Music videos have become a vital part of the music industry. They can help introduce a new artist or help an artist make a comeback. One thing that is nearly essential is that they are good, if not mediocre. However, as of late many videos that hit the airwaves are bad. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at these.

As Creed become bigger and more popular, their videos seem to get worse. “Higher” was cool. “With Arms Wide Open” was borderline cheesy. Now we have “My Sacrifice.” I have no idea what is going on here. You literally have to watch the “Making the Video” for his one in order to understand what is happening. We have a flooded city (complete with merpeople), a nasty storm, a candle lit school bus, and an exploding guitar. Symbolism is cool and all, but this is overload. What’s the point of symbols when people have to watch a “making of” special in order to get the video? Could Scott Stapp come back to earth in a video?

Creed is such a strong live band. They just need to do a straight performance piece for the next video and capture the real energy of the band. Save the special effects and symbols for someone else. Enrique Iglesias does not rely on fancy symbols or flooded cities in his video “Hero.” Nope, he just sticks to good old fashioned sex appeal. But sex appeal can only go so far when a video has too much overacting.

I guess the plot goes like this, Enrique and his lady friend (played by Jennifer Love Hewitt) are on the run from some bad dudes. They have a night of passion before the bad dudes catch up to them. Then Enrique gets the snot beaten out of him. The video ends with Jennifer sobbing like mad while Enrique does something that looks like dying. The only thing that makes this video remotely worth watching is Enrique. Other than that you just get a bunch of melodramatic garbage that’s not worth the film it is printed on.

What in heaven’s name happened to Britney Spears? We know that she is not that innocent and that she is growing up, but her latest video looks like some kind of porno or something. Britney and her friend are really hot in “I’m a Slave For U,” literally. In order to cool off they dance around and participate in something that looks like a orgy.

Then there is that amazing wardrobe. As my editor-in-chief noted, it looks like she is wearing a thong on top of her jeans. That only adds to the top that looks like it was made out of crepe paper. Of course crepe paper is nice to look at compared to the video debut from Bubba Sparxxx. The song is great but the video is something else. “Ugly” is by far the most disturbing video since Robbie Williams’s “Rock DJ,” and everyone keeps their flesh on in this one. We have women shaving, mud, and some of the biggest stars in hip-hop on tractors. It is nice to see anyone in any genre do something different with their videos but some images were never meant to be captured on film.

Michael Jackson has had a somewhat shaky comeback. His new album debuted at number one, but it is quickly falling. This is when videos can save the day. However, Michael has opted to make not one, but two duds. “You Rock My World” clocks in at nearly 13 minutes. Too long. Even worse is the follow-up “Ghosts.” This baby comes in at over 40 minutes. That’s not a music video, that’s an infomercial. He will be forever haunted by the fact that he made the best video of all time (“Thriller”) and he will never be able to top himself. VH1 had to make a big weekend out of “Ghosts” because it is so long. Michael, it’s called editing. It does wonders.

All of these songs are not bad by any means, they are just attached to bad videos. Every artist, even your favorite, does a bad video at least once in their career. Hopefully these artists will only have this happen this once.