Robyn Hitchcock - Madonna of the Wasps

What this video is

Released in 1989 as the lead single from 'Queen Elvis' on A&M Records, 'Madonna of the Wasps' arrived at the height of the college-rock era, with Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians serving as an opening act on R.E.M.'s 'Green' tour. The song — rooted in a surrealist dream narrative Hitchcock has described writing in mid-1988 — exemplifies the neo-psychedelic strand of British post-punk that found a receptive American…

Why it matters

A canonical example of late-1980s jangle pop and neo-psychedelia music video production. The video is notable as an early credit for Mark Romanek, who would become the defining music video auteur of the 1990s. Its aesthetic — warm, film-grain, fast-cut performance surrealism — documents the visual…

The director

Mark Lee Romanek (born September 18, 1959, Chicago, IL) is an American film, music video, and commercial director. He studied cinema and photography at Ithaca College's Roy H. Park School of Communications and served as 2nd assistant director on Brian De…