Uncanny Valley/Music: Difference between revisions

** The "mannequin" is actually singer [http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/darling_sarah/bio.jhtml Sarah Darling]. (She also isn't Asian.)

* ''News of the World'' by [[Queen]], based on the cover of Astounding Science Fiction (October 1953), features a disturbing childlike giant robot [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|holding bloodied, dead members of the band in his hand]], while reaching out for terrified rock fans.

** Of particular note is the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoPplpBPQxQ&feature=channel weird robot baby thing from the Technologic video.] It's the teeth behind those wireframe lips.

* RoboLou Reed in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMIgZmmO1c4 "No Money Down"]. {{spoiler|Pulling off the flesh ''almost'' reduces the effect.}}

* Audio example: Adriano Celentano's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BqNcXz-tsc Prisencolinensinainciusol], a standard 70s funk song written by an Italian artist to sound like English. The thing is, to a native English speaker, it can be pretty disturbing, because it keeps ''almost'' sounding like English and then failing.

* The music video for Serj Tankian's "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgQb6il94_I Empty Walls]" features the lead singer parading around a [[Circus of Fear]] with a bizarre, sociopathic look on his face, while various small children play happily... or, as some people have interpreted it, re-enact the War on Terror.

* The puppets in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bl1Wigr4lU the music video] for Wyona's Big Brown Beaver by Primus.

** Those aren't puppets. Those are actually the band members wearing huge, intentionally fake-looking cowboy costumes. They were so cumbersome that they had to mime the song at half its original speed to get the performance down correctly.

** Even before then, you can just tell there's something...wrong with how the backs of their heads look.

** The video no longer exists. It would be great if there was a name of the song or a new link.

* Just about any [[Vocaloid]] song that doesn't have to do with happiness and ice cream involves a mix of this trope with [[Mind Screw]] (see ''Wide Knowledge of Late, Madness''; ''Alice Human Sacrifice''; and ''Dark Woods Circus'' for more details).

** As if that wasn't enough, they made Hatsune Miku, the most popular Vocaloid, into a real-life realistic robot that doesn't even look like her (it's on the web somewhere). This is just ''overkill''.

*** You wouldn't happen to be referring to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FATP0hLt1g this thing], would you?

**** That too, but it's beaten by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlVHwzliC_s this one].

** [[Vocaloid]] songs in general, regardless of the content, are ''just'' robotic and twangy enough to fall into the Uncanny Valley. For some songs, the voice sounds perfectly human (or close enough to be out of the valley), but then there is just that one note where the creator didn't ''quite'' tune the voice right...

** A special mention should be given to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2RFcrreoE8 Circle You, Circle You/Kagome Kagome (the Miku & Luka version).] The images in the video are disturbing in and of themselves, but certain ways Miku and Luka's voice match up falls right into this trope.

** Miku herself (despite being real now) is also featured in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRd7gOfIS-0&annotation_id=annotation_128625&feature=iv this] video, Machine Muzik. Watch and know the truth about Vocaloid...

** Also, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDTro0IMQpw the trailer] for ''Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2''. Realistically-moving characters with anime faces, rubber skin, and plastic hair are extremely unsettling.

* The masks in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhC48yyMic0 this] [[Sound Horizon]] video. At least the witch is supposed to be scary; Lafrenze (the girl) is supposed to be beautiful, though, not ''incredibly fucking creepy''.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfqN0wupduI Face Dances part 2], by Pete Townshend. Good song, weird video. Almost as weird as the singer's nose.

** Case in point: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ "The Robots"]. German version [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHEoMpMvz7A here].

* In the video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjecYugTbIQ "Two Weeks" by Grizzly Bear], the band members' facial features and movements are digitally altered just enough to give them the deliberate appearance of singing automatons. Their unnaturally shiny skin, large eyes, and un-synchronized blinking are unnerving enough, but eventually {{spoiler|light starts pouring out of their mouths and sparks fly out of the backs of their heads}}.

** The Superfast Jellyfish's unchanging smiles and balloon-like movements, even after being microwaved, are [[Let's Meet the Meat|weirdly frightening]]. The side-to-side flopping motion is somehow reminiscent of a hanging victim, and the crazily-smiling guy eating them in the video really does not help.

** Cyborg Noodle just became even more frightening. The Uncanny Valley has ensured us that this monster will never leave our heads. Why? It's Murdoc's fault. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81lAa3kqgCc&feature=channel This is completely Nightmare Fuel for unattached face and creepy as fuck smile.] DO NOT WATCH IN THE DARK. And as of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9thjgHGS38k Melancholy Hill], the Superfast Jellyfish are no longer emotionless jelly bags, and express fear as they rather quickly get sucked up into the jets of the Gorillaz submarine. Even that though has it's own creep factor.

** Also on the subject of Muse, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmwRQqJsegw Feeling Good] may be even worse.

** The video for "Plug in Baby" falls under it in certain parts. Hint: Watch the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbB-mICjkQM&ob=av3e ladies] particularly near the end...

* The three Christina Aguileras from the Candyman music video, anyone? It's only really when they're all side by side, because they all look so animated, since they're supposed to be tributes to hand-drawn pinups, obviously, so what we essentially have is three identical three-dimensional ink people.

* The scary puppet in the video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_OcR0fbf6g Interpol's song "Evil"] is a weird example. It's very, very puppety. It almost looks like a muppet, and it moves its hands like they're on strings. But there's no visible strings and the thing's got a very expressive face, enough that you still get this effect.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oepXF2B5NK4 Genesis' Land of Confusion] is this.

* We came this far without mentioning the robots in [[Herbie Hancock]]'s "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK0Pi4wC8Hk Rockit" video]?!

* The extensive use of cheap halloween masks in Devo's early ouevre apply, notably booji boy. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwVxXgGTbUE This] video features the guys wearing shiny translucent masks that, combined with their performances style, make them look like mannequins that have come ''mostly'' to life.

* [[Daniel Amos]]' album ''Doppelgänger'' features photos of a department-store mannequin in the liner notes. In some of the pictures, he's wearing an eerily-realistic mask, then removes it to show that the too-human eyes are his.

* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m48GqaOz90 music video] for the [[Black Eyed Peas]]' "Boom Boom Pow."

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Sd5c4o9UM The music video for E.T. by Katy Perry ft. Kanye West.] When they show close-ups of her face with the obvious CGI and makeup, it's CREEPY AS HELL! That scary albino alien dude also sends some chills. But the icing on the cake is when Katy removes her robe/dress at the end and inexplicably reveals that she has a FAUN BODY! It was frightening to see those thin hoofed legs. Who ever expected THAT?

* The puppet-people in the video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhVSJUvGwo Falls Apart] by Thousand Foot Krutch. This troper wasn't expecting anything of the sort the first time she started the video, and was thusly scared of it for a month or so.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_os8HqfxHc&feature=player_embedded#at=164 This Japanese music video].

* Does It Offend You, Yeah's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfX48mciYis Weird Science music video].

* [[Bjork]]'s strange angular motions in her music videos.

* Mindless Self Indulgence's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0AX81gv5aM Shut Me Up video]. Everything in the video is just a bit off, and the guy's movements are so exaggerated and such that it's like watching a cartoon with realistic people.

* [[Epica]] embraced this trope like it's own for "Requiem For The Indifferent"

* The music video of the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKk1u5RMTn4 Carnival of Rust]

* [[Sparklehorse]], in both the albums' artwork and the songs themselves, which often have a decaying, rummage sale-like quality that's very off, as if Linkous himself is a faulty clockwork puppet.

* The video for [[The Smashing Pumpkins]]' song "Ava Adore" feature Billy Corgan in that creepy black mu-mu of his moving around in unsettling, jerky motions throughout.

 

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