I mean music videos that have nothing to do with the music and mostly just do their own thing and tell their own story.
An example –
Basement Jaxx’s Red Alert seems to be about a meteor-worshiping cult awaiting the arrival of their rocky messiah in some unsuspecting greasy spoon cafe in the middle of nowhere.
Once the meteor crashes into Earth, everyone gets horribly mutated and convulses to the strange rays exhibited by the meteor. The infection seems to be localized entirely within the cafe. The End.
Edit: Please link to a video, or at least summarize the plot.
Edit2: Please actually link to a video, or tell me why the video plot is cool. Come on, it’s just 30 seconds of your time.
Telephone by Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce. The song is about not answering your phone in the club because you’re dancing. The video is about Beyonce breaking Gaga out of prison and then tracking down and murdering an ex boyfriend. It also has some top tier crazy Gaga costumes including a set of shades made of lit cigarettes. Good track if you like dance-pop as well!
Nekrogoblikon - No one survives..
Goblin gets bullied at the office.
People punch animals. Animals helpless. Man save animals by breaking into houses with his shoe car.
Half boy, half motorbike. Travels the world to meet the half girl, half jetski.
Really anything from this guy
Salvatore is great! I’ve watched every single video he made I could find on YouTube. Step-Grandma and Take Me to America are amazing as well.
I’ve always been puzzled by the Stabbing Westward video Shame. It features a fairly disturbing plot of a woman and her boyfriend who escaped from an insane asylum. However, the portions where the band is playing are completely contrary to the “plot” of the video and almost comical.
“When I get mad, my hand gets huge.”
Honorable mention to Ludacris’ Get Back for also using the big arm thing (though the video matches the song in this case)
More fan made, but the combo is killer: mukinabaht with nature will have unintended consequences. Boards of Canada with a trippy french animation, the two feel made for each other.
Stuck in the sounds - Let’s Go also has a crazy video about an astronaut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhheiPTdZCw
It’s visual commentary on society itself, as well as how fucked this system we’ve all built is to both our inner & outer nature.
Are these media systems self-sustaining? Aren’t apples the symbol of knowledge? Or will our inner animalism escape, in spite of the processed knowledge, given even the slightest chance?
Might be reading into it too much, though.
This is about aliens(?) and a warrior king.
Come now, DJ Snake Turn Down for What makes no sense but is amazing.
'twas directed by the guys behind Everything Everywhere All At Once
A lot of movie directors start with commercials and music videos. It is training for making long videos by making a lot of short ones.
That’s a lot of fun. I’m gonna go with: guy gets infected with a restless virus that makes body parts indestructible. Transmission is spread through breaking floors and body slamming people. Once it exhausts its hosts it lives on that guys dick. 10/10
Dating myself a bit, but Men Without Hats " Safety Dance" is a clear indicator of how much cocaine was consumed in the 80s.
Hah, that music video is genuinely a pretty accurate depiction of your average England village’s May Day celebrations. I went to one this year, got drunk watching old men skipping about while wearing bells, kids tying up a pole with ribbon, folk band (minus the fabulous Mike Edmonds as seen is this video) playing fiddle and more, sitting around on a bunch of straw bales, and cuddled a goat kid while my dog obsessed over a Shetland pony until my partner told us to go home.
Link for the other 96% of folks that get an error
You're dating yourself? That doesn't seem healthy.
/s
Well… It’s difficult to even say wtf is going on there 😅
Lone Digger by Caravan Palace. It’s about a murder-brawl at an animal strip club.
Love it - it’s like if Zootopia was more honest about it’s seedy underbelly
Also, Mr. FEAR by SIAMÉS has a nice animation about an alien (?) and a human merging to make a larger alien (?).
Lotta 90’s stuff comes to mind:
Primus - Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver
Not 90’s but:
DJ Shadow/Run the Jewels -Nobody Speak
First ones that come to mind.
That RTJ video is one of the few I’ve loved since it released.
Then, I discovered Kendrick Lamar had made a video for Alright. Wow.
- I didn’t see it until 2018.