Music has always been something that we, as humans, have listened to. Unless we were watching a live performance, music has solely been aural however within the past 40 years, artist have begun adding video performances to add a different artistic perspective to the song. Often, these videos have been used to show live performances of the band, or create an artistic vision of the song, however in recent years, these music videos also create a story for the song and expand on the lyrics even more which can evoke a large range of emotions in people.
Music videos began growing in popularity in 1981 after the opening of MTV which aired new and popular videos on a weekly TV show. Although MTV was not super successful to start out, it grew in fame after many of Michael Jackson’s songs were aired on the show. One of the first music videos that really stood out to producers and fans and helped propel the music video business forward was Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. The actual song starts about 4 and a half minutes into the video, and everything before then paints a small scene to make almost a miniature movie out of this hit song. After this video came it, it began to change the way artists viewed their own songs and how they wished to portray the thoughts and emotions they were feeling while performing. Other artists began using MTV as a way to increase their recognition as an artist, which worked for many of them. Madonna took this approach as well as Duran Duran and Peter Gabriel, all of which are big household names to this day.
This remained a way for artists to both release their music to a wider audience while also adding a new artistic outlook to their songs for a while, however as MTV began to decline, the internet began to grow and a little thing called YouTube emerged, which became a new medium for artists to create and share music videos on.
YouTube ironically began as a website where the creators had hoped people could post videos of themselves and meet others, almost as a dating website. However, this was not favored by many people so the three creators took their idea and decided to keep the foundation, but change the videos from ones of a dating profile to funny TV or news clips people were always searching for: the idea was a hit and the website took off. Although YouTube began as a platform for people to post dumb videos, artists began to use it as a way to post their music videos in hopes that if enough people saw it, their career could take off. Other artists posted their videos there so that it could reach a broader range of people. No matter their reasoning however, YouTube became a very prominent place to succeed as an artist and has only grown as such in recent years.
One of the newer musicians these days who uses YouTube as a means to spread their music and music videos is the rapper Lil’ Dicky. He is known for his songs “$ave Dat Money” and “Lemme Freak,” however his song “Molly” which features Brendon Urie (the lead singer of the band Panic! At the Disco) is emotionally haunting and these emotions are highlighted in his music video.
Born David Andrew Burd, this rapper claims he was extremely awkward in high school (weren’t we all though?) and didn’t even get into rap until his later years. He gained popularity because he chooses not to rap about the typical “rap topics,” but instead about his own life, even going as far to make fun of himself on a regular basis. This is why is song “Molly” is so hauntingly depressing.
After listening to the song, yeah, it’s upsetting, but once you watch the music video, the tears will start flowing. The song is about how Lil’ Dicky was dating a girl named Molly, but she became fed up with his constant need to put rap above her, so they broke up and now, years later, he’s at her wedding watching her marry a different man even though he still loves her. In the song, he basically says he regrets everything he ever did to her but knows that she deserves someone better.
Obviously, anyone with a heart will sob watching it. Although the song itself is sad, the music video adds a second layer of emotions and deepens the understanding we have of the situation. The video is similar to Jackson’s “Thriller” as it begins with an opening scene which then leads to the music and creates a small movie out of this one song. The trick to this video however is that in the opening scene, the viewers expect that Lil’ Dicky is the one getting married, and it isn’t until the chorus of the song enters for the first time that we are all sorely disappointed. Had the chorus and the images not lined up at that exact time, the video may not have had the same effect. Everything in this song lines up with a scene in the video that helps portray the lyrics in a more expressive manner. This allows the true emotions of the song to emerge in a way where it is very obvious to viewers and affects them in a strong way.
Now, without looking at the comments, I could assume that I am the only person who had such a strong reaction to this video, however many people did comment and it is very obvious everyone had a similar, heartbreaking reaction. One person commented “Didn’t expect such emotional music from Dicky.” Another person commented “God damn this got me good…” and someone else said “Damn Dave… This shit is deep, has me all up in the feels. Much respect homie.” Although not all of the comments have to do about the emotions of the music, those that don’t are really only talking about the featured artists in the video. Virtually everyone who commented on here said something about how deep this song is and how the video is very misleading, which only makes it more emotional in the end. One reactor made note of how they felt fine watching the video until 1:50 into it, and thats when they were dumbfounded and began to cry.
Although the song on its own is fantastic, the music video for “Molly” just adds many extra layers to it helping portray the emotions Lil’ Dicky hoped to express. The video with this music creates a story and a powerful image for viewers which evokes a lot of strong reactions out of people. The addition of this music video allows viewers to not only experience Lil’ Dicky’s emotions aurally, but also visually, and usually people are more keen to grow attached to something while both viewing and listening. The video for this song, and many others, adds another dimension and allows the artists to be creative and even more expressive than if they were to just record audio which is why music videos have stuck around and are still spreading artist’s songs across the world to a large base of people.
