Scott Weiland - Barbarella

What this video is

Released in April 1998, 'Barbarella' arrived as Scott Weiland stepped away from Stone Temple Pilots to record 12 Bar Blues, a self-consciously art-oriented solo debut on Atlantic Records that consciously rejected the post-grunge sound he was known for. The video, shot in and around Las Vegas, channels the visual language of David Bowie's The Man Who Fell to Earth, positioning Weiland as an alien outsider in the…

Why it matters

A rare late-1990s major-label art-rock music video that explicitly rejected post-grunge convention, 'Barbarella' represents the collision of glam-rock heritage, sci-fi cult cinema, and the MTV-era auteur music video tradition. Directed by Dayton/Faris at the peak of their music video career, it…

The director

Husband-and-wife directing duo Jonathan Dayton (b. 1957, Alameda County, CA) and Valerie Faris (b. 1958, Los Angeles, CA) built a defining music video career in the 1990s, earning two Grammy Awards, nine MTV Music Video Awards, and a Billboard Music Director…