For pop-culture aficionados, few things bring as much pleasure as a music video promoting a movie. It's the collision of two worlds, as musicians and movie stars join forces to combine story lines, lyrics and personalities in ways that any sane person would never expect to see together.
Batman and Prince? Arnold Schwarzenegger and AC/DC? Celine Dion and Leonardo DiCaprio? Sometimes such unlikely combinations yield a result as delicious as the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Other times we get something as repulsive as the Portuguese water dog.
In celebration of the recent launch of MTV Music, a massive site housing many of those beloved videos you grew up watching on our lovely channel, here's our list of the most notable movie-related music videos of all time:
Cyndi Lauper's "Goonies 'R' Good Enough"
You get one of the most beloved movies of the '80s ("The Goonies"), Cyndi Lauper acting, a Steven Spielberg cameo and iconic wrestling superstars, such as the Iron Sheik, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and "Classy" Freddie Blassie, making fart jokes. The song is pretty damn catchy, and the cheese factor is through the roof! What more could you ask for? Well, a link to part two would be nice — hopefully, it will be among the videos coming soon.
Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger"
In 1999, the Material Girl joined forces with King of Schwing Mike Myers to give us a hit song, a video that had Madonna shoving her butt in Austin Powers' face and a combination that made Mini-Me want to raise the roof. Yeah, baby, yeah!
Dokken's "Dream Warriors"
We've all wasted afternoons pondering the age-old question of whether Freddie Krueger's razor-sharp claws could penetrate the hairspray-heavy locks of a 1980s metal band. Luckily for us, Dokken teamed up with Robert Englund and a pre-"Medium" Patricia Arquette to give us this clip promoting "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors." But what's more terrifying: that skeleton baby or Don Dokken's eardrum-shattering high notes?
Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"
After all these years of reality shows, Bobby Brown arrests and declarations that "crack is wack," it's hard to imagine that Whitney Houston was once the biggest star in the whole world. But way back in 1992, she made her acting debut in a hit movie ("The Bodyguard"), turned this song into one of the best-selling singles of all time and launched a music video as inescapable as death and taxes. Things only got better when Adam Sandler stepped in to give us his rendition.
Prince's "Batdance"
Tim Burton's "Batman" was revolutionary in many ways, including the hype it built up over a comic book-themed dance song from the Purple One himself. In 1989, the song seemed weird, self-indulgent and kinda creepy. But watch the video all these years later, and maybe "Batdance" was just ahead of its time. The best part? This clip contains an extended, nearly seven-minute-long cut, giving us a more detailed version of Prince's rock opera.
Cobra Starship's "Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)"
Dating all the way back to when we visited the set, we always knew this video would be something special. Combining several music up-and-comers with Sam "the Man" Jackson and a song you can't get out of your head, it didn't let us down. Too bad we can't say the same thing about the movie.
Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"
Are Steven Tyler's lips weightless in outer space? Would the cold of leaving Earth's atmosphere make Joe Perry finally button up his shirt? If Ben Affleck playfully walked an animal cracker across Liv Tyler's navel, would we all vomit? These questions and more are answered in this epic clip promoting Michael Bay's "Armageddon." I don't know about you, but I blame the failure of "Deep Impact" solely on the fact that they didn't get a rehabbed '70s band to pen them a sappy theme song.
Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill"
Just like the rest of us, James Bond has a few bad memories from the '80s that he wishes we'd all forget. For those who don't count themselves as fans of Simon Le Bon, this clip promoting 1985's Roger Moore adventure "A View to a Kill" is it. For everyone else, it's the Timothy Dalton films. Between the floating cameras, mullets, berets and bomb-detonating Walkmans, it's hard to imagine that "Quantum of Solace" will be half as entertaining.
Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On"
Like "Titanic" itself, Celine Dion's hit is as dated now as it was massively successful then. But near, far, wherever you are, you've got to give props to the most successful movie/song pairing in the history of pop culture. Like Celine's heart, our memories of this once-ubiquitous music video will go on and on.
AC/DC's "Big Gun"
"The Last Action Hero" was a bomb and, come to think of it, "Big Gun" wasn't much of a hit either. Still, it's hard to beat this dream pairing of the Governator and Australia's most famous heavy-metal pioneers. Arnold has a history of popping up in his movies' music videos, as we all remember from Guns N' Roses' "You Could Be Mine" clip starring the Terminator, but the silliness of this video gives it the edge. Admit it: When Ah-nuld recently took the stage at a John McCain rally to introduce the senator, you were hoping just a little bit that his suit and tie would once again morph into Angus Young's schoolboy uniform.
Oscar loosens rules for music categories
(Reuters)
Paramore’s ‘Twilight’ Song ‘Decode’ Premieres On Stephenie Meyer’s Web Site
Madonna’s Striptease Tribute to Britney Spears
(E! Online)
