"Do the Evolution" is a song by the American rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...

. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder

Eddie Vedder

Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...

 and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard

Stone Gossard

Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...

, "Do the Evolution" is the seventh track on the band's fifth studio album, Yield

Yield (album)

Yield is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on February 3, 1998. Following a short tour for its previous album, No Code , Pearl Jam went into the studio in 1997 to record its follow-up...

(1998). Despite the lack of a commercial single release, the song managed to reach number 33 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was included on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003).

Origin and recording

"Do the Evolution" features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder

Eddie Vedder

Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...

 and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard

Stone Gossard

Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...

. Bassist Jeff Ament

Jeff Ament

Jeffrey Allen Ament is an American musician who serves as the bassist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...

 does not appear on the track. Gossard recorded the bass line for the track. Vedder said that it is his favorite song from Yield. He stated, "I can listen to it like it's some band that just came out of nowhere. I just like the song. I was able to listen to it as an outside observer and just really play it over and over. Maybe because I was singing it from a third person so it didn't really feel like me singing."

Lyrics

When speaking about "Do the Evolution", Vedder stated, "That song is all about someone who's drunk with technology, who thinks they're the controlling living being on this planet. It's another one I'm not singing as myself." Pearl Jam has stated that the novel Ishmael

Ishmael (novel)

Ishmael is a 1992 philosophical novel by Daniel Quinn. It examines mythology, its effect on ethics, and how that relates to sustainability. The novel uses a style of Socratic dialogue to deconstruct the notion that humans are the end product, the pinnacle of biological evolution...

influenced the writing of Yield

Yield (album)

Yield is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on February 3, 1998. Following a short tour for its previous album, No Code , Pearl Jam went into the studio in 1997 to record its follow-up...

, and according to the novel's writer, Daniel Quinn

Daniel Quinn

Daniel Quinn is an American writer described as an environmentalist. He is best known for his book Ishmael , which won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award in 1991....

, this song comes the closest to expressing the ideas of the book. Vedder stated:

This Daniel Quinn book, Ishmael...I've never recommended a book before, but I would actually, in an interview, recommend it to everyone....But this book, it's kind of the book of my ... My whole year has been kind of with these thoughts in mind. And on an evolutionary level, that man has been on this planet for 3 million years, so that you have this number line that goes like this [hands wide apart]. And that we're about to celebrate the year 2000, which is this [holds hands less than one inch apart]. So here's this number line; here's what we know and celebrate. This book is a conversation with a man and an ape. And the ape really has it all together. He kinda knows the differences between him and the man, and points out how slight they are, and it creates an easy analogy for what man has done, thinking that they were the end-all. That man is the end-all thing on this earth. That the earth was around even so much longer before the 3 million years. Fifty million years of sharks and all these living things. Then man comes out of the muck, and 3 million years later he's standing, and now he's controlling everything and killing it. Just in the last hundred! Which is just a speck on this line. So what are we doin' here? This is just a good reminder...And I'm anxious to see what happens. You know, I've got a good seat for whatever happens next. It'll be interesting.

Reception

Without being released as a single, "Do the Evolution" peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 33 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1998. In Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the song reached the top 50 on the Canadian Singles Chart

RPM (magazine)

RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...

. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, "Do the Evolution" received a nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance

Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, for works containing quality performances in the hard rock music genre...

.

In E! Online

E!

E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...

's review of Yield, "Do the Evolution" was described as having a "Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

-Beck

Beck

Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

 hybrid feel." Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

stated, "On the album's most gleeful hip shaker, "Do the Evolution", Vedder howls throwaway lyrics...while the guitars gnash and grind at the primitive melody, briefly evoking the gnarly cacophony of the Stooges

The Stooges

The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...

' monumental Fun House."

Music video

The animated

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 for "Do the Evolution" was co-directed by Kevin Altieri

Kevin Altieri

Kevin Altieri is an American television director of animated cartoons. He is best known for his work on The Real Ghostbusters, Batman: The Animated Series, and the music video for Pearl Jam's "Do the Evolution".-References:...

, known for his direction on Batman: The Animated Series

Batman: The Animated Series

Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...

, and Todd McFarlane

Todd McFarlane

Todd McFarlane is a Canadian cartoonist, writer, toy designer and entrepreneur, best known for his work in comic books, such as the fantasy series Spawn....

, better known for his work with the popular comic book Spawn

Spawn (comics)

Spawn is a fictional comic book superhero who appears in a monthly comic book of the same name published by Image Comics. Created by writer/artist Todd McFarlane, Spawn first appeared in Spawn #1...

and Korn

Korn

Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...

's 1999 "Freak on a Leash

Freak on a Leash

"Freak on a Leash" is a song by the American nu metal band Korn, featured on the group's 1998 studio album Follow the Leader. Prior to the album's release, Korn had an instrumental section of the song, described as a "noisy guitar break." The section was taken out of the song after their fans...

" video. The video was produced by Joe Pearson, the president of Epoch Ink animation, and Terry Fitzgerald at TME. It was written and developed by Pearson and Altieri with input from McFarlane and Vedder. The total production time on the music video was 16 weeks. The animation pre-production was produced by Epoch Ink Animation at their studio in Santa Monica

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Under Altieri and Pearson’s supervision the Epoch team boarded and designed the short in less than six weeks. Once McFarlane, Vedder, and Sony gave their final approvals, the short was taken to Korea by Altieri and Pearson for animation at Sun Min Image Pictures and Jireh Animation. Over a four week period, a team of more than one hundred artists worked to deliver the finished animation.

Once the final animation was back in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Altieri, McFarlane, and Vedder edited the final cut at Vittello Productions. In a press release, McFarlane stated, "We choose to work with people who convey a particular attitude and this video is a tribute to that attitude," while Pearl Jam stated, "As artists we are challenged to expand the meaning of our work and by utilizing this visual medium and working with a visionary like Todd, we were able to further explore some of the themes we depicted in the song "Do the Evolution". Basically we've tried to make a good stoner video." The video premiered on August 24, 1998 on MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

's 120 Minutes

120 Minutes

120 Minutes is a television show in the United States dedicated to alternative music, originally airing on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then on MTV's sister channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003....

. The video was the band's first since the final video for Ten

Ten (Pearl Jam album)

Ten is the debut studio album by the American grunge band Pearl Jam, released on August 27, 1991 through Epic Records. Following the disbanding of bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard's previous group Mother Love Bone, the two recruited vocalist Eddie Vedder, guitarist Mike McCready, and...

, "Oceans"

Oceans (Pearl Jam song)

"Oceans" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by Vedder, guitarist Stone Gossard, and bassist Jeff Ament, "Oceans" was released in 1992 as the fourth single from the band's debut album, Ten...

. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, the music video received a nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form

Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video

The Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality short form music videos...

. The video clip for "Do the Evolution" can be found on the Touring Band 2000

Touring Band 2000

Touring Band 2000 is the second DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, culled from performances from the North American legs of the band's 2000 Binaural Tour...

DVD as one of the Special Features.

Video summary

Throughout the video, a black haired woman (similar in appearance to the character Death

Death (DC Comics)

Death is a fictional character from the DC comic book series, The Sandman . The character first appeared in The Sandman vol. 2, #8 , and was created by Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg....

 from the DC

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series, The Sandman) dances and laughs, representing "Death

Death (personification)

The concept of death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, Death is often given the name Grim Reaper and, from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood...

" as it follows mankind through all of its history. The video begins with the evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

 of life, from the smallest cell

Cell (biology)

The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....

 to the extinction of dinosaurs

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 and reign of homo sapiens

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

. The video then cuts back and forth throughout human history, depicting man's primitive, violent nature as essentially unchanged over the centuries. Such depictions include a knight preparing for the coming slaughter during the Crusades

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

, a ritual dance by America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

's KKK

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

 (the dance is repeated with other groups throughout the video), a rally by Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

-esque troops (with a symbol reminiscent of the Sig Rune instead of a swastika), Auschwitz

Auschwitz concentration camp

Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

-like prisoners with the stripes going vertically instead of horizontally on their uniforms, a book burning

Book burning

Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...

, carnage upon a World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

-era battlefield (apparently a tribute to Peace on Earth, a 1930s MGM

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

 anti-war cartoon directed by Hugh Harman

Harman and Ising

Hugh Harman and Rudolf "Rudy" Ising were an American animation team best known for founding the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studios...

), the apparent virtual-reality rape of a woman, and the bombing of a Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

ese village by an American jet, the pilot of which removes his mask to reveal a skull laughing wildly. Every scene portrayed complements the song's meaning and tightly follows the lyrics. When Vedder sings "Buying stocks on the day of the crash," a scene is shown where businessmen are committing suicide by jumping from buildings, similar to Black Thursday and the resulting suicides from the Wall Street Crash of 1929

Wall Street Crash of 1929

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...

.

Other social and environmental issues such as slavery

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

, whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

, Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent. It was used by Democrat-Republicans in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and fell into disuse after the mid-19th century.Advocates of...

, uncontrolled urbanization

Urbanization

Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....

, vivisection

Vivisection

Vivisection is defined as surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure...

, pollution

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...

, genetic modification

Genetic engineering

Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...

 and techno-progressivism

Techno-progressivism

Techno-progressivism, technoprogressivism, tech-progressivism or techprogressivism is a stance of active support for the convergence of technological change and social change...

 are included. The music video blames humankind's brutality on leadership; with various scenes depicting a judge, a bishop or pope, an Asian political leader and an American president candidate, who is being portraited as a puppet

Puppet

A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....

, controlled by someone unseen, from behind the scene. The video concludes in what seems to be future scenarios of the self-destruction of the human race, including the carpet bombing

Carpet bombing

Carpet bombing is a large aerial bombing done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land. The phrase invokes the image of explosions completely covering an area, in the same way that a carpet covers a floor. Carpet bombing is usually achieved by dropping many...

 of a city of clones by futuristic aircraft, computers hijacking the human mind, and finally a nuclear explosion

Nuclear explosion

A nuclear explosion occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from an intentionally high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission, nuclear fusion or a multistage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion based weapons have used a fission device...

 which leaves not only a city in ruins, but the planet damaged beyond recognition. During the sequence of flashing images near the end of the video an image of a yield sign

Yield sign

In road transport, a ' or ' traffic sign indicates that each driver must prepare to stop if necessary to let a driver on another approach proceed. A driver who stops has yielded the right of way to another...

 being smashed at the corner can be seen, which references the album title and cover art.

Live performances

"Do the Evolution" was first performed live at the band's November 12, 1997 concert in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, California

Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 at The Catalyst. Live performances of "Do the Evolution" can be found on the live album Live on Two Legs

Live on Two Legs

Live on Two Legs is the first major live album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on November 24, 1998 through Epic Records. The album has been certified platinum by the RIAA in the United States.-Overview:...

, various official bootlegs

Pearl Jam Official Bootlegs

The Pearl Jam "Official" Bootlegs are a large, continually growing series of live albums by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam noted the desire of fans to own a copy of the shows they attended and the popularity of bootleg recordings...

, the Live at the Gorge 05/06

Live at the Gorge 05/06

Live at the Gorge 05/06 is a seven-disc live box set by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, released on June 26, 2007 through Rhino/WEA. The box set documents the band's 2005 and 2006 shows at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington....

box set, and the live album Live at Lollapalooza 2007

Live at Lollapalooza 2007

Live at Lollapalooza 2007 is a live album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam that was released as an iTunes exclusive on September 18, 2007.-Overview:...

. Performances of the song are also included on the DVDs Single Video Theory

Single Video Theory

Single Video Theory is a music documentary directed by Mark Pellington that follows the making of Yield, the fifth album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam. It was released first on VHS on August 4, 1998, and then on DVD on November 24, 1998.-Overview:The film was shot in 16mm film...

, Touring Band 2000

Touring Band 2000

Touring Band 2000 is the second DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, culled from performances from the North American legs of the band's 2000 Binaural Tour...

, Live at the Showbox

Live at the Showbox

Live at the Showbox is the third DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, the first of a complete show. It was released on May 7, 2003.-Overview:...

, and Live at the Garden

Live at the Garden

Live at the Garden is the fourth DVD release by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, recorded on July 8, 2003 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was released on November 11, 2003.-Overview:...

. On Touring Band 2000, Vedder adds the lyrics "free the West Memphis 3

West Memphis 3

The West Memphis Three are three men who were tried and convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin was...

!" to the song.

Chart positions

Chart (1998)	Position
US Modern Rock Tracks	33
US Mainstream Rock Tracks	40
Canadian RPM RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... Singles Chart Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays....	50