Video clips and their directors were still a young medium when the 90s began. However, by the end of the decade, the music video came to full commercial and artistic maturity. The role that MTV played in this is not to be underestimated. The ability of the 24/7 music channel to turn a song and musician (think Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit or Britney Spears' ... Baby One More Time) a "hot and trending topic" was second to none. It meant that by the end of the millennium, absurd levels of both financial and creative efforts were put into producing music videos.

Many directors saw it as an ideal finger exercise for better feature film work. In fact, that is how Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Anton Corbijn (Control, A Most Wanted Man), Floria Sigismondi (The Runaways), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Re) and Jonathan Glazer (Under The Skin) made a name for themselves with clips for Björk, Daftpunk, Fatboy Slim, Marilyn Manson, Massive Attack, Radiohead and U2.