I caught the new Carrie Underwood video last night for the first time, following a link at CMT. I couldn’t shake the smile off of my face while watching it. She shows so much personality and charm in this clip, almost like she’s comfortable in front of the camera for the first time.
As a fan from her Idol days, I know that her voice has always outpaced her stage presence. Honestly, when you sing that well, you don’t need to develop your charisma as quickly. But it’s nice to see that she’s developing the confidence needed to loosen up a bit.
I think Underwood was getting a bad rap their for a while as being stuck-up or stand-offish, when it always seemed to be more of a “deer in the headlights” thing to me. Processing such phenomenal success in such a short time is not easy to do. I’ve been saying for the past two years that this is a talent that will be around for a long time, so it’s good to see that she’s starting to enjoy it!
You better be careful or you’ll lose your Super Secret 9513 Membership Card and Decoder Ring! Heh!
Spot on quick review of Ms Underwood’s latest. She WAS comfortable making this video and truly enjoyed herself. And it shows! If you can watch this video and not smile then a trip to The Wizard and some serious medication will be needed. It’s fun, cheesy, and light showing an awakening of sorts. To me anyhoo. For whatever that is worth.
You know, I kind of wondered if I might be seeing something from you on this video. It really is something; for the first time in my exposure to Carrie Underwood I feel the beginnings of that all-important artist-listener personal connection (could be because I didn’t watch that season of “American Idol” that it’s taken me this long).
Nice one, Jarheaddad. It’s not often that I laugh aloud at a blog comment.
Dress-up Barbie anyone?
Seriously Kevin? She has got to be one of the least likeable entertainment personalities out there and the video looked less grown-up than the one she did for Enchanted, a Disney movie. However, at least she got rid of the plastic blonde wig and put on a red wig for a change.
No problem Matt. I’m a big fan of 9513. For the same reason I slow down for car wrecks, morbid curiosity I! Whatever gets the site meter rollin’ eh? ;-)
I find 9513 really over-anaiytical and somewhat pretentious at times. The post accusing Carrie Underwood of making a sexist song and putting down the American female? That one really blew chunks and cost me a keyboard as I spewed Coke all over the place. And that was just the headline! Heh! You need disclaimers when you put stuff like that up! C’mon, sometimes y’all are just really over the top. I would take you to task on your site on those types of posts but I would do nothing more than get into running gunfights with folks like Lynn ^^^ above.
Having said all that and having blown sunshine up your shorts, you’d be surprised how much I do agree with you on your latest post. Two things actually, over-producing and Team Carrie. I do not see as much over-producing as you do as they are giving Carrie fans exactly what they want. No formula per se but more of a feedback from her concerts. To me that is the only stigma from Idol. Team Carrie drives me to distraction but not for the same reasons you like to point to. I’m a big fan of Carrie Marie and when I become a fan of a singer I like to know about them. Carrie’s early stuff from when she was 13-18 (you know, the years when she wasn’t paying any dues playing the fair and car show circuit with her band yada, yada, yada, yawn) is pretty good and it would let people see her evolution but Team Carrie blocks every early song as soon as it hits You Tube. You can still buy the three cd demos on ebay but a po boy can’t afford the luxury! Now that’s micro-managing in the extreme. I’m sure there are contract hassles et al that have to be taken into consideration but they manage that tightly and frankly it blows.
Look, Carie Marie Underwood has only been on the scene for a little over 2 years. She’s growing, exploring, searching, and looking for herself. This campy video is, for me, the first sign that she is comfortable with herself and has lost what Kevin points to as that “deer in the headlights” look. I truly expect great things from her. If you ever listened to her early stuff, her gospel stuff, or keep her Stripped sessions bookmarked you’d not be so quick to dismiss her as you do. That’s one highly intelligent talented young lady and she’ll not go quietly into that sweet night. Trust me on that! To me she is just now beginning to find herself. Instant gratification anyone? Geez!
And what the hell is up with all that Shania comparison stuff? Shania is one of a kind. Period! Times have changed drastically since Shania hit the scene with downloads replacing cds, etc., etc., et al. I hate comparisons and prefer to judge an artist on their own merit.
Bottom line is Carrie brought an entire new crowd to Country Music. That has offended the traditionalists and stirred the pot of the expansion of music row into the country pop genre (which isn’t a genre while being a genre – huh? – more Jameson please!). The music INDUSTRY is a business. Time for folks to get over it. I can just imagine these purists when Hank was around. They’d be crucifying the Louisiana Hayride as a hokey talent show that will bring down guvmints and destroy nations! Heh! Instead of being castigated for her arrival on the Country scene she should be applauded. Which brings us to her stable of awards as being earned. Through her immense popularity. What grows Country is good. Even with the growing pains it causes.
Long Live Dress-up Barbies! In all their glory! Man! how cold is that? :-o
OK Kevin, I’ll quit stealing your bandwidth now and take off my magnifying glasses to read this font! Makes my head hurt anyhoo. ;-)
I personally see this a great video that shift from the overproduction and sho-offey special effects of her past few. Finally a simple, enjoyable video from Carrie. While i love her other videos and don’t really understand what people have against her I think this video finally puts her to the level of todays stars with simple videos that you can just watch and enjoy. I love powerful, well done videos but its nice to see something simple that doesn’t have any vocal add ons or destractions from the actual song for a change.
Thank you Kevin!! I really enjoyed that video! I can remember seeing the first time Carrie made a video and I can remember her saying she felt so ridiculous because it was all new to her and she was so uncomfortable being in front of everyone while filming. So yes, it seems she is getting comfortable with her job and doing a fine job of it! I’m proud for Carrie! I think she’s truly an All American Girl! What girl at one time in her life didn’t want to be a dress up Barbie!
I know this may not fit the discussion but, am I the only one who finds her the least attractive when she is just herself, rather than in costume? There are some drop-dead costumes in that video(waitress), and the least fetching by far seems to be the green shirt.
Reminds me a bit of the Faith Hill video whose name I’m forgetting.
“The Way You Love Me”?
This is certainly more lively a response than I expected.
I kinda want a 9513 Super Secret Membership card, but I don’t know how to get one. I guess that’s what makes it a super secret!
Dan – She never showed much personality on Idol, either. Just straight-up, sing the song professionalism. Quite similar to Trisha Yearwood when she started out, though I don’t think Yearwood would’ve lasted as long on Idol or would even feel comfortable today doing a video like “All-American Girl.”
I don’t think I want to do another post on Underwood right now, but if I was going to, it would be that she seems to be hitting this pop culture sweet spot right now that could share a name with her current single. It does remind me of Shania Twain a bit, Whitney Houston had it in the eighties, Olivia Newton-John before that. It’s this innocent warmth that Americans embrace.
Well congrats Kevin! you’ve got the only You Tube link left alive. Team Carrie aced all the others. Makes you special! :-o
Yeah, again we agree (see that Matt, I do agree with folks! heh!). The time was ripe for someone like Carrie to arrive on the scene. The whole country was just sick and tired of the Britney, Paris >insert teen destruction of your choice here< and needed to be reminded that there are still real life young women out there that still hold to certain values. It will be her talent that keeps her around though.
My two cents anyhoo.
Kevin, all you had to do was ask :P
I guess image tags don’t work?
http://www.the9513.com/images/membership-card.jpg
I have to give them credit for the news ticker …
“Truck vandalized in local city garage. Suspect wearing black leather jacket with sunglasses and carrying a Louisville Slugger bat.”
“Various UFO sightings reported during music video shoot outside of …”
“Boyfriend taken into custody for cheating. Woman …”
Geez Brody, guess I blew any chance I might have had to get one now huh? :-o
Sorry for the intrusion on y’all’s sites. I’ll quietly go back to lurking now!
cute music video! i agree that she sometimes seems clueless as of waht to do, which makes her seem like she has no personality, but i’m sure she’s much deeper than that.
and is it just me or is she imitating hannah montana at 0:13??
Brady,
Good, now I have a membership card to go with my T-Shirt!
Oh, please de-lurk more frequently, Jarheaddad! I thoroughly enjoyed your posts and found them very insightful. Now THOSE are the kinds of comments I look forward to reading in the wonderful world of the country music blogosphere. I know people have their own favored and disliked artists, but when a poster habitually comments just to get in as many blows as possible to an artist he/she dislikes, it just gets tiring. It’s the same points over and over again, and more often than not, uninformed opinions at that. Of course, I’m not gonna name names, but when one visits the different blogs regularly as I do, I can basically make a list of people and predict if and how they’re going to comment on a blog post. [/end rant]
On-topic, I surpringly loved this video myself! Surprising because I am way past my Roman-White-tolerance threshold. I’m all for Carrie Underwood experimenting with a different director next time around, but on this one, Roman is actually in my “Dude, you’re okay!” list.
Finally, thank you, Kevin, for Country Universe! I love it!
You really should post Faith Hill’s “The Way You Love Me” next to Carrie’s. That’s interesting. I wonder what Faith thinks of this video.
I could not stop smiling throughout the entire video. This is now my favorite Carrie music video. It really looks like she had a lot of fun making this video. Oh, and she’s a total hottie!
I criticized this video. I did so as a female in her late 20s who should be in Carrie’s peer set. I know men think she’s hot, and young girls look up to her and want to copy her clothes and her hair, but from someone who should see her as more of an equal and respect her and look to her to speak for my generation, she fails miserably. I applaud her for going back and getting her degree after winning American Idol. For me, that’s her biggest plus. Other than that, there’s nothing about her personality or her songs that I love, or even relate to. Considering I generally love female artists, especially in the country genre, I find that strange. I think “fake” sums it up for me – just all of it.
I came back to this video today because I ran across Taylor Swift’s newest video. (I don’t know if I can put a link here, but I’ll try.) This video shows why Taylor has the #1 country album for the 6th week in a row. She’s likeable, she’s relatable. I’m out of her age group and I can still see her appeal. This is what a goofy, carefree video should, in my opinion, look like (not the one above):
It’s reminiscent of my favorite group, who was also, and is always, “real”…
Isn’t this what country is supposed to be? It’s not supposed to be pop or manufactured or fake. It’s supposed to be real people, showing real emotion, singing real songs. Just my two cents.