My top 50 videos of 2011: #5 - #3

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: http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-top-50-videos-on-2011-25-21.html

#20 - #16: http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-top-50-videos-of-2011-20-16.html

#15 - #11: http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-top-50-videos-of-2011-15-11.html

#10 - #6: http://countrymusicatk.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-top-50-videos-of-2011-10-6.html

All right. So that's where we've been. I've said it multiple times, but I really feel like 2011 was a great year for country music and the country music video and this list is a good example of why. In thinking about this list, I want to say that I think that 2011 goes to the male solo artists. This is in no way to knock any of the women or duos or groups; a lot of them had some pretty incredible years. Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum for example. All of which had crazy success last year and all of which have elevated themselves to a new level in their respective careers. But when I think about all the music that's come out last year and parts of 2010 and this year, it occurs to me that almost all of my favorite new CDs were done by male artists.

Some examples for ya:

My Kinda Party, Jason Aldean

Chief, Eric Church

Neon, Chris Young

Red River Blue, Blake Shelton

Tailgates and Tanlines, Luke Bryan

and most recently Home, Dierks Bentley

I think all of the above are fantastic albums that I feel that anyone who loves country music should have. I think that the men of country music have stepped up to the plate in a big way lately. I have a feeling I'm forgetting a couple, but these are the ones I listen to the most. Again, this is not in any way meant to insult the women, duos and groups of country. Just that as a group, the solo male artists seem to be the strongest. A belief that is reflected in my top 5: every artist featured in this final part of the countdown is in fact a solo male artist. Three of which are brand new to the countdown. Only one of them has been mentioned before.

Now, as I'm sure you may have noticed, there's only going to be three videos in this part. The reason being that I ended up having a lot to say about the top two videos and honestly, it just made this feel so long. I know pretty much all of these have been pretty long, but this one seemed like too much. That and I kind of liked the idea of letting the top two have their very own post. A post that will be up very shortly. But first things first...

I feel like up until this point of the countdown every artist featured is fairly well known. I think the average country fan would have at least heard of all of these artists. I may be wrong about that, but I'm fairly certain that this next artist is sort of coming out of left field. I had never heard of this artist until I happened to see his video on TV and I've only seen the video on TV a couple of times. I imagine there may be people who will be seeing this for the first time here. 

Leading off the top 5 at #5 is Bill Gentry with his video for "This Letter", directed by Kristin Barlowe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fskIBIRjvo

I debated over whether I wanted to include this one since I was trying to stick to more known artists, but the more I thought about it, the more obvious it was that I had to include it. Because it left such a big impression on me the first time I saw it. A fact that I think outweighs the fact that it's maybe not as well known. This song and video uses that device I talked about in the last part of the countdown, "the twist", and what a twist. Video starts off with a husband finding a love letter written to his wife and is understandably hurt, heartbroken and ready to kill whoever wrote this letter. Cue scenes coming in of his wife hooking up with a guy whose face is hidden from view. A fact that'll be important later. Wife comes home; husband confronts her. Wife is basically devastated and here comes the twist. 

The man who wrote the letter? Her husband. Yeah. The guy who he wants to hunt down and find is actually himself. So the lyrics take a twist here as well - he's still determined to find the man who wrote the letter, but now it's about getting back to the man he used to be. There's a lesson to be learned here people - if you find a love letter written to your significant other, take the time to make sure that it's not written in your own writing. Preferably before you accuse them of cheating. This whole scene in the video is just fantastic. Terrific acting here by the actors. From here on out we see the scenes we saw before of the wife hooking up with the man who now has a face and of course, it's his. I know I said that scene was fantastic, but really, that word applies to the whole thing. Major props to Kristin Barlowe on this one. Wonderfully directed video for an interesting, unique song.

Now, tell me. Who is tall, talented, hilarious and doing a great job representing country music on the TV show, The Voice? Why, Blake Shelton of course. A man who has been notably absent from the countdown until down. A man whose career is going pretty well right now, to say the least. 

Making his first of two appearances on this countdown, here's Blake Shelton coming in at #4 with his Trey Fanjoy directed video for "Honey Bee". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZjosn2u1gA

This is one where you'll have to go to the link to watch, since his youtube channel doesn't allow embedding and I didn't want to post if off another channel. So sorry about that. In any event, I have so much love for this video. To backtrack a bit, this song is crazy infectious and has a nice, light feel to it that never gets old for me. If I had to describe the video in two words, I'd call in charming perfection. This is one of those videos where I think everything in it is exactly what it should be. The casting was perfect - I particularly like the kids; the interactions with Blake and them were great. There's a kind of a cute innocence about this video that I think is why it's so charming. I love the way Blake's house is slowly filling up with honey all throughout the video, until she's out of honey all together. I love Blake's little celebration after he helps her into the car and I love the dog! 

I have to say that when I started making the initial list of videos from which I'd pick my top 50, I pretty much instantly knew which videos would make up the top three. In a year of great videos, there were three that I found to be head and shoulders above the rest. I had absolutely no doubts about it. Deciding what order they'd go in was a little trickier, but I finally decided. So without further ago, here are my top three videos of 2011. 

At #3, making his second appearance on the countdown immediately after making his first, is Blake Shelton with his video for "God Gave Me You", also directed by Trey Fanjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCf2PoTuh4Q&feature=endscreen&NR=1

This video also features a version of "the twist", only in this instance the twist is that they didn't go with what I'd consider to be the obvious plot. Which would've been to showcase the relationship between a couple. You know, the love story angle. But they didn't do that. Sure, it starts off with a sweet clip of a video Miranda Lambert made for Blake Shelton on the eve of their wedding which was a beautiful way to start. But from there, they chose to use the video as a way to deepen the meaning of the song. I don't know about anyone else, but I thought of this song as primarily a love song...until I saw the video. You have a woman having a terrible day of work at a diner and then coming home to her little girl, which just makes the whole day better. You have a kid showing up to his first day of high school and being befriended by a girl in his first class. And then you have a man who has been hurt in a car accident and is comforted by the paramedic helping him. Wrapping up with more of Miranda's video and Blake's reaction to it. The song goes from a  love song to a song celebrating all the people who have a meaningful impact on our lives, whatever that impact may be. Beautiful video that takes the song to a new level. And a great way to kick off the top three.

So there we go! The first three of the top five. Hope you enjoyed this part! Thanks, as always, for reading and also as always, comments are more than welcome. I'd love to know what you think.