From the early days of MTV to the modern pop culture music videos have provided us with many entertaining and iconic moments. Their themes have ranged from pretty much everything imaginable from a simple four piece band standing still and playing a song to the epic video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller which was more like a mini version of teen wolf. One common theme that has popped up time and again though is marriage which is sort of understandable when you think of how many songs are about love.
November Rain – Guns N Roses
If you haven’t seen this video, where have you been? This is one of the greatest videos of all time featuring one of the most notorious bands in the history of rock and roll. It features typical over the top rock and roll excess which includes a huge wedding ceremony in the middle of the desert in a little white chapel that seems far too small to fit that many people in it never mind Slash’s top hat. Once the ceremony is over then Slash instead of giving a traditional best man’s speech instead opts to walk out of the church and play an epic guitar solo in the desert, now that’s what I call a wedding. It may end on a dark note with Axel visiting his bride’s grave but it’s still an iconic music video wedding.
White Wedding – Billy Idol
This video sees the bad boy of pop Billy Idol putting his own punk/gothic twist on the ceremony and of course the song is one of the most instantly recognisable wedding themed songs ever. The video involves Billy drawing blood from his new bride’s finger as he forces her ring on and him crashing a motorbike through a window, what else would you expect? Once again this wedding takes a turn for the grime as Billy finds himself in the same situation as Axel Rose did, with a dead wife just moments after the service was over. I’m starting to see a theme with these rock and roll weddings.
Like A Virgin – Madonna
This music video doesn’t actually feature a wedding ceremony but it has become synonymouswith weddings and marriage as it features Madonna in a white virginal wedding dress which has become an iconic image in modern pop culture. The plot of the video seems to indicate that the wedding has already taken place and now it’s time to get down to the business of the honeymoon and when you take into account the title of the song then it’s not hard to figure out what they’re hinting at, wink wink.
Hot And Cold – Katie Perry
The wedding theme in music videos is still ever popular in today’s pop music scene as Katie Perry proves in here hot and cold video. The wedding appears to be about to take a disastrous turn as the groom has second thoughts at the exchanging of the vows which leads to her casing him down the street, a bit too keen if you ask me. All ends well though as it turns out that it was all just a dream, what a vivid imagination she has. Any video that features dancing brides on bicycles is okay in my book and it shows that weddings continue to be a source of inspiration for music videos today.
Harry Moon loves how weddings influence popular culture, he regularly visits music at your service which is a website dedicated to helping couples choose songs for their first dance at their wedding.