Music videos have always been part of the standard equipment of artists. Using the short video clips, a message can be transported, an aesthetics exemplified or the said song is placed in a visual context. In order to be able to realize their creative imagination, musicians or bands sometimes have to dig deep into their own pocket.
It is questionable whether several million dollars actually have to be picked up for a music video. You can find out here for what artists have spent all of the money and which musicians*in the first place in the first place of the most expensive music videos of all times so far.
10. Puff Daddy (Feat. The notorious Big & Busta Rhymes) – Victory (1998)
Cost: $ 2.7 million
Biggie was dead for a year when P. Diddy alias Sean Combs the music video for his song “Victory” feat. The Notorious Big and Busta Rhymes dropped. And no costs were spared: for the video clip, which was to be a tribute to the science fiction film “Running Man” with Arnold Schwarzenegger, a total of $ 2.7 million were spent. Sean Combs shows the almost six -minute video in the role of a nameless hunted who is pursued in 3002 by armed gestapo -like employees of “Chase TV”. His escape leads him through dark rainy roads, buildings and road sections explode, helicopters circle over him. When he is ultimately driven into the tightness on a house roof, he decides to jump – instead of delivering himself. In the supporting roles, Danny Devito as a live action reporter and Dennis Hopper act as dictator of the new world order.
9. Aqua – Cartoon Heroes (2000)
Cost: $ 3.5 million
The Danish-Norwegian pop group Aqua had created an earwig forever in 1997 with “Barbie Girl”. With her second album Aquarius, the band around singer Lene Grawford Nystrøm Rasted now followed the goal of giving her music a more serious note and moving a little from the Bubble Gum Pop, which she had known internationally. For the first single release “Cartoon Heroes”, it had to be driven properly: With a budget of $ 3.5 million, the music video shows an elaborate auxiliary campaign by the “Cartoon Heroes” through the galaxy, including gravitational floating in the spaceship and an underwater fight with a one-eyed giant roll.
8. Michael Jackson – Black Or White (1991)
Cost: $ 4 million
In the song “Black Or White”-the first single release from Michael Jackson’s album Dangerous-he put an anti-racism appeal to humanity: “I Said if you’re Thinkin ‘of Being My Brother, It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White” Sing Jackson in the Refrain. The associated video should show just like the track that all skin colors are equivalent and should be treated accordingly. This is how MJ dances here with various population groups, uses the (then) elaborate morphing effect to let faces blur and turn into a black panther at the end of the almost eleven-minute video. However, the latter sequence triggered such controversy that the scene was censored for years: for this way you can see Michael Jackson on a nightly lit street, as he dances without music, takes a step in the crotch and finally brings car and window panes. The musician should later apologize for the sexual and violent hints and say that they are an “interpretation of the animal crescent of a black panther.”
7. Guns N ‘Roses – Estranged (1993)
Cost: $ 5 million
This song on the list is a passable example of the fact that even a high budget does not have to be a promising factor directly. When the rock band Guns N ‘Roses published her power ballad “Estranged” in 1993, she had already reached world fame with songs such as “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (1992) and “November Rain” (1991). In order not to let this zenith die, the band took five million US dollars in hand to produce the almost ten-minute music video for “Estranged”-this linked live sequences of one of their concerts in the Munich Olympic stage with fictional elements. However, their plan did not quite work; Despite cost -heavy and elaborate video production, the song only landed in the charts in Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland.
6. & 5. Madonna – Express Yourself (1989) / Madonna – Bedtime Story (1995)
Cost: $ 5 million
“Pussy Rules the World”: According to Madonna, this was the topic of her music video on the hit “Express Yourself”. The video production, which was created under the direction of David Fincher (!) As expected from Madonna – triggered a scandal. Too sexy, too erotic, yes – the video, which was too expressive, was set as a tribute to Fritz Lang’s monumental film “Metropolis” (1927). The five million-expensive video clip (most of the money is said to have been used for the hand-handed creation of the metropolis city) increasingly negative reviews, but the song became a world hit.
The singer also cost the music video for Madonna’s song “Bedime Story” (in which Björk wrote!) The singer cost the same amount. In the clip of director Mark Romanek, surrealistic images combine with New Age influences, which seem to have been influenced by artists such as Remedios Varo, Frida Kahlo and Leonora Carrington.
4. Madonna – The Another Day (2002)
Cost: $ 6.1 million
It is unbelievable that the “Queen of Pop” on this list occupies three places. Also with the music video for her James Bond track “The Another Day”, an immense sum of $ 6.1 million was invested. In the clip you can see Madonna as a prisoner in a torture chamber who runs a struggle with itself: The good side of her personality is white, the evil persona is wrapped in black clothes. The Swedish director’s collective tractor, which was personally asked by Madonna, was responsible for the music video. Post production and the visual effects were carried out by the London “Moving Picture Company”, which created “invisible” effects for the combat scenes, so that the singer could play both personas of itself.
3. Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson – Scream (1995)
Cost: $ 7 million
“Scream” by Michael and Janet Jackson was in first place in the most expensive music videos of all time for more than 20 years. And no wonder: the sibling couple paid an incredible seven million US dollars to realize their cooperation. In “Scream”, the two process their anger for rumors and criticism of the scandal -loving press – it was also Michael Jackson’s first publication after his indictment for child abuse. In the music video, the siblings are located in a spaceship, which among other things they run up, meditate, dance and play tennis. As director, Mark Romanek, who also implemented Madonna’s video for “Bedime Story”.
2. Gwen Stefani – Make Me Like You (2016)
Cost: $ 12 million
The second most expensive music video of all time is also the first and only video that was filmed and broadcast live on television: to promote Gwen Stefanis single “Make Me Like You” and her associated third solo album This is what the truth Feels Like, the video for the song of the 58th annual Grammy ceremony was recorded. An act that had to be rehearsed and clocked on the millisecond, as Stefani himself told in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel. So she was still surprised that the performance would have taken place at all, she said. According to the “Los Angeles Times” and the “Music Times”, she had “worked continuously for about six days”, and daily from “7 a.m. to 3 a.m.”. In the video with numerous changes of clothing, synchronous choreographies and a roller skate insert, Sophie Muller, which was already behind the camera at the music videos for “Don’t Speak” (1996), “Cool” (2005) and “Start the Fire” (2014). Around eight million dollars were used for the purchase of broadcast time, the rest flowed into production of the $ 12 million that is said to have cost the video for “Make Me Like You”.
1.TAYLOR SWIFT – Look What You Made Me Do (2017)
Cost: $ 12 million
As a “look what you made me do” in the pop world in 2017, many had not expected Taylor Swift to see again so soon. For a year, the singer had withdrawn from the public after criticism, accusations and a public dispute with Kanye West and her old label. And “Look What You Made Me Do” was her triumphant revenge. The track was called 43.2 million times on YouTube within 24 hours – so it had set the record for most views within a day (BTS is currently holding it with her song “Dynamite”).
In the elaborately produced music video by Joseph Kahn, Swift initially rises as a zombie from a grave, sits surrounded on a throne surrounded by snakes and most recently stands on a mountain on which former personas try to climb up. The video is still considered one of the most iconic comebacks in pop music.