The 15 Weirdest Music Videos of All Time
The artists behind these videos weren’t afraid to get strange.
Remember when music videos were a thing that you could primarily only watch on TV? There was something cooler about them then — they were more exclusive, more like an event. And some of them were really fucking weird. Here’s a run down of our favorite strange videos, featuring dancing cartoon cats for no reason, little kids with glowing eyes, floating hearts, and a lot of random iconography.
1) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers — “Don’t Come Around Here No More”
Almost everything about this is terrifying.
2) Genesis — “Land of Confusion”
Try not to let these full-sized puppets haunt your dreams, even though they definitely will, if they haven’t been doing so already for years and years and years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pkVLqSaahk
3) Bonnie Tyler — “Total Eclipse of the Heart”
Little kids in movies, TV, and music videos can be creepy even when they’re not intended to be, but even more so when they’re lurking around pointing their glowing eyes at you. Back it up, children.
4) Smashing Pumpkins — “Tonight, Tonight”
If you tried hard enough, you could trace the resurgence of “steampunk” back to this video. That may be a stretch, but while we’re on the topic of weird things, that’s something weird to think about.
5) Paula Abdul — “Opposites Attract”
There’s no avoiding the fact that Paula Abdul definitely gives sexy eyes to a dancing cartoon cat in this.
6) Aphex Twin — “Come to Daddy”
The actual thing that nightmares are made of. I challenge you to mentally conjure a more disturbing collection of images.
7) Nine Inch Nails — “Closer”
The weirdest thing about this, aside from the floating hearts and baby skulls, is how many times you’ve had sex to this song. Don’t lie. We did it too.
8) Die Antwoord — “Ugly Boy”
You know how they say that if you do acid a certain amount of times, you’ll end up being clinically insane? If you watch this video three times in a row you’ll feel peculiar for a full week, and also have a new accent. Try it.
9) Peter Gabriel — “Sledgehammer”
Peter Gabriel doesn’t get enough credit for being a pretty weird guy, but ask your Dad about his Genesis days. Dude’s got some pretty interesting things rattling around in his head.
10) David Hasselhoff —“Hooked on a Feeling”
This guy…who knows what’s going on here?
11) Ylvis — “The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?)”
There’s just something not okay about grownups in animal costumes.
12) Björk — “Human Behaviour”
The great thing about Björk is that even though she’s definitely weird as hell, she doesn’t think so. This video is just an example of a pretty normal day/situation for her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDbPYoaAiyc
13) Lady Gaga — “Bad Romance”
Lady Gaga makes weird look so cool, and so sexy.
14) Soundgarden — “Black Hole Sun”
For a pretty straightforward rock band, this toe dip into strangeness was a pretty exciting thing. They haven’t really done anything along these lines since.
15) Nirvana — “Heart Shaped Box”
Around the time this video came out, Nirvana was getting really sick of being popular, so they pulled out all the stops in an attempt to freak the normies out. Didn’t really work though, everyone just loved them all the more.