over this countdown by the look of the next five videos. There's only one woman in this group and that would be LeAnn Rimes. I'm not sure what's going with that, but who knows? There's still a lot of videos left so maybe the girls will regain control. Ultimately good music is good music and a good video is a good video no matter who sings it. And who sings the songs in this part of the countdown? Well I'm happy you asked. You know one of them, but we're not talking about her just yet.

So let's see, four out of five of the first videos in this countdown were done by women with Rodney Atkins and the sole male artist represented. What's interesting to me is that this time it's the men who are dominating. There are two women artists featured this time, but both are the duet partner of a man - Gary LeVox and Kenny Chesney to  be precise. Which, if you know your country videos, means that you now know two of the five videos featured in this portion of my countdown. But I'll get to them later.

So yeah, in sitting year and reviewing all of the videos in this first batch, I want to start off by giving a virtual shout out to all of the people involved in making all of these videos. 2011 was a great year for country music and a great year for videos. There are so many talented directors in this field and more arriving on the scene all the time. This list features videos by the more famous directors like Trey Fanjoy, Shaun Silva and Deaton-Flanigen and some directors I had never heard of until I came up with my list like Brian Lazzaro, Potsy Ponciroli and Mason Dixon just to name a few. We wouldn't have videos at all if it weren't for all them and all of their crews and how sad a world would it be if we didn't have these videos. I've discovered so many artists by seeing their videos on TV and I believe that the music video is one of the most important tools an artist has. The right music video can help to catapult an artist or a song into super stardom, in my opin...