Refused - New Noise

JUL 01 1998 · 12:00

Refused - New Noise (1998) Director: Joakim Åhlund Era: Late-90s Post-Hardcore & Revolutionary Punk (1998) - Peak era of Swedish underground hardcore's international emergence; video produced concurrently with the band's final album and dissolution, gaining MTV rotation only posthumously. Extremely high. This is the definitive document of one of post-hardcore's most canonized songs, produced at the precise moment of the band's dissolution and recorded in a visual style that mirrors the song's ideological content. As an object of cultural preservation, the video is rare in that its MTV broadcast life began only after the artist ceased to exist, creating a unique case study in music video distribution and posthumous canon formation. The confirmed directorial credit by Joakim Åhlund, a notable Swedish music scene figure, adds further provenance value. Context: Released in 1998 as part of The Shape of Punk to Come, 'New Noise' encapsulated Refused's Situationist-informed manifesto that punk could not fight establishment culture while using its own co-opted sonic and visual languages. The video's deliberately anti-spectacle performance aesthetic, mod suits, raw lighting, minimal production, was a conscious rejection of late-90s MTV visual excess. The band broke up shortly after the album's release; ironically, MTV began airing the video only after the disbandment, making 'New Noise' a posthumous anthem. The song has since become a canonical touchstone of political hardcore, appearing in the Palme d'Or-winning film Triangle of Sadness and the FX series The Bear, cementing its cross-generational cultural reach. Director notes: Åhlund directed 'New Noise' in 1998, the same year the song appeared on Refused's landmark album The Shape of Punk to Come. The video's visual approach, mod-influenced band styling, raw performance footage, was shaped in close collaboration with the band, with frontman Dennis Lyxzén publicly stating the look was 'all my idea and direction' (Kerrang!, 2018). The video gained wider exposure only after Refused's disbandment, when MTV began airing it. Åhlund also directed music videos for Broder Daniel ('I'll Be Gone,' 'When We Were Winning') and The (International) Noise Conspiracy ('Black Mask'), the latter being the post-Refused band formed by Dennis Lyxzén, demonstrating a continued creative relationship with the Umeå scene.