# Music Videos That Tell A Story (With A Twist, so Spoilers Be Here) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742 "2006-11-16T22:18:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/1 "2006-11-16T22:18:42Z")
Tell me some music videos – any genre - that tell a story with an “O. Henry” sort of twist at the end. For example, in Martina McBride’s “Concrete Angel,” the song tells a melancholy story of a girl who suffers. The music video interprets this song by showing us a sad little girl who is obviously a victim of physical abuse at home… . . . … and is befriended by a little boy who makes her smile. That evening, though, her abuse takes a terrible turn and she’s killed. The boy is at her funeral, obviously sad… but then he turns away from the graveside and walks right through another mourner, revealing himself to be some sort of angelic or ghostly figure. He greets the girl happily and they run off to another group of children, obviously a sort of welcome-to-Heaven sort of thing. First time I saw the video, I did NOT see that twist coming at all. What else is out there that will amaze me? (Or would have amazed me if you hadn’t already described it here, I guess) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/2 "2006-11-16T22:57:40Z")
Van Halen’s cover of “(Oh) Pretty Woman”: The storyline concerns a typical 80s video babe being held captive. A rescue is mounted by the various band members in stereotypical manly hero roles (Eddie - cowboy, Michael - samurai, Alex -Tarzan-like jungle warrior, I forget what Diamond Dave was). After her rescue, the titular pretty woman is revealed to be a guy in drag. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/3 "2006-11-16T23:10:46Z")
I guess more of a reveal than a twist- “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith. The phone sex operator is not the sexy girl we’ve seen in the video! She’s the overweight housewive with babies all around. “Thriller” by Michael Jackson He actually is a monster! ---
**Author:** ![Tragically\_Dip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Tragically\_Dip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tragically_Dip)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/4 "2006-11-16T23:25:52Z")
[QUOTE=ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness] (I forget what Diamond Dave was). [/QUOTE] Napoleon. It must have made sense at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/5 "2006-11-17T04:29:23Z")
The video that someone put together for Procul Harum’s _Whiter Shade of Pale_ tells a story, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out what story. Every time I think I have it figured out I get distracted by the fact that the woman in it is _not_ Beverly D’Angelo and I lose my train of thought. ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/6 "2006-11-17T14:14:19Z")
The first thing I thought of was Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up.” The video is shot entirely from the point-of-view of a character on a wild night. We see them doing drugs, getting drunk, driving drunk, getting into fights, going to a strip club, and making out with a woman. The end of the video is the morning after. The character looks into a mirror, and we see that it’s a woman. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/7 "2006-11-17T14:16:49Z")
…the band _Prodigy_ had a great music video with a twist with their politely titled song **Smack my Bitch Up.** The story follows the adventures of one person’s night on the town from a first person perspective: they get dressed, get drunk, get sick, gets into fights, commits vandalism, shoots up drugs, and act pretty much like a jerk. When the person gets home, it is revealed that… …what the audience thinks is a guy acting like a jerk on the town is acutally a girl. > **[Smack My Bitch Up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smack_My_Bitch_Up)** > > "Smack My Bitch Up" is a song by English rave group The Prodigy. It was released in November 1997 as the third and final single from their third album, The Fat of the Land (1997). In 2013, Mixmag readers voted it the third greatest dance track of all time. > The song caused considerable controversy because of its suggestive title and explicit music video, which depicted scenes of drunken and drug-fuelled sexual assault and violence. The refrain, which consists only of the line "Change my pitch u... You can watch the video [here:](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go3KMLD_0dE) (Warning, Not Safe For All Workplaces, youtube link) One of the great music videos never seen outside of New Zealand is _Sophie_ by the now defunct New Zealand band **Goodshirt.** They had a number of catchy songs, but _Sophie_ was their biggest hit: winning Single of the year and best music video at the local Tui Awards. The concept of the video is quite simple, but the execution is great. The video is well worth a watch as outside of New Zealand the video hardly got any airplay, and it only lasts 3 minutes and 45 seconds… 😉 The video doesn’t quite have a twist in the sense indicated by the OP, but the video is a compelling watch with a funny double take at the end… You can watch the video [here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QOKgm8Zz1M&mode=user&search=) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/8 "2006-11-17T14:18:06Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] The video that someone put together for Procul Harum’s _Whiter Shade of Pale_ tells a story, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out what story. Every time I think I have it figured out I get distracted by the fact that the woman in it is _not_ Beverly D’Angelo and I lose my train of thought. [/QUOTE] Was that a mid-80s one with her reading Tarot (“as I’m wondering through my playing cards”? I caught an ad for the show that was supposed to be on & never did see the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/9 "2006-11-17T14:21:22Z")
[QUOTE=easy e] The first thing I thought of was Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up.” The video is shot entirely from the point-of-view of a character on a wild night. We see them doing drugs, getting drunk, driving drunk, getting into fights, going to a strip club, and making out with a woman. The end of the video is the morning after. The character looks into a mirror, and we see that it’s a woman. [/QUOTE] :: shakes fist at **easy e** :: Beaten by two minutes!!! But I included a link to the video, and spoiled the twist, so there!!! So go watch the Goodshirt video as penance! ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/10 "2006-11-17T22:55:09Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] “Thriller” by Michael Jackson He actually is a monster! [/QUOTE] Jackson’s life story has the same twist. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/11 "2006-11-17T23:02:34Z")
The video for “Crazy Train” by Ozzie Osbourne tells the story of a flying polka dotted guitar flying along some train tracks, while Ozzy appears wearing a duster, apparently making weird faces because someone styled his hair like my moms. It’s a story for the ages. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/12 "2006-11-17T23:57:15Z")
This might not be precisely what the OP was looking for, but I consider a-ha’s video for “The Sun Always Shines On TV” to feature a definite twist. Everyone remembers “Take On Me” and how the waitress and Cartoon Boy overcome various obstacles to be together, presumably forever and ever. But in “The Sun Always Shines On TV,” Cartoon Boy is sucked back into Cartoon World. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/13 "2006-11-17T23:59:45Z")
Oops … it wasn’t the waitress and Cartoon Boy, it was just some girl at the coffee shop and Cartoon Boy who got together. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/14 "2006-11-18T00:17:27Z")
[QUOTE=Cluricaun] The video for “Crazy Train” by Ozzie Osbourne tells the story of a flying polka dotted guitar flying along some train tracks, while Ozzy appears wearing a duster, apparently making weird faces because someone styled his hair like my moms. It’s a story for the ages. [/QUOTE] And the twist happens…Where? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/15 "2006-11-18T03:59:37Z")
[QUOTE=Snooooopy] But in “The Sun Always Shines On TV,” Cartoon Boy is sucked back into Cartoon World. [/QUOTE] Which is just one small iota of the Cartooniverse. 😃 Cartooniverse p.s. **Billy Joel’s** “Uptown Girl” is about a rich upper class girl who is interested in a downtown guy- him. He’s a grease monkey in the Sunoco station at Bowery and Bond in the lower east side of NYC, she’s a high-class girl from uptown. Which is exactly who she is in real life, and who he is in real life. They shot the video about a year after they met. He wrote it for her. I worked on it. 🙂 That Sunoco station is gone. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/16 "2006-11-18T04:41:07Z")
Hoobastank’s video for _The Reason_ shows the band planning and executing a complicated jewel heist of a local pawn shop. At the end, back at their lair, the police arrive. The next video, _Why Are you Running Away_, is a prequel, showing the lead singer auditioning for the band and helping plan the heist. Only now, you realize that he was planted as an inside man by the police in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/17 "2006-11-18T20:14:24Z")
Fleetwood Macs “Everywhere”,the dashing cavalryman turns out NOT to be the heroines love but instead its the Adams Family type servant. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/18 "2006-11-18T21:06:41Z")
Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny (867-5309)”. The singer tells his therapist all about his obsession with Jenny and even gives him her number. Later, he goes to look throough Jenny’s window and sees her with the shrink. They have the police arrest him as a peeping tom. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/19 "2006-11-19T22:50:02Z")
She Wants Revenge has a strange story video for “Tear You Apart.” However, it just sort of ends on an odd note and leaves you with a WTF feeling. the twist is that there are others seemingly like “the girl” who come and find her. But we still don’t know what they are! Does anyone know if there are other videos that continue the story? It’s possible they haven’t been made yet, though since the CD came out this year. ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742/20 "2006-11-19T23:35:33Z")
I’m surprised R. Kelly’s _Trapped in the Closet_ series hasn’t been mentioned yet. That thing is demented. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-videos-that-tell-a-story-with-a-twist-so-spoilers-be-here/380742.md?page=2)