The Jesus And Mary Chain - Head On

What this video is

Released in November 1989 as a single from the album Automatic, 'Head On' marked a commercial turning point for The Jesus And Mary Chain, particularly in North America where it reached #2 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart and received extensive college radio airplay. The video arrives at a pivotal cultural juncture: British indie rock was gaining transatlantic traction, Blanco y Negro / WEA were investing in…

Why it matters

As a defining artifact of late-1980s UK alternative rock promotional culture, this video documents the noise-pop / indie rock crossover moment before shoegaze fully crystallized as a genre. The Jesus And Mary Chain's influence on subsequent alternative movements — including shoegaze, Britpop, and…

The director

Howard Douglas Greenhalgh (born 19 February 1963, Halifax, West Yorkshire) is a British director of music videos and advertising. He studied at the Royal College of Art and began directing music video work for UK indie acts in the late 1980s. He later rose…