Does anyone remember Silverchair?

They were the band from Australia who got a lot of attention because they were all teenagers who weren’t even old enough to drink when they were big in America.  From the minute that Silverchair showed up on MTV in the 90s, it has been fashionable to dismiss them as being overly derivative of the other bands that were popular at the time.  That’s a valid complaint and the lead singer always tried too hard to be angsty but Silverchair did get better towards the end of their run and, if they were derivative, they were never as cynically blatant about it as band like Bush was.

Anthem For The Year 2000 is one of their better songs.  To understand both the song and the video, you have to think back to what the world was like in 1999, when everyone was worried that Y2K would lead to computer systems shutting down across the world.  It was also a time when people were very worried about “the new world order,” as seen by the video’s robot politician.  Actually, I guess 1999 isn’t that different from 2022.

Enjoy!