The trip-hop duo, Massive Attack, helped pioneer the collaborative UK music scene in the '90s, working with the likes of Banksy, Damon Albarn, and Tricky. Their extraordinary producing, haunting instrumentals, and poetic lyrics have helped make Massive Attack one of the most notorious social activist music groups of all time, still releasing music to this day to educate and provoke thought.
Daddy G and Robert '3D' Del Naja often involve different sounds, producers, and vocals in their music to better invoke their various messages and tones, one of the methods to grab listeners' attention being their high-art filmography. Their music videos add so much meaning and style to the songs that it causes people to rewatch them to grasp or relive the cinematic experiences they offer.
10 Ritual Spirit - 8 Million Views
Mesmerizing is the word for this video. Starring Kate Moss, the model is shown twirling around a lightbulb in the dark, editing in time with the music. The patterns, overlays, and double-exposures result in trance-like imagery as Moss is subsequently also lit from all angles.
As the song progresses, the light flashes different colors. The video's meditative beat and the hypnotizing visuals make for an experience in which one feels like some actual 'ritual' is going on.
9 Risingson - 12 Million Views
Del Naja and Daddy G rap and croon in this haunting single evoke a sense of discomfort and unease. The pair and a group of fellow bandmates are shown in a jams session in a dark green room. The atmosphere is strange as it's edited in slow motion, contributing to the tone's decrepit sludginess.
People try to break in, electrical outlets spark and burn, and the walls are shot through. There's a sense of suspense throughout.
8 Karmacoma - 13 Million Views
Set to a trance-like beat, the video itself feels like a fever dream. Multiple film references from Pulp Fiction, Barton Fink, and The Shining are parodied as its characters run amock, their worlds and personalities clashing.
The duo sings as the characters come across each other, harboring different rooms or exploring The Shining-esque hotel floor. It's a lighter video that brings up questions as to why the setting and characters are, some suggesting it could be a sort of purgatory based on the combining of pop culture, nostalgia, and memories.
7 Protection - 15 Million Views
The video directed by the legendary Michel Gondry takes place in a shifting landscape of a city, peeking into the profiles of apartment residents as they fearlessly live their lives despite certain dangers they have to avoid. Daddy G, with groceries in his hand, and a little girl wait in an elevator having a pleasant conversation, though the elevator is cut in half and could easily lead to a nasty fall down the shaft.
Tracy Thorn hurriedly searches for her keys, while a woman nervously checks on her many locks. Del Naja appears to be fixing his computer, and other miscellaneous interactions continue as the settings change and combine impossibly. The song describes offering support and 'protection.'
6 Live With Me - 16.2 Million Views
A coughing bell ringer announces, "we'll have a barrel of fun," as a dramatic orchestra ebbs on. This video is a heart-wrenching story of a woman who has a severe problem with alcohol.
After heavily drinking, the woman leaves her home, lays upon a park bench, and stares up at the stars as the video cuts away to her falling endlessly. The display is a reminder of just how serious and life-threatening the issue of alcoholism is and is a test to the sympathy of the viewer.
5 The Spoils ft. Hope Sandoval - 16.8 Million Views
Starring Cate Blanchett against a black background, this melancholic single was sung by Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval and describes the feeling of heartbreak and emptiness.
The image of Blanchett is continuously deconstructed in multiple fashions, whether it be stripping her of her skin, showing a concrete cast of her head, and other imagery that implies the emotions and layers to a person behind their visage.
4 Voodoo in My Blood - 20 Million Views
Inspired heavily by the graphic subway scene from the horror film Possession 1981, Rosemund Pike wanders an empty parking garage hallway and comes across a strange sci-fi orb hovering about. She laughs at it as it hypnotizes her and seems to take over her mind.
It penetrates her eye with a tiny needle and proceeds to force her to throw herself against the wall and contort painfully and dance herself into exhaustion. This video is miles scarier than most Black Mirror episodes as it raises questions about manipulation, technology, and mind control.
3 Angel - 39 Million Views
Daddy G stars in a mysterious narrative involving himself walking through a parking garage. He gets the feeling he's being followed and looks back to see multiple people are following him. The longer this goes on, the more scared he becomes, trying to run away as more people appear and run after him. Their intentions are left unclear.
In the end, Daddy G stands and stares them down. As he steps forward, they do as well. Realizing all he needs to do to stop the following is chase after them. It appears that he joins them in the end.
2 Unfinished Sympathy - 59 Million Views
Shara Nelson produces powerful vocals for this immersive track as she walks down the sidewalk of a city, passing or being followed by some city residents. The Massive Attack duo also make cameos within the video, details such as that are strewn throughout as different walks of life enter and leave the frame.
It's an effective piece on the needs, differences, and sameness of people.
1 Teardrop - 76 Million Views
This animated music video has intrigued, confused, and even creeped out very many viewers. A stop motion fetus in a womb sings along to the song--the track of which was inspired by a real-life loss. The song's tone and mood can be described as transcendence, as it (in Elizabeth Fraser's voice) describes the expression of being alive, self-reflection, and the action of loving.
Towards the end of the video, bright lights cause the fetus to be confused and shield its eyes, implying that imposing external forces to be experienced and being sheltered from. What happens to the fetus is not known.
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