Because we love ‘em all. Here’s your 90’s Video of the Day:
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
May 18th is forever a sad day in rock history, marking the anniversary of the death of Chris Cornell in 2017. An incredible voice, one of the architects of 90’s grunge, and a beloved comrade of his musical brethren, Cornell’s ethos and talent are deeply missed. Today we feature a true mammoth of a hit for Soundgarden but also the surreal and unsettling video that defined them for a generation.
Howard Greenhalgh gets all of the credit for bringing the apocalyptic suburban hell of “Black Hole Sun,” to life with visual effects used to accent horrifying facial features before the ultimate climactic rapture. Greenhalgh had previously worked with cutting edge (at the time) visual effects for Pet Shop Boys video for “Liberation,” which is what caught the band’s attention to seek him out as a director. The band said they didn’t want to worry much about the video besides the part in which they were to perform after Chris felt like he’d had too many negative video experiences. He famously did a radio interview in which he said the reason the “Black Hole Sun” video was so great, was because the band creatively got out of the way and let Greenhalgh do whatever he wanted.
Even though Cornell had repeatedly said the song is devoid of meaning, Greenhalgh took some of the lyrics quite literally at points in the video. He had said in 2010 that as a director, “you pray that there are good lyrics in a track because that leads you immediately to what you’re going to do.”
Chris Cornell is actually wearing a necklace in the video that was given to him by Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon. Yes, it is a fork, and it was taken from a Denny’s restaurant when Blind Melon were opening for Soundgarden on tour. Cornell stopped wearing it after Hoon’s death in 2005, but fans would still throw fork necklaces on stage for Chris, which he actually liked and thought was a cool homage to Hoon.
The video won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video in 1994.
It’s all legendary. Enjoy and RIP Chris Cornell.
Hit me up with 90’s Videos you wanna see featured at abby@wxdx.com