Today I will be talking about one of my favorite music videos. “Black Hole Sun.” It is a song by Soundgarden and the lyrics are a bittersweet mixture against a a happy acid environment background.

The lyrics were by Chris Cornell the lead singer of the band and this song was on their album “Superunknown” that was released on March 1994.

Chris Cornell said that he was inspired by a news program he was watching on TV and he misheard the news anchor and he thought he heard them say something about the a black hole sun.

He then was so inspire by the misinterpretation of what he heard that he was able to think of the lyrics to the song while driving to his recording studio in Seattle, Washington.

The music video was directed by Howard Greenalgh. You made remember his other music videos such as “Go West” by Pet Shop Boys:

“Rainmaker” by Iron Maiden:

The “Black Hole Sun” video centers around a regular looking neighborhood. You see a beautiful landscape of a mountains and hills but then you see the sun and it is red and looks mad. It seems like it is a build up for what you are able to watch. However when the lyrics start you see Soundgarden in a bluer more pristine environment while singing this melancholy song.

. Their is a group of people carrying a sign that say “The end is near.”

The people that live in the neighborhood look sneaky clean and over glossed. However their is one weird thing about them: the way they smile. It borderlines one of those looney tune cartoon smiles:

Throughout the whole music video you can see the people in neighborhood about to be engulf by the black hole sun and disrupt their pristine looking lives:

They thought that pristine lives would never be effective by anything but nature had another plan. During the last half of the music video you see the black hole swirl and engulf anything in it’s path. The band is left unharmed and the last scene we are left is the viewer looking at the black hole.

This video would go on to win Best Metal/ Hard Rock music video at the 1994 MTV music awards. It also won a Clio Award in the same year.

Fun fact about this music video: the fork necklace that Chris Cornell was wearing in the video was given to him by Shannon Hoon the lead singer of Blind Melon. He was good friends with Shannon Hoon and there is even a bit of a homage to Blind Melon in this music video.

With a dancing little girl wearing a tutu near a beekeeper who is on the ground. In Blind Melon’s music video “No Rain” the central character in that music video was little girl in a bee costume:

The Black Hole Music Video is one of those few videos that I adore watching. I think it tells a good story in a short amount of time and I feel like the lyrics in the song really match the visuals that you see on the screen.

Have you seen the video? If so what are your thoughts on it? Comment below:

Source: Wikipedia