Synopsis

Juliana Hatfield performs "What A Life" in a deliberately awkward, self-deprecating setting. She sings into a microphone and plays guitar outside a house, while the video cuts to stark, surreal images of her posing inside a copy machine. The performance is repeatedly disrupted by physical comedy and apparent discomfort, giving the clip a masochistic edge beneath its low-key presentation. Rather than building a conventional narrative, the video uses repetition, deadpan framing, and strange visual interruptions to match the song's uneasy alternative-rock mood.

Factoids & Trivia

• "What A Life" was released in 1995 as a single from Hatfield's album *Only Everything*, her first solo album after the Juliana Hatfield Three's *Become What You Are*.

• The video is notable for its copy-machine imagery, which turns Hatfield's face and body into stark black-and-white stills throughout the performance.

• The clip was one of two Hatfield videos from *Only Everything* featured on *Beavis and Butt-Head*, alongside "Universal Heart-Beat." Hatfield later called appearing on the animated series twice a career highlight.

• Contemporary coverage described the video as "masochistic," a fitting description of its deliberately uncomfortable physical comedy and refusal to present Hatfield as a polished rock star.

• Hatfield recalled recording the lead vocal for "What A Life" in a broom closet because she liked the muffled sound. The rough, enclosed quality of that experiment suits the video's deliberately unglamorous visual approach.