Blonde Redhead - 23

What this video is

Released in April 2007, '23' arrived at a moment when the mid-2000s indie landscape was bifurcating between the guitar-driven 'landfill indie' mainstream and a more rarefied strain of art-pop aligned with dream pop and shoegaze. Blonde Redhead, signed to 4AD—the label historically associated with ethereal and post-punk aesthetics—occupied a uniquely transatlantic position as a New York trio with Italian and…

Why it matters

As the title track of Blonde Redhead's most commercially and critically successful album—reaching #63 on the Billboard 200 and scoring an 83 on Metacritic—'23' is a defining artifact of the 2000s dream pop revival. The video encapsulates the era's fusion of shoegaze textures, ambient electronics,…

The director

Melodie McDaniel (b. 1967, Omaha, NE; based in Los Angeles) is an American still photographer and film director. She graduated from Art Center College of Design in 1992 with a major in Photography. She directed music videos for Madonna ('Secret'), the…