Bleachers - Chinatown ft. Bruce Springsteen

What this video is

Released November 16, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, 'Chinatown' arrived as a dual lead single alongside '45' from Bleachers' third album Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night (RCA, July 2021). The video and song explicitly thematize the geographic and emotional pull of New Jersey identity, with the narrative device of crossing the George Washington Bridge from NYC to New Jersey functioning as both literal…

Why it matters

The video crystallizes a key 2020 indie-pop moment: the formal and thematic merger of 1980s heartland rock iconography with contemporary synth-pop production sensibility. Bleachers' evocation of Springsteen-era New Jersey mythology, filtered through HD documentary aesthetics and fast modern…

The director

Carlotta Kohl is a German-born, New York-raised photographer, artist, and director. She holds a photography degree from the School of Visual Arts and has editorial credits in L'Officiel Paris, Numero Tokyo, and So It Goes. Her fine art and encaustic works…