“Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood

song info

    “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood (official video) is a country song.

link to the static song information page for this song:
http://www.thissideofsanity.com/music/songs/be/beforehecheatsvideo.php

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “Before He Cheats” is a song written by Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear and the third wide-release single from Carrie Underwood’s debut album, Some Hearts. It was the fifth release from the album overall. It was named the 2007 Single of the Year by the Country Music Association. It is Underwood’s most successful single as of March 2013, with sales of 3,735,000 digital downloads, making it the fifth best-selling country song of all time (behind Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now”, with 6.198 million Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise”, with 5.638 million, Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”, with 5.609 million, and Swift’s “You Belong with Me”, with 4.12 million. It is the second most sold single from an American Idol contestant (behind “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” by season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson with four million), and the fourth longest-charting single in the history of the Hot 100). It also came in on CMT’s 40 Greatest Songs of the Decade at number 25, along with Underwood’s other signature hit, “Jesus, Take the Wheel”, which ranked number four.

Background

    “Before He Cheats” tells the story of a woman taking revenge on her potentially unfaithful boyfriend/husband.

    She imagines him hanging out and flirting with a “bleach-blonde” girl, shooting pool, buying her a drink, dancing, and hoping to “get lucky” with her. In retaliation, she vandalizes his customized four-wheel drive vehicle by keying the sides, carving her name into its leather seats, smashing the headlights with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat and slashing all four tires. She hopes that this will make him “think before he cheats” again.

    “Before He Cheats” has sold over 3,731,000 downloads as of March 2013, making it the fourth-most downloaded country song after “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum; “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me” by Taylor Swift. The song was certified 2x Platinum in digital sales by the RIAA in February 2008, making it the first country song to ever to do so. It was the best-selling single from an American Idol contestant until Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” surpassed it in the spring of 2012, and is still Underwood’s best selling single to date. It has sold over one million ringtones. In Canada, it is officially certified as Platinum. On May 9, 2013, the song was officially certified 4x Platinum by RIAA. x

Composition

    “Before He Cheats” is set in the key of F# minor. It is set in 4/4 common time.

Music video

    The music video for “Before He Cheats” was directed by Roman White. In the beginning of the video Underwood is seen going out to a parking lot with a Louisville Slugger because she has just vandalized her husband/boyfriend’s four-wheel drive truck for cheating on her. In other scenes, the “husband/boyfriend” (Actor - Tabb Shoup) is seen kissing another woman. As the video progresses Underwood takes the stage to sing as various objects behind her, such as lamps, are seen exploding. At one point, a screen shot of the front seat of the truck is seen with Underwood’s name carved in it, which she mentions during the chorus of the song. Eventually, she catches up with her cheating husband/boyfriend with the other woman. After looking shocked for a second, she scoffs and drops the keys to his now-demolished truck into his drink. Towards the end Underwood struts down a street, singing along with the song, while different objects are shown flying across the air, glasses are seen shattering, and light bulbs explode paying homage to Brian De Palma’s Carrie. At the very end of the music video, the truck is shown completely destroyed.

    The early scenes in the video featuring a crowd in a narrow street and Underwood in a parking garage, were filmed in and around Printer’s Alley in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The final scene, featuring the exploding glass and light bulbs, was filmed on Fourth Avenue just north of Church Street in Nashville.

    “Before He Cheats” made GAC music video history by debuting at number one. It also marks the third consecutive number-one music video on GAC for Underwood. It made history on CMT’s Top Twenty Countdown for being at number one for a consecutive five weeks. In December 2006, “Before He Cheats” was named the best video of 2006 by CMT’s Top 20 Countdown. It also finished number two in GAC’s Video of the Year for 2006 behind Trace Adkins’s “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”. Proving its crossover success, the video made a debut at number 15 on the VSpot Top 20 Countdown, peaking at number 4.

    The video premiered on MTV’s Total Request Live in April 2007, this is the second country music video to be premiered in this program, the first being “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” by Jessica Simpson.

    On April 16, 2007, the video for “Before He Cheats” swept the CMT Music Awards, winning three categories: Video of the Year, Female Video of the Year, and Director of the Year. Underwood made history by being the first female to win Video of the Year.

    The video also garnered Carrie a 2007 MTV Video Music Award nomination in the category of Best New Artist.

    During an NBC Sunday Night Football telecast of a Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants game, the song was played over the Dallas offensive lineup announcements after Underwood broke up with Dallas QB Tony Romo.

    The music video was ranked number nine on CMT’s 100 Greatest Videos. It also ranked #1 on GAC’s Top 50 Videos of the 2000’s.

    In 2009, the music video for the song was voted number one by fans as VH1’s Greatest Diva Music Video of all-time, before the airing of the annual VH1 Divas Live special.

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