90s VOTW: “Virtual Insanity,” Jamiroquai
This video was super innovative when it came out, yo. Hell, it might still be considered innovative since MTV never shows any damn videos anymore and therefore there are no new videos to surpass its awesomeness. (Yes, I sound like an old fart. Oh well!) Like, dude, the floor’s moving. And then suddenly the furniture starts to bleed. And birds are flying around and cockroaches are rustling about. Craazay!
And check out Jamiroquai’s moves! I remember wishing that I could dance like he does … and then I remembered I’m a half-Irish, half-Polish girl from western Pennsylvania who will never look like that on a dance floor.
How much do I love the Dr. Seuss top hat thing that he’s wearing in this vid? For a fleeting moment in time, that hat was funky and cool and you wished you could pull it off but you knew you couldn’t. Then, afterwards, that godforsaken hat was ubiquitous. You could not escape it, especially not if you decided to go to the amusement park or county fair or some other place where teenagers would be congregating. And trust me, none of them could pull it off either. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t try.
I’m also loving that he’s wearing what appears to be an Old Navy performance fleece. (Admit it, you can still sing the jingles from those really hideously tacky commercials they showed in the 90s.)
What do you think the crow (raven? I’m not so up-to-speed on my birds) and the cockroach symbolize? If they symbolize anything at all, of course.
Dude, I think the video is better than the song. How did he get away with wearing that big floppy hat? Who decided that was cool?
Excellent video… but I know how they made it thanks to Pop Up Video.