Alien Ant Farm uses music videos to promote themselves by frequently showing close-ups of band members, especially the lead singer, to help sell their brand. Their video for "Smooth Criminal" depicts the band in a wrestling ring with references to Michael Jackson. In their most famous video "Movies," the band uses references to films like Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to showcase their media literacy and pop culture knowledge.

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

2. Alien Ant FarmSigned to “Dreamworks SKG” record label in 2000.Released two top five hits on both sides of the Atlantic in 2001.Have had hits feature in video games for Tony Hawk.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.

3. Music VideosIn 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 also play out heavily performance based videos instead of around a concept or narrative storyline. This is because the band are new, they use more facial shots in a performance video 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.

4. “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 crouch holding, seen as Jason Biggs superglues his hand to his crotch.

5. “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 “The Nightmare on Elm Street”.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) reenacts a famous scene from the hit film ‘Karate kid”.The band then morph into “OompaLoompas” 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 “Freddy Krueger” from “The Nightmare on Elm Street” 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 Tv and media literate.

6. Famous ReferencesThroughout 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 reenactments from famous films.