The Muse & Music Videos
Inspiration wells up from a dance of hard-hitting lyrics and carefully crafted scenes.
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When I’m stuck in writer’s block purgatory, I turn to music — and, of course, music videos by extension. I love the way scenes and lyrics mesh in such a way in my brain that new story ideas float to the surface for me to peruse.
Below are just some of the music videos that have made my muse happy over the last few years. I hope something resonates with you too if you are stuck in some way with a story you’re working on. (Who knows, you may get a good flash fiction — or more! — out of the deal.)
“Give Me Love” — Ed Sheeran
I love the story that plays out in this music video. A 21st-century Cupid wrecks havoc around a cityscape, using her arrows to cultivate crimes of passion everywhere she can reach. But, through it all, she never once smiles or shows joy through her target practice of bringing lovers together. You almost get the sense that she is punishing the world because of something she lacks — namely, companionship and the love that comes with it.
By the end, you see that she has harmed herself with one of her arrows, nearly a killing blow — but her story’s not done yet. She opens her eyes to the bleary sight of a police officer arriving on the scene. What awaits her after her near brush with death?
Whenever I need a jolt of inspiration, I turn to this video because it has so much I love in it: speculative elements, a mixture of heartbreak and real love, and passionate displays that may not end so well in time. There’s a universal story being told here through a span of less than five minutes — and the music is great too.
“Wide Awake” — Katy Perry
A would-be Wonderland unfolds through this music video as we watch a young woman go through a labyrinth of her own making. Monsters, psych wards, and deceptive princes all play their parts in the story of this music video. You wonder what is reality and what is fantasy conjecture as you go along for the ride.
I like that the music and the video blend together into this amalgam of pieces that I can pick out for my own storied renditions. It’s also…
