How does “Alien Ant Farm” use the medium of music video to promote themselves?

Alien Ant Farm• Signed to “Dreamworks SKG” record label in 2000.• Released two top five hits on both sides of the Atlantic in 2001.• Have had hits for popular video games such as Tony Hawks Pro

Skateboarding.• Had “Smooth Criminal” featured on the first season of “WWE

Tough Enough” soundtrack.• Their song “Bug Bytes” featured in the first “Spiderman” film.• They are currently working on new material.

Music Videos

• In the bands music videos, they use frequent close ups, medium close ups, two shots etc to promote the individuals of the band mainly lead

singer (Dryden Mitchell). • The band refer to the notion of looking in a comedic format, with Mitchells

face blown up on a cinema screen in front of a crowd as he reenacts a scene from the film “Karate Kid”.

• They band also uses mostly performance based videos instead of around a concept or narrative storyline. This is because these videos were made when the band were new, they use lots of close ups in these videos so that it helps sell the brand of “Alien Ant Farm”.

• However the band do not reference any sexual material in regards to the notion of looking.

“Smooth Criminal”

• In 2001 the band released their cover for Michael Jackson’s single “Smooth Criminal”.

• The video depicts the band in a wrestling ring, in a suburban backyard, with numerous references to Michael Jackson.

• The cover was also used in the hit comedy “American Pie 2” with a reference to Jackson’s crotch holding, seen as Jason Biggs superglues his hand to his crotch.

“Movies”• In the bands most famous music video “Movies” the band use references to

famous films, such as “Ghostbusters”, “Karate Kid”, “Charlie and the chocolate factory” and “Edward Scissor Hands”.

• The “Ghostbusters” reference includes the band in the “Ghostbusters” uniform along with detaining a member of the audience in a type of force field with similar equipment to the film.

• Dryden Mitchell (lead singer) re-enacts a famous scene from the hit film ‘Karate kid”.

• The band then morph into “Oompa Loompas” from the hit film “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” which shows the band playing their instruments made out of candy floss and sweets.

• Finally the drummer’s hands morph into blades similar to “Edward” from “Edward Scissor Hands” which then carve out the bands initials into a member of the cinema audiences hair.

• The band inevitably like to show of culture capital, illustrating that they are T.V and media literate.

Famous References• Throughout “Smooth Criminal” Michael Jackson is frequently referenced

through many different ways e.g. various objects and sidewalk lighting panels illuminate when trodden on, like in Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, the editing used in this video is also similar to the techniques used in other Michael Jackson videos.

• Throughout the video we see the band performing from inside a wrestling ring, this is notable because wrestling was a large part of youth culture in America during the late 90s early 00s. The band wants to reinforce its image as a group of young men who come from a suburban ‘humble’ background, this way they can appeal to a larger audience as they will relate to more people.• In the bands music video “Movies” the band play out a performance

based video through live music and quirky re-enactments from famous films.