Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Videography: Reba McEntire (Part IV - The Late 90's)

By the late 90's, Reba started cranking out less videos. But when she did, she went back to the more literal lyric translations from her earlier videos mixed with the epicness of the ones she was famous for.

Order: 25
Title: "I'd Rather Ride Around With You"
Album: What If It's You (1996)
Song Premise: A woman is supposed to be a bridesmaid in her cousin's wedding but would rather spend time with her boyfriend.
Video Premise: Reba is a bridesmaid in her cousin's wedding. She is then "kidnapped" by her boyfriend. While her cousin gets married, Reba and her man drive around and play in an airplane. However, he cousin doesn't seem to mind and her wedding and reception goes by fine.

Comments: So, that's kind of a bitchy move to abandon someone on their wedding day. In these days of Bridezillas, I doubt this could by as smoothly. Still, the video is fun, upbeat, and back to the literal translation era.

Order: 26
Title: "What If It's You"
Album: What If It's You (1996)
Song Premise: A woman wonders if her ex is her soul mate.
Video Premise: Reba sings in a room and writes in a diary. She flashes back to happier times with her ex and envisions him with his new girlfriend riding horses on the beach. She then goes into the beach house where they spent time together. It flashes to the wedding of the man to his new woman. Before they depart on their honeymoon, he hands Reba a box with a picture of him inside.

Comments: This is actually a sequel to the "I'd Rather Ride Around With You" video. It uses the same actor and also begins with Reba writing in a diary. I don't think sequel videos are very common and I love this concept. It's actually kind of sad to watch. I thought to myself "Oh no, that's the guy from the other video. They were so happy and now look." When we hear a happy song or see a happy couple, we never think that they will be the subjects of a future sad song. I love that we're knocked off our happy horse.

Order: 27
Title: "What If"
Album: Single released in 1997
Song Premise: Reba's answer to "We Are the World".
Video Premise: Reba sings, surrounded by racially diverse people and a choir and is intercut with footage from third world countries and the like.

Comments: Sigh. Bad song. Corny video. Didn't we out grow this shit in the 80's? Please go back to heartache and cheating husbands, Reba.

Order: 28
Title: "If You See Him/If You See Her" (with Brooks & Dunn)
Album: If You Seem Him (1998)
Song Premise: A married couple tell a go between that they both still love one another but refuse to confront the other.
Video Premise: Reba is finishing lunch with her girlfriends when she runs into a friend (played by Kix Brooks) and they begin chatting. After that, she then sees her ex (played by Ronnie Dunn) enter the bar and play pool with his friend. Ronnie and Kix begin talking, and as Ronnie goes to get another beer he sees Reba leaving. At the end of the video, Reba and Ronnie both request that Kix not tell anyone about their discussions.

Comments: This video is not particularly creative, but it does just about everything you can do, given the lyrics. At least it's not the three of them singing on a stage the whole time.

Order: 29
Title: "Forever Love"
Album: If You Seem Him (1998)
Song Premise: A woman pledges her love to a man.
Video Premise: Reba leaves her husband in the middle of the night, reminisces about him on her travels and ultimately returns home.

Comments: All right, although this video is far from perfect, it takes a song about relatively nothing (I'll love you forever) and gives us one of many possible plots in the video. Why don't more videos do this? Choose a plot! This is better than Reba standing on a stage.

Order: 30
Title: "What Do You Say"
Album: So Good Together (1999)
Song Premise: A song that sends the message to listen to your heart.
Video Premise: A man and his son are stopped a red light, and the son asks why there are so many "X's" on the storefront. They drive quickly home, where the man's teenage daughter is dressed like a skank and wanting to leave with her friends. Her mother reprimands her, but still lets her go. Later that night, the daughter calls drunk from a party and her mom goes to pick her up. It's later revealed that the mother has cancer and later dies. The mourning family passes by Reba with her family in the waiting room.

Comments: This is the stuff Lifetime movies are made of and it plays out just like one would. It's a sappy song with a sappy video. What do you expect? P.S. I cried.

Order: 31
Title: "I'll Be"
Album: So Good Together (1999)
Song Premise: A mother promises to be there for her daughter.
Video Premise: A mother watches her daughter walk down the stairs in a wedding dress. It immediately flashes back to the mother nursing her daughter's hurt knee. We then flash forward to the girl growing into a teenager and being comforted about her braces. Then the girl is dumped by her boyfriend and runs into the house where her mother comforts her. Finally, the girl leaves for college. Through a montage we are shown several occurrences on the stairs until we see Reba as movers take boxes out of the house that's for sale. Reba and her own daughter then bring her sick mother dinner.

Comments: Okay, another Lifetime movie. This one didn't make me cry, thankfully. Um, yeah...it's good. Definitely schmaltzy, but good.

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