10 Most Paused Music Videos
The most creative, weird, and eye-popping music videos ever.
No matter how much the music industry has changed over the years, music videos continue to be a fantastic tool to promote an artist's work, and in the age of streaming video, their complexity, scope, and sheer imagination has arguably never been better.
But truly remarkable, iconic, and unforgettable music videos are few and far between, let alone those that will have fans coming back again and again to obsessively revisit every last frame.
Yet every so often, a music video comes along that ditches the assertion that the format is nothing more than shallow, glossy advertising, and dares to reward those viewers who actually pay attention.
These 10 music videos, by way of their controversial nature, their insane visual inventiveness, and their sheer WTF factor, have not only racked up insane YouTube views, but also kept audiences inquisitively mashing the pause button to gawk at every tantalising image and uncover every hidden Easter egg.
If only all music videos were this bold, this envelope-pushing, and this visually stunning...
10. Madonna - Like A Prayer
Madonna has never been a stranger to controversy, and her crowning achievement in that regard is surely her unforgettable video for her 1989 smash hit "Like A Prayer."
The video casts Madge as the observer of a young white woman's murder and consequent framing of an innocent black man, juxtaposed with the incendiary imagery of the singer kissing Black Jesus and the literally incendiary visual of Madonna dancing in front of flaming crosses set alight by the Ku Klux Klan.
It certainly left a bruising impact on the far-right, the religiously inclined, and pearl-clutching "concern" groups, while the Vatican formally condemned the video and Madonna was ultimately dropped by Pepsi as a result of the outcry.
Though it would've been easy for such a video to play as self-consciously headline-baiting, the swiftness with which its provocative imagery agitated racists and prudes everywhere allowed it to transcent - and even its critics can't deny how bloody catchy the song remains today.