Ben Folds - Rockin' The Suburbs

What this video is

Released September 2001 as the lead single from Ben Folds' debut solo album following the dissolution of Ben Folds Five, "Rockin' the Suburbs" arrived at the peak of nu-metal's MTV dominance — the era of Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Rage Against the Machine. The song and its video constitute a surgical satire of middle-class white suburban rage cosplay, with Folds spoofing the aesthetic trappings of the genre (backwards…

Why it matters

A landmark satirical artifact of early-2000s alternative rock, this video documents the moment piano-based indie pop began self-consciously pushing back against nu-metal's cultural hegemony on MTV. As the only Ben Folds single to chart on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks (peaking at #28), it…

The director

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, actor, and music video director. He rose to fame in the 1980s with parody hits and has earned five Grammy Awards. Beyond directing his own videos, he has…