Following Paris Jackson’s first video from Happiest Day of My Life, “Zombies in Love,” her next “visual representation” of the album is the title track (co-written with Linda Perry). A song with a much less “slow jam”/“singer-songwriter-y” feel and much more of a “lead singer of an alt-rock band” one. In short, Jackson is very much channeling Olivia Rodrigo’s “shtick” from You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, which, in turn, channels the combined musical influences of The Cure and The Smashing Pumpkins (hell, Rodrigo even has a song on that album called “The Cure”—though, ironically, it sounds more like The Smashing Pumpkins).
Sonically, it’s more about The Cure for her, with a strong mix of “In Between Days” and “Just Like Heaven” at play from the very start of the song. But The Smashing Pumpkins undeniably shine through in the video, co-directed by Jackson and Fidel Ruiz-Healy (who also directed “Zombies in Love”). Specifically, their video for “1979,” of which Billy Corgan would remark, “The video perfectly encapsulates what it’s like to be bored and restless and stuck in suburbia.” There’s that same aura permeating Jackson’s “Happiest Day of My Life”—not to mention how the title and lyrics are adjacent to what Corgan sings on “Today”: “Today is the greatest day I’ve ever known/Can’t live for tomorrow, tomorrow’s much too long.” Of course, the lyrics are drenched in irony, seeing as how Corgan was suicidal at the time of writing them.
Jackson bears a similar sense of fatalism behind the “happiness” expressed, singing, “This could be the happiest day of my life/But nothing lasts forever.” (Recently, Zara Larsson also mentioned that “nothing lasts forever,” albeit on a much happier [in the non-ironic sense] song, “Eurosummer”.) And, as if to capture the transience of what it is to be happy, Jackson opts for a similar concept to “1979,” showcasing herself and her friends engaging in the kind of “boredom-killing” behavior seen in The Smashing Pumpkins’ visual masterpiece from 1996 (itself directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris). That said, it’s also the kind of behavior one doesn’t much see in the present-day youth, glued as they are to their phone screens. And yes, phones are noticeably missing from the “activities” presented in the video, with the carefree existence of Jackson and her “ruffian” friends conveyed through scenes of them jumping on a trampoline and Jackson turning on a hose to playfully spray them down.
In another recurring scene, Jackson can be seen riding in the back seat of a car, which is also très reminiscent of Billy Corgan riding in the back of a car in “1979.” Indeed, the car is very much the same symbol of freedom and independence in Jackson’s video as it is The Smashing Pumpkins’. For, like the teenagers in “1979,” Jackson and co. seem on a quest to find something—anything—that might quell the boredom or sadness from setting in. So it is that they ride to a fast-food drive-through, swerve erratically down the road after leaving (the “1979” equivalent of doing donuts) and stop off next to a low water-level river (presumably, the L.A. River) to generally fuck about.
To display another instance of courting danger as a means to stave off boredom, Jackson can also be seen riding her skateboard while holding on to the back of the car as it drives off. This done before she and her friends target the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale as their next “time-killing”/“fun-having” location. And, like the convenience store scene in “1979,” there’s something almost hostilely rebellious in the ways that they choose to “blow off steam.” In this case, by drinking soda straight from the stream and stealing fistfuls of popcorn, much in the same style as the teenager in “1979” stealing a Slurpee (filled to the brim in a cup that urges, “Say NO to Drugs”), taking a couple of errant sips and then tossing it behind him to the floor.
As if further seeking to highlight that the context of this video is decidedly “of the past,” the next thing Jackson and her friends do is pick up a hitchhiker (at least a woman, not a man) before then making another stop to take in the view of the Downtown L.A. skyline and, while they’re at it, imitating “The Breakfast Club march” that the three male characters of said movie—John (Judd Nelson), Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) and Andrew (Emilio Estevez)—engage in at one point toward the end of their day in detention (this impromptu dancing also a form of staving off the boredom).
With day turning into night, the antics continue to ramp up, manifested by some casual graffitiing, the tossing of a Molotov cocktail and, obviously, party-going. The party in question also being very 90s and reminiscent of the one shown in “1979.” And, talking of “the 70s in the 90s,” the former decade was very much a “trend” in the latter. Hence, the cameo of a lava lamp during one of the party scenes. Then, of course, there’s also a cameo by some “cops,” who decide to join in on the fun.
By the time the party’s over, the next morning has broken, with scenes of the aftermath shown in the form of leftover pizza (mostly in states of half- or mostly-eatenness) in a box, a makeshift paper plate ashtray filled with cigarette butts, crushed, empty beer cans and plastic cups filled with half-drunk liquids. Then there’s Jackson herself, passed out on the 70s era-looking couch with a happy face (very much in the style of the Blink-182 logo) drawn on her forehead with a black marker. Another final sign that it was the happiest day of her life—but now it’s over. And, as the credits roll, Jackson gives insight into the community she’s become a part of among the artists and musicians of L.A., with bands like Pretty and Sludge Mother also getting spotlighted, the latter being the ones playing at the party (sort of like The Smashing Pumpkins were playing at the one in “1979”).
Thus, while the happiest day of her life might have come and gone—if this song is anything to go on—it appears Jackson has, after a lot of pain and suffering, made something of a happy life overall for herself. Through carving out her own interconnectedness with others…based, ostensibly, entirely on insouciance.
+ There are no comments
Add yours