All language subtitles for Music Videos That Defined The 90s (2018) BR Eng

The music videos during the 1990s

really came into its own.

It was a golden age.

MTV was at its height and the video
was the main promotional tool

to get your song out there.

And it helped sell millions of
records.

# All the people

# So many people

It all started with MTV

but then you have all the different
channels as well.

You've got dance video channels,
rock video channels,

pop video channels.

And in a way, the video in the '90s
became as big as the single.

# You'll never live
like common people

# You'll never do
whatever common people do

The record companies understood

that there was now competition
to get their videos shown.

There had to be something better,
something special

about these videos and that
upped everybody's game.

They often had big stories.
The budgets got big.

There was a lot of money involved.

The idea of getting a director
with a vision

was the significant feature of the
outstanding raft of '90s pop videos.

These were small films.

# Strike the pose

Madonna's Vogue

was inspired by the dancing she'd
seen

in the gay night clubs of New York.

This kind of Vogue style
which was about striking a pose,

imitating models
on the cover of magazines.

# Vogue

She brought in David Fincher

who was an established video maker.

Very, very inventive,

very creative.

And between them they came up with

the concept of Hollywood's golden
age.

# Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe,
Dietrich and DiMaggio

# Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean

# On the cover of a magazine

It's beautifully shot.

Black and white. Very crisp. Very
minimalist in each shot as well.

And really focussing on the dancers
and the moves

in these wonderfully choreographed
routines.

And then these gorgeous close-ups
of Madonna's face

which again are inspired by artwork.

# Vogue

# Let your body move to the music

# Hey, hey, hey

# Come on, Vogue

# Let your body go

# Vogue #

George Michael released Freedom! '90
three years after his huge album

and single Faith.
And in that three years

he had had enough

of being this pop star.

# I won't let you down

Freedom! '90 is that moment where he
turns around to the industry

and to his fans and says,
"I'm not that person any more."

George Michael didn't actually appear
in the video.

Instead he got these five supermodels

who'd appeared
on a very famous Vogue cover

shot by Peter Lindbergh,
Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford,

Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell
and Christie Turlington.

They are kind of enacting scenes
George Michael might have enacted.

# Heaven knows I was just a young boy

# Didn't know what I wanted to be

# I was every little hungry
schoolgirl's pride and joy

# And I guess it was enough for me

Freedom! '90 wasn't just some pretty
faces lyp-syncing.

It also made points about George
Michael himself.

So in the video you see

the Wurlitzer jukebox
which had been such a part of Faith,

the leather jacket which was his
Faith image,

and the guitar that he'd used
in the Faith concerts.

These were all blown up.

It was George putting
his old character to bed

and out was coming a new one.

# Freedom

# Freedom

# Freedom

# You've got to give for what you
take... #

Michael Jackson's Black Or White

is one of the most extravagant videos
ever made for a single.

Four million dollars it cost.

It begins with this kind of slightly
comic routine

with a young boy playing music too
loud in his bedroom.

And his father telling him off.

Turn that noise off!

The young boy is played by Macauley
Culkin

who is a pop culture figure
of the time.

Eat this.

(ROCK RIFFS)

And then you're off around the world
essentially.

Michael Jackson is in Africa
in the Serengeti

and he just goes everywhere

and it's a message about racial
equality.

# I took my baby on a Saturday bang

John Landis who had made Blues
Brothers and Trading Places

big Hollywood movies

he had directed Michael Jackson's
Thriller video

which had changed the game.
15 minutes long

and it told this huge story
and it was a big hit.

Michael Jackson wanted him again.

# It don't matter if you're black or
white

But he was reluctant maybe cos he
hadn't been paid fully. Who knows?

Michael Jackson, who could actually
be really charming, he insisted.

He literally knocked on John Landis'
door

and I think virtually begged him

to take on Black or White.

Michael Jackson was quite hard to
resist,

even John Landis couldn't resist him.

After Michael Jackson has made
his trip around the world,

we then see for, probably, the first
time

in something like a music video,

this incredible morphing technique.

# It's white

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

The morphing was done by a company
called Pacific Data Images,

and instead of changing just the face

they layered the shots
so they changed bits of the face.

Slowly. Speeded it up.

And it looked like
there was proper morphing going on.

Technically it was a huge leap
forward.

Everybody Hurts came out in 1993.

This is a remarkable song
for a start

because the words are very earnest.

They are a message to somebody who is
potentially suicidal saying,

everyone feels like this

and if you get through it
you'll be fine.

You just need to hold on.

NEIL: It's set on a freeway in
America.

And the band are caught
in a traffic jam.

# You're sure you've had enough

Everybody Hurts was directed
by Jake Scott,

the son of Ridley Scott.

It was only the fifth video
that he'd ever made.

But he would go on to work with U2
and The Rolling Stones

and become a very important and
influential

video director of the era.

# Sometimes everybody cries

# Everybody hurts

# Sometimes

And then there's this strange kind
of euphoric moment at the end

where the song builds

and everybody
just gets out of their cars

and just starts walking.

# Hold on

# Hold on

It was used for various charities

to prevent the rash of teenage
suicides happening at the time.

REM were commended for their work
and understanding

of what drives people to take their
own lives.

And so it had a much wider resonance

than just being a pop video.

It's something that actually helped
people.

Take That, Pray,

came out in 1993 from the album
Everything Changes

which went to number one
and spawned six hit singles

of which Pray was one.

The video was directed by the
Canadian Gregg Masuak.

And he was employed basically to give
Take That a little bit of glamour.

Pray sees them for the first time

getting to go to quite a luxurious
foreign location.

They go to Mexico to film

having previously had to make videos
in Britain.

Four members of take that are paired
up

with goddesses representing the
elements

air, fire, earth and water.

Then you have Gary Barlow by himself.

He is on a beach bare-chested
and singing his heart out.

# All I do each night is pray

# Hoping that I'll be a part of you
again some day

# I'm on my knees

# All I do each night is think

# Yeah

# Of all the times I closed the
doors to keep my love within

Sabotage is a single from Beastie
Boys' 1994 album

Ill Communication.

It was directed by Spike Jonze.

It is a really fun, silly
over-the-top video.

# I can't stand it, I know you
planned it

# I'mma set it straight, this
Watergate

# I can't stand rockin' when I'm in
here

# Cos your crystal ball ain't so
crystal clear

He dressed the three guys in
really cheap suits.

And he gave them really terrible wigs

and had them driving around jumping
on cars.

It was if they were performing
their own cop show called Sabotage.

It was filmed on what very much
looked like '70s video film

so the atmosphere and feel
were perfect.

WILL: It seemed quite a breakthrough.

Videos had previously been quite
serious affairs.

And now you had this band
just having fun

and dressing up and wearing '70s
comedy wigs and jumping over cars.

# Listen all y'all, it's a sabotage

Sabotage was actually a really
breakthrough video for Spike Jonze.

He started then being recognised
as being this great music director.

He went on to work with the likes of
Daft Punk and Fatboy Slim.

I think it's the beginning of
music directors

actually being recognised
for creating art.

# I'm Buddy Rich when I fly off the
handle

# What could it be? It's a mirage

# You're scheming on a thing,
that's sabotage

Parklife is the title track from
Blur's 1994 album

and it's the track that features
Phil Daniels of Quadrophenia fame

speaking a lot of the lyrics of the
song

and he features in the video

as a kind of travelling glass
salesman.

With Damon Albarn as his sidekick.

Parklife was directed
by the Brit Pedro Romhanyi

And he was part of the Oil Factory
collective.

# What is known as...

# Parklife

# And morning soup can be avoided

# If you take the route straight
through what is known as

# Parklife

# All the people

# So many people

# And they all go hand in hand

The video becomes
a bit of a British travelogue.

There's umbrellas in it,

references to previous Blur songs
and singles

and it is a video

which is really colourful too.

# And they all go hand in hand

# Hand in hand through their own
lives

OK, kids,

Arnold's is proud to present

Wisconsin's own Weezer.

Weezer's video for their Buddy Holly
single

was directed by Spike Jonze

and he brought his typical quirky
and amusing take

to the whole enterprise.

# What's with these homies, dissing
my girl?

# Why do they gotta front?

They shot it as if they were playing
to the cast of Happy Days.

And he did this by using clips
from Happy Days

and interspersing it.

It's a very clever
piece of manipulation.

# ..and I know you're mine

# Oo-ee-oo
I look just like Buddy Holly

# Oh-oh, and you're Mary Tyler Moore

The high point as it had to be
is when the Fonz turns up

and starts doing this dance
and everyone is amazed.

Apparently he spent hours

trawling over all these episodes

to try and make it work.

And it does. It really comes across
like Weezer are in the show.

Waterfalls by TLC

was from their 1994 album
CrazySexyCool

and the video for it
was directed by F Gary Gray.

It was a very brave song
and brave video

because it references AIDS which at
that time was not being talked about

in popular culture
and the drug trade.

The third verse brings everything
together

and blames poverty for it

so it's a really unusual song.

And the video reflected
that admirably.

They were morphing using effects
which had not been used before.

But around this on the verses

there is a strong narrative
structure.

So you have a scene where a young
boy goes out to sell drugs.

His mother is trying to stop him
but he ignores her.

And he ends up killed.

The second story concerns
a man and a woman.

They've had a one-night stand.

The woman suggests the man
doesn't wear a condom

then you see man looking at his face
and seeing lesions.

# Don't go chasing waterfalls

# Please stick to the rivers and the
lakes that you are used to

# I know that you're gonna have it
your way or nothing at all

# But I think you're moving too fast

By 1995,

Pulp had been going for 17 years.

And they hadn't really
made a breakthrough.

But their fifth album

was the one where things
started to turn around for them

Jarvis Cocker was studying at St
Martin's College.

There was a Greek girl
who was very wealthy

and she said, "I want to hang out
with common people." Slumming it.

# She studied sculpture at St
Martin's College

# That's where I

# Caught her eye

It starts in a night club in Stepney,
in east London.

The dancers are on a loop

so that they just repeat
the moves behind Jarvis Cocker

who is singing.

# And then in 30 seconds' time

It then moves into
this strange, sort of slightly

dreamlike supermarket

where a tiny Jarvis Cocker

is being wheeled around by Sadie
Frost

while people are buying Pulp things.

It's tremendously funny,

it's full of British eccentricity

and it completely deserves to be
called

one of the great British pop videos
of the time.

Jarvis had studied film
at St Martin's College

so he produced the video himself

which was directed by Pedro Romhanyi

who'd also directed Blur's Parklife.

# ..along with the common people

# Laugh along even though
they are laughing at you

# And the stupid things that you do

# Because you think that poor is
cool... #

In 1995, Michael Jackson

released his duet, with his younger
sister Janet, Scream.

# Argh!

This song is kind of a reflection
of him trying to escape

his accusations in the press.

# Tired of injustice

# Tired of the schemes

The video features Michael
and his sister Janet

aboard this spaceship

getting away from the world

and living in their own
very comforting cocoon.

# Argh!

# With such confusions
don't it make you wanna scream?

# You bash, abuse and victimise
in the scheme

Everything was stitched together
as CGI.

It's kind of hard to work out

where the reality is

and where the post-production is

as it is so seamlessly done.

It's an incredible thing to watch,
a real piece of art.

# Stop pressuring me

# Makes me want to scream

Cost seven million dollars.

Mainly because it had something like
11 different studio sets.

And time was tight
as it always is with Michael Jackson.

Just by Radiohead came out in 1995.

They'd already had a very big hit
from their first album with Creep.

# You do it to yourself, just you

# That's what really hurts

# You do it to yourself, just you

# You and no-one else

The video has got a guy lying down
in the street

outside Liverpool St Station

and all these people coming up to him
and asking what's wrong

and getting increasingly frustrated
when he won't tell them.

# Give him sympathy

Passers-by are very worried
about him.

There's subtitles in the video.

They are asking, "What's wrong?"
"Are you all right?"

And the man laying down
is really quite aggressive.

He's quite rude.

"Go, leave me alone."

And doesn't want to talk about
anything or to anyone.

And then just
as he's about to tell them,

the subtitles disappear.

So we don't know what he says.

It's Oh So Quiet by Bjork

was a cover of a Betty Hutton song.

And Spike Jonze,
the video's director,

wanted to pay homage
to the big musicals of the 1950s.

It starts with Bjork in this garage

and it all starts very grey
and slow, everything is slowed down.

And it's quite dull.

And then as she reaches the chorus
everything lightens up

and it becomes brighter and it
speeds up into real time again.

# And so peaceful until

# You fall in love

# Zing boom

# The sky up above

# Zing boom

# Is caving in

# Wham bam!

Strange objects start dancing

and people who have just been
walking around in the background

break out into dance routines.

It is like a musical
where at any moment

a song and dance number can happen

and everyone will be choreographed
together

# Zing boom

# So what's the use? Wow! Bam!

It's a really lovely piece of work
actually.

Spike Jonze at his most charming

and least subversive,
but still most creative.

# You blow, blow, blow,
blow your fuse

# Argh!

# When you fall in love

# Shh #

Don't Look Back In Anger

was released by Oasis

and in 1996 Oasis are one of the
biggest bands in the UK.

# Slip inside the eye of your mind

# Don't you know you might find

# A better place to play

To direct the video they recruited
the Englishman Nigel Dick,

who had worked with a lot of the
great metal bands

such as Def Leppard
and Guns N' Roses.

# You slowly fade away

Don't Look Back In Anger

is symbolic of Oasis's
sudden absolutely massive success.

Whereas old videos might have them in
a park near a council estate,

now they are being picked up
by Patrick Macnee.

He starred as Steed in The Avengers
and he's the chauffeur

who drives them to this enormous
house.

They kind of just wander about
this lovely big country house

which seems to be filled
with beautiful women

all dressed in white.

# You ain't ever gonna burn
my heart out

Noel Gallagher is actually singing
the song

so Liam Gallagher has nothing to do
in the video

except play his tambourine.

# So Sally can wait

# She knows it's too late
as we're walking on by

# Her soul slides away

# But don't look back in anger

# Don't look back in anger

The video for Smashing Pumpkins
Tonight, Tonight

is probably my favourite MTV video
of all time.

It's basically a pastiche
of a George Melies film

A Trip To The Moon.

And it gets everything right.

Along the way
then you have the group

who are playing mythical, old-style
instruments.

And you have
this really glorious song

which has an orchestral feel

with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
in it.

And the whole thing is very
grandstanding.

# Believe in me

# Believe

It was made by Jonathan Dayton
and Valerie Faris.

They had some problems
when making it

because James Cameron was making
Titanic at the same time

and he had taken all of the
turn-of-the-century costumes

and there weren't any left.

They just about managed to scrape
together what was left over

and then adapted them for their film.

# So bright

# Tonight

# Tonight

# Believe in me

# As I believe in you #

# I'll tell you what I want
what I really really want

# Don't tell me what you want
what you really really want

Wannabe by the Spice Girls had this
video which absolutely captured

the spirit of the Spice Girls

as this very kind of spirited
and fun and quite naughty girl gang.

# Forget my past

# If you want to get with me

# Better make it fast

From the off, they really established
who each of them were

through the video
and the lyrics as well.

Which was directed by Johan Camitz.

And it shows the girls causing havoc
in quite a posh London hotel.

They dance their way through it
singing,

messing about with the people
who are in there.

# If you wannabe my lover

# You got to get with my friends

# Making love is for ever

# Friendship never ends

Your feeling about it is
that it was shot in one take

which is actually quite remarkable.

# But that's the way it ends

# If you want to be my lover

# You gotta, you gotta, you gotta,
you gotta...

This is what kick-started the Spice
Girls in Britain and in America

where the video went on very heavy
rotation on MTV.

# Throw your body down
and zig-a-zig-Ah!

Virtual insanity
was directed by Jonathan Glazer

and it was a showcase for JK's
dancing.

# It's a wonder
man can eat at all

# When things are big
that should be small

# Who can tell what magic spells
we'll be doing for us

It's something, you can't take
your eyes off him

but then you do because
the space he's dancing in is moving.

It appears that the floor is moving,

that the sofas that are in the room
are moving.

The perspective
is shifting constantly.

It's a really amazing effect

which in fact was achieved by not
moving the floor

but moving the set around it.

# There's something in these futures
that we have to be told

# Futures

# Made of virtual insanity now

# Always seem to
be governed by this love we have

# For useless, twisting, our new
technology

# Oh, now there is no sound
for we all live underground

Daft Punk released Around The World
in 1997

and previous to this song
they weren't that well known

outside of the French dance scene

and this broke them through
to a mainstream audience.

The video for it is beautiful.

The video has robots,

athletes, disco girls,

mummies and skeletons.

And each of these facets
represent an area of the song.

Of course from the outside
this sounds quite messy.

But stand back

and watch the feast in front.

It's marvellous.

# Around the world, around the world

It's like one
of the Busby Berkeley movies

of the 1930s.

It looks very modern
at the same time

as referencing the golden age of
Hollywood.

It was the launch pad for Michel
Gondry as much as Daft Punk.

Michel then went on to
have a very big Hollywood career.

# Around the world, around the world

The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony
video

was directed by Walter A Stern

and it featured mostly the singer
Richard Ashcroft

on Hoxton High Street
in east London.

And he at the beginning of the video

takes a deep breath

and then just walks.

# Cos it's a bittersweet symphony

# That's life

# Try to make ends meet

# You're a slave to...

It's an unbelievably selfish walk.

He just keeps bumping into people

including a lady that he actually
knocks over.

And he doesn't give a damn.

# ..road I've ever been down

So it's a suggestion of arrogance,

but a suggestion he's
completely in his own world

and on a higher calling
and it fits perfectly

with the gloriousness of the music.

If a car parks in front of him
he just walks over it.

He is of course consequently
shouted at,

chased, berated
but he ignores everyone.

He carries on. He is focused.

He has a mission to walk
to the end of this street.

Run DMC's It's Like That

originally came out in 1983
from their debut album.

In 1997, Jason Nevins remixed it

and released it as Run DMC
vs Jason Nevins.

# Unemployment at a record high

# People coming, people going, people
born to die

# Don't ask me, because I don't know
why

# But it's like that,
and that's the way it is

The great thing about it is the way
it's filmed actually

because it's shot from very low down

so you can see the feet of the
dancers.

# ..that you're underpaid

# It's like that,
and that's the way it is

I think it actually introduced
a whole new generation

not only to Run DMC

but also to the idea of street
dancing.

The prodigy who came up with the
wonderful title

Smack My Bitch Up

produced then a video

that seemed to match

the offensiveness
of the actual single's title.

The video was directed
by Jonas Akerlund

and he came out of the Swedish
death metal scene.

# Smack my bitch up

It's from the point of view of this
person who's causing mayhem.

They punch people in the face,
take loads of drugs

knock tables over in night clubs.

And they just cause as much damage as
possible.

It's very violent.

It's so sleazy and so degrading

that it's almost impossible
to describe really.

This night out is the most debauched
night out

you could ever imagine.

It involved sex,
drugs, rock and roll.

All the horrible things.

# Smack my bitch up

And then there is
the twist at the end

when you finally discover that the
person causing all this mayhem

who you assumed was a man

turns out to be a young woman.

Teardrop was released by Massive
Attack in 1998

and it's directed by Walter Stern.

The video is quite beautiful

if not a little bit disturbing.

It kind of depicts
a baby in the womb

who then sings the lyrics to the
song.

# Love, love is a verb

# Love is a doing word

# Fearless on my breath

# Gentle impulsion

# Shakes me, makes me lighter

The actual baby

was an animatronic figure
which took six weeks to make.

# Black flowers blossom

# Fearless on my breath

It's very watchable.

It's like a video lava lamp really.
It's beautiful.

..Baby One More Time
is the title track

from Britney Spears' debut album
which came out in 1998.

And apparently she had
the idea for the video.

(BELL)

..Baby One More Time
by Britney Spears

was reasonably controversial.

It's got her wearing a schoolgirl's
outfit

and she's dancing through the halls
of her school.

It's almost like a schoolgirl
fantasy.

And her love interest is played by
her cousin Chap

and a rather frumpy teacher

who perhaps predictably joins in at
the end with the dancing

was played by Britney Spears' PA.

# My loneliness is killing me

# Baby I must confess

# I still believe

# When I'm not with you
I lose my mind

# Give me a sign

# Hit me baby one more time

(BELL)

# Hi, my name is...
# What?

# My name is...

# Slim Shady

Eminem released My Name Is in
January 1999.

The video is directed
by Philip Atwell.

It's his first music video.

It starts in what looks like
a trailer

with a couple watching TV

and the TV shows suddenly all
seem to include Eminem.

# I'm trying to get my head straight

# But I can't decide which Spice Girl
I want to impregnate

# Slim Shady, you are basic

# Uh-uh
# Why is your face red?

It's incredibly inventive,
it's very fast.

He does a lot of parodies of
characters like Bill Clinton

and Marilyn Manson.

# My name is...
# Slim Shady

# Stop the tape, this kid
needs to be locked away

He invented the Slim Shady character

who was very much the dark side
of Eminem.

He invented himself as being this
very literate, quite funny,

very controversial rapper.

The wit and the sharpness of it

suggested he is
a real major new talent.

# We've come a long long way together

# Through the hard times and the good

# I have to celebrate you, baby

# I have to praise you like I should

The video to Praise You by Fatboy
Slim

was directed by Roman Coppola
and Spike Jonze.

And it depicts a flash mob developing

outside a cinema in Westwood, LA.

This group of quite funny looking,
haphazard dancers

with these not-great routines

just start dancing around this
beatbox

playing the Fatboy Slim single.

It's just the reactions of everyone
around them which is so brilliant.

And the dancing
which features Spike Jonze himself

is totally over the top.

It's not really that well
co-ordinated in parts.

He goes up to people.
He's in their face.

And he's dancing away.

This was guerrilla-style film-making.

They turned up outside a Westwood
cinema

and did this flash mob dance

in front of very bemused onlookers

and in fact a rather annoyed employee
at the cinema.

Who actually turns off the music at
one point.

And they filmed it.

Allegedly, the entire video cost
$800.

# I have to praise you... #

Let Forever Be by The Chemical
Brothers

had a video which was a feat of
editing and special effects.

It's depicting a woman's nightmare
when she changes.

And so one moment her face changes,

one moment her clothes change.

And she's going through time and
space.

The video for Let Forever Be
is directed by Michel Gondry.

And again he brings his very surreal
style to it.

The idea of the video is a day in
the life of this very ordinary girl

who seems to be going about her day

but then has these flips into
dreamlike states

where she is suddenly replicated.

# Feel like

# To let forever be

What Gondry wanted to achieve

was a more real context for this.

And he did it by actually
having several actresses

in the same role

rather than just reproduce
one actress.

Through the '90s, technology
advances

meant that music videos would really
go to new places and try new things.

There was money in the music industry

so a lot of these videos cost three,
four, five, up to seven million

which would be very difficult today.

Morphing,
motion-capturing technology,

CGI, all expanded during the '90s.

But more importantly
they became cheaper to use.

This expanded the palette
of the video directors.

They had many more things
to choose from.

It gave rise to a whole new
generation of creatives

who could actually do anything they
liked.

There was no censorship board,
there were no other restrictions

which meant total creative freedom.

I don't think this happened before
and certainly hasn't happened since.

The '90s was a great decade
for music videos.

There are so many iconic films that
were made.

The '90s was the highest point
of the video era.

The mid '90s was the golden age.
There's a point at which

people knew what they were doing,
were having fun.

They didn't feel the need to have
pretentiousness.

Very often you look at a mid '90s
video

especially by bands like Pulp and
Blur

and they've got these little stories,
they're fun

and they are amazing to look at.

# What are you doing Sunday, baby?

# Would you like to come and meet me
maybe

# You can even bring your baby

# Ooh-ooh-ooh

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