More musicians have crossed YouTube's billion-view threshold than you might think.
But just because these music videos are widely-seen doesn't mean you know the whole story.
From Taylor Swift drama to the dark side of "Baby Shark Dance," here's what you didn't
know about these massive music videos.
Katy Perry, in all her whipped cream glory, typically doesn't disappoint when it comes
to her music videos.
"Bon Appétit," which has racked up more than 721 million views since 2017, is no exception
… albeit for a somewhat surprising reason.
Perry has long been criticized for her brand of feminism: the kind that once waged Internet
wars against Taylor Swift and led the pop star to declare she wasn't a feminist while
accepting Billboard's Woman of the Year award.
But that was then, and this is now: Perry's since squashed her beef with Swift, admitted
that she is indeed a feminist, and worked a surprise feminist conclusion into "Bon Appétit."
It has been pointed out that the video seems purely seductive — almost exploitative — on
the surface.
With Perry bathed in mirepoix and prepared like a roast chicken throughout, it's only
at the end of the video that the audience realizes that she's not the one getting devoured;
rather, she's doing the devouring herself, after the chefs bind and gag hungry restaurant
patrons, then bake them into a pie for the songstress' enjoyment.
Cannibalism aside, the video speaks to the fact that looks can be deceiving, and that
women should feel empowered, even when they look to be at their most vulnerable, choosing
what they want to do with their bodies, even if that initially appears to not be the case.
It's a great message, albeit delivered in a slightly bizarre way.
There are a few things about Adam Levine that are permanently etched into our brains: His
decidedly awful character in Begin Again, his string of Victoria's Secret model girlfriends,
and his bizarre collection of stomach tattoos.
There's so much going on with the Maroon 5 frontman to have an opinion about, it's almost
enough to make us forget that the band might have actually faked crashing weddings in their
music video for "Sugar," which has garnered nearly 3 billion views since 2015.
"It's December 6, 2014 — we're gonna drive across LA and hit every wedding we possibly
can."
Despite the band's mission statement at the top of the video, Cosmopolitan alleged that
a fair amount of the disruptive events on display may have actually been staged.
One of the brides featured appears to be Raina Hein, a runner-up from the 14th cycle of America's
Next Top Model.
The magazine scoured her social media for any information about a husband or fiancé,
but came up totally blank.
Actor Nico Evers-Swindell, who you might know from the 2011 Lifetime movie William & Kate,
also appears to get hitched in the clip, but his on-screen bride is not his real-life wife,
actress Megan Ferguson.
Married actors Stephen and Barbara Woo also turn up in the video, but hinted on Facebook
that at least one of the weddings was staged.
Ain't nothing sweeter than some fake nuptials.
"Baby Shark Dance" has been devouring our brains on a loop since 2016, racking up more
than 3 billion YouTube views and nearly rivaling the popularity of Psy's "Gangnam Style."
However, this infectious earworm was once a little bit more insidious.
The version made popular by Korean entertainment company Pinkfong depicts small children doing
the titular dance and ends with the kids running away to avoid being eaten by a family of sharks.
They sing the lyric "safe at last," and presumably all is well.
No lost limbs here — unless of course you're doing the original "Baby Shark Dance."
Before it was cleaned up by Pinkfong for millions of viewers worldwide, the song was best known
as a summer camp campfire standard, variations on which involved the children facing certain,
shark-inflicted death.
This darker version may have been popular across summer camps, but it probably wouldn't
have caught on as a viral tune for three-year-olds on YouTube.
Instead of being a cutesy rundown of a family of sharks, the song focused on a swimmer who
is viciously attacked by the sea creatures, after which CPR is attempted, to no avail.
In some versions of the dance, children hop around on one leg as if to mime an amputation,
and then put on a show of dying from their injuries.
Not only would the song be a whole lot more bleak, it would still be exactly as aggravating
of a tune to listen to.
It's never too late to say sorry, but Justin Bieber has never apologized for the fact that
this massive hit has been stuck in our heads since 2015.
Never mind the Selena Gomez drama, "Sorry" was penned with some of the biggest stars
in the music biz, but the equally infectious music video was seemingly pulled out of nothing.
Biebs ended up giving his "Sorry" dancers a whole lot of leeway during the filming process.
The entire thing was reportedly the brainchild of Parris Goebel, who directed the video with
the help of her ReQuest Dance Crew.
Goebel claimed she and two of her friends styled the dance troop for the video mainly
with clothes from her own closet.
They each did their own makeup and all donned the same shade of Mac's Ruby Woo lipstick.
Goebel didn't stress about organizing the choreography either — especially because
the mega-viral clip was originally just meant to serve as the backdrop for a lyric video.
Goebel told Us Weekly,
"The word that comes to mind is 'spontaneous.'
Nothing was planned too much, not even the dancing.
It was more like, 'How do we feel on the spot?'"
With well over 3 billion hits, who knew something so slapped-together could end up being so
iconic?
There are a lot of head-scratching music videos in this world, but none can compare to the
moment in 2002 when all of us realized Kelly Rowland was trying to text Nelly from a Microsoft
Excel spreadsheet in the music video for "Dilemma."
The Destiny's Child alum types into her Nokia flip phone, "Where you at?
Holla when you get there."
Nelly, of course, did not holla, because Excel is not iMessage.
While Nelly's music video has racked up more than 647 million views on YouTube, it was
years before the stars addressed the weird, very noticable production choice.
During a 2016 appearance on the Australian TV show The Project, Nelly claimed,
"That was the new technology at the time … It looks a little dated now, I can see that."
For her part, Rowland discussed the infamous scene in a 2019 episode of The Real, where
she made it clear that she doesn't really care about the weird decision.
"I don't know what Microsoft Excel is.
I don't know.
I don't have a clue."
Adele's dramatic clip for "Hello" has amassed more than 2.5 billion views on YouTube.
The video also inexplicably uses some outdated technology.
No, she doesn't try to shoot out a text on a Microsoft Office program, but she does appear
to use a flip phone in the year 2015.
There are only a couple possible explanations: Either Adele enjoys the simplicity of texting
with T9, or the old tech was an intentional quirk injected into Adele's black-and-white
world by director Xavier Dolan.
Speaking with The New York Times, Dolan revealed the truth of the matter, saying,
"As much as I love iPhones in real life … it's so distracting to see an iPhone in a movie.
It's so implanted into our reality that you are sort of taken out of the material — I
would have hated to see her write a text on her iPhone.
I'd rather it be obsolete and use flip phones."
"Shape of You" remains one of Ed Sheeran's biggest successes.
The video has racked up over 4 billion views, while the song pretty much dominated airwaves
in 2017 … to the point that even Sheeran himself got sick of hearing it.
That's how you know you've got a massive hit — but it almost wasn't his.
In an interview with BBC Radio 1, Sheeran admitted he originally considered giving the
song to Rihanna, but ultimately decided to keep it for himself — a move he probably
regretted when it came time to shoot the video.
The star told MTV International,
"The 'Shape Of You' video was the most physically draining video that I've ever done because
the director really wanted me to, like, look in shape."
While doing sprints and pull-ups in the clip really brought him out of his comfort zone,
one of the most difficult parts was the scene where Sheeran fights a sumo wrestler.
His sumo suit's helmet was reportedly so uncomfortable that he asked if he could use a stunt double.
That unfortunately didn't happen, and instead the singer said he, quote, "had to run full
pelt at this 42 stone sumo wrestler," which knocked the singer to the ground.
No one said good art was painless.
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's video for "Despacito" became the first YouTube video to ever reach
six billion views, according to Billboard.
Strangely enough, the 2017 video shoot and editing process was relatively low-key.
The entire thing was edited using Apple's Final Cut Pro, a favorite program for amateur
content creators around the globe.
Video director Carlos Pérez opened up about this process, claiming the entire thing was
shot in just 14 hours in La Perla, Puerto Rico.
The day apparently proceeded without too many problems or causes for concern, proving that
you don't need a lot of money or a lot of time to make a music video practically the
whole world will see.
When "Lean On" landed in 2015 it was inescapable, becoming Spotify's most-streamed song of all
time for 11 months.
Such a massive song deserves a massive video, and while the clip eventually amassed more
than 2.6 billion views on YouTube, it wasn't really the big production most of us would
expect.
Major Lazer member Diplo opened up about the filming process in a Facebook post, revealing
that they had a limited budget, no label support, and just a couple of days off in India between
tour dates to shoot.
It took 24 hours from sunrise to sunrise to improvise and make the magic happen.
However, the crew was so tired that everyone slept between takes on set, including an elephant
that was supposed to appear.
Diplo wrote,
"Originally we had plans to use an elephant in the video but after we went over on another
shot and it was time to use the elephant, it had fallen asleep!
[…] The trainer said 'no elephant,' if I wake him up, he will kill everyone."
Now that would've been a memorable video.
Charlie Puth and Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again" duet broke records in 2017 when it became
the most-viewed video on YouTube, overthrowing Psy's "Gangnam Style" reign.
Written as a tie-in for the Furious 7 soundtrack as a tribute to the late Paul Walker, how
did the song actually come together?
Let's just say it was a team effort.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a then-unknown Puth was one of more than 50 songwriters invited
to suggest songs for the soundtrack.
The singer was apparently considered so unremarkable a candidate that, unlike dozens of other competitors
for the songwriting spot, he wasn't even shown footage from the film.
While this may have felt somewhat insulting, it also probably took the pressure off; in
a matter of minutes, Puth and fellow songwriter Justin Franks laid down a simple lyrical idea
about missing a friend.
Puth said,
“It just seemed to occur to me from out of nowhere [...] we sent it off, and I thought
we’d never hear about it again.”
Universal Pictures and Atlantic Records loved Puth's melody and commissioned Wiz Khalifa,
who'd previously contributed to the Fast & Furious 6 soundtrack, to sing the verses.
The track then went through a months-long process of rewrites and production before
the successful final product emerged.
The result of all that work is a perfectly manufactured, lab-tested weapon for preying
on people's tear ducts — especially once you add the footage of Paul Walker on top.
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