Synopsis

Garbage perform "Vow" in a stark, gold-toned studio surrounded by television screens that broadcast live images of the band. Strobe lighting, falling glitter, and rapid editing give the performance a disorienting, confrontational energy. Shirley Manson commands the center of the frame while the musicians appear and disappear amid the flashes and monitors. Intercut with the performance is a strange, semi-naked man with smeared black eyeliner, crawling across the floor and adding an unsettling, surreal presence to the band's debut-era visual identity.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed in Los Angeles over a 12-hour shoot in early June 1995 and premiered in the United States on June 12, 1995.

• Garbage had not performed together live before making the video. The shoot required them to play the song together repeatedly, and the experience convinced them that they wanted to become a touring band.

• The performance was staged rather than captured at a concert. The band played through repeated takes while the cameras recorded the action.

• The crawling figure is Greg Brown, an Australian actor and model who also appeared in other music videos from the same period.

• Television monitors were used to create a feedback-like visual effect, with real-time images of the band appearing around the performers.

• The video was first issued commercially on the 1996 VHS and Video CD release Garbage Video. It was later included on the 2007 greatest-hits DVD Absolute Garbage.

• "Vow" was Garbage's debut single and helped establish the band's early combination of alternative rock, electronic textures, studio manipulation, and striking visual presentation.