Fretblanket - Into the Ocean

What this video is

Released in 1997 at the tail end of the Britpop boom, 'Into the Ocean' represents a specific strand of British alternative rock that found more traction in the United States than at home. Fretblanket, from Stourbridge, England — a town with its own indie pedigree — signed to PolyGram and pursued transatlantic visibility at a moment when MTV's appetite for British guitar bands was already contracting. The video's…

Why it matters

A textbook example of mid-1990s British power-pop/alternative rock produced for the American market, 'Into the Ocean' occupies a culturally significant but commercially under-documented niche: UK acts on major labels who achieved fleeting MTV visibility without chart breakthrough. Its MTV '12…

The director

Ted Crittenden is a music video director with confirmed credits on IMVDb. His documented work includes directing Fretblanket's 'Into the Ocean' (1997) and They Might Be Giants' 'Boss Of Me' (2000), indicating activity across the late 1990s and early 2000s…