The Strokes - 12_51

2003

The Strokes - 12_51 (2003) Director: Roman Coppola Era: Post-Punk Revival / Indie Rock Renaissance (2003) - Peak of the early-2000s NYC indie rock movement; The Strokes at the height of their cultural influence with their second album Room on Fire, a period defined by lo-fi aesthetics meeting high-concept video art. High curatorial value as a confirmed auteur work by Roman Coppola at the apex of The Strokes' cultural moment. The video's Tron-referencing concept design is extensively documented, making it a strong anchor for research into retrofuturism, indie rock visual culture, and early-2000s high-concept music video production. Its slow pace, dark palette, and restrained aesthetic stand in deliberate contrast to the era's dominant high-energy MTV fare, marking it as a distinctive counter-programming artifact. Recommended for Tier 1 preservation. Context: Released October 6, 2003 as the lead single from Room on Fire, 'twelve fifty-one' arrived at the peak of the post-punk revival moment The Strokes had helped ignite with Is This It (2001). The video's Tron-inspired retrofuturist aesthetic visually mirrors the song's central creative tension: a raw, garage-rock band filtering their sound through an unabashedly synthetic, '80s-keyboard-driven sonic palette. Roman Coppola's concept bridges the analog warmth of the band's performance style with a digital, grid-based visual language, reflecting the broader early-2000s cultural negotiation between analogue authenticity and emerging digital aesthetics. The single peaked at #7 on the UK Singles Chart and #15 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart. Director notes: Directed by Roman Coppola through his production company The Directors Bureau. Confirmed by IMDB (tt9521872), Wikipedia, IMVDb, and Directors' Library. The video is set on a stage designed to evoke the visual language of the 1982 Disney sci-fi film Tron, featuring glowing grid lines and vector-geometry backdrops. This was part of Coppola's extended creative collaboration with The Strokes, having previously directed all four music videos for their 2001 debut album Is This It. The video was released in 2003 to accompany the single's release on October 6, 2003, the lead single from Room on Fire. The concept translates the song's nostalgic, synth-tinged sonic palette into a visual analog through retrofuturist set design, reinforcing the track's self-described 'very 80s keyboard' aesthetic.