I’m not sure if you could call this a trend per se, but lately I’ve been noticing how many disturbing music videos there are featuring children.
I’ve always been a big fan of music videos but they can make or break a song, especially if you begin to associate the song with the video. Maybe that’s what they mean when they say video killed the radio star?
Anyway, what the heck is with all these videos featuring disturbing elements of childhood? Is it because childhood gaiety and innocence, when combined with the darker aspects of human existence, are an artistic goldmine (see Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for milder examples)? Or perhaps it’s because it’s so unexpected, and this is why horror movies with and about children are particularly disturbing, why evil clowns and ice cream truck jingles and broken music boxes send a shiver down one’s spine …
Here are some of the videos I’ve noticed with children being creepy. If you’re particularly sensitive to disturbing images, as I am, then I wouldn’t recommend watching all of these. Just use your own discretion. They’re not that bad, and there are certainly worse, but the warning stands.
- “Helena Beat” by Foster the People
Sick beat. Foster the People’s one of the best indie pop bands to come out this year riding on the coattails of MGMT and all of their songs are infectiously catchy.
So here we have a dude, driving along in his beat-up van along some rural-ish road, minding his own business, and has to stop when he sees an old-fashioned pram in the middle of the road. He’s then ambushed by a ragtag group of very angry children who proceed to kidnap him, trash his van, kick the crap out of him, and then tie him to some sort of torture device that turns him into a menacing child.
Happiness.
- “Phantom Limb” by The Shins
Man, I love this melody! Okay, so this is nice. A bunch of kids putting on some sort of pageant play. Vaguely Pilgrims and Native Americans. An Aryan angel gives a little dark-skinned girl a sword and she becomes a Crusader! Blonde Imperialists trade goods with an Aztec tribe. War ensues. Inevitably. Pilgrims (including some adults) burn the little dark-skinned girl at the stake! The creepy Aryan angel returns, backlit and singing. And they all take a bow. I guess the video is supposed to be depicting a child’s pageant play but I am not really sure how it fits the song …
- “First of the Year (Equinox)” by Skrillex
This one is actually pretty neat. A creepy pedophile follows a cute little girl down a set of stairs, gets his chloroform all ready while the girl is using the phone, and then the little girl turns around … and begins pummeling his creepy butt with her telekinetic/demonic skills. The “victim” exacts revenge on a lurking predator. The last shot shows the girl making a mark on a wall, perhaps representing how many pedophiles she’s killed? Interesting switch.
- “Midnight City” by M83
More kids with telekinetic powers and freakish eyes. This one is less disturbing and more slightly unsettling.
- “Bigger Than Us” by White Lies
I always find it disturbing when they get kids to mouth the voice of a lead singer. Here a little boy lies singing in a hospital bed while a medical team works desperately to resuscitate a chocolate bar called “Bigger Than Us.” Okay. The lead singer (who sounds a lot like Robert Smith) walks his way past the yellow tape and resurrects a … little girl … from the chocolate bar …
The little girl then walks towards herself, on a billboard, the little boy runs after her, and they kiss. Ah, puppy love. If only it didn’t feel so weird.
- “Dark on Fire” by Turin Brakes
Yes, Gossip Girl got me into Turin Brakes, but it’s not my fault they feature killer bands on their show! Anyway, here’s a bunch of kids playing Cowboys and Indians in the forest. The fact that the song is haunting in and of itself only adds a dark element to the depiction of children and the violent games they play. All the children lie dead on the leaves except for the survivor, who is the cutest little thing who just hid behind a log with her stuffed animal.
Hunger Games, anyone?
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Does anyone else have any thoughts about the creepy child trope in music videos, or disturbing music videos featuring children? Are there any videos I’ve missed?
Wow – it’s been ages since I watched music videos. Seems that’s a good thing.
Ha ha. Did you watch these, Bobbie?
I think it’s a little unfair to be using these children to create narratives that they can’t fully understand. Holocene is a lovely video though.
Yes, the Holocene video is so lovely. I can’t figure out if it’s Ireland or Iceland though.
And I agree that it is unfair to use kids to create narratives they don’t understand. That is the perfect way of putting it. I didn’t include it, but the official video for MGMT’s “Kids” shows a small infant being harassed by really horrifying monsters and it makes you wonder about the effect something like that has on such a small child …