History MindScrew / Music

* BritneySpear has a video where she see's a video of someone complaining abouttsomething she did, which made many people mad then she decided to do it, but at the end of the same video is played, at the same time, but she is no longer there to witness it.

* LadyGaga increasingly seems to be aiming for this. The best examples being her music videos for Alejandro and Bad Romance.

* Some of the music videos for Music/PoetsOfTheFall are really weird, but the best example has to be "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKk1u5RMTn4 Carnival of Rust]]", where a woman with a gas mask and a lollipop visits a dilapidated [[CircusOfFear Carnival of Fear]].

* ''{{Nightwish}}''. What a grand old time it is to figure out what half of the lyrics are saying, especially since half of them are of [[WordSaladTitle word salad]] quality. Stargazers, The Poet and the Pendulum, and Ghost Love Score are all huge mind screws, especially the second one with all of its {{mood whiplash}}.

* Divine Styler's second album, ''Spiral Walls Containing Autumns of Light'' makes roughly as much sense as the title would imply. Musically it's a mixture of hip-hop, jam band like improv sessions, funk, and spoken word. Lyrically it makes very little sense, Styler's bizarre delivery (on this album, anyway) doesn't help.

* Everything Music/NewKingdom ever recorded.

* I don't know if this would count, but perhaps {{Rammstein}}'s music video for ''Mutter''. Features Till Lindemann, with hair and fully dressed, going on a seemingly very long journey, on a rowboat through a swamp, in order to bring a bowl of drinking water to another Till Lindemann, bald and naked, living in concrete hole in the ground. The song is anti-cloning/genetic engineering, so it's possible that the bald/naked Till could be a clone, being kept in a hole and perhaps only to be used to harvest its organs in case clothed/hairy Till needs them. [[spoiler: Or the mind screw interpretation could be that the bald/naked Till is the REAL Till, and the clothed one is the clone who has taken his place as Doppelganger, but still retains some guilt, and keeps his true self safe and alive.]]

* The music video (not the song) for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU Bobby McFerrin´s Don´t Worry, Be Happy]].

* Phil Ochs was known as a protest singer who dealt with fairly straightforward subjects (anti-Vietnam War, workers' movement, civil rights, etc.) so his eight-and-a-half minute long allegory of ultimate mindfuckery known as "Crucifixion" [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs seems even more crazy in comparision.]]

* DreamTheater's ''Scenes From A Memory: Metropolis Part 2'' Album definitely has some mind screwing going on. It tells the story of Nicholas, who has visions of a girl. He visits a hypnoterapists and under his guidance realises that he is just a reincarnation of Victoria, a girl that was murdered by The Miracle, one of her two lovers, the other one being The Sleeper (and The Miracle and The Sleeper are brothers, too!). However, in the last song on the CD Nicholas is [[spoiler: shot by the hypnotherapist, who, in turn, is actually a reincarnation of The Miracle.]]

* Leonard Cohen's early songs (late 60's early 70's) top Dylan's by far!

* The music video for {{Genesis}}'s "Land of Confusion", which involves puppet-version of the band, as well as [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent the Reagans]], a [[BodyHorror swamp with heads instead of plants]], and [[ImAHumanitarian the keyboardist using his own tongue as a hot dog bun]].

* "[[TheBeatles Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine...]]"

* The one for ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGs8HUMow74&feature=related Promises (As The Years Go By)]]'' is probably weirder...

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGs8HUMow74&feature=related The one for ''Promises'']] is probably even weirder...

** Anything by the Vocaloid producer Hachi is almost certain to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSCnsTGuroM&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active mess]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEeb9rOKn3Y&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active with]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JGaQ3g8WU4&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active your]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JGaQ3g8WU4&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active head]]. Not to menton their videos, also made by him.

* ''Soundtracks for the Blind'' by Swans. This double-CD behemoth basically [[TropeCodifier codified]] the PostRock genre [[UnbuiltTrope before there was a "Post Rock" genre to codify]]. It is also probably one of the greatest continuous Mind Screws in the history of rock music, as well as being a nigh-bottomless well of [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel/Music}} High Octane Nightmare Fuel]]. It is best explained as being a kind of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin soundtrack to an imaginary movie]]. A very long, very weird movie. Directed by DavidLynch.

* Many of the works of modern classical composer Giacinto Scelsi can be just a tiny bit confusing. Take "Uaxuctum," a piece based on the legend of a Mayan city that ritually destroyed itself. His music has been described as "all transition."

* WeirdAlYankovic's "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05av9iJvgiQ Everything You Know Is Wrong]]"

* TheResidents are pretty consistently this, with their album Not Available (intended never to be released until the band forgot they made it in the first place) as a possible MostTriumphantExample.

** He named one of his relatively-later albums ''Rehearsals for Retirement''; it had his own gravestone as the cover photo.

* WeirdAlYankovic's "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05av9iJvgiQ Everything You Know Is Wrong]]"

* Much of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's work; particularly "My Pink Half of the Drainpipe" and "Rhinocratic Oaths" which feature extended spoken sections which require several listenings to even begin to visualize, let alone understand.

* The lyrics to "the Riddle" themselves are quite unclear about what they are supposed to mean, but then watch [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ehHOwmQRxU&feature=related the music video to them and try to understand what's going on]].

** Heck, a lot of David Bowie is like this, and that's not even counting ''{{Labyrinth}}''.

** A lot of things involving Mike Patton are like this, usually combined with various levels of NightmareFuel

* Finger Eleven's 'One Thing' music video. That is all.