Top 10 Psychedelic Music Videos That Will Trip Your Mind
If you were to try and come up with a list of different psychedelic music videos that you could put into a list and add a new video to it each and every day, there is a very good chance that you would be very skeptical that you would be able to continue doing so for very long. In fact, you would more than likely think that after about a month or so of adding just one new video to your list of psychedelic videos, you would probably run out of videos to add altogether.
With that being said however, you would be surprised to find that you can actually add a new psychedelic music video to your list every single day for a minimum of two years in a row. What this means is that you would now have a list of well over 700 different psychedelic music videos that would have been put onto your list over the past two years. This means that there are actually many more psychedelic music videos floating around out there than just about anybody would have ever imagined. What makes this even more exciting, is the fact that psychedelic music videos are not just going to be older music videos. In fact, these types of music videos are actually being created and released every single day, whether you have heard about them or not. And at a rate of release that is more than there have ever been before by both professional workers, as well as independent artists alike. Many of these videos are going to be attributed to the increase in computer technology over the ages, as well as the ability to share these same videos with other people by putting them online as soon as they have been created. With all of that being said, while this list of trippiest psychedelic music videos is going to have some that were originally created back in the 1960s, most of the videos that have made the list are going to have been created within the past 10 years.
Psychedelic Music Videos and Technology
Speaking of evolving technology for making trippy and psychedelic music videos, the implementation of 3-D screen technology and even virtual augmentation reality glasses has even been able to take these already trippy music videos and make them even more psychedelic. All of this means that it is going got be very exciting to see which direction and how the continually evolving 3-D technology is going to be able to continue to shape and mold how psychedelic music videos are made.
With so many different types of psychedelic music videos floating around, there is plenty to choose from when it comes to trying to put a list together of the very best ones that you simply need to see at least one time in your life. With that being said, there are not going to be many lists of different psychedelic music videos that have been compiled all in one place by just about anybody. If you do an internet search, yes, you will find lists with plenty of different psychedelic movies on it, but you will more than likely have a very difficult time trying to find any type of list that has short videos such as music videos listed on it. When you think about this, it definitely makes sense as prior to the internet, sites like Vimeo and YouTube were not around, so there was essentially no way to let people know that a particular band had just released a new psychedelic music video, or any video for that matter. But luckily for you, the internet has brought everyone video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, meaning that you can now very easily get access to a psychedelic music video if you are looking for it, and even if you are not looking for it.
The Best Psychedelic Music Videos
With everything being told, this list is more than likely going to be one of the very first of its kind, so this list of the most psychedelic music videos has been though about for a very long time. With over 700 different music videos to consider for the ‘best of the best’ list, the videos that were able to make it definitely belong right where they are on here.
So, without further ado, here are some of the best psychedelic music videos that you need to watch at least once from the past 50 years.
#1 – Air – Sing Sang Sung (2009)
This is going to be a great video that you will more than likely want to watch more than once, Not only is the music going to make you want to watch and listen to it again, but trying to follow a ball through what is a lily pad mushroom forest and a sea that is full of different types of diamonds is definitely going to take your mind for a ride. When partnered together, the song ‘Sing Sang Sung’ and the video are going to help you to realize a very dreamy, almost comforting world that has literally nothing for you to worry about. This video was directed by Francois Moriceau and Petra Mrkyz.
#2 – Pencil Draw – Chris Casady (1988)
The song ‘Pencil Draw’, can almost be related to taking a piece of 12” paper and using some black markers and pens to draw that of something you would think an 8-year-old would draw (which makes for some seriously psychedelic effects with the animation). What makes this particular music video so much more special, is the fact that Casady has actually been the one responsible for the special effects in several different big Hollywood films throughout the 1980s and 90s. One of the most notable of these movies would be the hit movie Tron, which was originally released in 1982. Overall, the music video for ‘Pencil Draw’, is packed full of some great imagination and even better energy to the point that it was actually awarded the award for ‘Prize for first film’ in 1989 at Annecy.
#3 – Cut Copy – Corner of the Sky (Unofficial Music Video, 2011)
While this video was never actually released as the official music video for the song ‘Corner of the Sky’, it is still so psychedelic that it was able to beat out hundreds of other videos to make this list. With myriad forms of different types of life on planet Earth, it is definitely a video that will take you on a psychedelic trip, meaning that it is definitely going to be worth watching at least once. You may even feel that after you have finished watching the ‘unofficial’ music video, that it should probably have been made the actual music video for the song.
#4 – Larry Carlson – Contact the Star People (2008)
Being one of the most original visionaries of the entire music genre, he has been able to make some incredibly psychedelic music videos for everyone to enjoy. In fact, you may not know this, but his Vimeo page actually includes a very wide selection of different, very psychedelic, videos that he has created with the help of some of the most bizarre content that you would ever be able to imagine. The ‘Contact the Star People’ video is essentially going to be a very eerie collection of different sounds and images that have been mashed together in order to create a visualization of uncanny and disturbing, yet still very curiously appealing hallucinations.
#5 – Birdfractals in Utrecht (2011)
When it comes to this video, the big takeaway is that during some point, the birds that you have been watching for the duration of the video have started to turn into what looks like some type of computer animated screen saver. Essentially, you are going to need to keep in mind that this video is not actually going to be birds of nature that have started to imitate computer algorithms, but rather some computer algorithms that have started to imitate that of nature. Or you may even walk away saying that the algorithms are nature?
#6 – Blackbird Blackbird (2010)
When it comes to Blackbird Blackbird’s music video, it is going to be one of the few that is able to evoke a type of altered-state imagery that you are actually going to be very familiar with. From the black grid lines, the hints of embarkation, the jewel like colors, or even the approach and the observation, they are all going to be especially redolent. What makes this video so great, is the fact that you have certain patterns that are going to integrate into the rest of the subject matter, essentially creating a formscape that is going to be reminiscent of some hyperspatial modalities. To top it off, you also have some great visual rhythms that are both, cohesive and masterfully executed, that are also going to help compliment the song ‘Pure’, which Blackbird Blackbird did perfectly.
#7 – Chemical Brothers – Let Forever Be (2003)
The music video for ‘Let Forever Be’ by the Chemical Brothers, was done by Michel Gondry, and he did an absolutely perfect job on it. Between the disorienting special effects and the outstanding choreography, together these two aspects of the video are going to create something that can only be explained as a schizophrenic maze of different worlds that all end up collapsing on top of one another.
#8 – DePaul Game Elites – The Devil’s Tuning Fork (2009)
For this music video, you are going to need to ask yourself a somewhat weird type of question. That question is, ‘what if you had to see the world only with your ears?’ The song ‘Devil’s Tuning Fork’, is going to be somewhat of a synesthetic psychedelic exploration or even puzzle game that is done in the first person. In it, you are going to be player one, and will need to figure out how to navigate your way through an unknown world that only uses some very interesting visual sound waves. While the music video is a completely original one, it was inspired by the echolocation of a dolphin and M.C. Escher’s classical optical illusion. All in all, this is going to be one music video that you are more than likely going to want to watch a couple times over.
#9 – BLU – Big Bang Big Boom (2011)
A little different from some of the other music videos on this list of psychedelics, this one brings you a wall-painted animation that seem to simply come alive within the environment, which only makes it even more psychedelic. In it, you will see these animations start to transform from everyday landscapes, into some type of surreal environments that are overflowing with some unexpected and bizarre forms of life. The hit ‘Big Bang Big Boom’, has actually been described as a ‘unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life…and how it could probably end’. As if that weren’t enough to make you want to see the music video, it has also been described as one of the more amazing videos of wall-painted freeze frame animation that has ever been created to this day.
#10 – Alejandro Jodrowski – The Holy Mountain (1973)
Done with the Chilean director that goes by the name Alejandro Jodrowski, this video is simply mind-blowing. While this could be due to the fact that Alejandro Jodrowski is considered to be cinema’s foremost occult figure, or the fact that he has produced some of the most amazing, never before done surreal works to have ever been caught on film, this is another psychedelic video that is simply a must see. On a side note, many people are unaware of the fact that Alejandro Jodrowski has also amassed a worldwide reputation for being a shamanic healer, as well as a tarot reader.
When it comes to psychedelic music videos, there are going to be a lot that will classify in this category. Above are some of the best ones that have been created and considered to be the ‘must see’ videos.
