'90s Rock Ballad Trilogy That Saved Its Band From Obscurity Ends With This Iconic Hit
If you're like us, you spent the '90sglued to MTV, where a certain hard rock band dominated the airwaves with one of the most iconic music video trilogies of all time. As the three-part storyline of "Cryin'," "Amazing," and "Crazy" unfolded, it also helped launch the careers of future stars Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler.
Silverstone, just 16 at the time, stars in all three videos, each connected by a loose narrative thread. Her breakout moment came in the summer of 1993 with "Cryin'," in which she plays a flannel-clad heroine who gets a bellybutton ring, dumps her loser boyfriend (played by Stephen Dorff), and beats up a purse snatcher. The video ends with a now-iconic bungee jump off a bridge and a defiant gesture that pretty much defines the rebellious era.
According to reports at the time, sales tripled after the video hit MTV.
"Aerosmith made a hell of a lot of money off ['Cryin'']," Silverstone told Rolling Stone. "Their sales tripled or something. They would have been crazy not to ask me back."
That November, "Amazing" was released, shifting into a more futuristic tech vibe to reflect the rise of the Internet. In the video, a fanboy loads a tape of "Cryin'" into his computer, allowing him to then enter a metaverse where he interacts with a digital version of Silverstone. What follows is a surreal mix of fantasy, adventure, and romance before a plot twist is revealed. But we won't spoil it.
Then, things got "Crazy." In the third and final installment of the rock ballad trilogy, Silverstone plays a schoolgirl who skips out on class with her best friend, played by lead singer Steven Tyler's daughter, Liv Tyler, also about 16 at the time. The two hit the road in a blur of freedom - shoplifting, skinny-dipping, pushing every boundary - that culminates in the seduction of a farmboy.
"By the time ‘Cryin' hit MTV in the summer of 1993, it was clear Alicia was a new rock & roll muse," Rolling Stone writes. The debut changed her life, leading to her role in Clueless. The success story is echoed in the rise of Liv Tyler, who was cast in Empire Records the following year, and then Armageddon in '98, for which her pops supplied the No. 1 hit original song.
"Crazy," released May 3, 1994, on the band's Get a Grip album, went on to win a Grammy and MTV Music Video Award. Climbing to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, it cemented the band's creative peak, as Far Out Magazine says, "Getting Silverstone into the ‘Cryin' video turned Aerosmith from potential has-beens to rock icons all over again."
Today, the trilogy is still getting all the flowers it deserves, as it's hailed as the greatest rock video franchise of all time by Rolling Stone. It not only revitalized the band's cultural moment, but helped launch two future stars - and remains a defining snapshot of MTV-era storytelling more than 30 years later. Doesn't get much better than that.
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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 2:24 PM.