Chris Janson Tackles Consent in ‘Drunk Girl’ Music Video
Chris Janson's "Drunk Girl" music video begins with a warning: "The following content addresses sensitive topics that might be upsetting to some audiences." While the video's ending is a happy one, its lead character goes through some traumatic experiences to get there.
Readers can press play above to watch the "Drunk Girl" video, which opens with a couple stumbling out of a bar. They're laughing and having a great time, but the woman is clearly inebriated when she asks her date, "So where are we going?"
Through flashbacks, viewers find out that, as a young girl, the woman watched her mother be abused -- and, when she was a little bit older, she was sexually assaulted at a party. Both situations make the ending of the "Drunk Girl" music video (you'll have to watch to see it) feel especially important.
“I don’t cry very easily. But man, this one broke me down quick,” Janson tells People of seeing the finished video. "Sometimes these things get swept under the rug. Sometimes they get pushed so far back in the closet, nobody wants to look at it … Well guess what? It happens every day and it’s something to be thought about.”
Interspersed with the video's narrative scenes are shots of Janson playing a baby grand piano in the middle of Lower Broadway in Nashville. The neon light's of the street's bars are all lit up, but he's all alone; videographer Jeff Venable had the street shut down after closing time to film.
“I shut down those bars, playing them my first year in town," Janson recalls, "and then to shut down the whole street … it was just very humbling."
"Drunk Girl" is, essentially, an encouragement to young men to help intoxicated women get home safely instead of trying to sleep with them -- a song about the importance of consent. The singer says he had his two sons in mind when penning the tune, and hopes that his daughters, should they find themselves in a situation like the song describes, will be helped home safely.
“We don’t ever want to offend anybody,” Janson says, “but man, it’s almost a disservice if you don’t just bring light to some subjects that are so important and that don’t get talked about nearly as much as they should.”