The budget of M's music videos

[captainjay 1,184]

2 hours ago, kesiak said:

I've read that too but literally every source cites $5 million for Express Yourself so who knows? :
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2014/08/24/the-top-5-most-expensive-music-videos-of-all-time/?sh=e5522e71ca52

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/strike-a-pose-madonnas-20-greatest-videos-16146/1-express-yourself-1989-45349/

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/madonna-bond-michael-jackson-space-2659903

Totally. And one of the articles you linked to mentioned they adjusted for inflation, so it's very likely that the $2 million she spent in 1989 is adjusted to closer to $5 million now (or 2013/14 when they did it). 

If they're all adjusted - and on the same playing field, then wow that's a lot of $$ but worth every penny, right? No artist would have the support or their own $$ to contribute like she did to get ground breaking videos now.

The last two videos that impressed me, one was Missy Elliot, Throw It Back. And one was Beyonce & Jay-Z, Ape Shit.

Not necessarily ground breaking, but the style and direction are incredible.

[brank000 1,083]

On 1/2/2021 at 8:58 AM, GhostOrchid said:

True. However the Rescue Me single was not initially planned as part of promotion for the IC album so there was no budget allocated to making the video.

And that's why the official music video is Ciao Italia clips with Burning Up clips for good measure 

[Blue Jean 3,058]

Mary Lambert said in an interview they were given $35,000 for Borderline

[GhostOrchid 153]

20 hours ago, captainjay said:

They talk about the costs in an old Icon issue, in 93. 

I'm going from memory - but I believe Rain was like $800,000 and Fever was $400,000. 

If anyone has the 1993 Icon issues handy (mine are packed away) you can reference them to find out the budget for a few of the videos.

Express Yourself was about a million and Bedtime Story was $2 million. I think MJ then did SCREAM and it was $5 million. 

Ray Of Light was like $100K from memory.

Great, thanks for the Rain, Fever and ROL info

[GhostOrchid 153]

2 hours ago, brank000 said:

And that's why the official music video is Ciao Italia clips with Burning Up clips for good measure 

LOL, vh-1 did that (i think), don't know wtf were they thinking. Warner had nothing to do with the montage.

I assume they had no rights to do a Blond Ambition montage. Could have just aired black screen, would certainly look better than that mess of a video