50 Fun Facts About Music Video

Which song's video was the first ever played on MTV when the channel launched in 1981?

Video Killed the Radio Star was an odd choice of opener: the Buggles single dated from 1979 and had only reached number 40 in the US, where few people knew the band.

Who directed Michael Jackson's 1983 'Thriller' video?

John Landis got the call after Jackson saw his horror comedy An American Werewolf in London. By the director's account, the singer wanted to turn into a monster himself.

In 2009, 'Thriller' became the first music video added to which American archive?

The National Film Registry is the Library of Congress's list of films to preserve. Its coordinator said the time was right for Thriller after Jackson's death earlier that year.

The pencil-sketch animation in a-ha's 'Take On Me' video was created using which technique?

Rotoscoping means tracing over live footage frame by frame. An earlier version of the song had flopped in Britain; with this video it reached number one in the US.

Which video won nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, still the most for a single clip as of 2025?

Sledgehammer was shot one frame at a time, and Peter Gabriel spent 16 hours lying under a sheet of glass for a single sequence.

Which studio worked on the stop-motion sequences in Peter Gabriel's most famous video?

Aardman Animations gave the scene of dancing oven-ready chickens to animator Nick Park, later famous for Wallace and Gromit.

Queen's 1975 'Bohemian Rhapsody' promo video let the band appear on which TV show without playing live?

Top of the Pops had acts mime in the studio, and the band thought so complex a song would look wrong mimed. The film was shown in their place.

Which video was the first on YouTube to reach one billion views, in December 2012?

Gangnam Style later ran past 2,147,483,647 views, the most YouTube's counter could hold, and the site had to rebuild the counter to keep up.

Which video overtook 'Despacito' in November 2020 to become the most-viewed on YouTube?

Baby Shark Dance is a South Korean company's take on a song no one can claim: it had been a children's singalong for decades, and its original writer is unknown.

The 'Despacito' video was filmed in the La Perla neighborhood of which city?

Old San Juan felt the effect: as tourist interest in Puerto Rico rose, tour operators added La Perla and the bar La Factoría, also seen in the video, to their routes.

Which Guns N' Roses wedding epic was the first video made before YouTube existed to pass a billion views there?

November Rain spared little expense: for Slash's guitar solo outside a lonely chapel, the band had a church building transported to New Mexico just for the shoot.

Guinness World Records listed which 1995 video, costing $7 million, as the most expensive ever made?

Scream by Michael and Janet Jackson got the listing, but its director Mark Romanek says Guinness was wrong: two other videos of the era, he says, cost millions more.

Which Lady Gaga video won seven MTV Video Music Awards in 2010, including Video of the Year?

Bad Romance took Video of the Year, and Gaga went up to collect that trophy in a dress made of raw beef. Its director, Francis Lawrence, went on to make the Hunger Games sequels.

Beyoncé's 'Single Ladies' choreography was inspired by a 1969 routine by which choreographer?

Bob Fosse devised the number, 'Mexican Breakfast', for his wife Gwen Verdon. Beyoncé said she kept much of his choreography and added J-Setting, a lead-and-follow style from the American South.

Whose 2009 VMAs acceptance speech did Kanye West interrupt to praise 'Single Ladies'?

Taylor Swift got her moment back later that night: when Beyoncé won Video of the Year for the same clip, she called Swift up on stage to finish her speech.

Which actor dances through an empty hotel lobby in Fatboy Slim's 'Weapon of Choice' video?

Christopher Walken, famous for menacing film roles, trained as a dancer in his youth, long before his film career began.

OK Go's 'Here It Goes Again' video, which won a Grammy in 2007, features the band dancing on what?

Treadmills carried a routine choreographed by the lead singer's sister, Trish Sie, and filmed in a single unbroken take.

Johnny Cash's acclaimed late-career video 'Hurt' was a cover of a song originally by which band?

Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor thought the idea sounded gimmicky until a tape of the video arrived. Moved by it, he said the song wasn't his anymore.

Which poet helped write the cue cards Dylan flips in the 1965 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' clip?

Allen Ginsberg is in the clip too, standing at the edge of the frame deep in conversation while Dylan drops the cards. Donovan helped letter them as well.

The MTV Video Music Award statuette depicts what?

An astronaut on the Moon was MTV's own first image: the channel signed on in 1981 with Apollo 11 footage and its logo on the flag. Long nicknamed the Moonman, the trophy has been the Moon Person since 2017.

At the first VMAs in 1984, Madonna performed 'Like a Virgin' wearing what?

A wedding gown and 'Boy Toy' belt it was. In 2003 MTV opened its 20th awards by restaging the moment: two younger pop stars climbed out of a wedding cake singing the song, and Madonna herself followed.

Weezer's 'Buddy Holly' video splices the band into footage from which sitcom?

Happy Days supplied Arnold's Drive-In, where the band seems to be playing. Microsoft then put the clip on the Windows 95 CD-ROM as a bonus file, and the song's popularity took off.

Where did Childish Gambino debut 'This Is America'?

Saturday Night Live had him as both host and musical guest that night, and the video went online as he performed. Directed by Hiro Murai of his series Atlanta, it won the Grammy for Best Music Video.

Which Dire Straits video, an early use of computer-animated humans, was MTV Europe's first in 1987?

Money for Nothing began as a real gripe: Mark Knopfler overheard workers in a New York appliance store grumbling about the rock stars on MTV, and built the lyrics from what they said.

Which future Hollywood director shot Madonna's black-and-white 'Vogue' video?

David Fincher drew its look from the star portraits of classic Hollywood. He went on to direct Seven and Fight Club.

Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' video is set at what kind of event?

A high school pep rally, and the riot at the end was real: extras kept sitting on the bleachers all day were finally let down to mosh, and they smashed up the set.

Which actress starred in three Aerosmith videos in a row in the 1990s, beginning with 'Cryin''?

Alicia Silverstone was 16 when the first one was filmed. Director Amy Heckerling saw her in the videos and cast her as Cher in Clueless.

Which 2013 Miley Cyrus video drew a record 19.3 million first-day Vevo views?

Wrecking Ball's tearful close-ups were modelled on Sinéad O'Connor's 'Nothing Compares 2 U' video. O'Connor answered with an open letter warning Cyrus about the music business.

Which comedian plays the sheriff chasing Lil Nas X on horseback at the start of the 'Old Town Road' video?

Chris Rock's sheriff chases the outlaws through 1889. The song's first video had no cast at all: it was cut entirely from footage of the game Red Dead Redemption 2.

Beyoncé's 'Formation' video opens with her crouched on a police car sinking into floodwater in which city?

New Orleans is the setting, and the sinking police car recalls the floods of Hurricane Katrina. She sang the song at the Super Bowl a day after the video appeared.

Which pop star insisted that her debut video be set in a high school, to reflect the lives of her fans?

Britney Spears also asked for the schoolgirl outfit in '...Baby One More Time' herself. Its director says every piece of wardrobe came from Kmart and none cost more than $17.

In Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' video, Beyoncé and Gaga drive off in a truck borrowed from which film?

Kill Bill: Volume 1 lent the real thing. Gaga says she described the video to Quentin Tarantino over lunch, and he told her she had to use the truck from his film.

Kanye West's 'Runaway' is the centerpiece of a short film about his romance with what mythical creature?

A phoenix falls to Earth and he makes her his girlfriend, as West summed it up; shunned by his world, she finally burns herself to go home. He has called the story a parallel to his own career.

Which Oscar-winning director made the 18-minute short film for Michael Jackson's 'Bad'?

Martin Scorsese cast a then little-known Wesley Snipes as the gang leader. Jackson later lent 'Weird Al' Yankovic his subway set to film the parody 'Fat'.

Which child star appears in the opening scene of Michael Jackson's 'Black or White' video?

Macaulay Culkin returns later in the video to lip-sync the song's rap, which was really performed by the record's producer.

Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation' video was shot in black and white to reflect what theme?

Racial harmony was the point: with dancers of many races on screen, Jackson said, black-and-white film put everyone in the same shades of grey, with no colour lines.

Which band's video for 'Just' follows a man lying on the pavement who refuses to tell a growing crowd why?

Radiohead play in a flat above the street while the crowd begs him to explain. When he finally does, the subtitles cut out, and everyone who hears him lies down too.

Which Fatboy Slim video shows a fake amateur dance troupe performing outside a cinema, shot without permission for about $800?

Praise You has its director, Spike Jonze, leading the troupe in disguise under a false name. The cinema employee who switches off their stereo mid-routine was not part of the plan.

Björk's 'All Is Full of Love' video, directed by Chris Cunningham, depicts her as what?

A robot was home ground for director Chris Cunningham, who had been fixated on robots since his teens. In the clip she is assembled by machines, then kisses a second robot.

Which band's guitarist, a former Hollywood effects artist, designed the stop-motion figures for its 'Sober' video?

Tool's Adam Jones had worked on films such as Jurassic Park before the band took off. His figures owed so much to the animators the Brothers Quay that Kurt Cobain publicly called it out.

Which Daft Punk video gives each instrument its own group of dancers?

Around the World's director, Michel Gondry, pictured the bassline as someone going up and down stairs, so he built stairs for the dancers who follow it. He later made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

In which Jamiroquai video do moving walls make the floor seem to slide?

Virtual Insanity, directed by Jonathan Glazer, won Video of the Year at the 1997 VMAs. There the band restaged the trick the honest way, with Jay Kay dancing on two real moving walkways.

The Genesis video for 'Land of Confusion' used puppets from which British satirical TV show?

Spitting Image had already mocked Phil Collins with a puppet of his own, and that sketch prompted the video. New and unflattering puppets of the whole band were then built for it.

Which Spice Girls video plays as one unbroken shot of the group running riot through a grand London hotel?

Wannabe, filmed in the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras, only looks like one take: the finished video hides a cut or two. On the cable channel The Box it became the most popular clip before the single was even released.

Adele's 'Hello' video, directed by Xavier Dolan, was the first music video shot partly in what format?

IMAX cameras were used for a few shots, including her eyes opening at the start. Viewers fixed on her flip phone instead, which director Xavier Dolan said was a deliberate choice of look.

Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda' heavily samples which 1992 hit?

Baby Got Back supplies the title too: the sampled line is Sir Mix-a-Lot's boast about his 'anaconda'. Minaj retold the song from the woman's side, and he declared himself a fan.

Which Queen video shows the band in drag, spoofing a long-running British soap opera?

I Want to Break Free spoofs the soap Coronation Street, with Freddie Mercury as a housewife pushing a vacuum cleaner. The idea was not his: the drummer's girlfriend suggested it.

In 1966 the Beatles filmed colour clips of 'Paperback Writer' and 'Rain' to send to which American TV host's show?

Ed Sullivan showed the film that June, with the band on screen instead of in his studio. The clips let them promote a single without doing the rounds of TV shows, and are often counted among the first music videos.

What did Michael Jackson's team sell to MTV and Showtime to pay for the costly 'Thriller' video?

A making-of documentary was the workaround. MTV made a point of never paying for videos, so it paid for the documentary instead, as Showtime did, and that money made the film.

Which David Bowie video, with the singer as a Pierrot clown on a beach, was the costliest yet made in 1980?

Ashes to Ashes has robed figures who seem to bow as they walk ahead of a bulldozer. Steve Strange, who played one, said they were tugging their gowns clear of the machine.