alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...
group Live that was released as the second single from their 2001 album, '' V''. In the United States, the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
were a catalyst for the song's addition to radio despite not receiving an official release there. The song peaked at number 30 on the US '' Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart and became a top-three hit in the Netherlands and the
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
region of Belgium.
Background
The song became associated with the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
on the United States. Proceeds from the sales of the single were donated to charities to benefit the victims of the attack.
Chart performance
The song was a hit in
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
and the Netherlands, peaking at number three in both regions. It was not released as a single in the US but reached number 30 on the '' Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart. Its charting in the United States is due to a
RealAudio
RealAudio, or also spelled as Real Audio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fi ...
remix of the song featuring actualities from the September 11 attacks gaining attention online, which resulted in
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
radio stations adding "Overcome" to their playlists in late September 2001. In Australia, the song peaked at number 68 in January 2002.
Music videos
The song spawned three music videos.
The first version was created by
Steven Rosenbaum
Steven J. Rosenbaum (born 1961) is an American author, entrepreneur and filmmaker. He was a Resident at TED (conference), TED in New York City and holds two patents in the areas of video curation and advertising technology. Rosenbaum is the co-f ...
, founder and CEO of production company CameraPlanet, and consists of footage Rosenbaum's seven camera crews had shot around
Ground Zero
In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the groun ...
on September 11, 2001. During that day, Rosenbaum had heard "Overcome" on the radio—the song had been picked up by several stations in the wake of the attacks—and in the evening he started editing the footage to the song. On September 13, after a total of seven hours of editing, he showed the finished video to a friend at VH1 which put it into rotation within an hour. It was subsequently also picked up by VH1's sister station MTV and both channels played it, along with only a handful of other videos, for close to a week.
After having seen the video, of whose existence they had no prior knowledge, on TV, the band decided to create their own version. They enlisted director Mary Lambert (who worked pro bono) to film singer
Ed Kowalczyk
Edward Joel Kowalczyk (; born July 16, 1971)"Edward Kowalczyk IMDb entry" '' performing the song under falling water in a Los Angeles studio on September 18. This material was then intercut with footage of world leaders and children from all over the world as well as clips of the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and other world events along with famous quotations such as "Imagine World Peace" and "The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself".
Being informed, on September 19, by the band's manager, Chris Harden, of the studio shoot, Rosenbaum objected: " you're gonna make a video, it has to feel honest, and putting something from the studio over those pictures is just wrong." Kowalczyk agreed, flew to New York the same day, and that evening Rosenbaum and his wife filmed him visiting Ground Zero, a fire station and various memorials. An a cappella versio was recorded in front of the smoking remains of the WTC. Clips of that footage were then interspersed into Rosenbaum's original video. Only this video was released on the '' Awake: The Best of Live'' DVD.
The Shield
''The Shield'' is an American crime drama television series starring Michael Chiklis that premiered on March 12, 2002, on FX in the United States, and concluded on November 25, 2008, after seven seasons. Known for its portrayal of corrupt pol ...
'', featuring in the
season 2 Season 2 may refer to:
* ''Season 2'' (Infinite album)
* '' 2econd Season''
See also
*
{{disambig ...
finale, "Dominoes Falling.""Soundtrack details for Dominoes Falling" ''IMDb''
*"Overcome" was used in the opening minutes of '' E:60 Presents - Comeback Season: Sports After 9/11''.
Vevo
Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, ...
channel on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...