Lily Allen ｜ 22 - Lily Allen ｜ 22

What this video is

Released in 2009 during a landmark moment for British female pop, 'It's Not Me, It's You' represented Lily Allen's shift from ska-inflected debut work to a more polished electropop sound produced by Greg Kurstin. '22' tapped into an emerging cultural discourse around women's identity, social clocks, and the pressures of femininity — themes that would later become central to mainstream feminist pop conversation. The…

Why it matters

A defining artefact of British late-2000s electropop at its most narratively ambitious, '22' demonstrates how the music video format could serve as an extension of a song's lyrical argument. Jake Scott's theatrical staging and the mirror-duality conceit elevate it beyond standard performance clip…

The director

Jake Scott (born 1965, London) is a British Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated director. Son of Ridley Scott, he co-founded Black Dog Films and is a partner at Ridley Scott Associates (RSA). He is renowned for music videos for R.E.M., Radiohead, The Strokes, U2,…