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Lady Gaga Explains the "devastating" Delay of "Do What U Want" Video

Wondering what happened to Lady Gaga's seemingly scandalous and awesome "Do What U Want" video featuring R. Kelly and directed by Terry Richardson? Her Gaganess explains it all in a Full-Martyr post on her Little Monsters social media site:

Lady Gaga "It is late because, just like with the Applause video unfortunately, I was given a week to plan and execute it. It is very devastating for someone like me, I devote every moment of my life to creating fantasies for you. All my my most successful videos were planned over a period of time when I was rested and my creativity was honored. Those who have betrayed me gravely mismanaged my time and health and left me on my own to damage control any problems that ensued as a result."

Does that clear things up? No? 

In other confusing news, Gaga just recorded and released a version of "Do What U Want" with Christina Aguilera... So, who knows what will be released or when...

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Behind the (Baby Got) Back with Sir Mix-a-Lot

Over at Vulture they have a awesomely throw-back oral (heh, ironic) history of the ground-breaking and rump-shaking music video classic from Sir Mix-a-Lot, "Baby Got Back."

Director Adam Bernstein: I concocted the visuals based around the giant ass. Dana and I leafed through a book about Jean-Paul Goude, a French fashion photographer who happened to be ass-obsessed. So the shape of the butt was inspired by his work. Then we talked about what color to make it, and we settled on gold, because of the line in the song [“Some brothers wanna play that hard role/And tell you that the butt ain’t gold”]. It was made of pencil-steel, which is what aircraft frames are made of, and fiberglass. We shot it at the Chaplain, a big studio near A&M Records off of La Brea, between Sunset and Hollywood Boulevard.

Besides offering a glimpse into the past for production, the interviews also chronicle the adjustment that a very independent artist (an area where Mix never gets enough credit for being a trailbazer) has to make when jumping into the structure of a major label. There is so much more, including quotes from Rick Rubin, guns being pulled over wardrobe disputes and the renting of a giant inflatable ass. The whole post is definitely worth a read.

Doug Stern writes music video treatments and avoids wearing all brown.

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Pixies "Blue Eyed Hexe" (Mount Emult, dir.)

The Pixies may have figured out a good workflow for doing biz in the modern music world: Screw albums. Screw leaks. Just surprise release EPs with a music video or two — and timing that release right before a new leg of touring also ain't dumb. Offer the tracks as cheap downloads, plus a few reasonably priced bundles for the diehard fans. 

The song itself is plays like "Subacultcha" 2.0, but with way more cowbell. And the video is appropriately evil and awesome.

Matthew Newman aka Mount Emult, director/animator/editor: It seems to me that the Pixies are interested in giving forward thinking newer video artists the chance to be creative on their own terms. I worked a lot with Charles on videos for his Grand Duchy project  and then when videos were being considered for the new Pixies material he asked me to contribute.  I got a few songs and picked out Blue Eyed Hexe.  I think it fuckin rules and so i wanted to make a video for it.  I collect imagery from all over and then I just sort of improvise on different themes and clues from the song eventually sculpting it into something that is free but also has some narrative elements to it.  It is a dream come true to have a video for the Pixies to my name.

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ILIA DARLIN "You Now Forever" (Konstantinos Menelaou, dir.)

If you're of a certain age and pervesion, then you have fond/sad memories of watching those scrambled channels at the end of the cable dial in hope that some risque bits would cut through the fuzz. Director Konstantinos Menelaou recreates a vintage Super 8 porn vibe, mixed with some archival '70s Greek movies and presented with the familiar distortions of scrambled porn.

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Moby's Lyric Video for Animals

Most lyric videos are merely cheap and self-serving placeholders until the real clip arrives. This lyric video is certainly cheap — "roughly $0" according to Moby — but it serves a greater purpose than most: Every animal featured in it is up for adoption via Best Friends Animal Society Los Angeles.

So, even if you don't use this to learn the lyrics, at least you can learn about a few of the thousand animals that could use a home.

Best Of The Month

The Best Music Videos of 2013

This year we grappled with over 2,100 music videos in over 3,000 posts. That's a lot of videos.

Of those, I especially highlighted over 300 videos via our Best Of The Month lists.

Whittling all this down to a Top 30 list was a hard task, but here it is. This is the 1% of music videos.

They're presented in two groupings: A top 15 and then a "bonus list" of 15 more great videos... All presented in one big playlist. I recommend you hit each individual video though, especially for the interactive videos, so you get the full context.

We'll be pulling out more data and lists from my Best Of 2013 archives through the New Year. Plus, the Best Videos of December, and other updates to the site. So, be sure to come on back when you get bored with your new Furby or whatever you get for Christmas.

The Best Music Videos of 2013

Top 15:

Another 15:

Best Of The Month

Top 10 NSFW Videos of 2013

These videos could get you fired. They also could offend you.

NSFW was the biggest trend of the year. Some of this stuff is meant to shock. Others have an artistic slant. Some are from big stars and for big hits. Others are for things you may be seeing for the first time.

Not all of these have nudity, but you won't want to watch any of these where people can see your screen. Also, all of these are really good videos in their own right — although I'm still not sure about the Flaming Lips one, which might be the weirdest thing ever.

Top 10 NSFW Videos of 2013

And a special shout-out to NABIL and Foals: