Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly

What this video is

Released October 1999 at the apex of MTV's TRL era, 'Learn to Fly' arrived during a period when high-concept, comedic music videos were a primary driver of mainstream rock crossover success. The video's parody of 1970s disaster films (Airplane!, Airport '77) reflected a late-1990s pop-culture appetite for nostalgic pastiche, amplified by the concurrent rise of comedy-rock figures. It became one of the defining…

Why it matters

A landmark post-grunge music video that demonstrated comedy-as-vehicle for alternative rock mainstream penetration. The multi-role performance format, disaster-film parody structure, and fast-cut comedic editing established a template widely referenced in subsequent rock video production. Its…

The director

Jesse Peretz (born May 19, 1968, Cambridge, MA) is an American director, producer, and Grammy Award-winning music video director. A founding member and original bassist of The Lemonheads (1986–1989), he transitioned to directing after leaving the band,…