Brian McKnight - Anytime

What this video is

Released in 1997 as the title track from Brian McKnight's third Mercury Records album, 'Anytime' arrived at the apex of the quiet storm and urban adult contemporary movement, when R&B balladry dominated radio and MTV's late-night programming. The album marked McKnight's commercial breakthrough — his first to top the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart — and represented a transitional moment in which established…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of late-1990s Urban Adult Contemporary R&B, 'Anytime' exemplifies the genre's visual and sonic grammar: slow-burn ballad structure, warm candlelit cinematography, and narrative-performance hybrid video storytelling. The video's MTV VMA nomination for Best Male Video (1998)…

The director

Darren Grant is an American television, film, and music video director born and raised in Seattle, Washington. A graduate of California State University, Northridge, he directed over 130 award-winning music videos for R&B and hip-hop artists including…