Ryan Adams - So Alive

What this video is

Produced in late 2003 at the apex of Ryan Adams' commercial crossover moment, 'So Alive' arrived as the lead single from 'Rock n Roll,' his most mainstream-oriented album, released on Lost Highway Records. The video's commission of fine-art filmmaker Doug Aitken — fresh off his 1999 Venice Biennale Golden Lion — signals a deliberate elevation of the project beyond standard rock-promo territory. The desert…

Why it matters

Represents a high-water mark for alt-country/rock crossover music video production, deploying a Venice Biennale-winning fine artist to expand the visual language of Americana-inflected rock. The rapid editorial pace and surrealist desert staging became a minor template for subsequent artistically…

The director

Doug Aitken (born 1968, Redondo Beach, California) is an American multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker who graduated in Fine Arts from the Art Center College of Design in 1991. He won the International Golden Lion Prize at the 1999 Venice Biennale for…