Circle Jerks - I Wanna Destroy You 1995

What this video is

Released in mid-1995, this video documents a pivotal and culturally contradictory moment: one of Los Angeles hardcore punk's founding bands — formed in 1979 from the ashes of early Black Flag — signing to major label Mercury Records and releasing their first studio album since their 1990 breakup. The choice of source material is itself significant: the song is a cover of a 1980 Robyn Hitchcock / Soft Boys…

Why it matters

Documents the late-stage major-label punk crossover wave of 1994–1996, a defining industry inflection point in which legacy hardcore acts were briefly repositioned for mainstream consumption. As a performance video for a cover of a canonical post-punk song, it also illustrates the genre's…