Naked - Mann's Chinese

What this video is

Released in 1997 on Red Ant Entertainment, 'Mann's Chinese' by Naked arrived at the peak of post-grunge alternative rock's mainstream moment, when MTV's alternative programming bloc and college radio gave voice to acts interrogating American mythology. The song and video are steeped in the specific geography of Hollywood Boulevard — Mann's Chinese Theatre, Frederick's of Hollywood, the now-demolished New Frontier…

Why it matters

An artifact of the mid-90s alternative rock wave that used major-label infrastructure (Red Ant Entertainment) while maintaining indie-adjacent aesthetics. The video represents a transitional moment in music video production — film-stock textures and on-location realism — between the high-concept…

The director

Francis Lawrence (b. March 26, 1971, Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian-born American filmmaker. He studied film at Loyola Marymount University, then began directing music videos in the mid-1990s for independent labels. He became one of the most prominent music…