Earlier today, I happened upon the fun blog, Oh No They Didn’t,and found an article featuring the most expensive music videos of all time. The list of the 20 biggest bank breakers including clips by the expected video king and queen, Michael Jackson and Madonna. But interestingly, it also featured clips from Celine Dion and some Japanese pop star named Ayumi Hamasaki. Take a look at the list below and see if you’re surprised by some of the clips. And note the most recent American song on the list is Madonna’s “Die Another Day” from 2003. As we all know music videos are primarily showcased on the web these days as the music biz has been hovering in the toilet of late. So, instead of these awesome art pieces, we mainly get cheap CGI clips or performance clips. I sure do miss the days of waiting for important video premieres on MTV’s Making the Video. Alas, at least we can reminisce on youtube….
The most expensive music videos of all time…
1. “Scream”- Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson (1995) $ 7million
2. “Die Another Day”- Madonna (2002), $6.2 million
3. “Express Yourself”- Madonna (1989) $ 5 million
4. “Bedtime Story”- Madonna (1995) $5 million
5. “Estranged”- Guns n’ Roses (1993) $4 million
6. “Victory”- Puff Daddy w/Notorious B.I.G. & Busta Rhymes (1998), $ 2.7 million
7. “2 Legit 2 Quit”- M.C. Hammer (1992), $2.5 million
8. “Heartbreaker”- Mariah Carey w/ Jay Z (1999), $2.5 million
9. “What’s It Gonna Be?”- Busta Rhymes w/ Janet Jackson (1999), $ 2.4 million
10. “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”- Celine Dion (1996) $2.3 million
11. “Bad”- Michael Jackson (1987), $ 2.2 million
12. “Larger Than Life”- Backstreet Boys (1999), $ 2.1 million
13. “Miami”- Will Smith (1998), $ 2 million
14. “She’s a Bitch”- Missy Elliott (1999), $ 2 million
15. “Freek”- George Michael (2004), $ 2 million
16. “My Name’s Woman”- Ayumi Hamasaki (2005), $ 2 million
17. “Fairyland”- Ayumi Hamasaki (2005), $ 2 million
18. “Green”- Ayumi Hamasaki (2008), $ 1.6 million
19. “Unpretty”- TLC (1999), $ 1.6 million
20. “Black or White”- Michael Jackson (1991), $ 1.5 million
Ok, America, what is your problem? Year after year, you pick the wrong winner for American Idol!I mean Lee over Crystal? Kris over Adam? Taylor over Katharine? Ugh… And now Scotty McCreery wins over Lauren Alaina. Now, at least it’s not as atrocious a result as those other seasons, but it’s still disappointing. Lauren is clearly the better and more talented singer while Scotty is a serviceable singer and decent entertainer. Of course, Scotty is apparently a teen idol that the girls love. Not to mention, the churchgoers, the Southerners and the conservative power voters of America…. To think, they probably all liked Lauren too, but still another boring boy wins in the end is frustrating indeed. At least, both Scotty and Lauren look as though they will have successful careers and both of their coronation singles are at the top of the iTunes charts… Of course, will they reach superstar Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood levels? That remains to be seen, but it’s doubtful. I’m certainly more interested in seeing the career trajectory of the massively talented ninth place finisher Pia Toscano (yes that was the biggest “shocker boot” of the season Idol fans) and the darkhorse of all darkhorses who won me over and proved the most interesting and daring of all the contenders, Haley Reinhart. I do expect both of them to release singles asap (and they will according to the interwebs buzz)…. Until those two and our country kids release their albums, we can take comfort in the fact that at least Idol got its groove back this season with great singers and two good and entertaining new judges. (Simon who?) … So, for the last time this season, it’s time to do some rankings. This time, I’m gonna count down the best and worst of last night’s performances on the season 10 finale of American Idol.
Ranking the American Idol Season finale performances… 1. Beyonce- “One Plus One”: holy crap, THAT is singing people. The diva needs her stage baby and Ms. B owned the Nokia last night. Fantastic. Grade: A+ 2. Lady Gaga- “The Edge of Glory”: with her triumphant current 80′s dance smash “Glory”, Gaga gave you performance art, sexy dancing (with the amazing Mark from season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance), wonderful vocals and a daring leap off a “cliff” at the end. Simply great. Grade: A 3. Steven Tyler- “Dream On”: um, how old is he and how on Earth does he still hit those notes? Now, that’s how you rock future Idol contenders! I just wish the song had been longer. Grade: A 4. Lauren & Carrie Underwood- “Before He Cheats”: the dueling ladies powered through Underwood’s smash with fun and finesse and wow was Carrie gorgeous. She did kinda wipe the floor with Lauren a bit though… Carrie: A+, Lauren: B, Overall: A- 5. James Durbin & Judas Priest- “Living After Midnight/Breaking the Law“: despite wearing the gayest outfit ever, James rocked the crap out of the Priest hits alongside the iconic metal band. I didn’t think I’d like it, but damn, it was good. Grade: A- 6. The Idol Girls & Beyonce- ”Beyonce Hit Medley”: if it was just Beyonce, this would’ve ranked higher. However, it was still a strong medley featuring standout performances from Pia, Haley and surprisingly Karen. And I have to say practically all these ladies were good dancers too. And then, Beyonce just murdered “Crazy in Love” at the end of course. Grade: B+ 7. Haley & Tony Bennett- ”Steppin Out”: This would’ve ranked higher too if not for a few flubs on Bennett’s part because Haley was astounding on the number. However, you have to give Bennett credit. He’s literally like 85 years old! Well done and they had surprising chemistry. Grade: B 8. Scotty & Tim McGraw- “Live Like You Were Dying”: in a well matched duet, both men sounded good and gave each other mad respect. Strong song choice too. Grade: B 9. Marc Anthony w/Jennifer Lopez- ”Aguanile”: sure I didn’t understand a word Anthony was singing and his creepy facial expressions were unappealing, but damn if he isn’t a fantastic singer. Plus, J Lo werrrrrrrrrrrrrrked it with the booty shaking. Grade: B 10. The Idol Top 13 finalists- “Born This Way”: I was prepared to cringe with this one, but the finalists shocked me into happy Glee-type submission with their performance of Lady Gaga’s empowering # 1 smash. Standouts were Stefano and Haley and hello,, this was the best dancing by any top 13 in the history of the show. Grade: B 11. Reeve Carney, Bono & The Edge- “Rise Above”: sure the vocals and the passion were there. Plus there were cool Spidermen flying around during this song from the troubled U2 Broadway musical Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. Unfortunately, the song and the performance were rather snoozey. Grade: B- 12. Scotty- “I Love You This Big”: reprising his coronations song with confetti flying and tears flowing, Scotty gave an emotional and appropriate performance. However, the song is really trite and boring. But I loved all the family hugs and then Scotty dissing Jack Black (unintentionally that is) was hilarious. Grade: B- 13. Jacob Lusk, Kirk Franklin & Gladys Knight- “I Smile”: taking us to church for one last time, Jacob got his gospel on with some music legends. It was a high energy entertaining performance, but Jacob was pitchy and inconsistent. Plus you could barely hear Gladys and Franklin was just running around yelling at everyone. Grade: C+ 14. TLC, Lil Jon & the female finalists- “No Scrubs/Waterfalls“: it was great to see TLC back on stage again, but the Idols and Lil Jon added nothing to the songs and it was a little low energy. Grade: C 15. Casey Abrams & Jack Black- “Fat Bottomed Girls”: um, it was fun? … But it was a bit of a mess and Jack Black sounded better than Casey. Oops. Grade: C- 16. The Idol Male Finalists & Tom Jones- “Tom Jones Medley”: an utter and complete disaster for the most part. Grade:D+
So, there you have it. One last Idol ranking session… And there are no predictions to make… Ok, here’s one: Scotty and Lauren will have success, but nowhere near the success of Beyonce. And why do I bring her up again? … Well, let’s be honest, she stole the show last night.. So, before I go and you give me your thoughts on last night’s finale, take one final look at B’s performance of her new single “One plus One” below.
Earlier today, I happened upon the fun blog, Oh No They Didn’t, and found an article featuring the most expensive music videos of all time. The list of the 20 biggest bank breakers including clips by the expected video king and queen, Michael Jackson and Madonna. But interestingly, it also featured clips from Celine Dion and some Japanese pop star named Ayumi Hamasaki. Take a look at the list below and see if you’re surprised by some of the clips. And note the most recent American song on the list is Madonna’s “Die Another Day” from 2003. As we all know music videos are primarily showcased on the web these days as the music biz has been hovering in the toilet of late. So, instead of these awesome art pieces, we mainly get cheap CGI clips or performance clips. I sure do miss the days of waiting for important video premieres on MTV’s Making the Video. Alas, at least we can reminisce on youtube….
