Catherine Wheel - Crank

Name: Catherine Wheel - Crank
Uploaded: 1993-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Description: Released in June 1993, 'Crank' arrived at the apex of Catherine Wheel's commercial visibility, becoming their biggest US hit at No. 5 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks and earning heavy MTV rotation. The video's theatrical hotel-set staging and overt religious allegory — band-as-martyred-saint — reflects the period's appetite for…

1993 · Early-90s Alternative/Shoegaze Crossover (1993) · music video

1993Early-90s Alternative/Shoegaze Crossover (1993)UK Shoegaze/Alternative Rock transitioning to Post-Grunge aggression, 1992-1994

What this video is

Released in June 1993, 'Crank' arrived at the apex of Catherine Wheel's commercial visibility, becoming their biggest US hit at No. 5 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks and earning heavy MTV rotation. The video's theatrical hotel-set staging and overt religious allegory — band-as-martyred-saint — reflects the period's appetite for art-directed concept videos that elevated alternative acts beyond straightforward…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of the shoegaze-to-alt-rock transitional moment: Chrome, ranked 9th on Pitchfork's '50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time', produced a video that aesthetically embodied the album's harder edge. The 'Crank' video helped secure Catherine Wheel's MTV foothold in the US market,…

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