Sabotage, textual analysis

track name: sabotage

Artist: Beastie Boys.

Director: Spike Jonze.

Genre characteristics: Rap/Rock, due to its fast pace it fit both the conventions of rap and rock. This video in particular reflects how male orientated rap and rock can be. Although I'm shore there are girls who choose who listen to the Beastie Boys, it is quite obvious due to the aggressive nature and the cop parade that the video is trying to appeal to a male audience.

relationship between the lyrics and visual: the is some contradiction within the link between the visual and lyrics as the words seem to be talking about rebelling against the police but the visual is about cop's who seem to be winning in there battle against crime. But because this representation is that of a spoof it could be seen that that artist is mocking the police for the way they act/acted.

relationships between the music and visual: The fast pace music very much fits with the quick editing and pace of movement. The sound is very aggressive and so the aggressive nature of the mock violence fit each other also there are some clever cue3s in the video where an action changes withe the music for example when there was an explosion the music also went louder to match the visual.

Are there close-ups of the artist and star motifs?: there is use of close ups in the music video but they dont promote the singer even though it is them the close ups on, this is due the the costumes, the costumes discise them very well as unless you knew the artist well its not very obvious it is them. So the close-ups are mocking the genre rather than focusing on how great the artists are themselves.

Is there reference to the notion of looking?: There is a large focus on visual comedy, and this make the genre of the video obvious and easily recognised It is also very cliche by using scenes we would have seen in 70's cop shows such as Starsky and Hutch e.g. jumping over the bonnet of a car.

Are there any intertextual references?: The main focus is on the mockery of 70's cop shows such as Starsky and Hutch and Miami Vice. it hilight the most unrealistic sterotypes of 70's cop's and so therefor making a mockery.

Is it performance based, narrative based or concept based? how much of each?: It is more concept based because you wouldn't link the song and 70's cop shows together automatically. There is a sense of narrative as well e.g.the capture and tracking down of a hostage, but it is very brief and you can't figure out a complete story line from it.