From Madonna channeling Marilyn Monroe to Ariana Grande's teen comedy tributes, join us as we explore the fascinating connections between iconic music videos and the classic films that influenced them. See how your favorite artists paid homage to cinematic masterpieces through creative reimagining and visual storytelling.
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00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at music videos that took influences from iconic films and just how they did it.
00:20Michael Jackson, an American werewolf in London
00:30In pretty much every way, director John Landis' music video for Jackson's enduring smash hit, Broke New Ground.
00:38One of the most expensive music videos ever made at the time of its release, Jackson's considerable celebrity played a huge part in getting the $500,000 project funded.
00:49Jackson was inspired to devise the thriller video after seeing Landis' American werewolf, which had proven a major hit for Universal Pictures a few years earlier.
00:58What's the plan?
00:58Plan?
00:59Plan?
01:00Let's just keep walking.
01:02That's right, a lovely stroll on the moor.
01:05Stra-la-la-la-la-la.
01:07Isn't this fun?
01:09It's in front of us.
01:15You think it's a dog?
01:17Jackson also recruited Rick Baker, that film's cutting-edge makeup artist, to reprise his role for Thriller.
01:23Funnily enough, it was Baker who decided to make Jackson a werecat, citing a lack of interest in repeating himself after American werewolf.
01:30You're one of the undead, and I'm a werewolf.
01:34Yes.
01:35That's right.
01:36Get out of here, Jack.
01:40Tomorrow night's the full moon.
01:43You're gonna change.
01:45You'll become-
01:46I know.
01:47I know.
01:48A monster.
01:49Fancy.
01:50Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX.
01:53Clueless.
01:54I'm so fancy.
01:56You already know.
01:58I'm in the best lane.
02:01From LA to Tokyo.
02:04Featuring one of the catchiest choruses of the 2010s, Iggy Azalea's Fancy is an unabashed ode to living the high life.
02:11It makes sense, then, that director Amy Heckerling's beloved 90s coming-of-age comedy served as a reference point for the Fancy music video.
02:19I don't know why Dion's going out with a high school boy.
02:22They're like dogs.
02:23You have to clean them and feed them, and they're just like these nervous creatures that jump and slobber all over you.
02:29Ew!
02:30Get off of me!
02:32Ugh, as if!
02:34In fact, the Australian rapper was so committed to authenticity that the Fancy video was shot at the same Los Angeles high school where Clueless was filmed.
02:42The video closely mimics the film's visual style down to the vibrantly colorful, scarily accurate 90s costuming.
02:49We have to wonder if Iggy and Charli will make cameos in the upcoming Clueless sequel series.
03:02Lost in Japan.
03:03Shawn Mendes.
03:04Lost in Translation.
03:06You want a whiskey?
03:07This is not whiskey, this is iced tea.
03:11If you gave me real whiskey.
03:13I need mysterious face.
03:15Attention, it's mysterious.
03:17Mysterious.
03:18I think I know what you want.
03:19You want this, right?
03:20I need more mysterious and, uh…
03:23More mysterious, yeah.
03:24I'll just try to think, where the hell is the whiskey?
03:26Director Sofia Coppola's artful 2003 comedy-drama was the first step in a major career renaissance for star Bill Murray.
03:34In the film, Murray plays a disillusioned American movie star who befriends Scarlett Johansson's Charlotte in Tokyo.
03:41Hopefully learning why the sea on the tide has no way of turning.
03:51More than this, you know there's nothing.
04:03Despite their significantly difficult life experiences, the two bond over their shared loneliness and alienation.
04:10As such, Shawn Mendes' Lost in Japan, the second single off his 2018 self-titled album, thematically owes a lot to Lost in Translation.
04:19Lost in Japan often acts as a shot-for-shot remake of Coppola's film, featuring Mendes taking Murray's place.
04:26We have to thank Shawn for focusing on the more fun aspects of Lost in Translation and leaving out its heartbreaking ending.
04:331999, Charlie XCX featuring Troye Sivan, Movies of the 90s.
04:48If fancy and 1999 are any indication, it looks like British pop provocateur Charlie XCX has a real soft spot for the 90s.
05:04If you're missing the decade but need a quick dose of nostalgia, hit play on the 1999 music video.
05:10Keeping in line with Charlie's cheeky, irreverent sense of humor, the video pays tribute to some of the most beloved and acclaimed films of the late 90s.
05:26Particularly The Matrix, American Beauty, and Titanic.
05:30While it's tempting to be pedantic when you remember that Titanic actually came out in 1997,
05:351999 is inarguably a pitch-perfect time capsule of what feels like a more innocent era.
05:48Countdown, Beyonce, Funny Face
05:51If there's anything we know about Queen Bee by now, it's that she never fails to push the envelope in any project she takes on.
06:05Case in point, the Countdown music video, in which Beyonce reunited with her Sweet Dreams director, Adria Petty.
06:12According to Petty, Bee came prepared with several cultural references, which included, quote, German modern dance references, believe it or not.
06:26Most importantly for our video today, Petty noted that, quote, one of the strongest wardrobe references was Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face when she does the Beatnik dance scene.
06:36I think a lot grew from there.
06:44Good For You, Olivia Rodrigo, Jennifer's Body, Audition.
06:49There's Jennifer.
06:51Only back then we were tight.
06:53Sisters practically.
06:55People found it hard to believe that a babe like Jennifer would associate with a dork like me.
07:01Sandbox love never dies.
07:03A box office bomb and critical flop at the time of its 2009 release, director Karen Kusuma's Jennifer's Body has been re-evaluated in the years since as a feminist masterpiece.
07:15In the Good For You video, Olivia Rodrigo adopts the film's visual aesthetic, featuring plenty of appropriate cheerleader imagery, a clear nod to the high school setting of Jennifer's Body.
07:26Well, good for you, you look happy and healthy, not me, if you ever killed your eyes.
07:32Rodrigo really shows off her cinephile chops in the video's opening minute, being filmed by two men in a tribute to Takashi Miike's Audition.
07:41For those who have seen Audition, you'll likely be grateful that Rodrigo chose to pay homage to this scene, rather than the film's traumatizing ending.
07:49Cold-hearted Paula Abdul, all that jazz.
08:14This legendary musical stands as director Bob Fosse's magnum opus, and countless films, television shows, and music videos have taken inspiration from and paid tribute to it.
08:34Of course, it's only logical that Paula Abdul would have one of the most enthralling takes.
08:44A highly successful choreographer before breaking out as a major pop star in her own right, Abdul's 1989 debut album, Forever Your Girl, was a breakout hit from the time of its release.
08:56Cold-hearted, the album's fifth single, puts Abdul's considerable physical talents to perfect use, specifically referencing all that jazz's Take Off With Us sequence to great effect.
09:07Take out your headset, plug it in.
09:10What's your answer, John?
09:13Are you gonna call?
09:16Telephone.
09:17Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé.
09:20Movies of Quentin Tarantino.
09:22Sure you wanna do this, honeybee?
09:24What do you mean, am I sure?
09:26You know what they say.
09:27Once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger.
09:31You know, Gaga?
09:33Trust is like a mirror.
09:35You can fix it if it's broke.
09:37But you can still see the crack in that mother... reflection.
09:41While Quentin Tarantino may not be the first filmmaker that comes to mind when you think of a feminist anthem, Gaga and Beyoncé made reference to several of his films with this 2010 collaboration.
09:53Specifically, the telephone video pays tribute to the director's cult hits Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill.
10:00What's for begging?
10:01No, man, I don't eat pork.
10:03Are you Jewish?
10:04No, I ain't Jewish, I just don't dig on swine, that's all.
10:06Why not?
10:07Pigs are filthy animals.
10:09I don't eat filthy animals.
10:11Yeah, but bacon tastes good.
10:13Paw chops taste good.
10:15Hey, sewer rat man tastes like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know cause I wouldn't eat the filthy mother...
10:19While neither Gaga nor Beyoncé donned Uma Thurman's instantly iconic yellow jumpsuit or her Onitsuka tiger sneakers, they do drive in a certain automobile that came right from the Kill Bill set.
10:32This wasn't just a simple homage.
10:34Gaga shared that once she revealed her inspiration for the video to the director, he enthusiastically encouraged her to borrow the actual P-Wagon for Telephone.
10:44Material Girl, Madonna, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
10:55You know that we are living in the material world.
10:59An instant classic hit needs an instant classic video.
11:03And how could Madonna possibly have gone wrong in emulating Marilyn Monroe's star-making turn in director Howard Hawks' classic musical comedy?
11:12The Material Girl music video is now arguably as recognizable as the Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend sequence that inspired it.
11:20A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.
11:29Said Madonna as to why she chose to embody Monroe, Marilyn was made into something not human in a way, and I can relate to that.
11:37And there were certain things about her vulnerability that I'm now curious about and attracted to.
11:42In a distinctly anti-material twist, the video features Madonna eschewing fancy things in favor of simple romance, but no one ever talks about that part.
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12:11Thank you next, Ariana Grande, Comedies of the 2000s.
12:25Ah, the moment you've all been waiting for.
12:27Sure, maybe you saw this one coming, but how could we resist?
12:31Grande's viral smash is every Millennial's dream music video.
12:35Spurred on by conversations between the pop star and music video director Hannah Lux Davis, the Thank You Next video expertly weaves in references to four seminal teen comedies.
12:46Are you free?
12:47It's an emergency.
12:49Bad day.
12:50You can't even imagine.
12:57Spill.
12:58Spill.
12:59The most popular shows would be Bring It On, Legally Blonde, 13 Going On 30, and most prominently of all, Mean Girls, from which it borrows the beautifully cringeworthy Jingle Bell Rock performance.
13:09Featuring cameos abound from the original films' stars, the Thank You Next video proves that imitation really can be the sincerest form of flattery.
13:19Which music video tribute is your favorite?
13:29Are there any we missed?
13:30Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
13:32I worked so hard to get into law school.
13:35I blew off Great Greek to study for the LSATs.
13:38I even hired a Coppola to direct my admissions video.
13:41All to get my boyfriend Warner back, and now he's engaged to this awful girl Vivian.
13:46So it was all for nothing, and I just wish I had never gone to Harvard.
13:53No, Harvard!