Analysis of a music video: Mary Mary - RUN DMC

RUN DMC are an early rap/hip hop group from the late 80's. This is an analysis of the music video created to promote their single "Mary Mary"  ( a song originally by The Monkees) from the album "Tougher Than Leather".


The video is created to promote the band and the song, as well as to tell a story, the story seen in this video is of an angry mother who thinks that RUN DMC has a bad attitude and their lyrics are "poisoning America" and so has gone to a show to protest against them etc.The video cuts between this comedy and RUN DMC's performance at the show  that Mary Mary has gone to protest. However, this is had been made into satire and instead of this being a serious video, it is more a video about RUN DMC rejecting the notion that they are bad and promotes their good side instead. 


Nevertheless, as the song is by a hip hop group there are certain things we expect,  stereotypes to be seen etc. so we do still see the band in their Adidas clothing and trainers (the band even loved the brand so much they wrote a song about Adidas), gold chains and a DJ deck in the centre of the stage with a large percentage of the audience being African American. We also see the promotional video follow the conventions of a music video and we get a lot of close ups of the band , as well as a voyeuristic look into their show and to the "story" that is happening in conjunction to this. 


Mary Mary tries to show that the band follow the conventions of a band in the late 80's with "sex, drugs and rock n roll" and we see her try to prove to a "documentary crew" that is following her that RUN DMC promotes sex and drugs, and instead we see this turned around and with each example something else is offered - a van in the parking lot that looks like someone may be having sex inside, instead turns out to be people exercising, and they say "no Mary Mary, RUN DMC promotes a healthy body, we're aerobecising", the same happens when she approaches a smoke filled car expecting to find drugs, but instead finds monks who are lighting incense and say "no Mary Mary, RUN DMC promotes a healthy mind, we're spiritualising". This is how the band rejects the bad notions that people have about them (which when put in context with the time, were quite significant as i will discuss later) and instead promotes them as a good example.


There is a link with the lyrics music and visuals as well, all of the lyrics are about mary and her attitude etc, something we see reflected in the portrayal of Mary's character in the video, and with the music, we see visual links such as fireworks that go off at the same beat as the drums etc.


As i mentioned earlier this video means a lot more when put in the context of 1980's America, as it has intertextuality. In the late 80's a group got together called The Parents Music Resource Centre, a.k.a The Washington wives (after the women that set it up) and it aimed at censoring music and getting music banned that was deemed inappropriate, bands were attacked and accused of poising America's youth with glorification of violence, drugs, sex, the occult in some cases. this may seem normal as this still sometimes happens, however this was a major event in the late 80's and RUN DMC's video is not only a promotion of them, but a counter attack against the PRMC who devalue the name of musicians who are just trying to make music

RUN DMC during their heyday in the 80's