Beastie Boys - No Sleep Till Brooklyn - Analysis

"No Sleep Till Brooklyn" is a song by the New York hip hop group the Beastie Boys, it was from their debut studio album Licensed to III which was released by Def Jam Recordings on March 1st 1987. It describes the group's exhaustive tour and all the events that made it tiresome, but nevertheless the band won't rest until they've reached their home base, Brooklyn.

The music video for "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" was co-directed by Ric Menello and Adam Dubin, having previously directed the video for the "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)". It can be regarded as a performance music video as the video includes a performance of the artists. Menello played the club owner in the opening whilst Dubin was in the gorilla suit. Kerry King who plays guitar on the track also appears in the video. Ruth Collins is featured as the lead dancer. The video was released on the BeastieBoys' Youtube Channel on June 16th 2009, 18 years after the song's initial release.

Narrative

The opening shot shows an owner of a club opening his door to the Beastie Boys who hand over an LP record to him. The club owner proceeds to smash the phonograph record on them, saying "What the...? We only play rock music here". Seconds later, the Beastie Boys knock on the door again, except they are disguised as rockers with big hair and guitars. They then take the stage playing the song, but the crowd of women quickly mobs them and tears off their clothes. They rap another verse in their underwear before changing into their regular outfits.


The performance is a series of jabs at and parody of glam metal performance videos, with headbanging fans, a backup dancer, and lots of destruction. Eventually, the club owner and his crew try to get them off the stage, but the Beastie Bos are fighting with them. Kerry King makes an appearance during the guitar solo, body checking the gorilla who was originally performing the guitar solo.

The band is later seen trying to steal money from the club's safe, which they succeed in doing by MCA bashing it with his head. They dance around with bags of money from the safe, but the hot backup dancer is seen walking away with the gorilla.

Visual Codes
The music video is an expressive send-up of heavy metal music, playing up the funky costumes, excessive hairspray and tendency for bands to take themselves a bit too seriously in a 'Spinal Tap' way.

The club owner's costume consists of a large blazer, an old fashioned blue shirt with many buttons undone, a large anchor chain prop and a pair of simple black sunglasses. This choice of clothing along with his body language suggests that the character is rich and is the authority figure in this setting.

The Beastie Boys initially wear the attire accustomed to the laid back people in the 1980s, but for the majority of the video, the trio wears big rock-style wigs, ridiculous costumes, this can be seen as a vivid representation of the assumed rock star aesthetic.

The iconic 'headbanging' (first coined by legendary rockstar Led Zeppelin) is shown whenever the band plays their instruments and when the fans in the crowd are shown. The facial expressions of the band shown in the close-ups suggest their expressivenes
s and their lack of control when playing their music as their eyes are rarely staring directly at the camera.

Shots of the band performing and the audience reacting to the music gives the audience at home a sense of involvement and atmosphere.

Technical Codes
Throughout the video, there are several close-ups of the performers which have a direct mode of address in order to engage the audience. Music videos of this style can also be referred to as 'a spectacle' with direct interaction with the audience. These close-ups of the artists allow them to have full speech and power to the audience.

These shots are also used to build a relationship between the audience and the rock band in order to get viewers to know the group and possibly build a fan base. To add entertainment value, the artists performed in unusual places and were lip-synched.

In term of editing, there are quick transitions between shots once the music starts which creates a fast pace. In the intro, the shot was a long take which allows the audience to focus on the characters and the setting before the music starts.

The graphics of the video are representative of the time that it was recorded as AV products in the 80s were a bit 'gritty' with some missing pixels. The shots are also usually filled with colour due to the use of multi-coloured lights whilst the band plays the song which amplifies the positive, metalhead vibes of a stage performance of a rock song.

Audio Codes
The audio is mainly diegetic as the music only starts once the band starts playing their instruments on screen. However, the song still plays in the background whilst the characters are acting in the narrative, e.g. when the trio are stealing money from the safe.

Representation
The first women shown in the music video are the fans seen during the performance, they are seen going crazy for the Beastie Boys and they are sexually objectified through codes of clothing, narrative situations and provocative dance moves.

One woman in particular is seen throughout the film, dancing on stage wearing revealing clothes and later kissing a man topless. This reinforces the stereotypical representation of women who are defined by their body image, as in the 1980s, there weren't that many challenges to this stereotype.

The Beastie Boys have said themselves that a lot of the songs and videos from their first album were sexist, e.g. the song 'Girls'.  Live shows of that era even featured women in cages dancing on stage.

However, after the band heard about the criticisms about being misogynistic, they quickly changed their act and sexist lyrics stopped appearing in their songs. In their 1994 song "Sure Shot", MCA explicitly apologised for the group's past misogyny.