Using Andrew Goodwins music video theory I will analyse Beastie Boys – Sabotage. I have always been a huge fan of the Beastie Boys as they are very intelligent musicians, being able to play many different genres and appealing to last of audiences. I also want to be the fourth member.
Institutional infomation
Sabotage was released on the 28th January 1994 on Grand Royal Records. The music video was directed by Spike Jonze, a very cool and unique director from America, director of other famous videos such as, Buddy Holly by Weezer and the most recent Otis by Jay-Z and Kanye West. The video is a parody or homeage of 1970’s police/detective dramas such as Starsky and Hutch, Hawaii Five-O and Baretta. The video is presented as a T.V show called ‘Sabotage’ and then each band member is introduced by their real name and then their fictional name throughout the video, which allows into their style and iconography. Intertextuality is heavily used in this video as it is endorsing features and stereotypes of a 1970's police drama.
The genre of music Sabotage – Beastie Boys comes under is ‘Rap Rock.’ This is simply a cross genre of Rap and Rock, it is in this genre as the song features rock instruments such as, guitar, bass and drums. The guitar is playing heavy riff and the bass is very distorted which are all elements of Rock music. However the song has elements of Rap as there are turntable scratches and the song has verses of rapping.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals
Looking through the song there is a relationship between the song and lyrics, but it is not obvious. The lyrics to me are about a police detective interrogating someone, probably the criminals that have been caught in the video
The first lyric is ‘I can’t stand it, I know you planned it’ this is essential the detective interrogating the ‘criminal’ they caught in the video and accusing him for the crime. The next line is ‘Im gonna set it straight, this Watergate.’ ‘Watergate’ could be referring to the Watergate Scandal is the 1970’s and how it was ‘set straight’ correctly.
When the lyrics ‘Sabotage’ is first sung, a big title with the word ‘SABOTAGE’ appears, this is the bridge as it emphasis the name of the song and helps the narrative relate back to the song. Its not such a lyric, but in the song there is a part when there is screaming and when this is playing a ‘criminal’ is thrown over a bridge, the audience could see this as more of a added diegetic sound of the person screaming.
A final line is ‘It’s a miracle’ when this is being rapped the criminals are thrown into the back of a police car and have been caught, it could be that the detectives are glad they have caught them
Relationship between music and visuals
The shot is not even a second, it is of a car driving quickly into the camera almost about to crash, Spike Jonze has made when the first beat of music is hit it seems like the car has crashed into the camera.
When the first chase is introduced when the undercover waiter pursues the person with the white moustache, the music has a breakdown of just a little guitar riff and drums, it is quiet compared to the rest of the song and because of this we focus more of the chase this happens for 12 seconds. Then the main beat is re-introduced when the chase is over and the undercover waiter tackles the man intro the swimming pool, the first beat is when the men hit the water. This is very strong correlation between music and visuals.
One of my favourite parts Spike Jonze has link music and visual is when the song has a break essential and it is silent. He has linked this break in the song fantastical as he has made the visual at this time the police officers having a break themselves and having a donut, which is a stereotype of a typical America police officer.
There is a crescendo in the song when the lyrics and music is played quiet and the get louder. When the music is at the peak of this crescendo Spike Jonze has put a visual of a huge explosion of a car, which amplifies the viewing experience by the sight and sound.
The finally shot is of the ‘Beastie Boys’ walking along very proud as their duty has been a success. It is the end of the song in this music and it has gone quiet. It is contrast of visual and music, as th visual is simple and slow and the music has finished.
Close-ups of the artists
This video stars all three Beastie Boys: Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock. But they are actors as they play police detectives called: Cochese, Bobby and “The Chief”. Their identity is hidden, which tells the audience that they are not all about selling their image and trying to make lots of money on record sales. If you was not a fan or did not research this video up, you would not know that the Beastie Boys are even starring in their own music video.
A link this video has with others from the Beastie Boys is that it is narrative based and they play characters. An example is the video of Intergalactic – Beastie Boys, which is another parody of Japanese ‘Kaiju’ films, which are monster movies. The story revolves around a giant robot fighting a huge octopus creature in a Japanese city. The group play a number roles, mad scientists and street construction workers.
Type of video
This music video heavily a narrative based as it is based around a T.V series. The narrative of this video is a group of detectives have been given case and they pursue the criminals. They go to extents to find and arrest these criminals, they finally arrest all of them and their job is done.
Editing
Spike Jonze’s editing throughout this video is very quick and has a high tempo, to suit the type of song it is and the narrative. He keeps its quite simple with straight cuts to keep tension high. He also uses the wipe shot, an example is when the briefcase full of drugs is thrown across the table, it wipes to the next frame or when the flick knife is drawn.
Camera shots/movements
The shots and movements in this video are very traditional to the typical 1970’s Police Dramas, to make the concept of the story believable and authentic. However Jonze experiments with many different and ‘out there’ shots, such as the camera strapped to the wheel, bonnet or roof of a car, this gives the idea of an action film.
To introduce each character the close up and zoom in is used, from this we get a more in depth insight of each character, so as an audience we know who the main characters are and we understand the narrative more.
Representation
The representation shown in this video is majority masculinity, as we see a full male casting of an action-packed video. This representation conforms to a typical Hip-Hop or Rock video characteristics as it is generally males performing the song.
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