The Marías - Ruthless

What this video is

Released in August 2019, the 'Ruthless' video arrived during a peak moment for Spotify-era 'chill' and lo-fi aesthetics, when bedroom pop, dream-R&B, and jazz-pop hybrids were gaining significant streaming traction. The Marías — a Los Angeles-based group blending jazz, psychedelia, funk, and lounge — represented a culturally distinct strand of this movement, drawing on Latin sensibility and vintage-inflected…

Why it matters

The Marías occupy a niche convergence of indie dream-pop, jazz-inflected R&B, and Latin-influenced lo-fi aesthetics that distinguished them from mainstream pop and the broader bedroom-pop wave of the late 2010s. 'Ruthless' is an early document of their signature sound — smoky vocals over warm,…

The director

Ian Lipton is an LA-based director and cinematographer. His IMVDb-confirmed music video credits include multiple collaborations with The Marías: I Don't Know You (2017), Ruthless (2019), and Only In My Dreams (2017), as well as McQueen by Mosh (2013). He…