There are two trends in music videos that seem to be becoming more and more prevalent, and which really need to be addressed.

The first is the growing use of Hollywood-style opening credits to start the video. On every channel that plays videos, the same standard information is shown at the beginning. It tells you who will appear, the name of the song and the album. That’s all we need to know.

Adding to the over-the-top nature of the credits is the fact that everyone mentioned is a HUGE star. Watch the first 15 seconds of this video. It introduces Kanye West, Ne-Yo and Keri Hilson. I didn’t know Keri Hilson before seeing this, but even someone as hip as myself knows exactly who the other two are.

The other recent perpetrator of the trend is Jamie Foxx. His video features cameos from Forest Whitaker, Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Howard. That group has won a combined 4 Oscars, and grabbed numerous other nominations. They have been responsible for some of the biggest movies in the past 15 years. If you’re in a position to be watching cable television in the United States, you don’t need a special introduction.

The other trend involves a specific shot in the videos. For some reason it has become a requirement to have the star floating above a bed. A main culprit is the Hilson/Kanye/Ne-Yo video I mentioned before. If you watch past the 15 seconds, you’ll see quite a bit of Hilson in mid-air above the bed. Maybe she’s just aspiring to be Beyonce, who achieves more of a floating–rather than falling–effect in her video for ‘Sweet Dreams.’.

I’m pretty sure there was a third one I made a mental note about this morning–I frequently rock VH1 while I’m reading the newspaper. But now I can’t remotely remember. So keep an eye out for people illuminating the themes in their songs by floating above a bed. And since they weren’t responsible enough to include a disclaimer, don’t try that at home. Unless you’re tired. Then it’s probably appropriate to make some sort of move towards a bed.