Help me find "delightfully off-putting" music videos!
July 26, 2014 3:04 PM   Subscribe

I'm looking for examples of music videos with a certain je ne sais quoi, that I can only describe as "delightfully off-putting."

Examples of what I'm interested in are:

- St. Vincent's video for "Digital Witness"
- David Bowie's video for "Jump They Say"
- Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck's video for "Heaven Can Wait" (the plagiarism scandal notwithstanding)

Having little background in such things, I can only vaguely point at similarities between these three videos, including striking geometry and architecture, and fairly emotionless faces. This sort of thing is speaking to me in a certain way, and I want more!
posted by Golfhaus to Media & Arts (14 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Flying Lizards - Money
posted by hydrophonic at 3:44 PM on July 26, 2014


It's a tricky assignment, chief. It's hard to say exactly what those videos have in common, but the video for Massive Attack's Karmacoma would seem to fit the bill. It's got that really sharp, striking cinematography, people being seemingly emotionless (in that creepy, loaded, Kubrick-y way) and it's full of random acts of weirdness. It's also about as "delightfully off-putting" as anything I've ever seen.

I'm also going to throw in Moby's We Are All Made of Stars, because why the hell not?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:42 PM on July 26, 2014 [3 favorites]


I would say that they're all highly stylized with an abstract or surrealist element. So like the video equivalent of Donny Darko. Netflix classifies movies like this as "visually striking" so that might help describe what you're looking for.

I've found electronica and electropop bands tend to this more than say, heavy metal. Are any of these close to what you're looking for? The first video on the list is what I thought of when I saw your question but maybe it's too graphic? The Bat for Lashes link is broken but seems right but your alley.

Also Goldfrapp.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:32 PM on July 26, 2014


Not sure if this is more completely insane than merely delightfully off-putting, but it's the first one that jumped to mind after watching your picks: PonPonPon
posted by Mchelly at 7:33 PM on July 26, 2014


OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - I don't know if it's your brand of weird, but it's weird.

Of course, these days it could be a DCI competition show.
posted by randomkeystrike at 8:07 PM on July 26, 2014




The Avalanches- Frontier Psychiatrist
Jogger- Nephicide
Lykke Li- I'm Good, I'm Gone
Plaid- Itsu
Lamb- B Line (This one doesn't seem to be on YouTube, but it isn't difficult to find)
posted by null14 at 10:24 PM on July 26, 2014




Does Sia's "Chandelier" count?
posted by jferg at 6:26 AM on July 27, 2014


UNKLE's Rabbit in your Headlights is offputting, thought it might be a little too much to be called delightful.
posted by Candleman at 7:11 AM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]






New Order's classic "True Faith" should fit the bill.
posted by Petersondub at 2:36 PM on July 27, 2014


This is a full eleven on the weird-o-meter, but hey, I find it delightful: Renaldo and The Loaf's Music for Swinging Larvae.
posted by the matching mole at 12:13 PM on July 28, 2014


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