Glitz and glamour aren’t usually Rebecca Black’s go-to when building a visual world for her music. But taking Rolling Stone behind the scenes of the video shoot for her latest single, “Sick to my Stomach,” the singer strategically wields charming Eighties and Nineties aesthetics to frame a tale of jealousy with glimmering flare.
“I wrote this song after I ran into my ex and found out she was dating someone new – even though I was the one who didn’t feel that relationship going any further, that hurt more than anything,” Black tells Rolling Stone. “I really wanted to channel this version of myself that I think I just wish existed. This innermost jealous and petty version of myself, but make her into something beautiful in the way that I might perceive her in my head.”
Directed by Christina Bryson, the “Sick to my Stomach” visual channels high-scale videos from Madonna and films like Robert Altman — from the fashion and beauty to the replication of VHS-like footage throughout. “For this video, I really wanted to push myself and create a role for the character of each song,” Black explains. “I’ve always been really inspired by the eighties, the seventies, those decades of glamour and choreography.”
Bryson adds: “It’s just rare to find an artist who makes music that fits the type of videos I like to produce, create the set that I liked, and even down to the styling and the makeup.”
For Black, preparing to release her debut album more than a decade into her career is about more than sharing a body of work. It’s also about cementing her status as an artist after fighting for so long to gain that title among a credible audience. “I’m in a really important part of my career right now,” she says. “I’m here to reposition myself, I’m determined to show people what I have to offer.”
Pushing herself out of her comfort zone for “Sick to my Stomach” was also a chance to show off the inner workings of a multidimensional creative mind. “I’ve kind of developed a look that I’ve gone for that has a lot of severity, it’s a bit bombastic,” Black says. “I think this is a lot more soft and glamorous and feminine than I’ve ever really gone before.”
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Working with choreographer Richard Jackson, Black was able to further embrace the unknown as a means of pushing forward. “He’s so incredible to work with and has really pushed me outside of the limits I had for myself,” she explains. “Diving so deep into that choreo has been the most exciting and fun part of this video for me.”
Black sees the video as a fitting companion, both visually and contextually, to “Sick to my Stomach” as a record. Writing this song in particular, the story was “so present,” she says. “I essentially just said what was on my mind. Some songs I find myself getting trapped in the poeticism of what they should be or what they should sound like, but sometimes the songs work best when you just simplify it because everybody else can contextualize that in their own way.”
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Black’s debut album, Let Her Burn, arrives Feb. 9, with “Sick to my Stomach” introducing the record alongside previously released singles “Crumbs” and “Look at You.”
“Now that I have this album finished, that’s only built my confidence in order to do the things that I’ve always wanted to do,” Black says. “Creating a universe, building a world, telling my story, and hopefully make the most fantastical experience for my audience – that’s always the thing I want to create.”
