Sam Hunt's "Downtown's Dead" Is Taken To a Whole New Level With this CRANKIN Video
Ok, so Downtown’s Dead may not be Sam Hunt’s best single to date. It’s chart performance, though respectable, was eclipsed by his other hits with only a #14 chart peak. The music video, however, helps bring the song some much needed substance. Sam trekked all the way to Bernal, Mexico to film this video, and it paid off. The video features him rambling around the quiet town of Bernal. Pushing an old, nondescript motorcycle, and riding it outside the town across the countryside. No, there isn’t much that happens in this video, but that is what makes it so perfect for this song.
Clearly the scenery, deemed as random by some, doesn’t mirror the subject matter of the song exactly, but it taps into the heart behind it. The rundown, quiet town of Bernal helps provide a profound sense of loneliness that the production of the song itself does not. The insignificant activities of the few townspeople the camera chooses to settle on only enhances this feeling. The Mexican townscape is in danger of being overworked in the video, but the cinematography treats the viewer to just enough scenery other than the architecture to keep us interested. This video won’t win any Sundance Film Festival short film awards for it’s substance in storyline, but for me it definitely brought life to “Downtown’s Dead.”