Synopsis

World Party's "Is It Like Today?" video turns the song's sweeping account of human history into a compact visual fable. Images move through the rise of civilization, religion, power, conflict, science, and social change, reflecting the song's question about whether humanity has really progressed. The sequence grows increasingly cosmic and unsettling as the story leaves Earth behind. By the conclusion, humanity has departed the planet and drifts through space, leaving the viewer with an open-ended image of progress, escape, and uncertainty.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Is It Like Today?" was released in 1993 as the lead single from World Party's third album, Bang!. It became the group's biggest UK hit, reaching No. 19.

• Karl Wallinger described the song as a concise version of Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy, compressed into four verses.

• The video was made in connection with the song's 1993 release and uses a deliberately compact, illustrative style rather than a conventional performance narrative.

• The video's final image, with humanity leaving Earth and floating through space, gives the song's historical survey a science-fiction conclusion.

• Trade publication Music & Media reported that the video was taken up quickly by MTV Europe, where it was placed in the channel's "Breakout Extra" rotation at 18 plays per week for three weeks.

• The song was also used in a television commercial for an insurance company during its European promotion.