History MindScrew / Music

** Making a mockery of their boast (on the earlier LPs) "No Synthesizers", Queen were notorious for employing over-the-top studio trickery. The vocal effects were achieved by using an astonishing number of overdubs, often well over 100. For each little snippet, not the entire "operatic" passage.
** "39" from the same album is also like this (they set off in '39, travelled for a ''year'', and ''returned'' in '39 -- [[WritersCannotDoMath WTF?!?!]]), unless one realises that [[spoiler:this is a FilkSong, which like many folk songs is an ''allegory'' about a voyage (this one being a space voyage, so one year of ship time is 100 years of Earth time)]]. Watching the video on the DVD version of the album makes it suddenly make sense.

*** And this makes, you know, ''money''?
*** Enough to keep Mr, Lucassen afloat, at least. It's [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome damn good music]].

* BoardsOfCanada thrives on this, but their song Aquarius is particularly egregious. It starts of with samples of sarcastic children, then a woman starts counting, then she starts saying the numbers in a seemingly random order, and finally starts outright inventing numbers (sixty-ten and sixty orange)...and there's a sample of a man saying the word "orange" throughout the song. If there's a meaning behind any of it, no one seems to know what it is

* PinkFloyd's ''TheWall'' falls here. The movie even more so.

* TheBeatles: "Number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine..."

** I always found ''Doctor Worm'' to be pretty straightforward. It's about a guy who wants to be a rock and roll drummer and has picked a bizarre stage name. Or an actual worm who wants to be a drummer and likes to call himself a doctor. One of those. But, yeah, a whole lot of their other songs are way beyond my understanding.

* PhilOchs 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.]]

*** It's rather ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The song is a homage to the classic 1930's and 1940's movies, and the lyrics are either quotes or references from them. The title directly refers to TheMalteseFalcon; the sampled dialogues are, among others, from TheThiefOfBaghdad; the song ends with a sound of an old movie projector shutting down; and at one point, Anderson references Clark Gable, (Douglas) Fairbanks and Maureen O'Sullivan by name.

*** WTF do you mean, "''minus'' the nightmare fuel"?! o.O

* Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, while only debuting in late 2011, is certainly in this section. Her first song is PONPONPON (meaning "clap clap clap") has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzC4hFK5P3g this]] video, though the [[http://superhappyawesome.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/hengao-pon-pon-pon-lyrics-and-a-chance-to-meet-kyary-pamyu-pamyu/ lyrics]] make slightly more sense.

** Let's not forget "Life on Mars", which has been described as "a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dali painting." A girl leaves her house as her parents fight, goes to the movies, and then there's something about fighting sailors, corrupt cops, and Mickey Mouse.
** Heck, a lot of David Bowie is like this, and that's not even counting ''{{Labyrinth}}''.

** Special mention to African Night Fight which has an entirely new sound and parts of it are sung in a Kenyan dialect and bizarre lyrics describing some kind of fight and stuff about a baby being born silent and hardships.

** A lot of the mind-screwiest stuff was never recorded (or sung). In the early days, the arrangements and effects were quite complicated and the equipment was fairly primitive, so there would often be long breaks between numbers at concerts while the technicians frantically rejigged the equipment for the next song. Peter Gabriel took to filling these gaps with mind-screwy narrative pieces which he usually made up on the spot. Some of them have been transcribed on the sleeves of early live albums and literature. ''The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'' is basically an extended one of these, with some of the scenes set to music.

** I don't think Bungle's nearly as much of a Mind Screw as Fantomas is. Of course, if you ask Mike Patton, Fantomas is perfectly straightforward...

* The video for {{Goldfrapp}}'s 'Ride a White Horse'. Anyone who has seen it will agree. Totally off, and very strange.

* Arguably, many forms of classical music fall into this category for the non-academic listener (and even the academic, for many of the modern compositions). Embedded within the music of the Romantic era through the twentieth century are such dense layers of symbolism and mathematical placement of notes that we often find pieces that look good on paper, but are not necessarily enjoyed by everyone. Even studying these compositions or attempting to play them can be a nightmare.

* Several songs by the group Renaissance have imagery that tells some kind of story but the listener is stumped as hell trying to figure out what it's really talking about. Take my descriptions with a grain of salt - as I said, I've no idea what these are on about either. Favorites include:

** Their early work is just as difficult to fathom at points, as well as often ''intentionally'' invoking EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory... Sometimes literally.

* On a related note, the particular strain of [[{{Industrial}} Post-Industrial Music]] that Current 93 emerged from is known for its mind-screwiness, with frequent collaborators Nurse With Wound and Coil quite often taking the cake.

** Anything by the Vocaloid producer Hachi is almost certain to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSCnsTGuroM mess]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEeb9rOKn3Y with]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JGaQ3g8WU4 your]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZQ2tvqLgok 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 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.

* Just about ''every'' SoundHorizon album. ''Roman'' is especially infamous for this, but even the seemingly straightfoward ''Märchen'' album starts getting more and more confusing once you start thinking about it. (is Märchen RewritingReality, or [[UnreliableNarrator is he just telling fanciful revenge stories loosely based on depressing happenings?]] Is he in a PlatonicCave? [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Magic or Mudane]]? Does Idolfried Ehrenberg actually have any significance to the story, or did [[TeasingCreator Revo]] just put him in to mess with the audience? Märchen is Idolfried - [[LukeIAmYourFather and by extension the Well Girl's father]] - isn't he?...)

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etxd0z5TfiA The music video]] for the Music/{{Madness}} song "(Waiting for the) Ghost Train" is a fairly mild example. It features the band dressed in suits that look like newspapers, a random [[UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground London Underground]] sign for a station that doesn't exist, a man dressed as a frog appearing out of nowhere and disappearing just as suddenly, lead singer Suggs wearing a succession of [[CoolHat funny hats]] for no good reason, the saxophonist dressed as a Japanese man with angel wings being thrown out of a plane and the drummer's head appearing from a pot of baked beans, among other truly weird things. In spite of this bizareness, the song's meant to be about apartheid in South Africa.

* The music video for "Disturbia" by {{Rihanna}}. It looks like if nightmare fuel manifested itself in music video form, and didn't care about whether it made any sense or not.
* "Syncronicity II" by ThePolice. Its predecessor was a straightforward, bouncy song about harmony of mind and understanding. While it is a song about a middle-class man in a rather disastrous home situation, a mundane job, and a generally depressing, repetitive, and horrible life. With a giant sea monster looming somewhere in the distance. [[EpilepticTrees Yeah, there was some headscratching.]]

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etxd0z5TfiA The music video]] for the Madness song ''(Waiting for the) Ghost Train'' is a fairly mild example. It features the band dressed in suits that look like newspapers, a random LondonUnderground sign for a station that doesn't exist, a man dressed as a frog appearing out of nowhere and disappearing just as suddenly, lead singer Suggs wearing a succession of [[CoolHat funny hats]] for no good reason, the saxophonist dressed as a Japanese man with angel wings being thrown out of a plane and the drummer's head appearing from a pot of baked beans, among other truly weird things. In spite of this bizareness, the song's meant to be about apartheid in South Africa.

* ''Music/{{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}}.

* The {{Ayreon}} {{rock opera}} "The Human Equation" appears to simply be a look into the mind of a comatose man dealing with a lifetime's worth of angst and misdeeds... until the very end of the final track, where [[spoiler:It's revealed that it is simply a computer simulation being run for the benefit of an advanced alien life form]].

** The song ''1984'' was written as part of an aborted rock-opera version of the book [[NineteenEightyFour 1984]].

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

* {{Boards Of Canada}} thrives on this, but their song Aquarius is particularly egregious. It starts of with samples of sarcastic children, then a woman starts counting, then she starts saying the numbers in a seemingly random order, and finally starts outright inventing numbers (sixty-ten and sixty orange)...and there's a sample of a man saying the word "orange" throughout the song. If there's a meaning behind any of it, no one seems to know what it is

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

** All three tracks on ''Close to the Edge'' are like this: they seem to make sense, but actually don't. Although "And You And I" could be interpreted as being based on [[IsaacAsimov the Foundation trilogy]].

* LadyGaga increasingly seems to be aiming for this. The best examples being her music videos for Alejandro and Born This Way.

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

* Just about ''every'' SoundHorizon album. ''Roman'' is especially infamous for this, but even the seemingly straightfoward ''Märchen'' album starts getting more and more confusing once you start thinking about it. (is Märchen RewritingReality, or [[UnreliableNarrator is he just telling fanciful revenge stories loosely based on depressing happenings?]] Is he in a PlatonicCave? [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Magic or Mudane]]? Does Idolfried Ehrenberg actually have any significance to the story, or did [[TeasingCreator Revo]] just put him in to mess with the audience? Märchen is Idolfried - [[LukeIAmYourFather and by extension the Well Girl's father]] - isn't he?...)

* Just about ''every'' SoundHorizon album. ''Roman'' is especially infamous for this, but even the seemingly straightfoward ''Märchen'' album starts getting more and more confusing once you start thinking about it. (is Märchen RewritingReality, or [[UnreliableNarrator is he just telling fanciful revenge stories loosely based on depressing happenings?]] Is he in a PlatonicCave? [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Magic or Mudane]]? Does Idolfried Ehrenberg actually have any significance to the story, or did [[TeasingCreator Revo]] just put him in to mess with the audience? Märchen is Idolfried - [[LukeIAmYourFather and by extension the Well Girl's father]] - isn't he?...)
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* Just about ''every'' SoundHorizon album. ''Roman'' is especially infamous for this, but even the seemingly straightfoward ''Märchen'' album starts getting more and more confusing once you start thinking about it. (is Märchen RewritingReality, or [[UnreliableNarrator is he just telling fanciful revenge stories loosely based on depressing happenings?]] Is he in a PlatonicCave? [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Magic or Mudane]]? Does Idolfried Ehrenberg actually have any significance to the story, or did [[TeasingCreator Revo]] just put him in to mess with the audience? Märchen is Idolfried ([[LukeIAmYourFather and by extension the Well Girl's father]]), isn't he?...)
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* BritneySpears 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.

** Jon Anderson, frontman of Yes' collaboration with Vangelis produced The Friends of Mr. Cairo. 12 minutes of nothing but MindScrew.

** * All three tracks on ''Close to the Edge'' are like this: they seem to make sense, but actually don't. Although "And You And I" could be interpreted as being based on [[IsaacAsimov the Foundation trilogy]].

* "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" by the PetShopBoys. The song itself is relatively straight-forward, but the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnMiwRj_C7Y music video]]'s a bit of a MindScrew, with a strong dash of NightmareFuel.

** Minus the NightmareFuel, the same goes with the music video for Total Eclipse of the Heart. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=840B27zYfOk "Turn around bright eyes...".]]

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

* Pick a {{Tool}} [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhjG47gtMCo music video.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiV_ue-PbL4&feature=related Any]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUXBCdt5IPg&feature=related Tool]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hglVqACd1C8&feature=related music]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCEeAn6_QJo&feature=related video.]] Also frequently overlaps into serious [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Nightmare Fuel]] territory.

* The music video for "Disturbia" by {{Rihanna}}. It looks like if [[NightmareFuel nightmare fuel]] manifested itself in music video form, and didn't care about whether it made any sense or not.

** Their early work is just as difficult to fathom at points, as well as often being NightmareFuelUnleaded and ''intentionally'' invoking EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory... Sometimes literally.

* ''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.

** Her second song was called "Tsukema Tsukema" which is about putting on false eyelashes. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLy4cvRx7Vc Video makes... sense..]]

* If you start analyzing "[[{{Journey}} Don't Stop Belivin']]" instead of [[EarWorm singing it]] ([[CrowdSong along with everyone else around]]), you'll notice that the lyrics are a bunch of stories that may not have any connection.