Björk - It's Oh So Quiet

What this video is

Released November 1995 as the third single from Björk's second album Post (One Little Indian), 'It's Oh So Quiet' arrived at the apex of the mid-90s MTV alternative era, when the music video had crystallized as an art form. Spike Jonze's direction channels the exuberance of Hollywood's Golden Age musical tradition — Busby Berkeley spectacle, Jacques Demy's chromatic romanticism — and transplants it into the…

Why it matters

A landmark in the music video as cinematic short form: 'It's Oh So Quiet' synthesises the post-modern revival of the Hollywood musical with 1990s art-pop iconoclasm. It represents a high-water mark in the Spike Jonze / Björk creative axis and remains a canonical reference for theatrical,…

The director

Born Adam Spiegel on October 22, 1969, in New York City. American filmmaker, photographer, and actor who began his career photographing BMX and skateboarding culture before transitioning into music video direction. Became one of the most in-demand music…