Top 10 Most Disturbing Music Videos

Soundgarden
Soundgarden’s alternative rock song “Black Hole Sun” has a psychedelic edge that deserves trippy and scary visuals. In the case of this music video, the band builds upon their alternative sound with suburban satire with unsettling images. A giant black hole hovers over a seemingly normal neighborhood. The townspeople and their creepy smiles go through life as a collection of ghoulish and unaware citizens. By the time the sky unleashes its power, the inhabitants fly into the black hole in a terrifying conclusion. There’s a sense of dread and uneasiness throughout the piece that doesn’t easily leave your brain.

M.I.A.
In a fictional look at the horrors of oppression, the video for “Born Free” shows the dangers of unchecked power. M.I.A. depicts a world where the government persecutes redheads. She was partially inspired by real violence in Sri Lanka, which had its fair share of harrowing tales during its Civil War. The artist chose an invented scenario to talk about the factors that lead to extrajudicial killings and genocide. Depicting a brutal regime arresting and imprisoning people, the story is all the more disturbing because of its real-world inspirations. It’s both a moving and violent look at injustice that doesn’t shy away from brutality.

Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails’ most explicit song also has an equally graphic video. Singer Trent Reznor appears in a vintage laboratory that would shock even the likes of Dr. Frankenstein. The interior decoration includes a pig’s head and other questionable appliances. With the set design of a terrifying horror movie, the disturbing setting is both memorably creepy and sickening. Reznor even chains himself up and endures the wrath of a high-powered fan. If that wasn't enough, there’s also a monkey on a small cross and other nude actors in the background. There’s few music videos that inhabit the world of a song as well as this one.

MGMT
MGMT’s video for the song “Kids” features a true nightmare day for its lead character. In the first scene, a bunch of monsters scare a toddler in its crib. It’s already terrifying and barely a few seconds have gone by. The infant’s mother takes her child on a walk without realizing he’s distressed. Out on the streets, the young one continues to see monsters everywhere he looks. You can look at the piece as a metaphor for innocence or just a creepy showcase for many unsightly creatures. Regardless of its true meaning, “Kids” remains a startling video for any age group.

Nirvana
Nirvana has many memorable videos, but the one for “Heart-Shaped Box” is the darkest and most disturbing of them all. The band appears in a variety of unsightly and ominous scenes with religious imagery. An elderly man takes his place as a scarecrow figure, with birds pecking at him as he hangs on a cross. If that wasn’t enough, a series of trees have fetuses hanging from them. It’s all part of a deeply metaphorical examination of Kurt Cobain’s lyrics. Considering how dark the song is, it’s only fitting that the surreal video matches it in both its haunting visuals and deliberate pace.

The Prodigy
The Prodigy ruled ‘90s dance clubs with their energized and raucous electronic music. With their music video for “Breathe,” the crew bounces around a dilapidated apartment among a wild and sinister set of visuals. Things quickly race out of control as the space appears to be home to various creatures like an alligator. All the while, the intense stares and rhythms from the band make you feel increasingly uneasy. Combine that with some faulty plumbing and bugs to make this an Airbnb worth skipping. With flickering lights and a troubling location, The Prodigy delivers with a video that will keep you up at night.

Tool
Tool’s progressive metal coincides with a truly one-of-a-kind and nearly indescribable video. Two humanoid figures stretch out and make their home in some kind of prison cell. Defying expectations and the laws of physics, the two characters pull each other apart in a series of body horror sequences. Somehow this isn’t the strangest thing that happens in the video. Before you’re too comfortable again, a piece of one character hits the ground and forms into a small being. It’s decisions like this that make Tool one of the most inventive and sometimes frightening acts in modern metal.

Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam’s video for “Jeremy” explores the dangers lurking within disgruntled kids. Showing the title character’s isolated life as a misunderstood student, the piece helps underscore the violent tendencies that form inside misguided young men. Alongside Eddie Vedder’s poignant words, the lyrics and visuals detail all the warning signs of a future tragedy. It all leads towards a finale that makes for the most disturbing aspect of the entire story. Based on a real person, Jeremy ends his life in front of his class. Their horrified faces close out the video on a particularly sobering and unsettling moment.

Marilyn Manson
‘90s provocateur and controversial figure Marilyn Manson gets a lot of mileage out of his gothic stage persona. Through a series of increasingly grotesque videos like “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” he challenges the status quo in the name of bad taste. Few performers mug for the camera in elaborate outfits as well as Manson. The artist and other unsightly characters populate this nightmare-inducing world like it’s their home. Using images of self-harm, the singer wishes for his audience to look away in disgust. He even saddles up a pig and rides it in one of many strange scenes. His “The Beautiful People” video also serves up spooky images, but “Sweet Dreams” has all of the essential creepiness that made him infamous.

Aphex Twin
Sometimes the most disturbing content is that which we don’t understand. Take this Aphex Twin video as a chief example of that concept. A woman walks her dog until a strange broadcast comes on and creepy-faced children wreak havoc on a city. A narrative with just one terrorizing force would be enough to scare anybody, but this one goes one step further. Everything reaches a breaking point when a crazy humanoid crawls out of a TV and roars at the woman. Descending into chaos, the world is no match for Aphex Twin’s creature and his army of frightening kids. It’s among the most bizarre and shocking sensory overloads in all of music video history.