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.
Any one of the Lorn videos.
edit: or really any of his videos
I was afraid noone is going to mention this!
But note that it is Chris Cunningham, who is a twisted brain behind these.
Another classic: Come to Daddy
The video opens with an old woman (played by Coral Lorne) walking a dog in a grimy, industrial setting. The dog urinates on an abandoned television lying on the pavement, causing it to sputter unexpectedly into life, and a distorted and warping headshot of Richard D. James chants the lyrics. This unleashes a spirit, accompanied by a gang of small children, all of whom bear James’ grinning face and who appear to inhabit the abandoned buildings
See also: Monkey Drummer and of course Windowlicker, with its ridiculous 4 (?) minute intro.
My vote is for Windowlicker. Wicked satire of “horny ho” videos saturating the market at the time.
Come now, DJ Snake Turn Down for What makes no sense but is amazing.
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
'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.
Portugal. The Man’s video for All Your Light is freaking weird. Complete with human heads in shopping bags, trailer parks, and what I think are aliens.
That’s pretty cool. Music definitely different than the video.
A girl sees mortality and decay in everything she encounters, and it makes her sick. Rather than continue to reject it, she accelerates the cycle and is hit with a holy accepting light after fulfilling her carnivorous destiny. She and her brother also might have been a vampires all along.
Check out the claymation videos from Tool!
I do not know about the weirdest, but Quiet Riot’s The Wild and The Young video is pretty out there.
The government bans and confiscates all music, and locks up musicians with their instruments and outfits in an underground bunker, where the musicians “cunningly” use these resources to sing in protest, but wait it’s actually a premonition for something that hasn’t happened yet and time loops itself. Pretty cool
There is no video plot here. It’s just some guy having frankfurters thrown at him.
Frankie Sinatra by The Avalanches
Murders. I don’t want to spoil any more than that because it has a twist.
Everlong was pretty wild
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 (?).
I feel like I could suggest most of Salvatore Ganacci’s catalogue here, but I think Take Me To America is probably the winner. Join a determined Bosnian man on his quest to for a better TV signal
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.
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!
you should check this out too… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11CKOAQDsbg
That is absolutely amazing, I love it! I really hope Gaga has seen this
