Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Hate Myself for Loving You

What this video is

Released in June 1988 as the lead single from 'Up Your Alley' on Blackheart Records, this video arrived at a pivotal moment when Joan Jett — a punk rock pioneer from The Runaways — was achieving a second wave of mainstream crossover success. The song reached #8 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it Jett's third and final top-10 hit, and spent 26 weeks on the chart — six weeks longer than 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll.'…

Why it matters

A landmark document of female-fronted hard rock in the late MTV era. The video's raw performance aesthetic — aggressive staging, dark palette, rapid editing — visually embodied Jett's synthesis of punk attitude and hard rock commerciality, a formula that influenced subsequent generations of women…

The director

Doug Freel is an American music video director and filmmaker active from the 1980s through the 2010s. His verified credits include music videos for Roxette ('It Must Have Been Love,' 'Joyride,' 'Listen to Your Heart'), Poison ('Talk Dirty to Me'), Europe…