Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Talk about the blues ( official video )

What this video is

Released in 1998 as the lead US single from Acme, the video arrives at the apex of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's mainstream visibility. The song itself is a meta-commentary on the band's fraught relationship with genre labeling — the lyrics directly reference MTV and Rolling Stone and the running debate over whether JSBX actually played 'the blues.' Casting three rising Hollywood actors (Winona Ryder, Giovanni…

Why it matters

A landmark artifact of 1990s American indie-rock visual culture, documenting the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at peak commercial-critical crossover. The video's role-reversal meta-concept was innovative for 1998 MTV programming, predating the celebrity-cameo video as a genre trope. Combined with…

The director

American director of music videos and commercials. Studied advertising design at Syracuse University and Saint Martin's School of Art and Design in London. Joined the 1994 Lollapalooza tour as cruise director, where he met the Beastie Boys and launched his…