Kula Shaker - Hey Dude

What this video is

Released at the absolute apex of the Britpop movement in August 1996, 'Hey Dude' arrived weeks after Oasis's Be Here Now anticipation and alongside peak chart competition from Blur, Pulp, and Supergrass. Kula Shaker distinguished themselves within Britpop by foregrounding a psychedelic, Hindu-influenced spiritualism drawn from 1960s rock, making their visual identity simultaneously retro and countercultural. The…

Why it matters

A defining artifact of mid-90s British psychedelic Britpop crossover. 'Hey Dude' reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart with first-week sales of 65,000, cementing Kula Shaker as one of the era's most commercially significant acts. The video's performance-driven format was the dominant mode for UK…

The director

British cinematographer and music video director who began his career assisting on documentaries before directing and lighting music videos in the mid-1990s. He directed notable videos including Pulp's 'Common People' (1995) and Kula Shaker's 'Hey Dude'…