How Temple of the Dog Pioneered a New Genre of Music Videos in the ’90s | Hacker News Reader

How Temple of the Dog Pioneered a New Genre of Music Videos in the ’90s

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58 pointsDiabloD327 comments

>Released in early 1991, the video not only became an instant hit, but also a quintessential video in the ’90s genre. It codified the checklist for what a video in the ’90s would look like.

Guess what video this is talking about, no, just name the first thing that comes to mind. A little hard right?

That's because this fucking article is a puff piece trying to build a mountain out of a mole hill. Temple of the Dog was a blip on the radar but it didn't "PIONEER" anything music video wise, or even "supergroup" wise.

If you remove the three bottles of wine and $60 of cocaine that populates the article, there's about two paragraphs of decent, interesting stuff about Temple of the Dog. For somebody claiming to write about "pioneering" in reference to Chris Cornell and music videos, and not mention "Black Hole Sun" once means the writer is incompetent.

Just because somebody writes a lot of words doesn't mean they're worth your time to read them. Fuck this article. Go re-watch the Nic Harcourt interview of Soundgarden at ACL in 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FCjlX9Qr3Y

>Released in early 1991, the video not only became an instant hit, but also a quintessential video in the ’90s genre. It codified the checklist for what a video in the ’90s would look like. > Guess what video this is talking about, no, just name the first thing that comes to mind. A little hard right?

When I read that description, the first two videos that came to mind were Give It Away and Smells Like Teen Spirit. I didn't even remember if those were released in 1991, but it turns out they both were. I suspect many others of my age would also think of those before Hunger Strike. But that doesn't prove those videos were better or more influential, just more popular and got more play on MTV.

I don't know how "pioneering" Temple of the Dog really were, but it does say something that a band that only made one album was worth reuniting 25 years later.

It always seemed to me like that band (and that song in paritcular) was kind of "leftover" material rammed down the public's throat when Pearl Jam & Soundgarden broke as if it were some hidden gem that had somehow evaded our attention ("It's about their dead friend, you know..."). Always felt to me just like a cash grab-- like what Cornell (RIP) says in the article: "Oh, there’s this one video that we have that has members of both bands in it; let’s play it all day!"

I don't get how guys playing in a field was some kind of pioneering new concept in music videos. That's basically every music video in the 1960s.

With all the current collabs in hip-hop, house, and pop, to be honest it almost seems totally played-out these days...if such a good idea about cross-pollinating music genres could be bad thing that is.

i thought temple of the dog was more or less a tribute to mother love bone, well the lead singer that died andrew wood.

That was my reference to "It's about their dead friend, you know..."

>But that doesn't prove those videos were better or more influential, just more popular and got more play on MTV.

Things become influential by exposure...

Personally I thought Black Hole Sun was a terrible video, and I didn't like the production on that song either. Making the eyes bigger in the video felt like a stupid trick that a child would add because it looked new and cool. And the alternating "Black Hole Sun, Black Hole Sun" on the left and right channels were the same way to me.

That said, I was a huge Soundgarden fan, and that album was a disappointment for me. The only songs I still listen to from that album are 'Like Suicide' which is brilliant, and "The Day I Tried to Live".

But you remember it, right? It was such a twisted take on what a music video should be - it didn't make you feel good, it made you feel SOMETHING. That's the Soundgarden modus operandi. As Kim said, if they wanted to be popular they'd have written more songs in 4/4.

The whole premise of Temple of The Dog as some kind of unique gem is fucking low-class keyfab. The only way the article makes sense is if you pour a bottle of cough syrup into a 12 oz glass of Listerine and smoke some PCP as a chaser. Basically I'm saying nothing about this article rings true except for tying in "How I Met Your Mother" as a desperate flailing for relevance.

Have a lotta respect for Nic Harcourt. He gave our band and many other "unknown" bands a chance in KCRW. The guy is really open to new sounds and thats very rare these days

Agreed, I've watched him interview countless "superstars" and always manage to be a really genuine, interested, integrity-driven guy. He's reciprocated some of the compliments via Twitter, but overall, I think he's what Zane Lowe wishes he could be. Quote me on that if you'd like.

I'm not very Radio 1 so I've not paid much attention to Zane Lowe on there. He founded a group called Breaks Co-op in NZ back in the day which is the only reason I really know of him [1].

For years I've been listening to Tom Ravenscroft to find out about new music. When I found out he was John Peels son the penny dropped.

[1] https://youtu.be/QW8lD19bQG0

Out of interest, what band were you in?

I can't defend this from being called a puff piece. However, I am bemused by the fact that that description was not for a Temple of Dog video.

That is, for all the vitriol in your post, you didn't really pick an excerpt that backs your point. That part of the article doesn't claim that this video pioneered the look. Rather, it asserts it as a solid example of the look pioneered by Alice in Chains that came to define much of that era.

>That's because this fucking article is a puff piece trying to build a mountain out of a mole hill. Temple of the Dog was a blip on the radar but it didn't "PIONEER" anything music video wise, or even "supergroup" wise.

That. It's a mediocre video -- a bunch of guys performing on an outside location --, and we have seen such videos tons of times much before 1991.

On top of this, the video made absolutely no great impression. It isn't even that typical of the quintessential 90s video (if there such a thing even exists).

Soundgarden Badmotorfinger and Temple of the Dog were my 2 favorite albums of that era, so I know of this intimately.

I was a huge fan, and I have to say that Hunger Strike was the cringiest video I had seen up to that point. I couldn't stand it, it was so phony. Eddie Vedder inexplicably singing in the middle of weeds or tall grass and you could barely see him, it was hilarious. The rest of the band playing electric guitars on the beach with no hookups, was just so full of phoniness, it was probably the absolute worst video of that era. The idea that this video somehow "pioneered" other music videos is laughable.

I couldn't have said that better.

Faith No More "Epic" was way more influential than "Hunger Strike" and, wouldn't you know it, that video didn't even get a mention in the article.

> Fronted by Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell, Temple of the Dog was the original rock supergroup.

I love Temple of the Dog as much as the next guy but this is patently false. The original rock supergroup was probably Crosby, Stills, & Nash, formed in 1968 by well-known stars from the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and the Hollies, respectively (and later joined by Neil Young). One could also make a case for Cream, but Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker became much better known for their involvement with Cream than they ever were for anything else.

I've got to echo some of the other comments here: Temple of the Dog always struck me as "meh", especially the video for "Hunger Strike". Any number of Soundgarden or Pearl Jam songs/videos were way more artistic and influential.

It's almost if the author is a) a super-fan that is looking at the past with special rose-colored glasses, or b) they didn't actually experience that time period and are watching the videos now without the proper context.

BTW: shout-out to anyone that listened to 104.1 (Orlando) in the early-to-mid 90s. What a great radio station...

I rememeber Temple of The Dog being a lackluster one hit wonder. Mediocre and unremarkable insofar as it received no commentary from Beavis and Butthead.

"Original rock supergroup"

I get the feeling the author wanted to write something given events and this is the result. Personally, I would have gone with an article starting with Mother Love Bone and how the member friendships resulted in Temple of the Dog and other collaborations tying in Chris Cornell that way.

It's sad that I just learned right now that Chris Cornell actually passed away three days ago.

I know the comment trend here is bashing the author... but i gotta step out of that to say... holy hell... i feel dumb. Never knew temple of the dog was Vedder and Cornell ... and i've always loved that song.. not so much lyrically, but the overall sound..

I don't know about the video but the song is pretty interesting in that it's the same refrain over and over and doesn't rhyme - yet it still works

Stopped reading at "Mission to Burma." Plenty of outsiders were around back then too, trying to write about it but betraying their ignorance. I always chalked it up to their being too old. But this guy is even younger, looking back from "the future!" Generation X: misunderstood from both directions!

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