Though music videos may not hold the same amount of cultural import they did in the heyday of MTV, musicians and directors hae continued to put out some incredibly dazzling and creative videos. Slipknot recently released their most popular music videos, remastered and for wide release (via Kerrang), so there remains an appetite for visuals to accompany favorite songs.
Slipknot is part of a lineage of music creators who like to make their videos as unsettling as possible. Many mainstream artists are also part of that cohort and in the 2010 decade many music videos have been released that are so weird they cross the boundary into creepy. The songs themselves may not be particularly creepy, but these music videos have the effect of lingering in the back of the viewer's mind long after the YouTube tab is closed.
"This Is America" - Childish Gambino
Donald Glover, known by his stage name "Childish Gambino", released This is America in 2018 to acclaim for both the song and the accompanying music video. The video takes place in an ever-changing warehouse in what appears to be one take. Glover's mesmerizing dance is done shirtless and in what appears to be cotton slacks.
The video starts out seeming like it will be an abstract dance-video, but Gambino quickly takes out a gun and shoots the song's guitarist. It only gets more creepy from there as Gambino dances more and more wildly and the violence happens unexpectedly and violently. The juxtaposition of goofy, caricature-like dancing combined with real-world gun violence can be difficult to watch.
"Lazarus" - David Bowie
Before David Bowie tragically ed away in 2016 due to cancer, he released his final album Blackstar with his final single Lazarus. The song and album are self-commenting on Bowie's life and his feelings about his impending death. The song is tragic, hopeful, and creepy at the same time.
Bowie lies in a hospital bed throughout the video with a wrap around his face and buttons in place of his eyes. It is an unsettling picture and the subject matter of the song and the knowledge that Bowie filmed it while nearing his terminal diagnosis make this video a harrowing if not fascinating look at an artist grappling with his legacy in real-time.
"Feral Love" - Chelsea Wolfe
Chlesea Wolfe is the lead singer of her self-named doom-metal band and her songs are representative of the creepy and unsettling genre. Feral Love uses Wolfe's ethereal vocals and a single twanging baseline to create a sense of loneliness and despair that the music video plays well.
If Wolfe's all-black eyes aren't enough to creep out viewers the "blink and you'll miss it" intercut scenes are sure to freak people out. While most of the video focuses on Wolfe singing, these cuts show people dressed up as wolves and other animalistic monsters messily feeding on some things just off-screen.
"I Fink U Freaky" - Die Antwoord
The alternative hip-hop group from South Africa, Die Antwoord, has made a career on unsettling songs and videos and even live performances. The music video for I Fink U Freaky combines some aspects of South African culture with a black-and-white montage of the musicians staring into the camera.
Watkin Tudor "Ninja" Jones and Anri "Yolandi Visser" du Toit wear garbage and black lenses to create a truly unsettling image as they rap to a rhythmic underground club beat. It gets extra creepy when the pair begin lip-synching each other's lines as rats swarm over their bodies.
"Every Single Night - Fiona Apple"
Fiona Apple's discography often deals with pain and anxiety, and her haunting lyrics and voice alone are enough to make any song she produces have an undercurrent of darkness. One of her songs, Every Single Night, deals with this anxiety in the music video about mental health, leading to a very creepy watch.
Fiona sings as surreal events happen all around her. A giant octopus attacks her on a bridge, a smaller octopus sits on her head, a frightening faceless mannequin holds her tight, and the list goes on of unsettling events that happen to the singer. It's a very real and very creepy look into what dealing with anxiety on a daily basis can look like.
"Fantasy" - DyE
The video for French singer-songwriter DyE's Fantasy is an animation of four teens who break into a pool for some fun and the chance for private romantic times. One couple seems more mature in that regard and the difference between the two girls, in particular, is shown in graphic detail.
But the real creepiness does not come until halfway through when one couple transforms into a horrifying Lovecraftian creature controlling the night's events.
"Bad Guy" - Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish's first album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go, has an unsettling aspect across the board, starting with the cover art of a demonic Billie smiling at the fourth wall. Bad Guy, the second song on the album uses a minimal synth and bass drum to create an uncomfortable beat that thrums throughout the song.
While Billie appears to be having a lot of fun in the music video, the dead-eyed look she is mugging at the camera complete with shots focusing on blood dripping down her nose and all over her face indicates that the video is a little angrier than the funky, dance-bop beat would indicate. The singer also spends a few sequences drowning men in various ways while ridiculous on screen giving the video a creepy vibe.
"First Of The Year (Equinox)" - Skrillex
When an artist like Skrillex makes a song, the lack of lyrics and a dance-house vibe actually allows for much more creativity in music video creation than might originally be expected. In First of the Year a disturbing start to the music video ends in triumph with a hint of uneasiness as well.
In the beginning of the video, a pedophile stalks after a young girl and nearly abducts her. But the young girl quickly turns the tables on the man and through some sort of magical powers, tortures and eventually kills him. And while most would say the vigilante justice is an overall plus, the shadowy demon lurking behind the girl throughout the video leads viewers to wonder what else is going on here.
"Don't Move" - Phantogram
If a music video is an homage to a famed 1970s supernatural horror classic like Suspiria, then it's going to be a good bet that it will be suitably creepy to match. The music video for Phantogram's Don't Move borrows from Dario Argento's film in its surreal and hypnotic film style.
There are no jump scares and gore in Don't Move but the strange story and building confusion at the center are enough to unsettle any viewer. The flashing red and blue strobes throughout the video also knock watchers off balance as they try to understand what they are seeing.
"Yonkers" - Tyler, The Creator
Tyler, The Creator, or Wolf Haley as he is sometimes known, has had a long, evolving history in hip-hop and rap. When he began, he and his group Odd Future were commonly referred to as horrorcore artists and Tyler's breakout song, Yonkers, lent a lot of credence to that.
In the black-and-white music video, Tyler stares into the camera rapping in the unbelievably deep baritone that is a staple of his music. Themes of the song include murdering contemporary rappers and violence toward religious figures all played over a beat that could have fit well in a Halloween film. The music video ends with a cockroach crawling around the rapper and capped with his silhouette using a noose for a grisly finale.