Fatboy Slim - Praise You

What this video is

Released at the apex of the UK big beat boom, 'Praise You' arrived at a moment when electronic dance music was achieving mainstream chart dominance while simultaneously rejecting the high-production-value video conventions of that mainstream. Spike Jonze's guerrilla video — shot for $800 without location permits, fronted by a fictional community dance troupe — functioned as a cultural antibody against the slick MTV…

Why it matters

Canonical document of late-90s big beat at its cultural zenith; one of the most-studied music videos in media studies curricula for its deconstruction of the music video form itself. Its $800 budget and three MTV VMA wins represent a foundational paradox that influenced lo-fi, documentary, and…

The director

Born Adam Spiegel (October 22, 1969), Spike Jonze is an American filmmaker, actor, and photographer who began his career photographing BMX and skateboard culture before transitioning to music video direction in the early 1990s. His in-demand 1990s music…