MICHAEL JACKSON - BILLIE JEAN

Michael Jackson - BILLIE JEAN 

First impressions - 

- Detective, bad 
- Michael Jackson, good 
- White light effects, show innocence and purity 
- Billboards of white women 
- Disappears every time he is nearly caught 
- Magical negro 
- MTV, first black artist breakthrough
- Religious / spiritual 
- First black singer shown on MTV 
- Iconic television moment with the first ' Moonwalk Dance' 

Goodwin’s music video theory

- Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos states that music videos contain some or all of the following elements:

- A link between the visuals & lyrics (compliment, contradict or amplify)

- Genre characteristics (heavy metal in industrialised settings; rap music in urban street contexts etc.)

- Contain intertextual references (references to popular culture)

- Contain notions of looking (e.g. screens within screens)

- Include objectification of females (e.g. male gaze)

- Include demands of the record label (close ups of lead singer, symbols or motifs associated with the band / performer etc.)

- Video will be performance, narrative or concept based.

Neale’s genre theory of Repetition and Difference

- Steve Neale states that though all genres are structured along the identical conventions of plot, narrative and mise-en-scene, success lies in their ability to manipulate and re-shape these elements.

- In this sense, all genres all contain instances of repetition and difference – and difference is essential to the economy of the genre.

- Neale’s model holds that a product’s genre is defined by:

- How much it conforms to its genre’s individual conventions and stereotypes. A product must match the genre’s conventions to be identified as part of that genre if it is to attract that audience.

- How much a product subverts the genre’s conventions and stereotypes. The product must subvert convention enough to be considered unique and not just a clone of another product.

Michael Jackson: defining genre

Michael Jackson largely defined the modern music video with Billie Jean. He followed it with two bigger-budget videos: Bad (directed by Martin Scorcese) and Thriller (directed by John Landis) – pushing the boundaries of the music video genre.

Both of these later videos were effectively short films that leaned heavily on film genres – using well established film directors. This reinforced the intertextual element of his music videos and helped to create the Michael Jackson identity of the 1980s and 1990s.

THE MUSIC VIDEO - 

THE SHORT FILM

Director: Steve Barron

Primary Production Location: Los Angeles, California

Michael Jackson's short film for "Billie Jean" was the first of three short films produced for recordings from Thriller, which continues its reign as the biggest selling album of all time with worldwide sales in excess of 105 million as of June 1, 2016 and in December, 2015 became the first ever album to be awarded triple diamond status by the RIAA for US sales alone. The "Billie Jean" single reached No. 1 in 10 countries in the spring of 1983, including seven consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 - becoming the second-highest selling single in America that same year.

The short film featured a paparazzo attempting to photograph Jackson as he danced through an urban landscape. A specially created set featured steps and sidewalk tiles that lit up underneath Michael's feet. It is here that fans first saw some of Michael's best-known dance moves, such as spinning and landing on his toes. Many of Michael's steps and mannerisms in the video would become forever associated with The King of Pop.

The "Billie Jean" short film made history as the first video by a black artist to be played in heavy rotation on MTV, then in its second year. In 1992, the short film was inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame. MTV ranked "Billie Jean" as the 35th greatest music video of all time in 1999, one of three entries of Jackson's on the chart alongside "Thriller" and "Beat It."

Synopsis- He's singing about how you should always think about your actions twice because you don't know how they could come back and haunt you. In Jackson's case he slept with a pretty girl and ended up breaking her heart and she turned a bit obsessive and made up a lie he impregnated her. This led to Michael's song as everyone had been on her side and he also reference the bible when saying about '40 days and 40 nights'. 

Rick James beef with MTV

"Super Freak" was released about five months after MTV went on the air, and Rick James made a slick video for the song hoping it would get some spins on the network. At the time, however, MTV refused to play videos by black artists, and they rejected this clip, continuing to feed America a steady stream of rock and EuroPop. This refusal to play black music was a holdover from radio station programming, where conventional wisdom was that you would lose your white listeners if you played black music.

Black Stereotypes 

-Black sidekick of a white protagonist (the help)(secondary role) – learners may independently research the meaning of the “foil” as a character role.

-the token black person,

-the comedic relief,

-the athlete,

-the over-sexed ladies’ man, ( The Black Buck ) - in the negro, all the passions, emotions, and ambitions are almost entirely dominated by the sexual instinct”

-the absentee father 

-the violent black man as drug-dealing criminal and gangster thug.

Representations -

- musical inovator 

- Clean - guy next door image

- Hero 

- Dancer

- Protagonist 

- Innocent