YouTube Music Video Classics: Songs for summer

By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist

Summer is a time to relax, take it easy, and enjoy some YouTube music videos with catchy songs. Here are some fun videos to check out this summer!

“Rather Be” — Clean Bandit feat. Jess Glynne

Tokyo is a great city to visit in the summer. It’s also the setting for the music video for Clean Bandit’s hit single “Rather Be” from their debut album New Eyes. In the video, a young woman listens to her headphones as she goes about her daily life in Tokyo, singing along with the song while doing her routine. Members of Clean Bandit and Jess Glynne start to appear throughout the video and surprise the young woman, who now sees the band members everywhere she goes.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-M1AtrxztU

“Club Tropicana” — Wham!

Lots of people travel to sunny destinations during the summer and this music video shows why travelling is great. In the video for Wham!’s “Club Tropicana,” an early hit single from their first album Fantastic, two women enter a club where George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley are sitting near the swimming pool. The two guys then follow the women to a beach and to a desert before the end of the video reveals they’re a flight crew. Although this music video was made in 1983, it reminds us how fun sunny destinations still are today.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYX0sjP6Za8&spfreload=10

“Happy” — Pharrell Williams

What could be cheerier than people breaking into a dance routine in the middle of the street? That’s what happens in Pharrell’s music video for the Despicable Me 2 song, “Happy.” In the video, Pharrell, Steve Carell, Jimmy Kimmel, Magic Johnson, Kelly Osbourne, the minions, and lots of other people sing and dance to the song around Los Angeles. There is even a 24-hour version of the music video on YouTube that plays “Happy” non-stop for 1,440 minutes. The minions from the Despicable Me film series will be getting their own film this summer called Minions!

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM&spfreload=10

“Shake it Off” — Taylor Swift

What better way to beat the summer heat than to shake it off? The first single from Taylor Swift’s album 1989 is a catchy song you can dance to. The music video for “Shake It Off” involves Taylor doing a variety of dances including ballet, hip hop, contemporary, cheerleading, and finger tutting. The song has an important message about not worrying about what others think of you and just being yourself. Swift will be performing at BC Place on August 1!

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM

“Lips Are Movin” — Meghan Trainor

Summer is all about the heat and Meghan Trainor certainly brings it with her sassy hit single “Lips Are Movin.” The song talks about how she can tell when her boyfriend is lying to her. Throughout the video, she sings and dances with various personalities from YouTube and Vine. She also gets fashion advice from various designers from Facebook and Twitter. There are lots of lips moving in this video as well as red, convertible laptop tablets by HP, which sponsored the video.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDc_5zpBj7s

“One Last Time” — Ariana Grande

Some things may seem like the end of the world, but in Ariana Grande’s “One Last Time” music video it really is. Ariana and a friend race through the busy streets of Los Angeles as a deadly comet hurtles towards the earth. She and her friend want to get to a rooftop to get a closer look at the comet’s arrival. The video is directed by Max Landis and done in the shaky-cam, found-footage style of his superhero movie Chronicle. At the end, the friend behind the camera is revealed to be Matt Bennett, who starred with Ariana in the Nickelodeon sit-com Victiorious.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPgEgaPk62M