Björk - It's Oh So Quiet

JUL 01 1995 · 12:00

Björk - It's Oh So Quiet (1995) Director: Spike Jonze Era: Mid-90s Alt-Pop / Post-Modern Musical Revival (1995) - Peak MTV alternative era; Björk's Post album cycle coincides with the height of experimental pop video auteurism and the coalescence of indie/art-pop into mainstream chart culture. Exceptionally high. One of the most celebrated and studied music videos of the 1990s, this work is a definitive example of the auteur music video at peak MTV cultural influence. It is simultaneously a Björk career document, a Spike Jonze directorial statement, and a vivid record of mid-90s art-pop visual language. Its technical and choreographic ambition, intertextual depth, and enduring cultural resonance make it a Tier 1 archival priority. Context: Released November 1995 as the third single from Björk's second album Post (One Little Indian), 'It's Oh So Quiet' arrived at the apex of the mid-90s MTV alternative era, when the music video had crystallized as an art form. Spike Jonze's direction channels the exuberance of Hollywood's Golden Age musical tradition, Busby Berkeley spectacle, Jacques Demy's chromatic romanticism, and transplants it into the sun-bleached mundanity of suburban San Fernando Valley. This juxtaposition of the spectacular and the everyday was emblematic of a broader 1990s postmodern aesthetic that mined nostalgia while defamiliarizing it. The video became Björk's biggest commercial hit globally, reaching #4 in the UK, and helped establish both artist and director as defining figures of the era's visual and musical culture. Director notes: Directed in 1995; shot on location in San Fernando Valley, California. The video is a homage to Hollywood Technicolor musicals drawing inspiration from Busby Berkeley and Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), as well as Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang. Jonze transforms a drab auto shop into a full-scale musical performance space, with Björk dancing with auto workers, tap dancers, elderly women with umbrellas, and eventually the whole town. The video culminates with Björk floating above the crowd and hushing the viewer. Choreography by Michael Rooney, who won the 1996 MTV VMA for Best Choreography for this video. Produced by Vincent Landay. Edited by Eric Zumbrunnen. The video premiered on MTV during the week ending August 20, 1995, and received six VMA nominations in 1996 including Best Direction, Best Female Video, Best Art Direction, and Breakthrough Video.