Format CD Length 4:43
3:54 (radio edit) | Genre Alternative rock Label Roadrunner | |
Released July 22, 2006 (2006-07-22) Writer(s) Shawn Economaki, Josh Rand, Jim Root, Corey Taylor | ||
"Through Glass" is the second single from the rock band Stone Sour's second album Come What(ever) May. The track was published online through Yahoo! along with its music video on June 9, 2006, and was released on July 22, 2006, just over one week before the release of the album. It reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the US, where it remained for 7 weeks, and #2 on the Alternative Songs chart. The song also peaked at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 after crossing over to pop radio. It remains their most popular song to date. The song was featured in the found footage horror film Grave Encounters 2. The band's hometown of Des Moines, Iowa appears on the single cover. On March 3, 2017, Through Glass was certified platinum by the RIAA.
Contents
Background
The song was originally inspired by frontman Corey Taylor's outrage at the music industry and how he felt that the musical revolution had never taken place.
Taylor was quoted as having said:
"I remember exactly where I was. It was 2004 and I was on tour with Slipknot. I was sitting in a European hotel room watching a music video channel, seeing act after act after act of this insane, innocuous, plastic music. They were plastic, bubbly, gossamer-thin groups where it was really more about the clothes they wore and the length of their cheekbones than it was about the content of the song they were singing.
It really made me mad. I was like, is this it? Have we just gone full circle? Did the singer/songwriter revolution never happen? Is it just the same drivel from the same replicate over and over again? 'Through Glass' is really a very angry song. It's me basically calling 'bullshit' on pretty much everyone involved with the American Idol-type shows. It has its place, but when you're basically cornering the market and making it very hard for anyone who actually writes their own music to get ahead, then it's wrong and that's really why I wrote this song."
Years later Taylor elaborated on the origins of the song, saying that his watching European music television was brought on from a violent fit of food poisoning as a result of eating at a Swedish McDonald's restaurant and being unable to move and change the channel from MTV Europe.
Music video
The music video for "Through Glass" was shot with director Tony Petrossian, and also included a cameo by Poison guitarist C.C. Deville.
The video begins with Corey Taylor singing the beginning while sitting in a chair. He gets up as it is taking place in a house party, which goes through close-ups of the guest. A shot of a waitress bringing up a plate of a Plywood cutout of food is also shown. As the video progresses, the band begins to perform in front of the Hollywood Sign, spelled as "Hollowood". Taylor walks through a pool and sings the rest of the song. Two men are shown to be actually Plywood cutouts, which are taken away. Another set of people are Plywood cutouts and taken away. As the video continues, the whole set is shown to be made up of Plywood cutouts, which are taken away. When the band finishes, they walk away, showing that the place they were performing in was made up of Plywood cutouts too.