Carrie Underwood Faces Storm in "Blown Away"

Carrie Underwood has premiered a brand-new video on E! News for her dark power ballad "Blown Away," and the 29-year-old former "American Idol" winner creates a dramatic storyline that takes her from being the studious child of an angry alcoholic to the gorgeous survivor emerging into the light of a bright new day. This chilling song is the second single and title track off Underwood's fourth album of same name. Underwood's vocals are majestic, and the somber clip could be one of the most intense clips Underwood has ever released.
"Blown Away," the dark hit song, which has chilling lyrics and a haunting melody, speaks of a female, it's not specified whether she is an adult or child, and her revenge towards her abusive father while using a tornado storm as a metaphor to her anger. This song is extremely bold in both its lyrical content, which deals with child abuse, and its amazingly creative sonic landscape which takes the listener on the child's ride through a storm in Oklahoma that might be able to sweep all her problems away.
Underwood discussed the song's storyline during an interview: "The song is a story about a girl and her father," she said. "The song describes him as a mean old mister. And you can kind of make that as bad, I guess, as you want it to be. You know, the daughter wishes that, you know, she can feel a storm coming, and she just wishes it would wash her past away, and in doing so, you know, take her father along. So it's a very, you know, just deep, dark story and so visual, this song is. You know, when you hear the words and you hear the music, you can just see it all happening in your head."
The Randee St. Nicholas-directed clip fits in perfectly with the song, and finds finds the country superstar playing two roles. She portrays her character as both a teenager and as an adult, and borrows a bit from the theme of 'The Wizard of Oz' when she running through a dark and windy field and is caught up in a tornado. She engages in what looks like a heated domestic dispute with a man, and bedeviled by whisky, twisters and history. But like a modern-day Dorothy, she isn't about to let an abusive relationship or a catastrophic weather event keep her down for long.

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Alanis Morissette is angelic in "Guardian"

Alanis Morissette returns in fine form with her warbly, abnormal vocal as an angel in her just-released new video for bright guitar-pop jam, "Guardian," the lead single from 38-year-old Canadian superstar' upcoming album, "Havoc and Bright Lights," her first album in four years, which deals with themes of motherhood, politics, spirituality, philosophy, and due August 28. The clip is prove that she's growth as both a musician and a mother.
Commending its freshness and brightness, the pop rock song itself, aside from a riff-worthy chorus, is a bit more downtempo than fans of her earliest work have come to love. It's a bright guitar-pop jam that shines with instant Morissette familiarity while still managing to sound fresh, and sticks to the loud-quiet-loud alt-rock dynamic, keeping up that trend, and happily also feeling like old-school Morissette. Her warble still has the power to peel shingles off rooftops. Nonetheless, all it takes is one earful of her voice to remember what drew you onto Morissette's team way back when.
The clip was filmed in Berlin and continues the heavenly theme of her 'City of Angels' soundtrack contribution "Uninvited," featuring Morissette as guardian angel to the black-and-white city of Berlin, complete with big, feathery wings. "Guardian" carries on with the long-standing music video tradition of pop stars as emotive savior to the masses, though it's a bit unclear just how much of a "guardian" Morissette really is. According to Morissette, she sees the otherworldly spirit-role as linked to that of hers as a mother.
The clip introduces Morissette writing 'I'll be your keeper for life,' and then shows her as a guardian with wings overlooking the city, beneath her off a building. She begins singing the song, and we are provided with glimpses of the lives of the citizens in a city; a couple arguing with their teenage daughter caught in the middle; a young boy being bullied; and another couple situated with their child. During the chorus, Morissette is seen playing the guitar in a white-colored abstract room, along with her new band members, proclaiming she is 'your guardian.' The video concludes with all of the featured citizens looking above, realizing they have a 'guardian.'

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The Killers conjure up some spirits in 'Runaways'

Four years after the last album "Day & Age" saw them dip their toe into dancier waters, The Killers make their grand return with a artistic video for the Killersiest comeback single, "Runaways," the lead single from the Las Vegas rock band's upcoming fourth studio album, "Battle Born," which is their first in four years and due to be released on September 18.
Influenced by the best material from Bruce Springsteen, "Runaways," is an 80s-rock fever dream that's crazily big, even by their grandiose standards: a Vesuvian gusher of Springsteen mythos, Toto-Journey power hooks and lead singer Brandon Flowers' unmistakable commitment to unmistakable commitment." When you put a thunderbolt in your new album logo, we expect a first single as mighty as the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. In the Killers' new song, the band comes pretty close, and reminds us how much we've missed them.
"Runaways" starts off gently with some bare-bones piano chords, an acoustic guitar and not a whole lot else, but it gains momentum faster than you can remember the lyrics to "Mr. Brightside." Flowers is an excellent voice in telling the story of a teenage love that led to a shotgun wedding and is threatening to fall apart years later. Four minutes later, you've got a galloping desert rocker good enough to roll with the best of the Vegas quartet's catalog. "Runaways" continues the Killers' fascination, and had that very powerful ability to open the record.
Dark and dreamy, the Warren Fu-directed video is a combo of the abstract and performance video which mostly shows Flowers and his bandmates hit the desert and perform in a pitch black room on top of red futuristic platforms. As Flowers said, the clip "definitely conjures up some spirits," that leave vapor trails of fist-pumping, tear-streaming rock sonically akin to Asia's "Heat of the Moment." The band opts for brilliant pops of color with a lot of black background as Flowers recounts his seemingly doomed romance. It also looks like the performance screen for "Rock Band," without the actual game. Everybody looks good, refreshed.

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Cheryl Cole explores the town in 'Under the Sun'

Cheryl Cole charms, shocks, and annoys people with her carefree demeanor in a fun and happy music video for her brand new single, "Under the Sun," the second cut follow up to her dance smash lead single "Call My Name," and taken from the British singer's latest third solo album, "A Million Lights." The UK diva has graduated from slinking around in Los Angeles' reservoirs in her "Call My Name" video to strutting her retro-leaning stuff around the streets of London in her visual for "Under The Sun."
The song offers a weird and hugely enjoyable cocktail of tinny synthesiser, vast Chemical Brothers-style breakbeat and football-terrace backing vocals. The 29-year-old Girls Aloud member sings about a complicated love affair, "I'm sure you'll tell me anything under the sun," in the bubbly chorus for the Alex Da Kid-produced beat, which Cheryl said, "It's a really fun song. It's about a guy telling you anything you want to hear to get his way, and you saying, 'actually, normally I wouldn't, but today I might."
The sun shines throughout the promo as Cheryl explores the town and dances with well-dressed men and spends most her time looking like a supermodel while making every dude around her crazed with "Cheryl Fever," in this retro-inspired clip, which sees the star opt for a more classic route this time around. Capitalizing on the 1960s trend that's going around as late, Cheryl traveled back in time for her "Under the Sun" video, which opens in an old school bar while playing songs on a jukebox.
The 'Parachutes' star parades down a busy town street, dressed in a long fitted red skirt and cream top with her hair up in a beehive style, as she greets neighbors and passers-by. Eventually, a bevvy of 50's-era-inspired men in suits dance their way on to the scene. Cheryl then launches into a dance routine on top of a classic car backed by several slickly dressed businessman and young greasers. This is all before she ends up back in the coffee shop, where Cheryl 'entertains' alongside a pack of military men with her curves. Looks like she really is up for anything under the sun.

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Pink Gets Revenge In "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)"

Pink is back with a dreamy, cinematic black-and-white visuals for veteran pop star's new empowering breakup anthem, "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)," the lead single from her upcoming sixth studio album, "The Truth About Love," which is due out on September 18. Considering it to be a welcome return to form, the 32-year-old bustier-rocking beauty has had her heart broken and is seeking revenge by crashing her ex's wedding and making it rain pink paint all over the party!
Little had been heard from Pink since 2010, as she had taken time off to be a mother to her baby daughter Willow. Motherhood has evidently not tamed Pink. The feisty songstress tells her ex on this break-up tune, "You will pay for your sins, you'll be sorry my dear. All the lies, all the lies, will be crystal clear." Produced by Kelly Clarkson collaborator Greg Kurstin, the track is an uptempo pop rock and dance-pop song with mix of Clarkson girl-power sass-tastic with Pink's signature lyrical edge and I-can-do-just-fine-on-my-own attitude.
"The moment I heard it and it was finished, I thought, 'This is the song at 2 a.m., in New York, dancing, drunk, letting off steam'," Pink told MTV News about the driving pop tune. It feels like something that Clarkson could have featured on her own album, but it's got a rocked-out, in-your-face edge that is signature Pink, who is always at her best when she combines her powerful vocals with edgy, biting lyrics. She added: "It's a really fun song. I can picture everyone extremely drunk dancing late at night together. It's a very happy song, although it's angry."
Directed by longtime collaborator Dave Meyers, the vintage clip is a whimsical nod to classic French cinema, all overwrought emoting and smoky, dream-like scenery. It opens with Pink and her potential paramour enjoying a picnic in an idyllic meadow, where she is about to submit to his wily charms until he makes the fatal error of taking a phone call... And perhaps most tellingly, Pink returns to the role she knows best: She's always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Of course, what we love most about her is she's the kind of bridesmaid that gets revenge and delights in doing so. You could probably even say it makes her happy.

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Jennifer Lopez blows a gust of air to "Goin' In"

Just turned 43, and left 'American Idol,' Jennifer Lopez has once again delivered a brand-new video for her ultimate global dance single, "Goin' In" during "MTV First: Jennifer Lopez" on Wednesday night. Featuring American rapper Flo Rida, the pop jam appears on both Lopez's first greatest hits album, "Dance Again ... The Hits," which dropped this week, as well as the soundtrack to "Step Up Revolution," which hits theaters Friday.
"Goin' In" features an energetic and entrancing beat which speaks of the freedom found in dance, and is built into Rida's hyper-speed rhyme from Lopez's propulsive verse. After proclaiming "They're not stopping us tonight," Lopez switches between a shimmering crescendo to the song's stadium-size chorus. It's a vibrant and vivid banger of epic proportions, picking up where Lopez left on "Love," and catapulting everything into a whole new stratosphere altogether. "Goin' In" is the hardest club track we've heard from the multi-hyphenate superstar in recent years.
The video was filmed in June, and directed by Ace Norton. Rida said about the video: "They had me performing around this Lamborghini, it was really different 'cause there was one scene where I got on this treadmill and they had me running while performing my verse. I had a chance to look back at the video and it seemed like over the top." Lopez isn't the only star of the brightly colored clip. The footage from "Step Up Revolution" has also been incorporated, showing dancers on the streets.
The steamy clip opens with Lopez blowing a dandelion with her amethyst-covered lips, rocking a purple cloak and matching shades as she readies a high energy dance sequence alone in a room filled in front of a bank of neon lights while both a grenade and a pair of fire hydrants explode with paint. As the spores begin to take flight, they turn into glittery specs floating into space. It's the first of many moments that focus on what looks cool, instead of telling a cohesive story. The clip is a dazzling spectacle of grinding dance moves, eye-popping visuals and a whole lot of glitter.

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Carly Rae Jepsen & Owl City have a "Good Time"

If making a song that sounds like it's perfectly crafted for summer wasn't enough, Carly Rae Jepsen and Owl City just released a video for their collaboration, "Good Time" that looks tailor-made for the season. The summer pop jam serves as the lead single to Owl City's new LP, "The Midsummer Station," due out Aug. 21, and will also appear on Jepsen's much-anticipated sophomore album, out some time in September.
It only makes sense that Owl City's Adam Young is joined by Jepsen on a track that could become a radio staple for the rest of the summer. Sonically and thematically, "Good Time" goes down easier than a frozen margarita at a beachfront tiki bar. The summer anthem is a synthy and uplifting, out and out pop duet which will most definitely ensure that neither artist has to settle for a 'one hit wonder' tag. It would sound equally right blaring from a sandy iPod radio or out of monster speakers in a thumping dance club.
The video was shot in upstate New York earlier this month, and the shoot actually marked the first time Jepsen and Young had met in person. The "Call Me Maybe" songstress and "Fireflies" star recorded the track separately before it hit digital retailers on June 26, and netted each artist their second Top 20 hit on the Hot 100. The clip isn't exactly high concept, but for a tune as mindless and fun as "Good Time," it works. The 26-year-olds split slurpees and prove they can have a good time anywhere in this laid-back clip.
Taking place over the course of a sunny day and bonfire-lit night, the clip follows the twenty-somethings gather their good friends leave the haze of the city, and head out on the road for a camping adventure, hike through the forest with ambiance and smoke, replete with tents, and dance fireside. Night soon falls, but the fun doesn't stop when the sun goes down, as the song plays out in all its sing-along glory. The clip is as predictably squeaky clean as fans have come to expect.

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