Top 5 Most Expensive Music Videos Ever Made

Unfortunately, music videos are basically dead and buried thanks to the internet. For a while, music videos were the best way to get a song popular nationwide, thus many artists used them to their advantage. There were two artists in particular that really went all out when making their music videos, Michael Jackson and Madonna. Between the King and Queen of Pop, they account for the five most expensive music videos of all-time. These videos were also made back in the golden age of MTV, before they started airing junk TV like Teen Mom and Jersey Shore. The top five videos cost a total of $42.6 million when adjusted for inflation (unlike minimum wage).

So which music videos topped the list as the most expensive of all-time? You will likely remember all of these smash hits, but the top one may surprise you a little bit. Here are the five biggest music video budgets ever.

#5 – Michael Jackson “Black or White” ($6.9 Million)

The “Black or White” video was more like a mini-movie. If you can remember it, it starred Macaulay Culkin fresh off of his role from the iconic Christmas movie “Home Alone”. The music video went in about 100 different directions, and was one of the biggest debuts in music video history. Millions of people watched the premiere on MTV and were probably very confused.

The highlights of the “Black or White” video include people of different races transforming into other races (like a fat Asian guy turning into a black woman). The video concludes with Michael Jackson beating the heck out of a car with a baseball bat for some reason, then changing into a cougar. The video for “Black or White” was supposed to promote equality, but the message that everyone got was that you can be mad enough to destroy someone’s car and transform into a jungle cat.

#4 – Madonna “Bedtime Story” ($7.7 Million)

The 1990’s were a weird time because everyone thought that they were way more artistic than they actually were. Music videos were no exception as “Bedtime Story” by Madonna was a tribute to surrealism art that the common man didn’t understand, or like, that much.

The massively expensive music video was directed by Mark Romanek, who has a penchant for the bizarre on his own. Romanek was the one responsible for directing the Robin Williams movie “One Hour Photo”. On the other hand, he also directed the “Shake it Off” video by Taylor Swift to keep us all guessing. We’re not sure how you can go from directing a movie about a serial killer film developer to a video where Taylor Swift dances awkwardly, but it’s a well paying career path. “Bedtime Story” wasn’t a huge hit for Madonna, but she’s not done on this list, so don’t worry.

#3 – Madonna “Die Another Day” ($7.9 Million)

“James Bond” movies always carry a huge budget, which finally transferred over into the music video world in 2002, when Madonna was in charge of the titular track. The producers of the movie really wanted a big star to hammer down the fact that they were blowing money left and right on the film, so they hired Madonna.

A lot of the money was spent on computer graphics that would probably cost around $200 these days for a poor college graduate, but at the time it was very expensive. They also spent a lot of money on Madonna basically just thrusting her hips onto the ground. Could there have been a much better use for nearly $8 million? Probably!

#2 – Madonna “Express Yourself” ($9.4 Million)

One last Madonna song, and then we are done with her for this list. The album “Like a Prayer” and the corresponding music video made Madonna a star across the world. Despite the fact that she’s from Michigan, she would like people to think she’s from England, and this video was the start of that nonsense.

Instead of using an actual city that has skyscrapers, the video featured a computer generated city with skyscrapers. It seems like a big waste of money, but the video was massively popular. It was a throwback and homage to the movie “Metropolis” which came out in 1927 (and was seen by every film major in college history). In the end, the video really promoted being individualistic, which is not harmful, but a very expensive message.

#1 – Michael & Janet Jackson “Scream” ($10.7 Million)

On his own, Michael Jackson had about 100 hit songs, and Janet Jackson had about two dozen herself. When the two combined for the song “Scream”, it didn’t achieve the maximum popularity that they were really hoping for. At the end of 1995, “Scream” only charted as the 56th most popular song of the year.

The video for “Scream” takes place in outer space, which makes sense because the Jackson’s didn’t seem like they were from Earth in the first place. There was a huge scene in the video where Janet and Michael are playing an intergalactic game of ping pong where things start to explode. It’s a cool idea, but it was hardly worth the money. It didn’t matter though since Janet and Michael were already worth millions on their own. It was more of a passion project. The end result was the most expensive music video ever made, which is quite the accomplishment.

#4 – Madonna “Bedtime Story” ($7.7 Million)

The 1990’s were a weird time because everyone thought that they were way more artistic than they actually were. Music videos were no exception as “Bedtime Story” by Madonna was a tribute to surrealism art that the common man didn’t understand, or like, that much.

The massively expensive music video was directed by Mark Romanek, who has a penchant for the bizarre on his own. Romanek was the one responsible for directing the Robin Williams movie “One Hour Photo”. On the other hand, he also directed the “Shake it Off” video by Taylor Swift to keep us all guessing. We’re not sure how you can go from directing a movie about a serial killer film developer to a video where Taylor Swift dances awkwardly, but it’s a well paying career path. “Bedtime Story” wasn’t a huge hit for Madonna, but she’s not done on this list, so don’t worry.

#3 – Madonna “Die Another Day” ($7.9 Million)

“James Bond” movies always carry a huge budget, which finally transferred over into the music video world in 2002, when Madonna was in charge of the titular track. The producers of the movie really wanted a big star to hammer down the fact that they were blowing money left and right on the film, so they hired Madonna.

A lot of the money was spent on computer graphics that would probably cost around $200 these days for a poor college graduate, but at the time it was very expensive. They also spent a lot of money on Madonna basically just thrusting her hips onto the ground. Could there have been a much better use for nearly $8 million? Probably!

#2 – Madonna “Express Yourself” ($9.4 Million)

One last Madonna song, and then we are done with her for this list. The album “Like a Prayer” and the corresponding music video made Madonna a star across the world. Despite the fact that she’s from Michigan, she would like people to think she’s from England, and this video was the start of that nonsense.

Instead of using an actual city that has skyscrapers, the video featured a computer generated city with skyscrapers. It seems like a big waste of money, but the video was massively popular. It was a throwback and homage to the movie “Metropolis” which came out in 1927 (and was seen by every film major in college history). In the end, the video really promoted being individualistic, which is not harmful, but a very expensive message.

#1 – Michael & Janet Jackson “Scream” ($10.7 Million)

On his own, Michael Jackson had about 100 hit songs, and Janet Jackson had about two dozen herself. When the two combined for the song “Scream”, it didn’t achieve the maximum popularity that they were really hoping for. At the end of 1995, “Scream” only charted as the 56th most popular song of the year.

The video for “Scream” takes place in outer space, which makes sense because the Jackson’s didn’t seem like they were from Earth in the first place. There was a huge scene in the video where Janet and Michael are playing an intergalactic game of ping pong where things start to explode. It’s a cool idea, but it was hardly worth the money. It didn’t matter though since Janet and Michael were already worth millions on their own. It was more of a passion project. The end result was the most expensive music video ever made, which is quite the accomplishment.