Beastie Boys - Sabotage Music Video Analysis

Andrew Goodwin is a well-known media theorist, to which he is most known for his published book named "Dancing in the Distraction Factory". There are five key aspects of music videos that he has produced that link to most music videos, kind of like a rule book. However as we all know, there are no limitations to Music Videos, seeing as they are the biggest adverts that Artists have for their music. This means (because they're an advert) that the most creative, innovative and exciting music video will be the ambition for most directors and bands/artists. 

Sabotage by the Beastie Boys is no exception to this. This music video is based on 'cop' shows made in he 70's and 80's and this music video also adopts the same style of filming that they did too. There are a lot of explosions, a lot of car chases and a lot running and jumping and yet no visible, 100% idea to what is the story to the video. So, I will now attempt to analyse this music video directed by Spike Jonze, in relation to Andrew Goodwin's five concepts of Music Videos.

Five Concepts

Thought beats-seeing the sound.
Narrative performance.
The star image.
Relations of visuals to the song.
Technical aspects of a music video.

Thought Beats

Spike Jonze's video is very fast-paced (likewise to the song also) but he uses editing to relate the shots to the music. Each significant drum beat that is within the song signals the start of a new shot. With this type of editing the audience becomes confused, yet excited at the same time. This is typical for the genre of 'Rock' as most songs in this category feature a lot of loud, distorted sounds but are played at a very fast pace so the music video has to be done this way too.

In the sense of this music video showing a story, it doesn't. Of course it depicts a cop-show, but there isn't much in the lyrics to show this relationship.

Some of the shots taken for this video do correspond with the way the instruments are played in the song though. For example, at the start the the drums are played, but only with one hit and as this happens in the video there are zoomed-in shots occurring, as if you were being thrown into the action. Drums are quite loud and 'snappy' or sharp anyway so this type of shot corresponds very well to it.

Narrative Performance

    This video clearly breaks many rules set out for Music Video production, because once again there is a lack of (this time) 'Narrative Performance' that Goodwin says is key to a good Music Video.

There is no visible singer in this Music Video, so there isn't any lip syncing going on, therefore we aren't able to say if we 'Believe it's real or not'. The song and the lyrics are quite interesting anyway, by which I mean they're very confusing. This is the same with the music video also, and I this is why the video is so famous. This video is listed in most of the 'Top 10 music videos', and yet it contradicts most of the theories out there. This may be because it is a 'Rock' music video and Andrew Goodwin's theories are based more of the 'Pop' genre, or it may just be a hit and a miss, but personally, I think it's the severity of the 'weird-ness' and confusion it gives that makes it such a critically-acclaimed music video.

Star Image

Seeing as there is no lip syncing in this video, and there is no kind of band playing so the idea of the 'Star Image' isn't real applicable here. This is probably (again) because of the genre. Speaking from experience, people mainly remember Pop stars a lot more because their music videos include them a lot more and they are also remembered due to the concept of Voyeurism. Whereas unless the artist is very famous for other reasons, than Rock stars aren't shown or recognised as much due to the genre and how it's possibly not needed, plus they play as a band and members are more equal as they are known for their band name.

Relations of Visuals to the Song

    This picture on the left is the only part of this music video that I can relate to the lyrics. Obviously the word 'Sabotage' is used in big, clear letters to relate to the lyric and the title of the video. This adds to the confusion because the font used doesn't exactly tie in to the video and the other shots, and this is again why it's so popular, because it's so weird, defies every convention, and yet it's brilliant.

Technical Aspects of a Music Video

 
       There's a lot of different shots in this video, from Fisheye to P.O.V and Zoom-in shots. This makes the video very interesting and displays conventions of the 'Cop-Show' style rather than the Rock Music Video style.There's also this explosion on the right that happens, which adds to the curiosity, but makes the video humorous, which I think is the point. The music video is just one big montage, without a story.