Interview with Directors Mark Romanek and Stephane Sednaoui : If Video Killed the Radio Star, Who Killed the Videos?

By Julie Simmons | Music Journalist

In the 1980s, most music videos were either clips from concert performances or literal interpretations of song lyrics. But by the early to mid-90's, major labels started booking filmmakers with visual-arts backgrounds to direct music videos. The results were some of the most innovative short films ever put to music. To honor this era, Palm Pictures released DVD sets showcasing the greatest music videos of our time by groundbreaking directors like Mark Romanek and Stephane Sennaoui. While artists and bands have continued to make cinematic music videos in the 2010s and 2020s (e.g., Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar and others), this is a look at where it all started and predictions of where directors thought music videos were headed through the lens of 2005.

"Back in the '90s, my friends would call me and ask if I saw the new Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry video," recalls the producer of the DVD collections, Richard Brown. "We'd be passing the VHS tapes around the way people send links today. You'd be surprised by how many people have followed the work of directors like Mark Romanek."

Romanek is best known for directing One Hour Photo with Robin Williams. What most people may not know is that he also directed music videos for Beck, Sonic Youth, Eels, R.E.M. and Nine Inch Nails, among others. To this extent, Romanek's canon of work is entirely diverse.

He expounds humbly, "In a way, it must be like what a good or talented actor gets to do. I get to explore all these facets of my personality through these different songs and artists. I have a side that's interested in Johnny Cash ['Hurt'] and Jay Z ['99 Problems'] and Beck ['Devil's Haircut']. That's been one of the most seductive things about directing for me."

Romanek and others within the series not only possess the creative agility to capture various artists. During the golden age of music videos, they challenged the art form by deemphasizing the importance of the rock-star persona and lyrics and instead, focused more on location and ambiance. Fans could now enjoy a psychological adventure with their favorite artists the way a child would affix their favorite superhero Colorform onto a laminated setting.

In Romanek's case, he placed Trent Reznor in an Edward Gorey-esque world for the song, "Perfect Drug;" plopped Madonna into an icy, futuristic Asian world in "Rain;" and situated Beck in a Midnight Cowboy-meets-Truffaut setting for "Devil's Haircut."

"From a marketing perspective," Romanek pauses -- trying to avoid sounding too calculating -- "My objective in making videos has been to create a world that's engaging. The ticket that [consumers] purchase in order to gain access to that world is often the CD. It's a hermetic, aesthetic universe. A metaphor that I use is that the artist is a jewel and [directors are] creating a setting for that jewel. That setting can't overpower the jewel. You can't use a frame that's too elaborate or distracting from the painting. You're trying to create a sense of aesthetic balance. You don't want to draw attention to the director. It's about servicing the artist."

For other directors, like Stephane Sednaoui, that setting is oftentimes rooted in dream states. Sednaoui is responsible for dressing U2 as members of the Village People in "Discotheque," having Björk gleefully prance around on a flatbed truck traveling down a street in Manhattan in "Big Time Sensuality" and painting Anthony Kedis' lips and body silver in "Give it Away."

Sednaoui divulges, "I am literal to the mood of the song, not the lyrics. I love dreams and Bergman's The Seventh Seal. I love dream segments because you don't have to be narrative, you just have to bring the mood."

Given MTV's preference for reality programming over once popular shows like 120 Minutes, the desire for videos in general -- and especially those of stratospheric proportions -- seems to have waned considerably. Was it that the mainstream just couldn't tolerate the symbolism or appreciate the caliber of artistry these directors had to offer?

Butthead, the renowed co-commentator of music videos, once criticized, "I'm getting tired of seeing all these videos where it's all out of focus and it's all blurry and blobby and art crap. Art sucks."

With the exception of the White Stripes, Linkin Park and a few other artists, many early 2000's videos appear to be returning to the 80's formula. Let's face it, "Stacey's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne has all the ingredients of a Van Halen video: simplistic, literal storyline, hot chicks and heavy emphasis on the lead singer. But perhaps it's not the consumers steering the videos as much as independent-label budgets and emerging technology.

Apple recently announced that the iPod can now accommodate up to 150 hours of video and consumers will be able to browse and purchase up to 2,000 music videos. It's unknown whether that small screen might be the death of cinematic-like production or just a new, more intimate way to interact with music.

According to producer Brown, it's ultimately the artist who will determine the future of music videos. Brown reveals, "We're making a short film or a 'filmtrack' for every song on Kanye West's upcoming album. From there, we'll connect them all together and each film will be directed by someone different. Kanye is a big fan of Jon Glazer, Spike Jonze and Mark Romanek. He follows their work religiously. It may be that there isn't a revival of music videos but more interesting short-form work that's going to happen in the next few years, and the iPod video player seems to be a great way to distribute it, too."

While bands might not have issues with distributing their music and videos through a tiny vehicle like the iPod, directors -- especially those interested in making feature films -- will always have a preference for the grandiose.

Sednaoui fantacizes, "I would like to see [music videos appear on] a screen at the back and the entrance of a subway in New York. I like [the idea of someone] putting it in the urban setting because it brings me to the prophecy of Bladerunner. I would love to see Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Give It Away' projected on a 10-story building."

Update: In October 2025, MTV's parent network, Paramount Global, announced it would turn off multiple music channels across the U.K. and parts of Europe by the end of the year.

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This article was originally published in Harp magazine in September 2005

In 2009, Spike Jonze-directed the short film We Were Once a Fairytale to promote his album 808s & Heartbreak. Then, in 2010, Kanye directed the 35-minute Runaway short film to accompany his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Richard Brown is a Scottish film and television producer based in New York and London whose credits include True Detective, Catch-22, Outlaw King, This England and 44 Inch Chest.

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