Yesterday, Fastball released their first music video in more than a decade. This is notable to me because All the Pain Money Can Buy was the first CD I ever bought, and that is 100% because of their awesome music video for "The Way", directed by McG.
McG's influence on music videos in the late 1990s was pretty intense. The style is defined by an extremely bright, high-constrast color palate and can be seen in music videos like "Got the Life" by Korn, "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies, and many, many more. Usually the whites are blown out a little bit, and there's usually a performance in the video. More often than not there are classic cars, some retro elements, and some button-down shirts. Button down shirts for days.
So today we're watching a music video from the McG videography, 1997's "Walkin On The Sun" by Smash Mouth.
If there was ever a band that fit perfectly with McG's style of music video making, it was Smash Mouth. The music was extremely bright, retro alt rock and I suspect each member had a large collection of button down shirts well before they met McG. "Walkin' On the Sun" was Smash Mouth's first major hit, and this video feels like McG and Smash Mouth sat down to talk about this video and had a little Step Brothers "did we just become best friends?" moment when discussing what was going to be in it. The McG look? Check. Classic cars? Check. Retro style stuff? Hell yes. Button down shirts? We're insulted you even asked.
The video happens in three parts: the performance bit in the room that starts off the video, an homage to 60s beach party style movies, and then a 1950s style drag race. I think what most people remember about this video is the car race. I'm not entirely sure why, but McG's classic cars just seem to fit the mood of the song so well that the race scene seemed like a foregone conclusion. That's odd because the song itself is a Gen X critique of the commercialization of 1960s youth and hippe culture, so you'd think that the beach party parody would fit the song best.
I love this video because McG's style is one of those styles that defines a certain era of music video making, and this is a great example of how McG adapted that style to different artists. The music video matches the tempo and energy of the song perfectly, and it helped make a name early on for Smash Mouth so they could spend the next decade making songs for movies.
McG made a lot of music videos for some of the most popular artists for the 1997-2000 time frame, and the style that he promoted seeped in to many other music videos and media. McG went on to direct films and commercials, including Charlie's Angels in 2000 and the sequel, but I'll always be appreciative of his promotion of the button down shirt. I wear a lot of button down shirts.
