In the pantheon of emotional trickery in music videos, nothing beats a camera closeup that captures the tear streaked face of a (usually young, pretty) woman. Let's take a look...
Of course, the granddaddy of all close up cry shots is Sinéad O'Connor's MTV Video of the Year winning clip for "Nothing Compares 2 U" The shot is so powerful, you forget the rest of the video exists.
Kelly Clarkson's video for "Because Of You" has more plot than the others, but the shots of a blond Clarkson singing into the mirror are more interesting than the "TV movie of the week" action scenes with the little girl. She acts quite well in some of them, but just before the bridge we see the emotion welling up and she cries real tears with that ugly scrunched up cry face that Amber Tamblyn does so well.
Meanwhile, Duffy uses the crying game to distract for the sleepiness of her single "Warwick Avenue." It's a very pretty cry, her mascara running like a drag queen doing a dramatic lipsync. I don't mean to make fun, but it's a little obvious that it's meant to tug at heartstrings. Watch here.
Janelle Monáe does an almost direct homage to Sinead's weepies on "Cold War" - down to the way the shot is framed for much of the video making her seem bald. But when she has her first well of emotion, she goes nuts with a head tremble that turns into the shakes. It's another minute before the real, glistening tear rolls out and streaks her youthful cheeks. Girl knows how to do it!
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