Train - Meet Virginia

What this video is

Released as a promo single in 1999 to support the major-label reissue of Train's 1998 self-titled Columbia debut, 'Meet Virginia' exemplifies the slow-burn AAA-to-pop-crossover trajectory of the late 1990s: originally serviced to adult album alternative radio in March 1998, the song took over a year to break into mainstream radio, eventually peaking at #20 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in January 2000. The video's…

Why it matters

A canonical example of late-1990s AAA pop-rock crossover aesthetics, 'Meet Virginia' represents Train's commercial emergence and the format's capacity to sustain slow-building singles. The video's lo-fi, location-based realism prefigures the stripped-down visual language that would define…

The director

Luke James L. Scott (born 1 May 1968) is a British film, commercial, and television director. Son of filmmaker Sir Ridley Scott, he began his career as an art director on productions including 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), then transitioned into…