What Does Pink Floyd Have to Do with Alice in Wonderland?

Have you ever seen one of those weird internet videos that plays a movie with a music album? People try to line up films and songs so they supposedly “sync up”. The coolest one matches Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon with the classic kid’s movie Alice in Wonderland from 1951. Crazy, right?!

Lots of fans think Pink Floyd did this on purpose to be artsy. Is that true? Did my favorite band secretly make their music as a soundtrack for Alice? Time to go down the rabbit hole and find out!

First though, let’s do a quick recap in case you haven’t read the book or seen the Disney movie. Alice in Wonderland is the weird adventures of a girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy land. She meets strange characters like a talking rabbit, a Mad Hatter having a never-ending tea party, and a Cheshire Cat that disappears. It’s super wacky!

The story inspired the rock band Pink Floyd when they made their album The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973. The songs are dreamy, psychedelic, and kind of spooky. Some fans noticed music seems to strangely match up with parts of the Alice movie. Online you can even watch them synced together.

Fans point out stuff like these moments matching up:

• The lyrics “the lunatic is on the grass” playing when the Mad Hatter dances.
• Alice walking along a path with the line “got to keep the loonies on the path”.
• The song Brain Damage starting as the Scarecrow sings “if I only had a brain”.
• The Tin Man’s heartbeats matching the end of the album.

Pretty wild coincidence right? Or did Pink Floyd match the movie on purpose?

What Band Members Say

Here’s the truth – Pink Floyd says it’s just coincidence! They weren’t trying to make a soundtrack for Alice.

Guitarist David Gilmour laughed that matching up the album and movie is “absolute nonsense”. Drummer Nick Mason agreed, calling it “a complete load of eyewash”.

The only member who’s hinted it could be real is bassist Roger Waters. But Roger didn’t write all the songs himself – the band composed them together. Their producer Alan Parsons also worked on timing sound effects that seem to sync up.

So if it was planned, way more people would have to be secretly keeping this weird prank going for decades. Unlikely!

The Psychology of Synching Things

Why do our brains try so hard to match up music and movies anyway?

Scientists say humans have something called confirmation bias. That means we focus on details that match our beliefs and ignore stuff that doesn’t fit.

So when a song lyric matches an Alice scene, fans remember it clearly. But we gloss over lyrics that don’t match what we see. We only see the hits and forget the misses.

Brains improperly connect dots all the time. Haven’t you ever dreamed of a long lost friend then run into them the next day? Spooky! But you probably dream of people more often without seeing them. We just don’t pay attention to the non-magic times.

The Verdict

In the end, it’s case closed – Pink Floyd did not design The Dark Side of the Moon to sync up with Alice in Wonderland scenes. The band says it’s 100% coincidence. Our tricky brains do the rest by connecting dots that don’t really match up.

But even without planning, it’s super cool when music and images seem to magically line up! The internet has tons more album and movie mashups to check out. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover the next big magical sync by accident. Just don’t drive yourself as mad as a hatter trying too hard to find one!