Comments on: Sad Music Videos

Question: Sad Music Videos

WolfDaddy — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 08:31:12 -0800

Okay, MTV generation (which is probably most of us?) ... we all know that songs themselves can make one cry, but has a music video ever made you cry? I mean cry from sadness, not because the video was a terrible example of the concept "art".

By: pieoverdone

pieoverdone — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 08:33:35 -0800

Live to Tell

By: onlyconnect

onlyconnect — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 08:34:38 -0800

I always got hooked in by Sinead O'Connor's big teary eyes in Nothing Compares 2 U.

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 08:35:53 -0800

I had never cried over a video--not even videos for songs that made me cry--until I saw the video for "Good Weather for Airstrikes" by Icelandic band sigur rós a couple of years ago.

The video (not gonna link it because of its con. tro. vers. ial. con. tent.) was all slo-mo, various clips of people, with the two main characters sharing a tender kiss in a slow reveal shot that just slayed my emotions, returning me to an angsty gay teenager of 15. I was amazed that it took, what, 17 years? for a music video to make me cry, and so I thought to ask everyone else.

By: hughbot

hughbot — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 08:37:20 -0800

'Hurt', the Johnny Cash video. It kills me every time.

By: mragreeable

mragreeable — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 08:49:59 -0800

I find the "Don't Dream It's Over" video very moving. Not sure it ever elicited full-fledged tears, but still, it's very effective.

By: GeekAnimator

GeekAnimator — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:02:42 -0800

No real tears, but Soul Asylum's video for Runaway Train, with all the photos of missing kids, moved me.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:13:07 -0800

Well, all of Haircut 100's videos made me feel suicidal. or homicidal. or something.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:15:00 -0800

I will also admit to getting misty during "Every Rose Has It's Thorn," and "What It Takes."

I had just been dumped. Fuck you.

By: papercake

papercake — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:20:40 -0800

Nothing Compares 2 U

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:26:18 -0800

Cried? No. Though I remember seeing Ah-Ha's Take On Me as a kid and thinking it was pretty touching stuff.

God kids are dumb.

By: ascullion

ascullion — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:27:45 -0800

No actual tears, but the video for UNKLE's 'Rabbit in Your Headlights' always upsets me a little, then takes my breath away.

By: konolia

konolia — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:32:22 -0800

Here's a second for HURT.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:32:30 -0800

Not sadness, but the sheer nutty joy of the Bjork video "It's Oh So Quiet" tends to bring a happy tear or two for me, especially the crane shot at the end.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:36:53 -0800

Everybody Hurts by REM where everyone is stuck in the traffic jam with their little desperate sadnesses.

By: hummus

hummus — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:41:26 -0800

Thanks for the tip on that video, Wolfdaddy. I've been listening to Sigur Ros for a while, but had never seen any of their videos (where does one see a video anymore?). When he gave him the dolls, I felt a tear start to come out.

Absolutely amazing, but I don't get why it is controversial. Am I being obtuse? I mean, they both appear to be minors but it's just a kiss, so what gives?

By: rainbaby

rainbaby — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:43:56 -0800

Hurt - absolutely
Days Go By (Dirty Vegas)
November Rain (GnR)

Ok, so I cry easy.

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:50:52 -0800

I mean, they both appear to be minors but it's just a kiss, so what gives?

They're both boys?

jessamyn, I'd never seen that video! Shows you how long ago I gave up on "music television". Thanks for the link.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:57:08 -0800

Second for "Runaway Train." I've never shed tears over any video, but this comes closest.

By: penguin pie

penguin pie — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:11:53 -0800

Another vote for Sinead O'Connor, gets me every time.

By: jdroth

jdroth — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:18:09 -0800

I, too, find "Hurt" a very poignant video.

But the video that got me when I was kid, the one I remember more than any other because it literally gave me chills the first time I saw it, made tears well in my eyes, was a-ha's "Take on Me". I still get misty when I see it, but mostly I wonder at how easily moved I was as a teenager.

By: plemeljr

plemeljr — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:21:00 -0800

That montage video after September 11th set to Live's "Overcome."

By: lisa g

lisa g — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:23:37 -0800

A fifth (!) for "Hurt." You can see it here (Quicktime). I saw it after June died, and it did me in.

I don't remember being moved by many videos as a kid, though I do recall being frustrated at Aimee Mann's character in the "Voices Carry" video for not leaving her oaf of a boyfriend. (Though perhaps she did after the opera scene.)

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:27:01 -0800

Accord on all of the well-known aboves. Watching Kurt Cobain sing All Apologies, too, and even (though it's mostly internal, U2's New Year's Day), but if the test here is: the song, without the video *doesn't* have the same effect, then no.

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:34:24 -0800

Wow, I can't believe "Time After Time" is being slept on in favor of "Take on Me." She has pink hair! And she's crying! On the bus!

Also you can't tell me the video for Metallica's "One" didn't beat the crap out of you. Nope, not hearing it.

By: rhapsodie

rhapsodie — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:34:29 -0800

Hurt by Johnny Cash, but only because I saw the video for the first time on the day he died.

Also, one of the videos by Our Lady Peace - Thief, perhaps? The one about sick and dying children, where the band members are sitting on a bench in the rain.

By: Hankins

Hankins — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:38:07 -0800

Yep. Hurt. Floodgates. I also like DMB's Crash Into Me vid. And on preview: I totally forgot about Time After Time. Good one.

By: lychee

lychee — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 10:53:32 -0800

Hurt just made me misty-eyed here at work. And the sigur ros video is one of my favorites, I'm sure I cried the first time I saw it.

By: whatnot

whatnot — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:06:38 -0800

I have cried to most of these at one point or another (altho I don't know metallica from a hole in the ground), and I tend get weepy it if the artist has since died (cobain, curtis, staley).

But this question actually made me think of Godley and Creme's "Cry." Thank god there's not a video for "I'm not in love." I'd probably be inconsolable.

By: maudlin

maudlin — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:27:40 -0800

"Hurt", definitely, but also "Veronica" by Elvis Costello. I've always loved this song, but Costello's brief spoken intro and coda, plus the delicate, playful way he would occasionally sing along to the recorded track, pulls me in every time. The actresses who played the character were absolutely perfect as well.

Crap. I'm getting a little bit misty just typing this. Maybe I just have a thing about old survivors entering their final years.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:33:33 -0800

My Name is Luka, Nothing Compares to U, that Sigur Ros video (which i only saw online, not on MTV).

And if i had ever seen videos for these, i would have cried, no doubt: Being Boring, and Dreaming of the Queen, by Pet Shop Boys.

By: hootch

hootch — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:34:17 -0800

Dirty Boots, by Sonic Youth.

By: LionIndex

LionIndex — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:35:19 -0800

Heaven by Bryan Adams, where he's singing to a theater filled with TV sets.

I was nine. Fuck you.

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:38:36 -0800

Hurt, as others have mentioned is one. Top of the World from the Dixie Chicks is another. Also, Tell Me I was Dreaming from Travis Tritt. That last one gets me choked up just *thinking* about it right now. The songs alone didn't push me over the edge, but the videos were just an overload.

By: timeistight

timeistight — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:47:02 -0800

The Crash Test Dummies' Superman's Song. Something about all those over-the-hill superheroes just tears me up.

By: Quartermass

Quartermass — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 11:49:36 -0800

Family Portrait by none other than Pink (the one where Pink is singing as a "ghost" with herself as a kid going through a divorce, and the little girl is mouthing the words).

By: Blue Stone

Blue Stone — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 12:02:57 -0800

No.

By: bitpart

bitpart — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 12:34:02 -0800

The video for Coldplay's "The Scientist" got me a little.

By: stoneegg21

stoneegg21 — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 12:36:28 -0800

Hurt made me misty-eyed. Soul Asylum's video for Runaway Train made me bawl like a baby. Of course, I was also PMSing for the first time in my life, which probably helped.

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 13:09:32 -0800

Hurt, again. But I know another one ...

These Are The Days of Our Lives. Queen. An almost spectral Freddie Mercury singing his heart out just months before his own final curtain call.

By: deadcowdan

deadcowdan — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 13:28:15 -0800

"Mercy Street" by Peter Gabriel. Her father, the boat, the waves, the overcranked black-and-white photography does it for me.

By: Restlessavenger

Restlessavenger — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 13:54:47 -0800

"All is Full Of Love" by Bjork can get me anytime I see it.. It just seems so cold and sad and beautiful all at the same time.

By: rfordh

rfordh — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 14:36:50 -0800

Sputnik7 is a music video haven, last I checked. It gravitates towards the indie, so, I don't know about November Rain, or anything, but check it out.

By: jonathanbell

jonathanbell — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 14:36:52 -0800

Try Mogwai's 'Hunted by a Freak' (10.1mb quicktime here) - very sad stuff indeed.

By: Tlogmer

Tlogmer — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 15:22:30 -0800

Radiohead's "No Surprises". That video is fucking amazing.

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 15:40:06 -0800

"Show Must Go On" by Queen.

And if you didn't get a lump in your throat seeing Johnny Cash's Hurt video you have no soul.

By: obiwanwasabi

obiwanwasabi — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 16:21:52 -0800

Art Garfunkel's 'Bright Eyes' with the 'Watership Down' clip.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 18:15:16 -0800

I was just about to say "No Rain" by Blind Melon - although that's crying in a happy kind of way - and also "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M...

But obiwanwasabi's suggestion just did it for me. Hell, the book makes me cry, the song makes me cry, and the filmclip makes me cry. About rabbits. Sheesh.

By: ferociouskitty

ferociouskitty — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 19:10:32 -0800

"Hold On" by Good Charlotte - with a whole bunch of people who'd lost loved ones to suicide. I started bawling and was embarrassed that my dog witnessed me crying at a Good Charlotte video.

By: donnagirl

donnagirl — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 19:16:23 -0800

I'll agree on most of the above, especially Hurt. Recently, though, the Low Morale video for Radiohead's Creep made me cry like a baby, at my desk at work. (No, I like my job just fine...). Something about that leap out the window was almost hopeful in its desperation, and I lost it.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 19:48:55 -0800

Black Hole Sun.

I was under the influence of some, er, chemicals at the time and I made the mistake of turning on the TV to look for something I recognized. Baaaaaaaaaad idea.

By: schoolgirl report

schoolgirl report — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 19:49:52 -0800

obiwanwasabi wins. Fucking "Bright Eyes," man. Good god. Sad and really damn creepy.

I'll also go with "Hurt," of course. And apparently I'm a sucker for videos in which the singer cries, because "Nothing Compares 2 U," "Family Portrait," and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Maps" get to me.

The end of "Take On Me" gives me chills, but not tears.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 21:05:30 -0800

Man, I just watched Hurt again...and wept like a little girl. That's probably the most powerful video as far as making me actually cry.

My name is Luca...that one too. Nothing Compares 2 U, pretty much, I'm an easy mark when it comes to weepy.

By: Tubes

Tubes — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 21:12:43 -0800

Mogwai's 'Hunted by a Freak' : thanks for the nightmares, jonathanbell.

By: Dreama

Dreama — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 21:24:58 -0800

Another vote for Bjork's All is Full of Love, and another for "Hurt" and add a new vote for Eurythmic's "Here Comes the Rain Again" which has always struck me with a sense of desperate desolation which takes the song to an entirely different place than it would otherwise be.

By: Tubes

Tubes — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 21:37:36 -0800

I recall being really moved by the Cranberries' video for "Zombie." Haven't seen it for a long time, but it featured grim scenes of soldiers on patrol in the streets of Northern Ireland and, I think, a young Elijah Wood wandering around some devastated industrial facility.

By: mabelcolby

mabelcolby — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 23:55:36 -0800

Hurt made me cry like a baby as well. Count me in as another for Runaway Train as well

By: milovoo

milovoo — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 09:52:52 -0800

"Here's where the story ends" - the Sundays

without fail, every time.

( I never cried during "Hurt", but I remember being impressed that they used BBC footage
from the "Life on Earth" series, like the pied kingfisher diving for fish )

By: ifjuly

ifjuly — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 14:50:21 -0800

Arab Strap's "Cherubs" (from Matador Records) makes me cry from its sheer beauty. I used to loop it back when it was easier to watch music videos online.

By: ifjuly

ifjuly — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 15:03:36 -0800

if you want, it's available here.