Best of 2020 | Country Music Videos
As 2020 comes to an end, we’ve asked our music programmers to pick their favourite pieces of the year. Discover Greg's top country music videos!
2020 will probably go down as the year most of us want to forget and not revisit. But it’s in the books now, and the effects on music and video were both good and mediocre (I hesitate to say “bad!”). It may not have been the best year to launch Stingray Country, Stingray’s full-time Country music video channel, but we made the best of the situation as the music biz found ways to circumvent the roadblocks it faced in creating videos to correspond to the Hot Country hits of the year. We certainly saw timely and poignant videos incorporating the social issues of the past year, covering matters like voter registration, BLM and the effects of the pandemic. Obviously, the industry faced difficulties in filming videos under the handicap of social distancing for both the performers and the film crews. But as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!
Best Country Music Videos of 2020
One or two major acts like Kenny Chesney simply refrained from making videos of their latest hits, but most artists rose to the occasion and accepted the challenge. We saw an increase in more “homemade” style videos on phones, Zoom, and computers. These are some of our top picks:
Tenille Townes, “Come As You Are”
A Zoom-style video with her band playing together from the safety of their homes.
Lady A, “Champagne Night”
Not only did the members of the trio film themselves separately on their phones, but they also enlisted fans to submit their own lip-synchs and edited them all together for a video of this top-ten single!
Nice Horse, “Cowgirl”
This all-woman quartet writes and plays their songs and has had award-winning videos in the past. This time, they went for an all-out comic book animation.
Tennile Arts, “Everybody Knows Everybody”
This Nashville-based Canadian took the concept of the computer-generated lyric video by setting herself front and center lip-synching amidst the words.
I also encountered very creative videos from the past year that went out of their way to avoid standard cliches:
Ashley McBryde, “One Night Standards”
This video has the making of a film noir murder mystery with the artist not just performing within the video but taking on a role in its screenplay. The cliff hanger ending promises a “to be continued” to keep us guessing.
Brothers Osborne, “All Night”
Just a lot of fun playing with creative lighting techniques and visuals.
Washboard Union, “Country Thunder”
Filmed pre-pandemic juxtaposing the band alongside their puppet avatars!
LoCash, “One Big Country Song”
A 2020 number 1 song, catchy in its singalong earworm quality with an innovative video.
Wishing you the best for the coming year!
Watch the best country music videos on Stingray Country!
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