Have you logged onto YouTube recently to watch your favorite country music video for the hundredth time only to find it’s been removed? You’re not alone. And it’s not just country music.

According to The Verge, a recent dispute between the video-hosting site and SESAC has resulted in the removal of thousands of music videos. Songs and music videos have been stripped from YouTube, leaving fans with a black error screen — like this one from Carrie Underwood’s “Drinking Alone” music video.

What Is SESAC?

SESAC stands for the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers. Their website describes the group as “a Performing Rights Organization recognized by the U.S. Copyright office.”

The organization’s primary goal is to support “creators and rights holders” by making sure they receive the royalties they deserve.  SESAC licenses the public performance of more than 1.5 million songs. They represent over 15,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. Their roster includes names such as Zac Brown, Lady A’s Hillary Scott, Margo Price and more.

What Does SESAC Have to Do with YouTube?

Because YouTube and YouTube Music are used to distribute music, SESAC has designated them as an entity that needs a license to do so. According to The Verge,  the two parties are currently negotiating a new deal that will not only bring the music back, but also benefit the creatives behind it.

For now, YouTube users will have to do without some of their favorite music videos. It’s unclear when these songs will come back.

Just know that if you’re having a hard time finding a video from your favorite country artist such as Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley or others, it’s likely due to this issue.

Fans can also search to see which artists and songs have been affected by this on SESAC’s repertory page.

In other words, get used to see this screen…

YouTube

The 15 Most Haunting Country Music Videos, Ranked

Whether they’re sad, spooky or just make you think, these haunting country music videos will give you chills — and stick with you long after you’re done watching.

Gallery Credit: Carena Liptak

No. 15: Carrie Underwood, “Ghost Story”

Catherine Powell, Getty Images

No. 15: Carrie Underwood, “Ghost Story”

Carrie Underwood makes being haunted look dreamy and romantic in this music video, whose whimsical, trapeze-filled, high-drama aesthetics were inspired by the Las Vegas residency she’d recently mounted at the time. The music video follows Underwood’s recent ex, as she promises him that no matter where he turns as he tries to move on, her memory will be there haunting him, just like a ghost.

No. 14: Chris Young, “Drowning”

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No. 14: Chris Young, “Drowning”

Young made his directorial debut with the music video for “Drowning,” a plaintive ballad inspired by the singer’s grief after the untimely death of his friend Adam. Young holds up a photo of his late friend in the opening shot of the clip, and from there, the video launches into a montage of the singer’s fans holding up photos of loved ones they’ve lost.

No. 13: Billy Currington, “Walk a Little Straighter”

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No. 13: Billy Currington, “Walk a Little Straighter”

Billy Currington chose to go the simple — yet effective — route when coming up with a video treatment for “Walk a Little Straighter,” his heart-wrenching debut single about a child’s experience growing up with a parent suffering from alcoholism. Based on the singer’s own real-life experience, the lyrics describe a young boy who thinks the world of his dad, but can’t help but notice his father’s drinking habit. The clip shows interactions between a father and his son at various ages, underscoring the point that no matter how grown up the son is, he always looks to his father for guidance and support.

No. 12: Lee Brice, “I Drive Your Truck”

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No. 12: Lee Brice, “I Drive Your Truck”

The emotional music video for “I Drive Your Truck” paints a vivid picture of grief and loss, with close-up shots of all the personal effects that make this truck so special. We see dog tags hanging from the rearview mirror, an Atlanta Braves cap on the dash and change in the ashtray — all the little details that make it feel like a lost loved one is right there sitting in the shotgun seat.

Brice made this music video extra personal by casting his real-life brother as the guy who drives the truck. The singer himself plays the role of the dead loved one who previously owned the vehicle, and his picture gets tucked next to the steering wheel as the grieving brother goes out for a drive.

No. 11: Miranda Lambert, “Over You”

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No. 11: Miranda Lambert, “Over You”

Miranda Lambert’s plaintive 2011 ballad gets a simple but effective visual treatment, set in a foggy outdoor forest scene in cold weather. In the music video for “Over You,” Lambert wanders through the woods, thinking about the person she lost. A white horse appears out of the mist, and two young boys run past Lambert, playing a game of tag. But one of the boys soon disappears, and Lambert makes her way to a graveyard, falling on her knees in tears in front of a headstone.

“Over You” is especially powerful because of its personal backstory. Lambert co-wrote the song with her then-husband Blake Shelton, inspired by the death of Shelton’s older brother Richie, who was killed in a car accident when he was young. Shelton felt he would be unable to sing the song onstage every night, so Lambert cut the song and included it on the track list of her Four the Record album.

No. 10: Hardy and Lainey Wilson, “Wait in the Truck”

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No. 10: Hardy and Lainey Wilson, “Wait in the Truck”

The music video for “Wait in the Truck” essentially follows the same storyline in the song: Hardy’s driving down a back road in the rain one night, when he runs into Wilson, whose character has been badly beaten by her partner. After she hops into Hardy’s truck, he asks her where the man is now – and then carries out some vigilante justice with help from the gun under his seat. Later scenes in the video show Hardy in jail and Wilson testifying on his behalf.

Not only is this a spooky song with a gripping narrative, but it also shows off the two young stars’ substantial acting talent. Wilson would go on to take that talent to the small screen with an acting role on Season 5 of Yellowstone.

No 9: Ashley McBryde, “Martha Divine”

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No 9: Ashley McBryde, “Martha Divine”

“Martha Divine” is a murder ballad with a twist: It’s not the narrator’s unfaithful ex-lover that she’s after, but rather the woman who is sleeping with her married father. In this creepy clip, McBryde plays an overnight hotel clerk who notices her friend’s dad come in with someone who is definitely not his wife. She places a phone call, and before you know it, McBryde’s friend shows up – shovel in hand – and they begin taking retribution on the couple for their crimes.

No. 8: Chris Janson and Eric Church, “You, Me & the River”

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No. 8: Chris Janson and Eric Church, “You, Me & the River”

Shot in black-and-white and full of nighttime scenes and shadowy figures, Chris Janson and Eric Church’s “You, Me & the River” video spells out the grisly story told in the duet’s lyrics.

The song is about the deadly consequences of infidelity, and Church plays the cheater in this song, winding up dead as Janson tosses his body into a river. But “The Chief” comes back: In various scenes, including one of Janson in a jail cell, he’s haunted by the man he killed.

No. 7: Chris Stapleton, “Fire Away”

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No. 7: Chris Stapleton, “Fire Away”

Chris Stapleton enlisted actors Ben Foster and Margarita Levieva to star in this chilling music video, which tells the story of a couple who are locked in a fierce battle with mental health. Though things seem fine from the outside, the woman in the relationship is embroiled in a terrifying mental decline, and things turn tragic at the end of the clip. Stapleton only makes a few brief appearances as the bartender who serves the man as he spends distraught nights sitting on a barstool.

No. 6: Glen Campbell, “Adios”

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No. 6: Glen Campbell, “Adios”

The title track and only single off of Glen Campbell’s final album, “Adios” served as a kind of farewell from the singer to his fans, as he faced declining health after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The music video for this song puts a spotlight on the singer’s musical family, with various family members playing his guitar as they carry it around the world.

At the end of the clip, the guitar gets a Viking funeral, as Campbell’s grandson pushes the instrument out into the ocean before striking a match and throwing it onto the guitar.

No. 5: Johnny Cash, “Hurt”

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No. 5: Johnny Cash, “Hurt”

Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” is a cover of the Nine Inch Nails original, but the Man in Black’s re-tooling of this hard rock song as a haunting, twangy ballad is so masterful that even Trent Reznor himself had to admit that Cash’s was the definitive version of the song.

The music video is equally powerful: Cash kept the aesthetic close to home by working with a NIN collaborator, filmmaker Mark Romanek, to create a powerful and bleak video that spoke candidly to the decline of the country legend’s health. Modern-day shots of Cash as a frail old man are interspersed with a montage showing him in his heyday, and the House of Cash — a long-shuttered Nashville museum spotlighting the singer — has a prominent place in the video. Cash filmed the clip just seven months before he died in September 2003.

No. 4: Martina McBride, “Concrete Angel”

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No. 4: Martina McBride, “Concrete Angel”

Martina McBride is a master at creating memorable music videos — “With a Broken Wing,” “God’s Will” and “Independence Day” are all solid examples — but the most gripping example by far is “Concrete Angel.” The song tells the story of a young girl suffering physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her mother — and ultimately, she dies from her injuries.

The video follows that same storyline, in enough detail that it’s difficult to watch without shedding a few tears. What really makes this video special, though, is the focus on the young girl, and a friendship she makes shortly before her death with a boy in her class at school.

No. 3: Travis Tritt, “Tell Me I Was Dreaming”

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No. 3: Travis Tritt, “Tell Me I Was Dreaming”

The “Tell Me I Was Dreaming” music video is the second in a trilogy: The first part of the story came with Tritt’s “Anymore” video, and the tale concluded with “If I Lost You.” In all three, Tritt plays the character of Mac Singleton, a wheelchair-bound Army veteran who struggles with PTSD and his recovery process.

Each of the three installments of this story is heart-wrenching in its own way, but none is as tear-inducing as this chapter. In “Tell Me I Was Dreaming,” Singleton’s pregnant wife, Annie, slips and falls while cleaning a boat, hitting her head on rocks and ultimately dying of her injuries. Her baby survives, and Singleton names his daughter after Annie.

No. 2: John Prine, “Summer’s End”

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No. 2: John Prine, “Summer’s End”

The “Summer’s End” music video was one of the last Prine made in his life, before his death in 2020 from COVID-19. It’s arguably his most poignant ever. The video tells the story of an old man raising his granddaughter, and as the story unfolds and flashes of news stories about the opioid epidemic roll across a television screen, we learn that the young girl lost her mother to the disease of addiction.

A note at the end of the “Summer’s End” music video dedicates the clip to Max Barry, the son of former Nashville mayor Megan Barry, who died of an overdose in 2017 at the age of 22. Prine, a longtime friend of the Barry family, performed at his funeral.

No. 1: Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss, “Whiskey Lullaby”

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No. 1: Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss, “Whiskey Lullaby”

Just when you thought that Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss’ hit 2003 ballad about heartbreak and addiction couldn’t get any darker: The “Whiskey Lullaby” music video is a mini-me that will leave everyone in the audience misty-eyed.

After a soldier returns home from war and finds his wife in bed with another man, he storms out of the house and begins a cascading downslide towards alcoholism. Scenes of the man drinking, fighting and falling down in the street end in his untimely death and a military funeral, with his wife in attendance shedding tears and dressed in black. When it’s Krauss’ turn to sing, we learn that the woman’s life has taken its own turn into destructive drinking. The video ends in tragedy, and the hope that, just maybe, this tortured young couple gets a fresh start in the afterlife.

Read More: Why Your Favorite Country Music Has Been Removed From YouTube | https://tasteofcountry.com/country-music-videos-removed-youtube/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral