Cat Power - ＂Cross Bones Style＂

What this video is

Released in 1998 alongside Moon Pix on Matador Records, 'Cross Bones Style' emerged from a critical moment in American independent music when lo-fi singer-songwriters were redefining vulnerability and raw emotional expression as artistic virtues. The video's white-room, dance-oriented concept — explicitly modeled on Madonna's 'Lucky Star' (1983) — is a self-aware, ironic, and affectionate engagement with mainstream…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of 1990s American indie rock music video culture, 'Cross Bones Style' represents the lo-fi minimalist aesthetic that defined Matador Records' visual identity. Its deliberate citational engagement with Madonna's pop iconography creates a productive tension between underground…

The director

Brett Vapnek is an American music video director active in the mid-to-late 1990s. He directed both of Cat Power's earliest music videos: 'Nude as the News' and 'Cross Bones Style' (1998), both associated with the Matador Records indie roster. His work is…