You could never get away with releasing a “Batdance” now — the movie producers would demand something far more accessible and poppy
I was going to suggest Madonna's Die Another Day as a counter-example, a high-profile theme song to the sixth-heighest grossing film of 2002, in a non-mainstream genre. (According to Wikipedia the song is in the genre electroclash, which I'm pretty sure I've never even heard of until today.) While maybe not quite as experimental as Batdance, it was very divisive, nominated to both a Golden Globe and a Raspberry award.
Then I realised Die Another Day came out closer in time to Batdance than to today...
I was going to suggest Madonna's Die Another Day as a counter-example, a high-profile theme song to the sixth-heighest grossing film of 2002, in a non-mainstream genre. (According to Wikipedia the song is in the genre electroclash, which I'm pretty sure I've never even heard of until today.) While maybe not quite as experimental as Batdance, it was very divisive, nominated to both a Golden Globe and a Raspberry award.
Then I realised Die Another Day came out closer in time to Batdance than to today...