Music Video
The music video for this song was rarely broadcast on television because it did not contain enough shots of the band members, but was instead a montage of random stock footage shots of things that could be considered "hard to explain". It was directed by the team of Roman Coppola and Johannes Gamble (as well as an uncredited Julian Casablancas). Footage of The Strokes playing "Take It or Leave It" from MTV2's Two Dollar Bill concert is used in the video. Amongst stock footage, the video contains clips from Magnum, P.I. and Knight Rider (both of which are credited), a clip from the film Brainstorm, a commercial for the 1970 Dodge Charger 500 (scene of a woman sitting in a car), a clip from the film WarGames, NASA footage of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in orbit, the rocket engine firing of the Saturn V and image of particle tracks in a bubble chamber (which forms the album cover for '“Is This It'). Some of the stock footage was taken from the film Koyaanisqatsi, which was presented by Francis Ford Coppola.
Read more about this topic: Hard To Explain
Famous quotes containing the words music and/or video:
“For do but note a wild and wanton herd
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
Which is the hot condition of their blood;
If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
Or any air of music touch their ears,
You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze
By the sweet power of music.”
—William Shake{peare (1564–1616)
“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past—the portrayals of family life on such television programs as “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” and all the rest.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)