Music videos with a story: Everlong and Learn to Fly

Today we take a look at two music videos with a story, where the band members also play the characters in the videos: Learn to Fly and Everlong by the Foo Fighters. Both videos tell a short story – in Learn to Fly the coffee has been spiked and the pilots can’t fly the plane. The plot in Everlong is more complicated, switching between two different dreams and reality.

In Learn to Fly, the band members play not only themselves, but pilots, air hostesses, an obese woman, a school girl, a baby, and others. The best part of this video is the irony of the band members checking themselves and each other out in character and vice versa, e.g. Dave Grohl dressed as a schoolgirl getting excited about seeing Dave Grohl; and the rest of the band checking out Taylor Hawkins dressed as an air hostess.

Everlong is one of those awesome 90s music videos with everything – it’s got a clever plot, a reference to Sid and Nancy and a ‘save the whales’ jumper. Overall, it’s just a creative music video, e.g. check out the bit from 4:00- 4:18 where the band peels themselves out of their characters.