"Ava Adore" is a song by American

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 ...

band

the Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Ch ...

. It was the first single from their fourth album, '' Adore'', and exhibited a new sound from the band which integrated traditional instruments with loops and

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

. "Ava Adore" and the B-sides were written by Billy Corgan. When released as a single in May 1998, "Ava Adore" reached number one in Iceland, number two in Greece, number five in New Zealand, and the top 20 in Australia, Canada, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it reached number 42 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, number three on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and number eight on the

Mainstream Rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...

chart.

Music video

The music video was released on June 1, 1998, and was directed by

Dom and Nic dom&nic is the working name of directors Nic Goffey and Dominic Hawley. They have been directing music videos and commercials since 1994. They have won numerous awards for their work, including the Gold Lion at the 1999 Cannes International Adv ...

, featuring the band in gothic-inspired clothing and walking through a variety of scenes. The video, filmed in one long take, is notable for its use of

slow In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude (mathematics), magnitude of the change of its Position (vector), position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per ...

and

fast motion Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and th ...

while the speed of the camera is apparently static, and the band continues to

lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...

to the song in perfect rhythm. The calculations required to work out the speed changes caused massive delays on set, causing the band to nearly call off the entire plan. The sets seen in the video were arranged in a configuration resembling a hallway, in which a rave sequence functioned as the end of the hall. Instead of continuing to the right, the camera rotates to the left, revealing the artifice of the visuals. The music video won an award for "most stylish video" at the 1998 VH1 Fashion Awards.

Track listings

All songs written by Billy Corgan

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1998 songs 1998 singles The Smashing Pumpkins songs American synth-pop songs Electronic rock songs Hut Records singles Number-one singles in Iceland Song recordings produced by Billy Corgan Song recordings produced by Flood (producer) Songs written by Billy Corgan