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I bought Sorry For Party Rockin\' and was pretty dissappointed. It wasnt as good as I expected. Oh w ...
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Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Guns N' Roses also created over-the-top clips.By Gil Kaufman
Kanye West's "Runaway"Photo: Universal/Def Jam
Kanye West is not one to aim low. The supremely self-confident rapper wasn't content to make a typical music video for his song "Runaway." No, Yeezy opted instead for a nearly 40-minute art film that puts him instantly into the realm of some of video music's biggest names, from Michael Jackson and Diddy to Lady Gaga and Guns N' Roses.
"Runaway," which will premiere on MTV and BET on Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET, tells the story of a phoenix (model Selita Ebanks) who falls to Earth and is saved by Kanye (Griffin), but later burns up after suffering the ridicule of small-minded earthlings.
The convoluted plot, the ambitious scale and eye-popping visuals were inspired by some of Jackson's most beloved work, and West has said he was aiming for the same kind of grandeur as MJ's legendary mold-breaker "Thriller." If nothing else, the "Runaway" clip is expected to take the crown as the longest music video ever released, and perhaps point the way to a new, even more cinematic future for promotional music videos.
History will decide if he hits the mark, but in the meantime, here is a select list of some of the most ambitious videos of all time:
Michael Jackson:
There's a reason Jackson is considered the greatest video artist of all time. The former child prodigy fully embraced the then-burgeoning medium in the early 1980s and went on to make some of the most iconic clips of all time. Beginning with 1983's landmark 14-minute "Thriller," Jackson gave notice that promotional clips could be more than mere ads for songs. With direction and a screenplay co-written by movie director John Landis, a chilling monster movie story, elaborate costumes and Hollywood-worthy sets, the Halloween-themed mini-movie set the bar and ended up as the first video to ever be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
But Jackson didn't stop there. He went on to release a string of equally ambitious and big-budget clips, from the racial harmony-themed "Black or White" (which employed then-new morphing technology) to the Martin Scorsese-directed "Bad," the street-gang tale "Beat It" and the most expensive video ever filmed: his space-themed duet with sister Janet, "Scream."
Guns N' Roses:
No slouches themselves, the pugnacious 1990s hard rockers released a trio of epic clips from their Use Your Illusion albums with a thematic through line. The idea was to make three short films that would end up telling one coherent story. First up, "Don't Cry," which was co-written by singer Axl Rose, was shot like a film and features clips of the band performing on a skyscraper rooftop interspersed with scenes in which a seemingly depressive Rose has a gun taken away from him by then-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour. There are other dramatic scenes in hospitals and underwater.
Next up was "November Rain," based on a short story written by band biographer Del James. Again based on a difficult relationship between Rose and a woman (this time, his ex-wife Erin Everly), the clip finds Rose composing a song for his unattainable love and proceeds to a dramatic wedding between Rose and Seymour. There's a massive rain storm, scenes of guitarist Slash playing a solo in a wheat field and shots of Seymour in a coffin.
The final film, the nine-minute "Estranged," has the band playing live on the Sunset Strip, as well as images of Rose jumping off an oil tanker into the ocean and swimming with dolphins.
Lady Gaga:
Though she's a relatively new artist, Lady Gaga has picked up the mantle of her musical godmother, Madonna, and turned the art of the music video into an event, as well as an opportunity to push the envelope when it comes to sexuality and religion.
Graduating from fairly tame dance pop efforts such as "Poker Face,"Gaga quickly upped the ante with the eight-minute clip for "Paparazzi," directed by Jonas Åkerlund (Madonna, U2). The clip stars "True Blood" vampire Alexander Skarsgård as a love interest who tosses the singer over a balcony after she becomes enraged that he summoned photographers to her mansion. It features elaborate costumes and dance sequences that would soon become Gaga's visual calling card.
From her razor-blade sunglasses to a white coffin, frantic lap dances, a polar bear jacket and a pyrotechnic bra, the "Bad Romance" clip clip raised the stakes even more. But it was just a tease for the truly over-the-top video for "Telephone." Again teaming with Åkerlund, Gaga created a nine-minute modern feminist classic that takes her from a prison dance routine featuring cigarette glasses, lesbian make-out sessions and a commissary catfight to a jailbreak with Beyoncé, a joyride in the "Kill Bill" "pu--- wagon" and the poisoning of model Tyrese Gibson in a funky coffee shop.
And there are certainly plenty of others that have reached for the too-big-to-fail mantle, from Dr. Dre and Tupac's nearly seven-minute "Mad Max"-style "California Love" to Diddy's equally lengthy "Godzilla"-stomping "Come with Me" (as well as his "Victory," "Been Around the World" and "It's All About the Benjamins" rock remix), Muse's dusty western "Knights of Cydonia," MC Hammer's super-pricey nine-minute "Too Legit To Quit" clip and Green Day's mini war movie for "Wake Me Up When September Ends."
What's your favorite epic music video? Tell us in the comments below!
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