The most expensive music videos of all time

Big budgets and bigger egos

James Moore

15:44 22nd July 2015

Music videos can be both a gift and a curse, rocketing a great song into even higher acclaim, or bringing a decent track crashing back down to earth.

Either way, the music industry has spent a ridiculous amount of money over the years in an effort to turn various songs into unstoppable, monster hits.

Click ahead for our countdown of the 16 most expensive music videos of all time, featuring ridiculous settings, unexplained explosions and some special effects that unfortunately haven't quite stood the test of time. Brace yourself for very strange visuals and some truly mind boggling numbers...

16. Missy Elliot -'She's A Bitch': Directed by Hype Williams, this dystopian nightmare for Missy%u2019s monster track features her in various outlandish outfits and had a budget of $2,000,000.
15. Madonna -'Bedtime Story': Shot on 35mm film and directed by Mark Romanek, the video features the queen of pop%u2019s head superimposed in various floating boxes inside a bizarre temple. Production wise, the song has stood the test of time as well. It had a budget of $2,000,000.
14. Michael Jackson -'Remember The Time': Directed by Boyz n the Hood%u2019s John Singleton, the video was promoted as a short film and brilliantly featured Eddie Murphy as an angry Pharaoh. It cost $2,000,000 to make.
13. Madonna -'Express Yourself': Undertaken by the legendary David Fincher, the video features a surprisingly raunchy scene between Madonna and an unnamed gentleman. The video cost $2,000,000.
12. Backstreet Boys - 'Larger Than Life': Director Joseph Kahn's latest credit is an episode of 'Power Rangers', so not a lot has really changed here. With a budget of 2,100,000, it's pretty terrible. A highlight shows the group gliding through space on bright yellow surfboards. Yeah.
11. Michael Jackson -'Bad': Directed by Martin Scorsese and clearly inspired by West Side Story, this has the auteur%u2019s fingerprints all over it. The visuals for this perfect pop song boast sharp cuts, great tracking shots and killer choreography. The shoot cost $2,200,000.
10. Celine Dion - 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now': Directed by Nigel Dick and featuring a lightning storm, various explosions and an unexplained ghost, this incredibly over the top video had a budget of $2,300,000. Has it come back to you yet?
9. Busta Rhymes and Janet Jackson-'What’s It Gonna Be!?': Directed by Hype Williams, the video had a budget of $2,400,000 and features the two dressed in futuristic armour throwing various innuendos at each other. Quite a strange one.
8. Janet Jackson - 'Doesn%u2019t Really Matter': Directed by Jospeh Kahn with a budget of 2,500,000, Janet Jackson dances her way through a mixture of anime and futuristic worlds in this song for 'The Nutty Professor 2'. How this concept has anything to do with the Eddie Murphy comedy is completely beyond us.
7. Mariah Carey featuring Jay Z -'Heartbreaker': Directed by Rush Hour%u2019s Brett Ratner, this girl power fuelled video features Mariah Carey brawling with herself (kung-fu style) in a cinema bathroom. A fan favourite, it cost a silly $2,500,000 to make.
6. MC Hammer -'2 Legit to Quit': Director Rupert Wainwright's %u2019The Fog features in Rotten Tomatoes' worst movies of the 2000%u2019s list. His video for MC Hammer%u2019s number 1 single features frenetic cuts, audacious dance moves and swarms of insane crowds. It cost $2,500,000 to produce.
5. Puff Daddy featuring Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes -'Victory': Featuring cameos from Dennis Hopper and Danny Devito, Puffy plays something of a messiah in this gloriously over the top battle between the rapper and some New World Order thugs. The shoot cost a crazy $2,700,000.
4. Guns N' Roses - 'Estranged': Directed by Andy Morahan, the video combines live concert footage with clips of Axl Rose evading a menacing SWAT team, all before Slash emerges from the ocean and shreds the life out of us. The video cost $4,000,000. It makes no sense, but do we care?
3. Michael Jackson featuring L.T.B. - 'Black or White': Director John Landis was also responsible for Jackson's 'Thriller', and here he delivers another stone cold classic. In the space of a few minutes, we move from Suburban America to the Planes of Africa, before watching a star studded cast morph into each other in a wonderful finale. The shoot cost a staggering $4,000,000.
2. Madonna - 'Die Another Day': Directed by the anonymous Traktor, this video for the Brosnan Bond flop (invisible cars, really?) features an incredibly over dramatic Madonna fighting it out with various villains. Off putting, dark and grey, the video perfectly matches the awful electronic inspired track. $6,100,000 well wasted then.
1. Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson - 'Scream': Directed by Mark Romanek again, the video was created as the King of pop's angry retaliation towards an invasive media in 1994, costing a bewildering $7,000,000 to shoot. It features the siblings floating around in a space shuttle, smashing objects in anger and generally being as angsty as humanly possible.