
One of a military family’s biggest hopes is that their loved one will return home from service overseas.  In most cases, this does happen, but unfortunately, some families do not find themselves so lucky.  Jason Aldean’s “Tattoos on this Town” music video illustrates to viewers the grief that these unlucky families experience.  Through the use of various film techniques, Jason Aldean’s “Tattoos on this Town” video brings out emotions in viewers by making them feel as if they too are a part of the events.  

The video begins by depicting a story of two high school sweethearts who grew up together in a small town.  The main characters are shown doing everything together from participating in car races with their friends to spending a day by the lake.  In each of these scenes, the red hat is present.  Though viewers may not immediately make a connection between the hat and the memories that the boy and girl share, it becomes quite evident by the end of the video.  The rest of the video follows the love story of the two, beginning with the proposal.  After this, the boy is deployed overseas and leaves behind his pregnant wife.  Unfortunately, the wife one day answers the door to two soldiers who are there to tell her that her husband has passed away.  The video continues through the husband’s funeral, the delivery of their child, and finally, the child, who is wearing the red hat, visiting the very place where his father carved “I love you” in a tree for his mother.  

There are many different groups of people to whom this video could be directed.  For example, it could be directed towards widowed spouses who have lost loved ones overseas.  It could show them that even though they have lost their spouse, they can still find him or her in the child that they shared.  This is evident in a close up shot of the son wearing his father’s red hat as he visits the carving in the tree, a place sacred to the mother and father.  The use of this type of shot captures the spark in the son’s eye as he learns more about his father’s love for his mother.  

The video could also be directed towards children who, like the child in the video, have lost a parent overseas.  It may show these children that there are still ways that they can get to know their parent who has passed away.  For example, when the boy in the video is pictured wearing the hat, the shot, which is already a close up, zooms in on the hat.  By zooming in on the hat, the viewer learns that there is still a part of the father with the child at all times.  The beauty of the hat is that the child can make new memories while knowing that his father did the very same things when he was a child, thus creating an instant connection between the father and the son.

The overall design of this video is not asking viewers to mourn the loss of loved ones with heavy hearts.  The video does not say that mourning is bad, it says that once the initial period of grief is over, the realization that the loved one is not truly gone can set in.  Though this video seems to be tragic and evokes many sad emotions, one of its most important underlying messages is that memories live on forever.  The video at first asks the viewer to feel sorry for the wife and soon-to-be mother.  However, one of the best things that it later does is through several medium shots, allows the viewer to later assume that the wife and son’s lives did turn out alright.  Some of these shots, including the delivery of the son, the son at the lake, and the wife smiling with the son, show that the wife does not spend the rest of her life grieving.  The son is about four or five when he appears in the video, and from that, viewers can assume that even years after the death of his father, the son and his mother have found stability in the very same town where his parents grew up.  

Had the video been played without the song to go along with it, the story would still have been clear.  The song plays an important role in letting viewers know that even though the video is sad, there is still a happy ending for the wife and child who are left behind.  However, it is the camera shots that truly set the tone of the video. If there was no music accompanying the video, it would still be a video where two high school sweethearts who got married, the husband died overseas, and the woman grieved with her child about their loss.  The use of the different types of shots lets the viewer feel the emotions that the characters feel.  If there were no varying camera shots, the video would make the viewer feel as if they are not as emotionally attached. For example, when the wife receives the news of her husband’s death, a medium shot is used to show the officers at her door.  This gives the viewer the same perspective that the wife has when she first opens the door and sees the officers.  As the video goes on, the viewers become more emotionally attached because they will feel like they have been through all of the events with the characters. 

Jason Aldean’s “Tattoos on this Town” video aims to evoke many different emotions from its viewers.  The different types of camera shots show the love shown between the husband and wife as well as the mourning that the wife goes through after the husband has passed away.   The close up shots allow for viewers to truly connect with the characters while the medium shots provide a viewpoint from the perspective of the characters.  The “Tattoos on this Town” video brings viewers on an emotional ride, but without different camera shots, emotions would not be evoked nearly as well.  