Sheryl Crow - If It Makes You Happy

What this video is

Released September 1996 as the lead single from Crow's self-titled sophomore album, 'If It Makes You Happy' arrived amid intense industry and media scrutiny following the success of Tuesday Night Music Club (1993) and public disputes over songwriting credit with her Tuesday Night collaborators. The video's museum-exhibit concept — Crow as a living specimen on display — directly externalizes the song's themes of…

Why it matters

A defining artifact of mid-90s mainstream alternative rock, the video fuses roots-rock sonic identity (Rolling Stones/Tom Petty influences, Telecaster and baritone guitar tones) with a conceptually ambitious visual language rarely applied to female-fronted rock singles of the period. It represents…

The director

Australian music video director active in the 1990s and 2000s, known for work with major American rock and pop artists. Directed both versions of Sheryl Crow's 'If It Makes You Happy' (1996) and Tom Petty's 'Mary Jane's Last Dance.' Associated with a…