WS - Deconstruction 13- In Too Deep - Sum 41

Artist - Sum 41
Song Title - In Too Deep
Year - 2001
Genre - Pop Punk
Director - Marc Klasfeld



"In Too Deep" is a song by Canadian Punk Rock Band ,Sum 41 from the album 'All Killer No Filler'.The song has since been used in a range of different media, including the films 'Cheaper By The Dozen' and 'American Pie 2', and it also appears in the video game 'Lego Rock Band' and as downloadable content for 'Guitar Hero 5'. 


The song belongs to the genre of Pop Punk which often includes vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar and drums, as seen in the video. Pop Punk is a fusion genre combining elements of both Pop music and Punk Rock. It has also, in the past, been described as a strand of Alternative Rock music. The song comes under two labels, and they are very different labels. In Canada, the song comes under the label Aquarius Records, an Indie Company. However, in America the song comes under the label Island Records, a susidiary of Universal Music Group, the largest in the Music Industry.

Below is a quote taken from Wikipedia, summarising what happens in the Music Video:

"Sum 41 face another dive team, represented as stereotypical high school "jocks" with muscular bodies and red Speedos. Each band member takes their turn diving off the board in comical fashion as they dive against their opposition who dive with mocking perfection. After guitarist Dave Baksh completes his dive, he then rises out of the water to play his guitar solo. After each dive, the video cuts to a scene of the band playing in an empty pool surrounded by fans cheering along. On the last dive, drummer Steve Jocz does a comically dramatic dive, in which he bounces off of every diving board and lands perfectly in the water. He is rewarded with perfect marks from the judges. The band wins and we see their disgruntled opposition. The whole crowd then dives in the pool in celebration."

The video is actually a parody of the 1986, Rodney Dangerfield film, "Back To School". There is further intertextuality when Dave Baksh completes his dive and rises out of the water to play his guitar solo. It was later said by Baksh that this was copied from the Guns N' Roses video for "Estranged". The final dive is performed by drummer, Steve Jocz, who's dive is similar to that of Dangerfield's character in "Back To School".

The video does stck to a number of common conventions for music videos, and a number of things you would expect to see do occur. For example, there is included in the video examples of where Female gaze and male gaze may occur, with close-ups of the band acting for female gaze, while close-ups of females in the crowd may act for the male gaze aspect. The pace of the shots, whilst being slow at the beginning, speed up to give a more traditional pace to the video. There are also a number of occasions where the lead singer looks directly into the camera while singing the song, aother common thing to see in music videos.

The video is mainly performance based. The way te diving competition is performed adds an aspect of Narrative to the video as well, but it is in general a performance based video, with the band members all playing their instruments a number of times throughout the video. The band members are also involved in the diving competition and therefore the narrative part of the video also, along with a large number of extras, something which is unusual for a Music Video.

Below is the Official Music Video for "In Too Deep":