King Tuff - Headbanger

What this video is

Released in January 2015 to promote King Tuff's third Sub Pop LP Black Moon Spell (September 2014), the 'Headbanger' video sits at the intersection of indie rock's sustained 1970s revivalism and the mid-2010s boom in music-comedy crossover content produced by platforms like Funny or Die. By staging the video as a fabricated relic of 1975 British pop television — a parody of BBC's Top of the Pops titled 'Bottom of…

Why it matters

The video is a defining artifact of 2010s indie-rock comedy-video crossover: a high-concept retro parody that treats the music video format as a vehicle for satirical television recreation. It exemplifies how Sub Pop-era indie rock used humor and nostalgia simultaneously, elevating a…

The director

Jake Fogelnest (born March 14, 1979) is an American television writer, comedian, former radio personality, and satirist. He began his career at age 14 with public-access show Squirt TV, which moved to MTV in 1996. In 2014 he served as staff writer and…