Did you know a famous MTV video was filmed in the Staten Island Mall?
Do you remember when the Staten Island Mall had a big fountain at its center?
If you’d like to take a trip 30 years back in time — view the video (below) of the song “You Get What You Give” by The New Radicals. It was filmed in the Staten Island Mall in 1998 and released as a video on MTV on November 10, 1998. The song reached #36 on the US Billboard Hot 100, #8 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, #5 in the United Kingdom, #4 in Ireland, and #1 in Canada and New Zealand.
The video, which got a ton of play on MTV and later VH1, was directed by Evan Bernard.
According to Story of Song, and the song’s wikipedia page, New Radicals’ frontman Gregg Alexander “said he chose this setting because he sees the shopping mall as a metaphor for society—a fake, controlled environment engineered to encourage spending. The video showed a group of teenagers, led by Alexander, going through the mall wreaking havoc—tossing nets on security guards, placing businessmen in animal cages, knocking over merchandise, hijacking Lambretta’s, and moshing in the food court.”
The New Radicals were formed in Los Angeles in 1997 by Gregg Alexander (lead vocals, guitar, songwriting, production) and Danielle Brisebois (keyboards, percussion, backing vocals). They had other members including session and touring musicians such as Jim McGorman, Stuart Johnson, Sasha Krivtsov, and Brad Fernquist.
Their debut album, “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too” premiered in 1998 and included the song “You Get What You Give” which became a smash single with its video getting major play on MTV.
Why the Staten Island Mall?
There is no publicly available information as to why the Staten Island Mall was chosen — amongst all Malls that could have been chosen. The band belonged to the MCA label headquartered in LA.
However — the producer Evan Bernard was living in Brooklyn at the time. His career as a video producer had kicked off when he hooked up with The Beastie Boys and did a video for them in 1994. (In fact Bernard has his own wikipedia page.) So he must have been very familiar with the Staten Island Mall.
And the Staten Island Mall did provide the large, accessible, visually familiar suburban environment for the scenes in the video.
What Happened to “The New Radicals”?
Alexander dis-banded the band in 1999, reportedly because he was tired of touring and promotional interviews. The band was dis-banded just before the release of their 2nd single, “Someday We’ll Know”.
The band re-united for the first time in 2021 for — get this — Joe Biden’s inauguration. Marone.
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