
The Strokes released a new music video for their song “Lonely in the Future” after their appearance on Saturday Night Live on Nov. 8. The music video was directed by Warren Fu, who used puppets for its visuals. According to Consequence, the puppets are from Spitting Image, recreating The Strokes performing, as well as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Rupert Murdoch, who were all made into puppets.
“Lonely in the Future” criticizes the billionaires and their overarching influence on media and culture. The biggest jab the music video took at the billionaire class was having a romance subplot between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. While taking a jab at the billionaires, The Strokes also paid homage to some creatives whose work wasn’t appreciated in their time, such as Lou Reed, Stanley Kubrick and Bach. Even Rick Rubin made an appearance in the music video, as he produced The Strokes’ latest album, Reality Awaits. Other honorable mentions are the famous YouTube music critic Anthony Fantano and the Swedish environmental and social activist Greta Thunberg.
The song itself is sarcastic and rebellious, making fun of modern music culture by having autotune on the vocals that is off-key to really hone in on the protest against modern mediocrity in music and billionaire culture.
