"Hit That" is a song by Americanrock bandthe Offspring, included as the fourth track on the band's seventh studio album,Splinter (2003), and was released as its first single. The song also appears as the 13th track on theirGreatest Hits (2005). "Hit That" was released to US rock radio on November 3, 2003.
The song's lyrics, as put byDexter Holland, are "about the consequences ofpromiscuity or the idea that no matter what the consequences might be, people are going to be out there doing it with each other", discussing how it results inteenage pregnancy and dysfunctional families.[3]
Holland detailed:
"It's about taking responsibility. A generation ago, people were talking about the disintegration of the family because everyone was getting divorced, and how it was taking such a terrible toll on society. Well, you look around nowadays, and it's disintegrated so much more. Joe Blow has got three different kids by three different girls and vice versa, and it's happening more and more. And ultimately the kids are the ones who suffer from that. But when you get down to it, people are gonna hook up, so there's nothing you can do about it."[4]
The music video for the song, directed by John Williams and David Lea, tried to reflect the irresponsible male of the lyrics not in a literal way, but by telling the story of a dog that turns out to be an amoral force of mayhem, and needed to be caught andneutered to stop its destructive nature.
The video combines live-action footage and computer-generated effects, with Williams and Lea playing the part of the dog's owner, a blue man lip-syncing the song's lyrics by wearing gloves and a mask, onto which digital eyes and mouth were superimposed, by creating what Williams described as "a character you can't peg as either completely real or completely computer-generated". To create the same effect on the dog, there was an attempt at making aGreat Dane wear a mask, but the dog did not like it, so instead an illuminatedmuzzle was worn that gave reference for the eventually superimposed animated head.
A first draft had caricatures of The Offspring's members through the video, but the band denied that, wanting to avoid something resembling a typical performance video.[3]
