percussion lingering on the radio waves like air freshener." Charles Aaron from Spin ranked the song number one in his list of the "Top 20 Singles of the Year", adding that it "was novelty-pop as generational statement like nothing else since "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right to Party!" Another editor, Jay Stowe, wrote, "An irresistible hook-line like "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me...?" comes around maybe once a decade. So, hey, jump in the craze train. America's browbeaten youth never had a more absurd—or honest—anthem." Impact and legacy "Loser" ranked first place in the 1994 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll. In 2004, this song was ranked number 200 in Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In September 2010, Pitchfork Media included the song at number nine on their "Top 200 Tracks of the 90s". In 2007, Vh1 ranked it number 22 on their list of the "100 Greatest Songs of the 90's". In 2012, Paste ranked it number one on their list of the "20 Greatest Beck Songs", and in 2020, The Guardian ranked the song number three on their list of the "30 Greatest Beck Songs." Music video The accompanying music video for "Loser" was directed by Beck's friend Steve Hanft. Hanft had worked for a week on storyboards for the video, then called a meeting with Beck's label, Bong Load Records, and requested a $300 shooting budget. The unprocessed 16 mm film footage was frozen for 6 months until Beck signed with Geffen Records. Geffen gave Hanft $14,000 to process, edit, and master the video, making the budget total $14,300. Filming for the video was done all across California, including in Rothrock's Humboldt County studio and backyard and at the Santa Monica graveyard. The video is a mashup of various 16 mm film clips. Beck insisted they were "fucking around" when they made the video; he told Option in 1994, "We weren't making anything slick – it was deliberately crude. You know?" Hanft, inspired by the Black Sabbath's 16 mm film promo "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and also surrealist filmmakers Luis Buñuel and Maya Deren, included stop-motion animation footage of a moving coffin in the video. Two coffins were used, one which was a prop borrowed from a local drama school and the other which had been built by Beck and Hanft. Clips and sounds sampled from