Lorde - Solar Power

What this video is

Released on 11 June 2021 — timed to the year's only solar eclipse — 'Solar Power' represented Lorde's first new music in four years and a radical aesthetic pivot from the urban electronic melancholy of Melodrama (2017). The video arrived as global audiences were emerging from COVID-19 lockdowns, tapping into a collective yearning for outdoor freedom, bodily autonomy, and escape from digital overstimulation. Its…

Why it matters

Solar Power's music video is a landmark document of the 2021 indie folk / sunshine pop revival, visually codifying the genre's turn away from digital maximalism toward organic, tactile, nature-rooted aesthetics. Its color language — desaturated earth tones punctuated by a single chromatic anchor —…

The director

New Zealand-born director and Unitec design graduate, Joel Kefali began his career in a seven-year partnership with Campbell Hooper at design house Special Problems, creating videos for acts including The Naked and Famous and Kimbra. He rose to international…