10 Best Hard Rock Music Videos Of The 90s
7. Basket Case - Green Day (1994)
Filming a music video in a dilapidated mental asylum was a fitting choice for a song that expressed the emotional turmoil of losing ones mind.
Basket Case was written as a means for Billy Joe Armstrong to exercise the inner struggle he felt trying to come to terms with a panic disorder. At the time, he was suffering from extreme bouts of anxiety and without a proper diagnoses there was only one way for him to process his experience - write a classic punk rock song.
To mirror the juxtaposition of a fairly upbeat sounding song about mental illness, the decision was made to imbue a whole range of vibrant colours onto the footage. The psychedelic tone also helped convey a sense that reality wasn't as it seemed, reminiscent of someone experiencing a psychotic breakdown.
Throughout the video the band are depicted wondering aimlessly around the asylum in varying states of mental decline. Armstrongs performance in particular conveyed a guy slowly losing it, with wide eyed twitching and erratic movements.
Although the video didn't win any of the many awards it was nominated for it contributed to the bands mainstream popularity.