35 Facts About Pop Music and Classic Music Videos That Will Make MTV Hang Its Head in Shame

How could you, MTV? How could you?
35 Facts About Pop Music and Classic Music Videos That Will Make MTV Hang Its Head in Shame
Add Cracked to Google

Through the decades of pop music, we’ve seen and heard all kinds of wild stuff. The spectrum from godawful to sheer brilliance is wide, and it encompasses countless musical entries. Why, as we speak, there are several professional and wannabe musicians creating tunes from their home studios. 

Will they be good? Will they be brutal? Only time will tell. It feels a tad safer in the random-music-fact world. We don’t have to worry about being on time or on key, we just care that the facts are true. And when it comes to the truth, we’re pitch perfect!

The Beatles

Iconic by random chance The feedback in The Beatles' I Feel Fine John Lennon accidentally created a feedback sound when he leaned his electric-acoustic guitar against Paul McCartney's bass amp. They decided to keep it in for the song. CRACKED

Joan Jett

CRACKED.GOM A girl can do what she wants to do And that's what I'm gonna do Joan Jett's BAD REPUTATION isn't simply an anthem for outcasts. It's about sexism in rock 'n' roll. Jett had been rejected by 23 record labels - according to her, due to her reputation as a former member of an all-female band.

Wizard Rock

CRACKED.COM The Harry Potter franchise is so popular it inspired a whole new genre of music called wizard rock. For starters, rock bands are named after Harry Potter characters or things like The Moaning Myrtles and they mostly make songs about all things relevant to the Harry Potter universe.

Women in Hip Hop

SALT-N-PEPA & QUEEN LATIFAH CRACKED.COM Salt-N-Pepa's 1987 debut album Hot, Cool & Vicious became the first rap album by female act to go gold and platinum. In 1995, Salt-N-Pepa won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Group, and Queen Latifah won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, both becoming the first female hip hop acts to win Grammy Awards.

The Boss

CRACKED Bruce Springsteen roasts Bob Dylan - Rock & Roll HoF While inducting Dylan into the Rock & Roll HoF, Springsteen said he first heard Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone in the car with his mother: She liked the music. She sat there for a minute, looked at me and said, 'That guy can't sing. 1988

Pat Smear

Pat Smear is punk rock royalty. CRACKED.COM Smear was a founding member of the legendary Los Angeles punk band Germs, which also featured Go Go's frontwoman Belinda Carlisle.

Metallica

Metallica gladly welcomed a new member of a different species, the Macrostylis metallicola, into their rock 'n' roll family. MACROSTYLIS METALLICOLA The band told the world (via Instagram) about the blind, colorless crustacean species and its dark habitat of metallic nodules. They also didn't fail to mention that the scientist who discovered it has been a fan since childhood. CRACKED.COM

Motorhead

MOTORHEAD MEANS SPEED FREAK. Ball August DOIRS Motorhead's founder, Lemmy, said that his aim was for the group to be the dirtiest rock 'n' roll band in the world. And, if Motorhead moved in next to you, your lawn would die. In Britain, motor-head is actually the equivalent to the American term speed freak, which doesn't refer to the kind of speed that comes from a motor vehicle. It's slang for amphetamines. CRACKED.COM Simon Reynolds, 1995. The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll.

Huey Lewis

Huey Lewis wishes he'd sold out CRACKED.COM After Michael Jackson's landmark Pepsi deal, Coke wanted to throw a few million dollars at Huey to use The Heart of Rock & Roll. Не turned them down, a move he now calls stupid.

Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne has teamed with Rock and Roll Beauty to launch his own collection of beauty products. CRACKED.COM The man knows about wearing dra- matic eye shadow, and testing poten- tially hazardous chemicals on himself.

J. Lo

Jennifer Lopez was a back-up dancer for Janet Jackson She also danced back-up for New Kids on the Block before she was famous. CRACKED.COM

Lil Bow Wow

Lil' Bow Wow got his name from Dr. Dre Не makes an apperance in Snoop Dogg's Gin and Juice music video. CRACKED.COM

Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson tried to be a Christian singer ESSICA SIMPSON Christian labels said she was too pretty. CRACKED.COM

Paramore

Paramore was an original member's mother's maiden name. When they learned the meaning of paramour, they took on the name, using the spelling of the maiden name. CRACKED.COM

Bad

Bad was originally going to be a collaboration between Michael Jackson and Prince. Producer Quincy Jones says it was his idea to put the two rivals together, and turn that antagonistic energy into pop gold. Apparently it was a hard pass, for Prince. CRACKED.COM

Hip-Hop History

The 1977 NYC blackout was great for hip hop. CRACKED.COM During 25 hours of chaos, lots of DJ equipment was stolen, and either kept for personal use or sold on the black market. As a result, aspiring hip hop artists suddenly had the hardware to pursue their dreams, and the genre exploded from its native Bronx.

Grandmaster Flash

Hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash loves collecting souvenir mugs from his travels. His collection CRACKED.COM G consists of between 5,000 and 7,000 mugs. USA BEST. DJ. EVER.

The Wu-Tang Clan

THE WU-TANG CLAN CRACKED.COM In 1993, Protect Ya Neck became a hit single without a hook or a chorus. This cypher of 9 MC's rapping their verses was groundbreaking, but its success helped them land a game-changing deal with Loud records, where they signed as a group and were allowed to sign with other labels as solo artists.

First Music Video in Space

THE FIRST MUSIC VIDEO RECORDED IN SPACE IS COMMANDER CHRIS HADFIELD'S COVER OF DAVID BOWIE'S SPACE ODDITY. It's also the first remote musical DAVID ВОШӀЕ Space collaboration from outside the Earth: Dadity the vocals and guitar were recorded on the International Space Station, the piano in Toronto, the track was produced in Los Angeles and posted on YouTube on May 12, 2013. CRACKED.COM

Britney Spears

Britney Spears was almost in a girl band. The band Innosense was managed by Lou Pearlman (of Backstreet and N'SYNC fame) and Justin Timberlake's mom. Britney left to pursue her solo career. CRACKED.COM

First Aid Kit

First Aid Kit was inspired by the dictionary. Klara Söderberg said, I was 13...and looking through a dictionary, looking for a name...I think music should be like a consolation to help you get through everyday life... CRACKED.COM

Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire's interactive SUBURBS video For their 2010 song We Used to Wait, fans could plunk in their address on thewildernessdowntown.com and see Google Maps images of their house in the video for a personalized experience. CRACKED

This Is America

THIS IS AMERICA by Childish Gambino sparked a ton of controversy. - ي In 2018, the Hiro Murai-directed video was discussed to no end. A very apt review said, It tackles police brutality, gun violence, and the use of African Americans as a brand shield, all while dancing in Jim Crow-style caricature. It won the Grammy for Best Music Video that year. CRACKED

Happy

Pharrell's 24-hour music video. ISE 08:57 MM AM 00 SHARE THIS MOMENT Directed by We Are from LA, the full length version of Pharrell's 2014 hit Happy is 24 hours long. It filmed hundreds of regular people and celebrities dancing to the song overll days of shooting and 42 separate locations around L.A. CRACKED

Madonna

You'll have gathered by now, Madonna really, really liked spending money on music videos. Mark Romanek's $5 million surreal masterpiece featured innovative CGI, morphing landscapes, flying witch hats and Madonna in maybe 15 different wigs. CRACKED

Michael Jackson and John Landis

The morphing technology used in John Landis's $4 million epic was totally cutting-edge stuff at the time, which could probably be done fairly well on an iPhone these days. Plus, a cameo from Macaulay goddamn Culkin. CRACKED

Limp Bizkit

Limp Bizkit have always had a complicated relationship with irony - their $3.5 million video for Rollin', helmed by Fred Durst himself and shot atop the World Trade Center, is meant to be self-parody, but can you really spend millions satirizing your own excesses? CRACKED

Rupert Wainwright

James Brown, Eazy-E, Queen Latifah and, uh, Jim Belushi all show up in Rupert Wainwright's 15-minute epic, plus a who's-who of 1991 sports stars - Jose Canseco, Isiah Thomas, Wayne Gretzky, Deion Sanders and more. That's what $2.5 million gets you. CRACKED

Brett Ratner

RE MENTS Directed by Brett Ratner and inspired by Grease and Enter the Dragon, this $2.5 million video pits Carey against herself, has a Powerpuff Girls-esque animated sequence and makes Jerry O'Connell tongue-kiss a dog. CRACKED

Scopitone

Music videos are 20 years older than MTV. CINEMATIC 50 They were made for the 1960s fad Scopitone, a jukebox that could play video. CRACKED.COM

Into The Night

BENNY MARDONES INTO THE NIGHT CRACKED.COM She's just sixteen years old, leave her alone, they say. Mardones swore Into the Night was about an innocent platonic relationship, despite the video showing Benny peeping through the high school girl's window. Maybe he forgot the ending when he makes out with her on a flying carpet.

Stacy’s Mom

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE STACY'S MOM CRACKED.COM Don't all 12-year-old girls invite horny classmates over to ogle their half-naked mothers? We looked at a lot of treatments and some directors were trying to be kind of arty and subtle with it, says FOW's Adam Schelesinger, but Chris Applebaum went completely for the jugular.

Van Halen

VAN HALEN PRETTY WOMAN CRACKED.COM David Lynch didn't direct this one but the opening scene is right out of his handbook: A struggling woman is bound by her wrists while little people fondle her legs. Because, you know, she's a Pretty Woman.

Despacito

As of June 2019, Despacito by Luis Fonsi ranks as the most watched YouTube video with over 6 billion views. DESPACITO The second most watched video is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, which has 4.2 billion views. CRACKED.COM

Pink

CRACKED.COM PINK'S SO WHAT IS ABOUT HER SEPARATION FROM HER HUSBAND. VO Oddly, she still had the guy, Carey Hart, in the music video. It's not as awkward now as it was then, since the two got back together a couple years later.

Tags:

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

VIRAL ON CRACKED

A WEEKLY
NEWSLETTER OF
JOKES + TRIVIA

Forgot Password?