The Smashing Pumpkins - Rocket

JUL 01 1994 · 12:00

The Smashing Pumpkins - Rocket (1994) Director: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris Era: Alt-Rock Ascendancy (1994) - Peak MTV alternative rock era; Siamese Dream singles cycle; grunge-adjacent art-rock achieving mainstream chart penetration while retaining experimental visual ambition. High curatorial value as a confirmed Dayton/Faris work at a pivotal moment in both the directors' careers and the Smashing Pumpkins' commercial peak. The video's theatrical retro-futurist narrative, technical craft, and quantifiably rapid editing pace (1.65s avg shot length, 149 scene changes) make it a strong primary source for research into 1990s MTV production aesthetics, alternative rock visual culture, and the directorial duo's signature storytelling approach prior to their transition to feature filmmaking. Context: Released in December 1994 as the fourth and final single from Siamese Dream, 'Rocket' arrived at the apex of the Smashing Pumpkins' commercial and critical ascent. The Siamese Dream singles cycle, 'Cherub Rock,' 'Today,' 'Disarm,' and 'Rocket', each paired with a visually distinct video, collectively positioned the band as among the most ambitious visual artists of the MTV era. The video's retro-futurist, children-building-a-rocket narrative tapped into a postwar science-fiction nostalgia aesthetic, contrasting with the grunge-era nihilism dominant among peers. Billy Corgan's stated ambition to carve an independent artistic identity, distinct from Nirvana's shadow, is literalized in the video's cosmic escape metaphor. MTV's 2001 anniversary special credited the Pumpkins, alongside Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the 1990s. Director notes: Confirmed co-directors per IMDb (tt6854162), IMVDb, and Wikipedia. Produced by Bart Lipton; Director of Photography Sal Totino; Editor Eric Zumbrunnen (per RateYourMusic credits). The video was the first of multiple Smashing Pumpkins collaborations with Dayton/Faris, who also directed 'Tonight, Tonight,' '1979,' 'The End Is the Beginning Is the End,' and 'Perfect.' The narrative follows scientifically-minded children who receive an interplanetary broadcast from the band, build a rocket, travel to the band's planet, and upon arrival discover the band members have aged dramatically, a relativistic time-dilation story. A performance-only alternate cut was included on the band's 2001 Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD. SPIN described the video as embracing 'the computer-enhanced hyper-realism that was becoming a fixture of the era.'