Travis - Sing

What this video is

Released in April 2001, 'Sing' arrived at the peak of Travis's commercial power and at a moment when post-Britpop British alternative rock was achieving its widest transatlantic reach. The video's premise — a Scottish rock band crashing an upper-class English dinner party and triggering a food fight — functions as a piece of gentle class satire consistent with the band's accessible, non-threatening populism.…

Why it matters

Canonical example of post-Britpop visual storytelling: a narrative-driven, theatrically staged music video that uses ensemble physical comedy to complement rather than illustrate the song's emotional content. Demonstrates the directorial ambition Dayton and Faris brought to music video craft…

The director

Jonathan Dayton (b. July 7, 1957) and Valerie Faris (b. October 20, 1958) are a married husband-and-wife directing team who met at UCLA. They launched their careers directing the groundbreaking MTV documentary show The Cutting Edge before becoming leading…