A music video is a short film which encompasses the feelings or thoughts of the artist’s music. It often is of artistic nature but lately, more and more advertisements have begun to be visible in music videos. An alternative name for music video is “clip”.
Because it was not enough for a band to be only listened at the radio, looking for success on the TV as well, the artists or bands started launching videos for their songs. Through a video an artist gets closer to the hearts of his fans. How better to do this than to invest heavily in the best images and technologies used to capture a video of exception?
In 1965, with the help of Columbia Records, Bob Dylan draw a new single: Subterranean Homesick Blues. In the same year, Dylan and his band had to create a short film on this song. Two years later, their footage was to be included in the film’s opening Dont Look Back, a documentary on the 1965 UK tour of Dylan, becoming the first video in the world.
A video made after an idea of Dylan himself is the one who holds the cards on which are inscribed the words from the lyrics. And for fun, some cards are misspelled. For example, when the song you can hear the words “eleven dollar bills” on the cardboard you could read “20 dollar bills.”
Since then, the video has become an inspiration for a lot of bands and has had numerous reinterpretations graphics. Knowing all these, here are 8 of the most expensive music videos out there:
8. Backstreet Boys – „Larger Than Life“ (1999), $2,1 million
Backstreet Boys became famous in the 1990s, when the band Backstreet Boys launched and targeted the top charts when they made the video for the hit “Larger Than Life”. Along with director Joseph Kahn, the five boys clip decor set in outer space in which they invested two million dollars with many special effects they got one of the videos that made the band famous. Sequences that were like in the movie “Star Wars“, looking robotic elaborate costumes and cryogenic chambers, were the key ingredients for the success of the video.
Backstreet Boys is an American band formed in Orlando, Florida on 20 April 1993. The band consists of five members: AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson. They climbed the pinnacle of success with their debut album, Backstreet Boys in 1996.
The next album, Backstreet’s Back from 1997 continued the group’s success across the globe. They won the title by albums superstars Millennium in 1999 and Black & Blue in 2000. After a break of three years, the boys got back together and put on the market two albums: Unbreakable in 2007 and This Is Us in 2009.
The band has sold over 130 million albums worldwide and is the best-selling band of boys in history and one of the best-selling of all time. They are the first group after Sade, who succeeded to have the first 9 albums reaching the top 10 Billboard 200, and the only boy band who managed it. The band received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 22, 2013.
7. Michael Jackson – „Bad“ (1987), $2,2 million
In a time when MTV made the latest tracks, videos, to reach a higher level, and musicians were becoming increasingly popular, Michael Jackson has made a name using DETAL clips, a long term and very expensive. For the video of the song “Bad” in 1987, Jackson has recruited an outstanding team of people from the industry, such as director Martin Scorsese or the novelist Richard Price.
The short film, with a total of 18 minutes, was filmed in six weeks. In the clip, the “king of pop” could be seen in the role of a teenager who returns to his hometown, dressed in a leather jacket and dancing through the subway stations of Brooklyn.
Even with one of the most expensive music videos in the world, Michael Jackson was so poor when he died, yet one of the two bodyguards he had was forced to carry with him a suitcase which contained two Oscar statuettes if the star was not able to pay.
“The Oscars were in a suitcase in a silver car and I had them with me all the time,” said Bill Whitfield, according to Business Insider. They had been given for the film “Gone with the Wind” which Michael Jackson had bought in 1999 for $1.5 million.
Whitfield, a former police officer, was in the service of the King of Pop at the beginning of 1997 until his death in 2009. The other bodyguard was a former basketball player. Before his death, when he accumulated debts that passed half a million dollars, there were no salaries for the two bodyguards.
Moreover, the two found themselves in a position to pay out of pocket for the fuel in which the singer was being transported. Although they say they don’t regret those moments, Whitfield says there were times when they were about to be expelled from the hotel because they were unable to pay: “It was Michael Jackson and I thought: ‘How?’ “.
6. Celine Dion – „It’s All Coming Back to Me Now“ (1996), $2,3 million
Fire, ghosts, gusts of wind and sound of motorcycles, that’s how this video can be summed up , singed by the singer Celine Dion in 1996, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”. Directed by Nigel Dick, the video was filmed over a period of four days in different parts of the territory of the Czech Republic. The production team used the scene grand with large halls, stairs and bedrooms, and images outside of the Castle Ploskovice, while the postproduction team used special effects to portray the reflection of the beloved deceased artist in mirrors and pictures haunted with it.
Céline Marie Claudette Dion was born on March 30, 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec, was a holder of the Order of Canada and the National Order of Quebec and is a pop singer, songwriter and actress. She was born into a large family, with a precarious financial situation. She became known in the Francophone world after Rene Angelil, who was to become her husband, mortgaged his house to finance the production of the first album.
In 1990 she released “Unison”, an album that earned her popularity in North America and other English-speaking countries. Dion became known in the 80’s, after winning Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and Eurovision. That followed the release of several albums in French, and in 1986 signed a contract with Sony Records. In the 90’s she achieved worldwide success after the launch of several solo career of success in English and French, becoming one of the best-selling singers in history.
In 1999, Celine decided to retreat for a period from the music industry to spend more time with her family, her husband being diagnosed with cancer. She returned in 2002 to the public attention and signed in the same year a contract for 3 years, which later extended over a period of nearly 5 years, to appear 5 times per week in shows held at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.
5. Mariah Carey ft. Jay Z, „Heartbreaker“ (1999), $2,5 million
In the blink of 1999 Mariah Carey plays a cheated lover in a cinema that takes the paper with the other girl and throws soda on the lap of her former friend. Perhaps playback is invaluable, but “Heartbreaker” had cost around $2.5 million, the amount of which only $100,000 was used to hire the cinema.
Recently, the singer Mariah Carey, aged 45, said that she usually has to bathe wearing her swimsuit.
The reason is simple, she says: her twins aged 4 years old, Monroe and Moroccan, don’t give her peace even in her moments of intimacy, reports Contactmusic.
The star says she used to indulge them in the tub, which is the only 100% of her time with herself, but that she no longer affords the luxury, since she’s a single mother, divorced of Nick Cannon. “I love them very much and when they are at home will always stay with me,” she told People. “Often I bathe in a bathing suit, knowing that I will have to let them enter “, she said.
Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1969, and is a pop and R & B singer, songwriter, producer and American actress. Mariah Carey has released her debut album in 1990 under the guidance of Tommy Mottola, director of the record company Columbia Records, whom she married in 1993. She became known with five consecutive singles at # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (US). According to Billboard magazine, the Mariah Carey album is the most successful album of hers between 1990 and 2010 in the United States.
4. Puff Daddy, „Victory“ (1998), $2,7 million
Directed by Marcus Nispel, the clip “Victory” pays homage to the film “The Running Man” in which Diddy is constantly watched by armed forces through the darkness of the streets. The 1998 video used scenes from “One More Chance” video by rapper Notorious BIG and starred Busta Rhymes, in which he was dressed in black feathers and sat on top of a statue, and actors Danny DeVito and Dennis Hopper. Using a helicopter and an airplane, implementation pyrotechnics production costs amounted to about three million dollars.
Sean John Combs was born on November 4 1969, it is an American rapper, producer, executive director, designer and actor. In October 2006, he changed his stage name to Diddy, adopted in August 2005. Prior to this change, he was known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy later on (“Puff” and “Puffy” were only nicknames, but there was nothing official). To this day he’s still called P. Diddy in New Zealand and in the UK, after being sued by another artist who already bore the name “Diddy”.
The artist is involved in the company ‘Bad Boy Records’, the clothing line “Sean John” and “by Sean Combs Sean”, a company that deals with films, and two restaurants. He took over the role of chief executive, performer as well as producer of the show broadcasted on MTV’s “Making the Band”, writer, clothing designer and Broadway theater actor. Diddy has an impressive fortune, estimated at 358 million dollars, being the second man of wealth in the hip-hop industry.
3. Guns N’ Roses – „Estranged“ (1993), $4 million
“Estranged” is a ballad full of emotion that could, as well, have benefited from a video more dramatic. Director Andy Morahan gave Axl Rose a chance to put into film his failed marriage, he being portrayed as a member of the SWAT special forces, who tried to kill himself, but was saved by dolphins, the video being accompanied by scenes in which the band sings.
In the four million dollars budget a helicopter of the Coast Guard of the United States of America was included, a tanker, a Antonov An-124 Ruslan plane and many special effects. With a duration of ten minutes, the video is part of a trilogy, with the songs “Do not Cry” and “November Rain“.
Guns N ‘Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. So far the band has released six studio albums and has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, including 45 million in the US being one of the best-selling bands. The group is formed by the singer Axl Rose, Tracii Guns and Izzy Stradlin guitarists, bassist Ole Beich and drummer Rob Gardner.
The name of the band comes from the union of two very important groups in Hollywood, LA Guns and Hollywood Rose. Their first concert was held on 26 March 1985 in Troubador, Hollywood, California. Appetite for Destruction from 1987, produced by Mike Clink, has sold over 25 million copies worldwide and reached No. 1 in the US after its release. Guitarist Tracii Guns was replaced by Slash and Steven Adler with Rob Gardner.
2. Madonna – „Die Another Day“ (2002), $6,1 million
Some things never change, and for a large-scale video Madonna is a must have. Directed by a Swedish production team called Traktor and action scenes inspired from the James Bond film, “Die Another Day” video used special effects to shape a realistic battle between a bad and a good Madonna.
Madonna Louise Ciccone born on 16 August, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, USA, also called the “Queen of Pop” is an American singer, actress, producer and pop songwriter, winner of multiple Grammy-winning Golden Globe and author of books. Although Madonna was born in Bay City, Michigan and grew up in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to the town of promises – New York City – to follow her dreams and become a dancer.
She released her debut album in 1983, of which three songs have reached the top 20 in the United States. After delivering a one-of-a-kind performance during the first edition of the MTV’s Video Music Awards in 1984, the song “Like a Virgin” gets to be first hit in the US and Australia. The album, named after the song, also reached the prestigious # 1 on the Billboard 200.
The next year she plays in “Seeking for Susan” for which she receives positive reviews. In 1986 she launches “True Blue” that produces multiple hits worldwide, and is nominated for the Grammys with the song “Crazy for You” from the Vision Quest soundtrack.
In 1987 she plays in “Who’s That Girl” which is not received well by critics and the public, although the soundtrack proves to be a success on the charts, the song “Who’s That Girl” became an international hit, and the tournament with the same name was a critical and commercial success. After her divorce with Sean Penn in 1988, married in 1985, she is back with one of her most acclaimed albums,” Like a Prayer”, the first video from arousing strong controversies.
1. Britney Spears – „Work B*tch“ (2013), $6,5 million
The newest videclip released and included in this list, “B * tch Work”, cost 6.5 million dollars thanks to a special choreography, scenery, varied wardrobe, and a white Lamborghini. In the clip Britney looks over a pool full of sharks, and in another scene you can see how a bunch of dummies are destroyed in an explosion.
Britney Jean Spears born on December 2, 1981, is a singer, winner of a Grammy award and two Emmy awards, dancer, producer, songwriter, occasional actress and writer. Britney is born in Mississippi and has her first TV appearance in 1992 as a as a participant of the show “Star Search“.
She continued her career in the television series called “The New Mickey Mouse Club” of Disney Channel from 1993 to 1994 alongside names as Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. In 1997 Britney signed a contract with the Jive label, releasing her debut album “Hit me Baby One More Time” in 1999.
The album debuts on the Billboard 200 in the first position, being sold over 30 million copies worldwide, 14 million in the US alone, becoming the best-selling album of a teenager of all times, Spears entering the Guinness Book of Records. The success continued with the release of her second album “Oops! … I Did It Again”, turning the artist into a pop icon.
Meanwhile Britney is the best-selling artist teenager of all time with over 50 million albums sold up to 20 years old, according to Guinness Book of Records, the media giving her the title of “Princess of Pop”. Britney is also the most searched person on the Internet since its appearance.