The Top 10 Most-Confusing Dance Music Videos

Although most of us have had our relative experiences with certain compositions, as we dance, we rage, we get uplifted or we turn euphoric, its fair to say that Dance Music has always had only one motive on the dancefloor – to make you dance. We are united in celebration as the higher sonic frequencies synchronizes our movements and brings us together in unison as we gleefully accept throbbing melodies and deeper grooves. The same, however, can never be said about the visual counterpart of our favorite melodies.

Undeniably, Music videos have been an integral part of music making as it is seen a vision of what the song stands for and what it attempts to invoke in listeners. As there is no fixed rule, music videos have always been regarded as a creative and innovative means for artists to engage fans and listeners by giving them another dimension for their senses. Over the last few decades, we’ve had some marvelous Dance Music videos that have respectively, alleviated the message in the original, entertained us with quirky humor, ventured into the unreal and phantasmic or have been just plain and simple short-festival-documentaries! But every now and then, we come across a music video that just downright leaves us scratching our temples, and raising our eyebrows, as it leaves us spellbound and yet utterly confused! We take a look, in no particular order or ranking, at some of the most confusing Dance Music videos we’ve come across.

P.S. We understand the relativity of this topic, hence we would love to know more such videos that have left you utterly confused and bewildered. Let’s start a discussion and hopefully somebody can tell us the meaning!

Edu Imbernon – Dalt (Original Mix)

The Spanish Techno genius Imbernon certainly has his way with his compositions. Dark, delirious and delving deep into the unexplored, he has time and again showed us how sinister basslines can be uplifting and euphoric as well. His single from this year ‘Dalt‘ has been well received by Dancfloor fanatics across the globe over the past 12 months, however the video is somewhat raised a few eyebrows. What begins with a simple enough race between two bike messengers changes tempo quite drastically, as one of the passengers stumbles upon a pretty maiden, and suddenly begins to daydream about her in a forest setting surrounded by people in weird masks and funny clothes doing a couple of parkour tricks! The video is confusing and the ending is unexplained.

Bonobo – Cirrus (Original Mix)

There are few who can match the musical abilities of Bonobo. But his music video for his track from last year ‘Cirrus‘ also showed, that even fewer can make sense of his music videos! On first glance, one would perhaps dismiss the video saying it was depicting a drug-induced trip, however as you look closer, you will find certain patterns and messages being revealed as slices of children playing is overlapped with industrial workers or huge robots begin marching over a city! The visuals on the video use all kinds of visual trickery such as symmetry, image slicing and arrays of repetitive elements, but we’re guessing there’s definitely more to this than meets the eye. Can anybody decipher this?

DJ Snake & Lil Jon – Turn Down for What (Original Mix)

DJ Snake‘s collaboration with Lil Jon conjured up one of the best twerk-hits of last year with ‘Turn down for what‘. But its the music video that’s really a headturner. It’s aggressive, delirious, at times quirky but mostly, its downright confusing. What is it that began this whole infectious dance vibe? And what’s with the superhuman ability of breaking through walls and floors or melting peoples face with your screaming? Check out the video below but be aware, this is certainly a NSFW!

Chicane – Love on the run (Original Mix)

In his last two decades as an established electronic music producer, Chicane has been regarded as an innovative driving force in the Dance Music fraternity. His compositions are tasteful, emotive and have a slight touch of surrealism in them. His track ‘Love on the run‘ has a music video of similar proportions as it delves a little on the sci-fi edge. What begins and continues as a chase on the protagonist ends with a twist that leaves us totally bewildered. Check it out below!

Armin van Buuren – Blue Fear (Special Video for ‘The Music Videos (1997-2009′)

For most Dance Music fans, it all started way back with Armin and his first ever track ‘Blue Fear‘. The track holds a symbolic stature for most, as the starting point of what we know now as Trance music and for others it was a sound built purely to liberate and exalt our senses. As part of a massive compilation series called “Armin van Buuren – The Music Videos (1997-2009)“, the video making team of  Ciro Ayala and Provoke Films made this unreal video in tribute of the Trance anthem that was. The video runs on two different plots, one of a mysterious man who has the ability to bend mass, as to create a red ship that sails over the seas, and the other plot features a young girl being chased by a sinister looking figure. The video is spread over three different chapters which are almost illegible on the video, leaving us utterly confused in decoding one of the greatest anthems from the Dance Music era.

Richie Hawtin – The Tunnel (Original Mix)

This 2005 masterpiece by The Plastikman will long go down as one of his best works in minimal electronica. However, its a doubt whether the same can be said about the video. Featuring himself as part of a seemingly lab-rat experiment set up, Hawtin is perched up on a chair as he does some Jedi-mind tricks to a ball of an unknown element kept ahead of him. His behavior turns more eccentric and erratic as the video progresses, asking the question just what is this material and what is the meaning of this bizarre video?

Chemical Brothers – Believe (Original Mix)

Part of their historic ‘Push The Button’ album way back in 2004, this Chemical Brothers music video is perhaps the most confusing of their lot – and believe us, they have quite a few! You’d wish that the very first frame would set the tone for the rest of the video, but sadly it doesn’t. Instead it turns darker and more delirious as each beat progresses, turning on the psychotic leaving us almost empathizing with the protagonist. An insomniac industrial worker gets it all wrong as his mundane life takes a turn for the worse as he hallucinates being chased by one of the machines he works with everyday. Sounds deep, doesn’t it? This video can be deemed as Horror, so you ought to leave the lights on for this one!

David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj – Turn Me On (Original Mix)

You wouldn’t think partystarter David Guetta would find a name on this list, although his early videos would have certainly made him atleast a special mention on this list. But with his 2011 collaboration with Nicki Minaj, ‘Turn me on‘ certainly finds him book a spot as one of the most confusing videos you’d come across. The video features a hooded Guetta who double-times as a sort of inventor, who put together pieces of Minaj together suggesting she’s a breed of artificial intelligence. So far so good? As Minaj steps out of the cellar where Guetta is stationed, we learn everyone in the town is a walking mannequin of sorts! She then leads a team back to their inventor’s cellar where a further twists awaits the viewer. The video fails to make sense thereforth as we see more information about the eerie mannequins while Minaj continues to sing lyrics that have no link back to what we’re seeing.

The Prodigy – Smack My B*tch Up

This is probably the mother-ship of all confusing & bizarre videos. Prodigy are infamous for their wild music videos but ‘Smack My B*tch Up‘ takes the prize for the most bizarre and confusing video they’ve ever done! The video begins with a point-of-view ritual for a partygoer that undertakes the seemingly usual order of drugs and alcohol, before things turn really sinister in the latter part of the videos. This video was pretty controversial back in the day, finding itself being banned on many platforms and it remains to this day one of the weirdest & unusual on ever made. Check it out below but be aware that its NSFW!

ATB – 9 PM (Till I Come)

One of Dance Music’s earliest hits, ‘Till I Come‘ was the late 90’s-early 00’s partygoers anthem. ATB picked up a simple vocal added a delightful playful groove and melody to create one of the most distinct sounds of the Dance Music era. The music video still remains in our psyche as one of the biggest mysteries of Dance music, despite it having ATB cooking, a super spy girlfriend and plenty of latex! What makes this video confusing is its abrupt shift in its plot, a confusing package and of course, an exploding Andre Tennerberger! Check out this bizarre video and tell us if you can figure this out!