Breanna Bailey

Prof. Tyler

English Composition II

13 September 2020

“Walk This Way”

Aerosmith is a rock group known for their loud music, crazy outfits and dedicated fan

base. Run DMC is a hip hop group known as one of the most influential hip hop groups in the

1980’s. Both groups were popular during the 1980’s, but with very different audiences and styles

of music. Run DMC's remix of "Walk This Way" was created to bring two different styles of

music and people together at a time when music, along with everything else, was segregated.

Run DMC is a hip-hop/rap group and Aerosmith is a rock group, so when they put out a song

together they were able to bring their audiences together.

The official video for Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” is a recording of one of their

concerts. In the video everyone is dancing, cheering, and singing along with the group. The main

characters are not only the band but the people in the audience as well. The lead singer is running

around and interacting with the audience. While this video does not necessarily tell a story, it

puts you in the moment. The camera switches between different views of the band and the

audience to make you feel as if you were actually there, or wish you were. Everyone in the

crowd looks as if they are enjoying themselves, along with the band. The video uses pathos to

appeal to our emotions by showing the excitement of the crowd and the energy on the stage. At

one point the singer is swinging throughout the crowd on a bar high-fiving people. The audience
for this video is for young men and women. There are people holding beers, flashing lights, at

one point a woman even lifts her skirt up. The video is not intended for older people or people

with extreme religious beliefs.

The story being told by Aerosmith and Run DMC’s remix of “Walk This Way” music

video is that the two groups were in studios side by side. They were both trying to record music

at the same time and began arguing over how loud Aerosmith’s music was. The video shows that

the remixed song was created by Run DMC singing overtop of Aerosmith’s loud music in the

studio. The end of the video shows them performing it together on stage at a concert, which

shows how the music was actually able to bring them together. This is important to note since the

song was actually created at a time when everything was segregated, even music. The video

makes the viewer think about how opposite each band’s type of music was and the fact that they

were still able to build a friendship and make a hit song together, even though they did not get

along in the beginning. This video also uses pathos to appeal to the viewers emotions by showing

the fighting at the beginning and then the bands coming together as friends at the end. This is

especially important, since Aerosmith’s audience is predominantly white while Run DMC’s is

african american. The audience for this video is young people of any and all races. The intention

of the video is to bring everyone together, which is why they showed the two different fan bases

singing together in the audience.

While the original version of this song is a hit, and some even consider it a classic, the

Run DMC remix has a deeper meaning behind it. The Run DMC remix was created to bring

people of all different backgrounds together, which is why in the music video they made sure to

have multiple shots of the diversity of the crowd. Both videos were very similar due to the fact

that it was originally a rock song and the band who created the song was in the remix. The videos
were also similar because they both featured a live concert. When they showed the audience in

the first video you could see that the majority of it was white and female. However, the audience

for the second video had a lot more diversity, due to the fact that Run DMC’s fan base is

predominantly African American. Each video had an energizing vibe to it and made the viewer

feel as if they were in the moment. Run DMC's remix of "Walk This Way" was created to bring

to very different styles of music and people together at a time when music was beginning to

become segregated. Run DMC is a hip-hop/rap group and Aerosmith is a rock group, so when

they put out a song together they were able to bring their audiences together.

Works Cited

Aerosmith. “Aerosmith-Walk This Way (from you gotta move-official video)”. Online video

clip. Youtube. Youtube, 19 September 2014. Web. 4 October 2020.

Run DMC. “Run DMC- Walk This Way (Video) ft. Aerosmith. Online Video Clip. Youtube.

Youtube, 25 October 2009. Web. 4 October 2020.