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Music

Remembering The King of Pop: How Michael Jackson Changed Music Forever

By Tom Hawking on

Today would have been Michael Jackson’s 55th birthday. Tragically, of course, he didn’t live long enough to see it — he died four years ago of a heart attack catalysed by propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication, and the wranglings over his death and legacy continue to this day. But for all that Jackson’s life was a strange and often sad one, he deserves to be remembered first and foremost as one of the most spectacular musical talents who’s ever lived, an endlessly gifted singer, dancer and songwriter. So to remember him today, here’s a retrospective of the various ways in which he changed both music and the music industry. RIP. … Read More

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Music

Awesome Behind-the-Scenes Photos From the Sets of Famous Music Videos

By Tom Hawking on

In the course of writing about the director’s cut of the “Heart-Shaped Box” video yesterday, we came across a pretty great behind-the-scenes photo of Nirvana hanging out on set with the woman who appears in the video wearing a terrifying skinless fat suit. We’re very partial to such images here at Flavorwire, and we got to thinking that there must be more out there on the Internet. And indeed there are — so here’s a selection of some of the… Read More

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Music

Director’s Cuts of Famous Music Videos

By Tom Hawking on

Director’s cuts: sometimes they’re the definitive version that the auteur wanted to make all along, and sometimes they’re a demonstration of why letting the director have the final cut isn’t always such a great idea. Either way, until recently, the music video has been largely untouched by the entire director’s cut phenomenon, but the recent appearance of a new version of Nirvana’s iconic “Heart-Shaped Box” video got us thinking about other alternate cuts of music videos. Here are a selection. … Read More

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Film

Famous Directors and Their Famous Music Video Muses

By Tom Hawking on

Paul Thomas Anderson has reunited with Fiona Apple for the video for “Hot Knife,” the second single from last year’s The Idler Wheel…. It’s the latest episode in a long creative relationship between the two, and it got us thinking about similar connections between directors and musicians — specifically, noted directors and the musicians who’ve served as their muses over the years. Here’s a selection of the most… Read More

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Music

Girl Talk Mashed Up Daft Punk With Michael Jackson, Kanye With Marilyn Manson

By Alison Herman on

Gregg Gillis reliably provides a good time, and the mashup ingenue’s recent set in Charlotte, North Carolina was no exception,… Read More

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Pop Culture

15 Awesome (And Often Bizarre) Pop Culture-Inspired Video Games You Can Play for Free

By Tom Hawking on

The last couple of weeks have seen the emergence of a couple of endearingly strange pop culture-based video games — there’s been news of a futuristic RPG involving Kanye West and a strangely depressing game based on Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” of all things. But they’re just the latest in a long line of weird and wonderful games based on pop culture. Ever since the 1980s, game developers have been making deals to cash in on the popularity of celebrities by featuring them in games, some successfully, some less so. We’ve scoured the web for the best (or at least the strangest) of these games, so click through to check them out — most are available to play online, and if not, you can download them for free. … Read More

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Music

The 50 Albums Everyone Needs to Own, 1963-2013

By Tom Hawking on

No one buys albums anymore, goes the music industry truism. And yet, for all that the format’s commercial viability may or may not be on the wane, sitting and listening to a great album from start to finish is one of the greatest pleasures that music can bring. Flavorwire recently got to thinking about how one might build a record collection if you really only did buy one record a year. So here’s the result of our thought exercise: 50 albums you really should own, one a year from 1963 until the present… Read More

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Film

The Most Bizarre Tie-In Merchandise from ’80s Movie Classics

By Jason Bailey on

Your Flavorwire resisted the temptation to wade into the recent controversy over those collectible figures from Quentin Tarantino’s Djanjo Unchained, but we’ll say this much: it’s important to remember that those toys were aimed at adult collectors, while we can recall (or have managed to suppress our memories) of some thoroughly strange movie tie-ins from our youth that were aimed directly at kids. After the jump, stroll back to the ‘80s with us, when any movie was marketable to anyone, no matter how bizarre or inappropriate. … Read More

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Music

The Most Beautiful Song Lyric Tattoos We’ve Ever Seen

By Tom Hawking on

Song lyrics are clearly a popular choice for tattoos, but the vast majority of lyrical quotes are pretty much plain old script tattoos. We have nothing against this, but it’s interesting to see tattoos where lyrics are combined with an artistic flourish, so we’ve gathered some examples of truly beautiful work that we thought we’d share with… Read More

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Art

Idiosyncratic Illustrations of Memorable Musical Collaborations

By Tom Hawking on

We’ve written a bit about unexpectedly awesome musical collaborations here on Flavorwire over the years, and as such, we were rather taken by these illustrations of some such collaborations. They’re by artistic duo Pol and Sakiroo Choi, and we spotted them via Thaeger, whose write-up of the pieces may or may not be interesting reading, depending on how good your German is. Anyway, click through and check out some of our favorites — there’s Run-DMC and Aerosmith, Kanye West and Daft Punk, and various others (but not, sadly, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, although maybe some things are better left un-illustrated. … Read More

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