Music Video: Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

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 the difference is essential to the economy of the genre. Neale’s model holds that a product’s genre is defined by the following: 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.

Billie Jean is an example of a historically significant music video. The video was one of the very first videos on MTV to feature a black artist and be aired on regular rotation by the channel. The video’s immense popularity helped bring MTV into the mainstream and breakthrough racial barriers on TV networks and helped propel the album ‘Thriller’ to the bestselling album of all time.

Notes on the Billie Jean Music Video

• Walter Yetnikoff, the president of Jackson's record company CBS Records, approached MTV about playing the "Billie Jean" video, which MTV had not ever played in spite of Jackson's success as a musical artist. Yetnikoff became enraged when MTV refused to play the video, and he threatened to go public with MTV's stance on racial discrimination. "I said to MTV, 'I'm pulling everything we have off the air, all our product. I'm not going to give you any more videos. And I'm going to go public and tell them about the fact you don't want to play music by a black guy.'" MTV relented and played the "Billie Jean" video in heavy rotation. After the video was aired, Thriller went on to sell an additional 10 million copies. The short film was inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame in 1992.
• Detective
• Light Effects - steps
• Religious / spiritual
• Lyrics "Billie Jean is not my lover" and "The kid is not mine"
• Disappears by a light post
• Sophisticated editing
• MTV - first black artist - originally denied being aired
• Magical negro
• Black man helping a white man - giving money - the good person - changing lives; binary opposite to the bad guy who is stalking Jackson - shady - taking pictures - following Jackson
• Michael Jackson - hero - innocence/purity
• Blank page - no brief on what is happening
• Pressure points on stepping stones so that it would light up initially, but because it was too much, they ended up having to hire someone to light up the stones individually (electrician had to press buttons on the 11 stones that lit up)
• 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."
• Jackson is well dressed - suit and bowtie - typical American prom outfit
• Clean - Guy next door
• 
  

Notes on the Billie Jean song overall:

• The performance introduced a number of Jackson's signatures, including the moonwalk and white sequinned glove, and was widely imitated. The "Billie Jean" music video, directed by Steve Barron, was the first video by a black artist to be aired in heavy rotation on MTV. Along with the other videos produced for Thriller, it helped establish MTV's cultural importance and make music videos an integral part of pop music marketing.
• According to Jackson's biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, "Billie Jean" was inspired by letters Jackson received in 1981 from a woman claiming he was the father of one of her twins.  Jackson, who regularly received letters of this kind, had never met the woman and ignored it. However, she continued to send letters stating that she loved him and wanted to be with him, and asking how he could ignore his own flesh and blood. The letters disturbed him to the extent that he suffered nightmares. Eventually, Jackson received a parcel containing a photograph of the fan, a gun, and a letter instructing him to kill himself at a particular time. The fan would do the same once she had killed "their" baby so they could be together in the next life. To the mother's dismay, Jackson had the photograph of the woman framed and hung above the dining room table of their family home. The Jacksons later discovered that the fan had been sent to a psychiatric hospital.

Notes on the Billie Jean lyrics:

• The lyrics describe a woman, Billie Jean, who claims that the narrator is the father of her newborn son, which he denies. Jackson said the lyrics were based on groupies' claims about his older brothers when he toured with them as the Jackson 5. "They would hang around backstage doors, and any band that would come to town they would have a relationship with, and I think I wrote this out of the experience with my brothers when I was little. There were a lot of Billie Jeans out there. Every girl claimed that their son was related to one of my brothers.
• According to Inside the Hits, the lyrics refer to the commotion created by Billie Jean on a dance floor. She entices the crowd with a seductive come-on before luring Jackson to her bedroom, through the fragrance of her perfume. Jackson's vocal range spanned from a high baritone to falsetto and he usually wrote melodies to show this range. However, in the verses of "Billie Jean", his vocals range from a tenor to a low falsetto. A four-note falsetto is showcased in the chorus and, during the last line, Jackson peaks at a full octave.[3] The song has a tempo of 117 beats per minute and is in the key of F♯ minor. Following the first chorus, a cello-like synth eases in at the beginnings of both the third and later, the fourth, verses. Upon the announcement that the baby's eyes resemble Jackson's, a voice laments, "oh no". This is met with Jackson's signature falsetto "hee hee".[3] The bridge debuts the strings and holds a pedal tone tonic with the exception of two lines and a chord leading into the chorus. Violins are then played, followed by a four-note minor guitar solo. During the solo, vocal shouts, screams and laughs are added. Throughout this, the chord progression remains unaltered and is laced with Jackson's vocal hiccups. All the musical and vocal elements are then brought together in the final chorus. In the fade, Jackson repeats the denial of fathering Billie Jean's child.[3]

Analysis of the lyrics to Billie Jean:

She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene
I said don't mind, but what do you mean, I am the one
Who will dance on the floor in the round
She said I am the one, who will dance on the floor in the round

She told me her name was Billie Jean, as she caused a scene
Then every head turned with eyes that dreamed of being the one
Who will dance on the floor in the round

People always told me be careful of what you do
And don't go around breaking young girls' hearts
And mother always told me be careful of who you love
And be careful of what you do 'cause the lie becomes the truth

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son                                  - Being accused of having his son - but he knows that                                                                                she is not his lover
She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son

For forty days and forty nights                         - Biblical reference - religious

The law was on her side                                   - In court, he didn't have many people on his side - they                                                                             rather went with her story about him being the father -                                                                             she tried to get money from him
But who can stand when she's in demand
Her schemes and plans
'Cause we danced on the floor in the round
So take my strong advice, just remember to always think twice
(Don't think twice, don't think twice)

She told my baby we'd danced till three, then she looked at me
Then showed a photo my baby cried his eyes were like mine (oh, no!)   - Babies get complimented at                                                                             birth when people say that they look like their parents
'Cause we danced on the floor in the round, baby

People always told me be careful of what you do
And don't go around breaking young girls' hearts
She came and stood right by me
Just the smell of sweet perfume
This happened much too soon
She called me to her room

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son
She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son

She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son
She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son

She says I am the one,
(You know what you did, (she says he is my son)breaking my heart babe)
She says I am the one

Billie Jean is not my lover
Billie Jean is not my lover
Billie Jean is not my lover
Billie Jean is not my lover (don't Billie Jean)
Billie Jean is not my lover
Billie Jean is not my lover

"She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene" - Michael compares this woman to a dreamy one, kinda like the ones you would see in films. This could also be suggesting that she may have seemed perfect, she might not have been.

"I said, "Don't mind, but what do you mean, I am the one; Who will dance on the floor in the round?"; She said I am the one who will dance on the floor in the round" - Mesmerized by her beauty, MJ can’t help but accept her offer, even though he is unsure why she chose him. A ‘dance on the floor in the round’ could be a euphemism for sex, but it most likely simply means that Michael was the one she wanted to dance with during this interval of songs.

"She told me her name was Billie Jean; As she caused a scene; Then every head turned with eyes that dreamed of being the one" - Michael learns during this dance that the girl’s name is Billie Jean. Many people take notice of such a beautiful girl choosing Michael as ‘the one’ – or vice versa. Many people, namely Quincy Jones, did not want ‘Billie Jean’ to appear on Thriller for numerous reasons, one of them being he felt that the song’s title and lyrical mentions of this ‘Billie Jean’ would draw comparisons and rumours about tennis innovator Billie Jean King, who at the time was still married, an open lesbian, and had previously had an abortion. Michael refused to change the name to ‘Not my Lover’ as Quincy suggested.

"Who will dance on the floor in the round" - In this repetition of the line, Michael realizes that everyone is watching him and has accepted him as ‘the one'—the lucky guy Billie Jean chooses to groove with.

"People always told me, "Be careful of what you do; Don't go around breaking young girls' hearts"" When Jackson was young, he performed with his brothers in The Jackson 5. He noticed that his brothers had relations with a number of groupies who would later claim they’d been impregnated. Jackson said in 1988: "They used to call them groupies in the 60’s. They would hang around backstage doors, and any band that would come to town they would have a relationship with, and I think I wrote this out of the experience with my brothers when I was little. There were a lot of Billie Jeans out there. Every girl claimed that their son was related to one of my brothers." - He is trying to add proof to the fact that he did not meet with the girl.

"And mother always told me, "Be careful of who you love; And be careful of what you do, 'cause the lie becomes the truth"" - This line precedes the first one about young MJ as a heart breaker and his mother warning him to be careful about who he loves and especially be careful about what you do with that loved one, because a lie can easily be made to seem true and used against him. Especially with celebrities, rumours and innuendo become codified into their personas and “the lie” becomes inseparable from the figure. The lie may not be the actual truth, but it is the truth by consensus. Also, if a man sleeps with a woman he doesn’t love and she believes he does, and a child comes out of it, his love is a lie but them having a child together is, in essence, a lie becomes the truth. Also if you lie about something long enough people will start to think that the lie is actually the truth. Including yourself.

"Billie Jean is not my lover; She's just a girl who claims that I am the one; But the kid is not my son; She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son"- The general theme the chorus revolves around the idea of “groupies,” or crazed fans. MJ and the Jackson 5 encountered many of these throughout their career. In a 1996 interview in Thailand, MJ said: "They would hang around backstage doors, and any band that would come to town they would have a relationship with, and I think I wrote this out of the experience with my brothers when I was little. There were a lot of Billie Jeans out there. Every girl claimed that their son was related to one of my brothers." J. Randy Taraborrelli, the author of MJ’s biography The Magic & The Madness, wrote that the Billie Jean character was derived from a young woman who alleged MJ was the father of her child. While this is possible, MJ shrugged the claim in his autobiographyMoonwalk: "There never was a real Billie Jean. The girl in the song is a composite of people my brothers have been plagued with over the years. I could never understand how these girls could say they were carrying someone’s child when it wasn’t true." As a single that sold exceptionally well upon release, on the best selling album of all time, this is one of the most famous choruses in existence.

"For forty days and for forty nights" - Genesis 5 talks about how rain fell on the earth for forty days and for forty nights. Rain symbolizes crying in many cases. Some people use 40 days and 40 nights as a healing process. 40 days and 40 nights is the length of Lent. According to the Bible, it took 40 days and 40 nights for Moses to go and retrieve the Ten Commandments. One of these commandments was the belief in, and worship of, one and only one god. However, in his absence, Moses’s brother led the people in constructing a golden calf as their idol. For just those 40 days and 40 nights, the law was on the side of those who worshipped a false idol.

"The law was on her side; But who can stand when she's in demand?" - Billie Jean went to the courts and tried to get money from MJ, appearing as the one who was correct. MJ learns here that his mother was right: “… the lie becomes the truth.”

"So take my strong advice, just remember to always think twice; (Don't think twice) Do think twice! (hoo)" - Take his strong advice and think clearly before you get involved with someone. This is also a case of the ‘devil versus angel’ trying to give someone advice. The “don’t think twice” echo obviously represents the devil/bad choice and the “do think twice” is the advice MJ chooses to take from the angel.

"She told my baby we'd danced till three, then she looked at me" - M.J recalls ‘Billie Jean’ telling his current girl that they had been up late dancing, which could either be a literal tale or a metaphor for having sex until the early hours. Either way Billie Jean is painting an image for the girl of Jackson, seemingly to tarnish their relationship.

"Then showed a photo of a baby crying, his eyes were like mine (oh no)" - The “oh no” signifies MJ’s horror at the similarity between their eyes, as it lends credence to Billie Jean’s claim that he fathered her baby.

"'Cause we danced on the floor in the round, baby" - The line could either be literal or a metaphor. Literally, the dancing was the cause that leads into the action (sex) that ended with the consequence (Baby). Metaphorically, “We danced on the floor” is in itself the action, a euphemism/metaphor for having sex.

"She came and stood right by me; Then the smell of sweet perfume; This happened much too soon; She called me to her room" - The ironic implication is that Michael ends up getting seduced by Billie Jean, despite the situation. This is a sort of “surprise ending”. One would likely predict an ending with Michael pleading with his girl (“my baby”) to believe him, or something similar.  However, this ironic ending makes the story that much more interesting–although not less tragic, as expressed by Michael’s repetition of the lamenting chorus. However, it may not necessarily be an ending. It could be a flashback to the night they “danced”… after all, the baby looks an awful lot like him.

Notes on Michael Jackson:

• 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.
• Musical innovato
• Dancer

Rick James on 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. 
• Superfreak Video: Rick James video presented a hyper-sexualised black male who white women found attractive; Rick James’ subliminal media language of “the “Black Buck” was not suited to white producers.

Stereotypes of black men in the media

• 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, (Black Buck - in the negro, all the passions, emotions, and ambitions are almost entirely dominated by the sexual instinct)
• the absentee father or,
• the violent black man as a drug-dealing criminal and gangster thug. 

Black racial stereotypes

• Musicians - jazz, hip-hop and soul 
• Sportsmen and women 
• Comedians 
• Criminals 
• Socially dysfunctional 
• Prostitute/sexually promiscuous 
• The stud/pimp

Screenshots from the music video:

Billie Jean - Michael Jackson Essay

Analyse how the Billy Jean music video by Michael Jackson represent or subvert black stereotypes of black identity.

Michael Jackson is a defining genre, musical innovator and dancer. 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.

Billie Jean, by Michael Jackson, is an example of a historically significant music video. The video was one of the very first videos on MTV to feature a black artist and be aired on regular rotation by the channel. The video's immense popularity helped bring MTV into the mainstream and breakthrough racial barriers on TV networks and helped propel the album 'Thriller' to the bestselling album of all time. Walter Yetnikoff, president of Jackson's record company CBS Records, approached MTV about playing the "Billie Jean" video, which MTV had not ever played in spite of Jackson's success as a musical artist. Yetikoff became enraged when MTV refused to play the video, and he threatened to go public with the MTV's stance on racial discrimination. - "I said to MTV, 'I'm pulling everything we have off the air, all our product. I'm not going to give you any more videos and I'm going to go public and tell them about the fact you don't want to play music by a black guy.'" - MTV relented and played the "Billie Jean" video in heavy rotation. After the video was aired, Thriller went on to sell an additional 10 million copies. The short film was inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame in 1992.

The short film created for "Billie Jean" includes a detective-like-man - who acted like the paparazzi - who followed Jackson around. As Jackson walked, the flooring lit up under his feet - this was created through (initially pressure points under the stones which would light up when Jackson was to step on them, however, this cost too much for the budget to cover) an electrician who had to press buttons to light up the 11 different stones which ended up shining. Jackson, a black man, helps a homeless white man by giving him money causing Jackson to be the good guy in this situation creating a counter-stereotype towards the one that makes out black people are the bad guys in life and should be avoided as they are to cause trouble. This is a binary opposite to the man that is following Jackson as he is stalking Jackson and taking pictures of him. The short film for "Billie Jean" was the first of three short films produced for the recordings from Thriller, which continues its reign as the biggest selling album of all time with the worldwide sales in excess of 105 million as of June 1st, 2006, and in December 2015 became the first ever album to be awarded triple diamond status by the RIAA for US sales alone. The single reached number 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 features 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 Jackson's feet. It is here that fans first saw some of Jackson's best-known dance moves, such as spinning and landing on his toes. Many of Jackson's stamps and mannerisms in the video would forever become associated with The King of Pop. It made history as the first video by a black artist to be played in heavy rotation on MTV. "Billie Jean" was ranked by MTV in 1999 as the 35th greatest music video of all time, now of three entries of Jackson's on the chart alongside "Thriller" and "Beat it". Jackson is well dressed, in a suit and bow tie (typical American prom outfit), and he is clean like the 'guy next door'.

The performance introduced a number of Jackson's signatures, including the moonwalk and white sequinned glove, and was widely imitated. The "Billie Jean" music video, directed by Steve Barron, along with the other videos produced for Thriller helped establish MTV's cultural importance and make music videos an integral part of pop music marketing. According to Jackson's biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, "Billie Jean" was inspired by letters Jackson received in 1981 from a woman claiming he was the father of one of her twins. Jackson, who regularly received letters of this kind, had never met the woman and ignored it. However, she continually sent him letters stating she loved him and wanted to be with him, and asking how he could ignore his own flesh and blood. The letters disturbed him to the extent that he suffered nightmares. Eventually, Jackson received a parcel containing a photograph of the fan, a gun, and a letter instructing him to kill himself at a particular time. The fan would do the same once she had killed "their" baby so they could be together in their next life. To the mother's dismay, Jackson had the photograph of the woman framed and hung above the dining room table of their family home. The Jacksons had later discovered that the fan had been sent to a psychiatric hospital. 

The lyrics describe a woman, Billie Jean, who claims that the narrator is the father of her newborn son, which he denies. Jackson said the lyrics were based on groupies' claims about his older brothers when he toured with them as the Jackson 5. "They would hang around backstage doors, and any band that would come to town they would have a relationship with, and I think I wrote this out of the experience with my brothers when I was little. There were a lot of Billie Jeans out there. Every girl claimed that their son was related to one of my brothers." According to Inside the Hits, the lyrics refer to the commotion created by Billie Jean on a dance floor. She entices the crowd with a seductive come-on before luring Jackson to her bedroom, through the fragrance of her perfume. Jackson's vocal range spanned from a high baritone to falsetto and he usually wrote melodies to show this range. However, in the verses of "Billie Jean", his vocals range from a tenor to a low falsetto. A four-note falsetto is showcased in the chorus and, during the last line, Jackson peaks at a full octave. The song has a tempo of 117 beats per minute and is in the key of F♯ minor. Following the first chorus, a cello-like synth eases in at the beginnings of both the third and later, the fourth, verses. Upon the announcement that the baby's eyes resemble Jackson's, a voice laments, "oh no". This is met with Jackson's signature falsetto "hee hee".[3] The bridge debuts the strings and holds a pedal tone tonic with the exception of two lines and a chord leading into the chorus. Violins are then played, followed by a four-note minor guitar solo. During the solo, vocal shouts, screams, and laughs are added. Throughout this, the chord progression remains unaltered and is laced with Jackson's vocal hiccups. All the musical and vocal elements are then brought together in the final chorus. In the fade, Jackson repeats the denial of fathering Billie Jean's child.

Jackson starts the song with the lyrics "She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene" where Jackson compares this woman to a dreamy one, kinda like the ones you would see in films. This could also be suggesting that although she may have seemed perfect, she might not have been. "I said, "Don't mind, but what do you mean, I am the one; Who will dance on the floor in the round?"; She said I am the one who will dance on the floor in the round"Jackson is mesmerized by her beauty, MJ can’t help but accept her offer, even though he is unsure why she chose him. A ‘dance on the floor in the round’ could be a euphemism for sex, but it most likely simply means that Michael was the one she wanted to dance with during this interval of songs."She told me her name was Billie Jean; As she caused a scene; Then every head turned with eyes that dreamed of being the one" - Michael learns during this dance that the girl’s name is Billie Jean. Many people take notice of such a beautiful girl choosing Michael as ‘the one’ – or vice versa. Many people, namely Quincy Jones, did not want ‘Billie Jean’ to appear on Thriller for numerous reasons, one of them being he felt that the song’s title and lyrical mentions of this ‘Billie Jean’ would draw comparisons and rumours about tennis innovator Billie Jean King, who at the time was still married, an open lesbian, and had previously had an abortion. Michael refused to change the name to ‘Not my Lover’ as Quincy suggested. "People always told me, "Be careful of what you do; Don't go around breaking young girls' hearts"" When Jackson was young, he performed with his brothers in The Jackson 5. He noticed that his brothers had relations with a number of groupies who would later claim they’d been impregnated. Jackson said in 1988: "They used to call them groupies in the 60’s. They would hang around backstage doors, and any band that would come to town they would have a relationship with, and I think I wrote this out of the experience with my brothers when I was little. There were a lot of Billie Jeans out there. Every girl claimed that their son was related to one of my brothers." - He is trying to add proof to the fact that he did not meet with the girl. "And mother always told me, "Be careful of who you love; And be careful of what you do, 'cause the lie becomes the truth"" - This line precedes the first one about young MJ as a heart breaker and his mother warning him to be careful about who he loves and especially be careful about what you do with that loved one, because a lie can easily be made to seem true and used against him. Especially with celebrities, rumours and innuendo become codified into their personas and “the lie” becomes inseparable from the figure. The lie may not be the actual truth, but it is the truth by consensus. Also, if a man sleeps with a woman he doesn’t love and she believes he does, and a child comes out of it, his love is a lie but them having a child together is, in essence, a lie becomes the truth. Also if you lie about something long enough people will start to think that the lie is actually the truth. Including yourself. "For forty days and for forty nights" - Genesis 5 talks about how rain fell on the earth for forty days and for forty nights. Rain symbolizes crying in many cases. Some people use 40 days and 40 nights as a healing process. 40 days and 40 nights is the length of Lent. According to the Bible, it took 40 days and 40 nights for Moses to go and retrieve the Ten Commandments. One of these commandments was the belief in, and worship of, one and only one god. However, in his absence, Moses’s brother led the people in constructing a golden calf as their idol. For just those 40 days and 40 nights, the law was on the side of those who worshipped a false idol.

Rick James' "Super Freak" was released about five months after MTV went on the air, and 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. In the Super Freak Video, James presents a hyper-sexualised black male who white women found attractive; James’ subliminal media language of “the “Black Buck” was not suited to white producers.

Michale Jackson goes against many stereotypes such as being the black sidekick of a white protagonist - being the foil in comparison to the main character - as Jackson is his own person; a solo artist in his later age and does not rely on a white 'protagonist'. Jackson also dismisses the stereotype of being a violent black man/drug-dealing criminal and gangster thug in the video through the generosity of giving the man some change in the start of the video. However, Jackson does live up to the stereotype of black people being musical and dancers.

Million Reasons - Lady Gaga Essay

Analyse how the Million Reasons music video by Lady Gaga uses stereotypes to represent a variety of images of feminine identity.

Apply comparative stereotypes and theory in the development of your arguments

Lady Gaga's - an influential figure due to her being an iconic figure (and has evolved as a musician), being unique as an artist who stands out, supporting the LGBT+ community, and being an activist - Million Reasons was created when she and Hillary Lindsey were seated in couches and were having a conversation whilst playing the guitar and piano. Lindsey asked questions about the men in her life, including her father and boyfriends, wondering why they would give her a million reasons to leave them, but all that Gaga had wanted was one reason to stay. Gaga's worked with Mark Ronson and Hillary Lindsey to write the song, however, the music video is directed by Ruth Hogben and Andrea Gelardin, two females. The song is a contrasting example of a contemporary music video from a world famous, white, female artist. This particular video marks a change in direction for the artist as media producers make use of media language to construct representations that might attract a broader, more mainstream market whilst not alienating the artist's core fan base.

During the music video, Lady Gaga is first shown lying down in the middle of the fields, showing only the side of her face and down to her mid-chest, with her eyes closed and mouth slightly parted; broadening the stereotype of women being emotional, allowing her to look emotionally transparent. Her body language in this whole scene may be a representation of the need for some time to escape from the reality of the world after breaking up with her fiance, just prior to writing the music track, who she had been with for 5 years; there were rumours of him having affairs behind her back, creating an understanding that Gaga could be insecure about being in a relationship. Gaga can also be shown in the back of a car, being driven somewhere - presumably to where she is to be performing, with blacked out glasses and a black hat on, creating an enigma of perhaps she is trying to hide her emotions (her being depressed) from the world and conceal them. This could link to the depression that she had revealed in a Billboard Woman of the Year interview in 2015, and also told them that she had wanted to quit music, she had been asked by her stylist at the end of 2014 is she wanted to carry on being a pop star any more, to which she had replied "you know, if I could just stop this train right now, today, I would. I just can't. [But] I need to get off now because I'm going to die."

Lady Gaga's wardrobe gets shown in the video and stereotypically, women are known to have lots of dresses and hats, and not to wear a lot of clothing. In the video, it is also stereotypical that she is having her make-up and hair heavily done as she is getting ready for what she is about to do. During the video, alongside the video being in black and white, she looks bored throughout the process of her makeup artists creating her look, making it seems like this whole process is happening a lot and she doesn't exactly enjoy it, creating the enigma of whether or not she would actually consider quitting music - adding onto the interview in 2015 - as she has a lot of reasons to leave the spotlight, but she only needs one reason not to. All the while that Gaga is stereotyping women through her wardrobe and the outfit being pink, she is also counter stereotyping women - wearing a suit and a hat that goes with the guitar, which is usually worn by men.

In the video, Gaga is rushed to by her colleagues and people who are her crew member. This could imply several things - one being that she has people who care (backed up by her receiving a religious necklace from an anonymous person later in the video, the 'sis' on the note could link to her friends helping and it is like she is in a sisterhood). However, this could also create an enigma about her crew really caring - are they doing this out of friendship or are they doing it to get Gaga back on the road so that she can get on with the show so that they can get paid - do they really care about her mental state? This links to Lisbet Van Zonnen's feminist theory as she is being used as a way of emitting attraction from the audience and being used as a way for them to make money. The whole video doesn't portray a traditional love narrative, it rather focuses on Gaga's own team.

The song opens with a quite riff and low piano buzzing in the background (which is probably the way that Gaga and Lindsey had originally created it), setting a more sombre tone straight away. Even in the first line of the song - "You're giving me a million reasons to let you go; You're giving me a million reasons to quit the show" - it is clear that Gaga is not happy with the state of her relationship with someone. Similar to other songs in her album Joanne, there may be a double meaning to these lyrics between an unstable relationship with a man, and Gaga's unstable relationship with her fame.

The next few lines - "You're giving me a million reasons; Giving me a million reasons; Giving me a million reasons; About a million reasons" - are repeated a few times in the song. The repetition of these lines could emphasise the insecurity that Gaga feels about this relationship. She is constantly questioning the state of their romance and whether it is worth pursuing; time after time, he forces her to reconsider their future together. This could alternatively symbolise her music career and the fact that time after time she has considered quitting the spotlight, however, she has not. "If I had a highway, I would run for the hills; If you could find a dry way, I'd forever be still" - here Gaga plays with words, using "highway" and "dry way" to create a parallel to the phrase "high and dry". To leave someone "high and dry" usually means you have put them in a difficult position by failing to support them. In a way, the composition of these two lines from the song echoes the overall message of this song - this man had given Gaga a million reasons to cut him out of her life, however, she keeps hoping that he will sort himself out so that Gaga won't have to end things. "Dry way" alludes to "drying out" or sobering up, implying that the person Gaga is singing about has issues with the substance abuse, either in reality or as a metaphor for being an unstable presence in her life.

"To cut through all his worn out leather" - Leather is usually thick and tough when compared to other materials, and the fact that it is “worn out” implies that it is strained from continuous use and the buildup of debris. Leather clothing is a hallmark of various “tough guy” personas such as bikers and cowboys—archetypes which Gaga depicts on songs such as Joanne’s “John Wayne.” Though Lady Gaga admits that she’s attracted to bad boys, here leather represents the “armour” these men wear that keeps her from having a stable and open relationship with them. In another sense, “his worn out leather” may represent Gaga’s own scars from these strained relationships that keep her from forming new, healthier bonds. Gaga wants the Lord to guide her on her desire to “cut through” all of her trials and tribulations in order to leave the past behind and move on from it.

"I've got a hundred million reasons to walk away; But baby, I just need one good one to stay" and "But baby, I just need one good one; Good one, good one, good one, good one, good one" - - Contrasting with the repetitive “million reasons” lyrics in the verses, Gaga turns the phrase on its head: though there’s an endless number of rationales for why she should leave the relationship, all she needs is one good reason to cancel out all the bad ones. Given the entertainment-related lyricism of the first verse, Gaga could also be referring to her relationship with show business. There are so many reasons she should just leave the business: relationships in need of attention, a more than sufficient amount of money and power, a clear legacy. Yet she only needs one good reason — her fans — to stay attached. It’s important that Gaga never really explains what this one particular reason is. Perhaps Gaga’s ambiguity is intentional: she leaves it vague so that it can be applicable to anything.

"Head stuck in a cycle, I look off and I stare; It's like that I've stopped breathing, but completely aware" - Many of us know that “head stuck in a cycle” feeling, but she explains that she just “looks off and stare”, holding on to the hopes of a better day, even though there is nothing more to do. She manifests the desperate pain of being stuck in a cycle she cannot break, the feeling of wanting to end a battle she has no control over, plus facing the fact that she is “drowning” and suffering battling another person's battle. In the second line she exhibits how it really feels to be aware of all the damage that he has caused, but still being stuck in the cycle, which includes her endless attempts to help him, even though instead of helping him have destroyed her. She can’t let go.

"And if you say something that you might even mean; It's hard to even fathom which parts I should believe" - Perhaps one of the “million reasons” why Gaga is considering walking away from this relationship is because the man in question is dishonest. Gaga is obviously insecure about this relationship and seems to suspect that he’s been feeding her lies to keep her complacent and invested. However, she’s caught on, and she’s watched it become such a regular occurrence that she truly can’t separate his honesty from the sweet nothings he whispers into her ear. After all, her most recent ex Taylor Kinney was rumoured to have had an affair.

"To cut through all his worn out leather" - Leather is usually thick and tough when compared to other materials, and the fact that it is “worn out” implies that it is strained from continuous use and the buildup of debris. Leather clothing is a hallmark of various “tough guy” personas such as bikers and cowboys—archetypes which Gaga depicts on songs such as Joanne’s “John Wayne.” Though Lady Gaga admits that she’s attracted to bad boys, here leather represents the “armour” these men wear that keeps her from having a stable and open relationship with them. In another sense, “his worn out leather” may represent Gaga’s own scars from these strained relationships that keep her from forming new, healthier bonds. Gaga wants the Lord to guide her on her desire to “cut through” all of her trials and tribulations in order to leave the past behind and move on from it.

"Hey, ehh, ehh, eyy; Baby I'm bleedin', bleedin'; Stay, ehh, ehhy; Can't you give me what I'm needin', needin'; Every heartbreak makes it hard to keep the faith" - Here, Lady Gaga expresses how much of a - somewhat literal, if she’s bleeding - fight she’s had to try to stay hopeful about their relationship. Perhaps more generally, each time someone lets her down and breaks her heart, she feels herself giving up on people more, making it difficult to trust those around her. By using the word “faith” specifically, she links her faith in these connections with the more religious faith that she displays in the chorus by praying to God. "I bow down to pray; I try to make the worst seem better; Lord, show me the way" - Gaga’s always been open about her faith. Throughout her career, she’s made several references to God and the importance of religion in her life. Songs like “Electric Chapel” & “Fashion of His Love” marry religion and music, and that’s how Gaga tries to improve her outlook on life. It’s important to note she says she makes life “seem better” rather than simply “better,” perhaps alluding to the power of perception in any situation.

Music Video: Million Reasons - Lady Gaga

Million Reasons - Lady Gaga

Liesbet Van Zoonen: Feminist Theory - Suggests gender is constructed through discourse, and that its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context. Advocates that the very presentation of women’s bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of western patriarchal culture. Also presents that in mainstream culture, the visual and narrative codes that are used to construct the male body are different from those used to objectify the female body Codes- a system of words, letters.

bell hooks: Feminist Theory - Propose that feminism is a struggle to end sexist/patriarchal oppression and the whole ideology of domination. Suggest the idea that feminism is a political commitment rather than a lifestyle choice. Advocates that other factors, such as race and class, as well as sex, determine the extent to which individuals are exploited, discriminated against or oppressed.

A million Reasons is a contrasting example of a contemporary music video from a world famous, white, female artist. This particular video (from the album Joanne) marks a change in direction for the artist as media producers make use of media language to construct representations that might attract a broader, more mainstream market whilst not alienating the artist’s core fan base. 

Stereotypes

Wearing pink
Emotional
Wardrobe full of dresses and hats
Make-up and hair is heavily done
Love Children
Doesn't know anything about sports
Their main priority is getting married
Caring
Cooks
Domestic behaviours
Bad Drivers
Self-centred
Weak - Physically and Mentally

Why is Lady Gaga an influential figure in music?
Iconic star - evolved as a musician
Unique - artist - stands out
Support for the LGBT+ community
Activist

Lyric Analysis

"You're giving me a million reasons to let you go; You're giving me a million reasons to quit the show" -The song opens with a quiet guitar riff and low piano buzzing in the background, setting the more sombre tone straight away. Even in the first line, it’s clear Gaga isn’t happy with the state of their relationship. It’s easy to find flaws in the subject, they give Gaga every justification to cut the affair off. Like other songs on Joanne, there may be a double meaning in these lyrics between an unstable relationship with a man, and Gaga’s own unstable relationship with her fame. In Lady Gaga’s 2015 Billboard Woman of the Year interview, she admitted that she had been very depressed and wanted to quit music: At the end of 2014, my stylist asked, “Do you even want to be a pop star anymore?” I looked at him and I go, “You know, if I could just stop this train right now, today, I would. I just can’t. [But] I need to get off now because I’m going to die.”

"You're givin' me a million reasons; Give me a million reasons; Givin' me a million reasons; About a million reasons" - The repetition of this line emphasises the insecurity Gaga feels about this relationship. She’s constantly questioning the state of their romance and whether it’s worth pursuing. Time after time, he forces her to reconsider their future together.

"If I had a highway, I would run for the hills; If you could find a dry way, I'd forever be still" Lady Gaga plays with words here, using “highway” and “dry way” to create a parallel to the phrase “high and dry.” Leaving someone “high and dry” means you’ve put them in a difficult position by failing to support them. In this way, the composition of these two lines echoes the overall message of this song—this man has given Gaga a million reasons to cut him out of her life, but she keeps hoping he’ll sort himself out so that she won’t have to. “Dry way” alludes to “drying out” or sobering up, implying that the person Gaga is singing about has issues with substance abuse, either in reality or as a metaphor for being an unstable presence in her life.

"I bow down to pray; I try to make the worst seem better; Lord, show me the way" - Gaga’s always been open about her faith. Throughout her career, she’s made several references to God and the importance of religion in her life. Songs like “Electric Chapel” & “Fashion of His Love” marry religion and music, and that’s how Gaga tries to improve her outlook on life. It’s important to note she says she makes life “seem better” rather than simply “better,” perhaps alluding to the power of perception in any situation.

"To cut through all his worn out leather" - Leather is usually thick and tough when compared to other materials, and the fact that it is “worn out” implies that it is strained from continuous use and the buildup of debris. Leather clothing is a hallmark of various “tough guy” personas such as bikers and cowboys—archetypes which Gaga depicts on songs such as Joanne’s “John Wayne.” Though Lady Gaga admits that she’s attracted to bad boys, here leather represents the “armour” these men wear that keeps her from having a stable and open relationship with them. In another sense, “his worn out leather” may represent Gaga’s own scars from these strained relationships that keep her from forming new, healthier bonds. Gaga wants the Lord to guide her on her desire to “cut through” all of her trials and tribulations in order to leave the past behind and move on from it.

"I've got a hundred million reasons to walk away; But baby, I just need one good one to stay" and "But baby, I just need one good one; Good one, good one, good one, good one, good one" - - Contrasting with the repetitive “million reasons” lyrics in the verses, Gaga turns the phrase on its head: though there’s an endless number of rationales for why she should leave the relationship, all she needs is one good reason to cancel out all the bad ones. Given the entertainment-related lyricism of the first verse, Gaga could also be referring to her relationship with show business. There are so many reasons she should just leave the business: relationships in need of attention, a more than sufficient amount of money and power, a clear legacy. Yet she only needs one good reason — her fans — to stay attached. It’s important that Gaga never really explains what this one particular reason is. Perhaps Gaga’s ambiguity is intentional: she leaves it vague so that it can be applicable to anything.

"Head stuck in a cycle, I look off and I stare; It's like that I've stopped breathing, but completely aware" - Many of us know that “head stuck in a cycle” feeling, but she explains that she just “looks off and stare”, holding on to the hopes of a better day, even though there is nothing more to do. She manifests the desperate pain of being stuck in a cycle she cannot break, the feeling of wanting to end a battle she has no control over, plus facing the fact that she is “drowning” and suffering battling another person's battle. In the second line she exhibits how it really feels to be aware of all the damage that he has caused, but still being stuck in the cycle, which includes her endless attempts to help him, even though instead of helping him have destroyed her. She can’t let go.

"And if you say something that you might even mean; It's hard to even fathom which parts I should believe" - Perhaps one of the “million reasons” why Gaga is considering walking away from this relationship is because the man in question is dishonest. Gaga is obviously insecure about this relationship and seems to suspect that he’s been feeding her lies to keep her complacent and invested. However, she’s caught on, and she’s watched it become such a regular occurrence that she truly can’t separate his honesty from the sweet nothings he whispers into her ear. After all, her most recent ex Taylor Kinney was rumoured to have had an affair.

"To cut through all his worn out leather" - Leather is usually thick and tough when compared to other materials, and the fact that it is “worn out” implies that it is strained from continuous use and the buildup of debris. Leather clothing is a hallmark of various “tough guy” personas such as bikers and cowboys—archetypes which Gaga depicts on songs such as Joanne’s “John Wayne.” Though Lady Gaga admits that she’s attracted to bad boys, here leather represents the “armour” these men wear that keeps her from having a stable and open relationship with them. In another sense, “his worn out leather” may represent Gaga’s own scars from these strained relationships that keep her from forming new, healthier bonds. Gaga wants the Lord to guide her on her desire to “cut through” all of her trials and tribulations in order to leave the past behind and move on from it.

"Hey, ehh, ehh, eyy; Baby I'm bleedin', bleedin'; Stay, ehh, ehhy; Can't you give me what I'm needin', needin'; Every heartbreak makes it hard to keep the faith" - Here, Lady Gaga expresses how much of a (somewhat literal, if she’s bleeding) fight she’s had to try to stay hopeful about their relationship. Perhaps more generally, each time someone lets her down and breaks her heart, she feels herself giving up on people more, making it difficult to trust those around her. By using the word “faith” specifically, she links her faith in these connections with the more religious faith that she displays in the chorus by praying to God.

Video Analysis

Black and White - Getting ready for her performance

Friends help - sisterhood

Religion - "Lord, show me the way"

Pink - Girls

Suit and hat - Boys

Depressed 

Body language

Wants to quit music - has lots of reasons to leave the spotlight but she only needs one reason to not quit

Hiding emotions behind glasses

Insecure about relationship

Wearing outfit to go with guitar- usually worn by men

Just broke up with fiance - had been together for 5 years - rumours of him having an affair

Has people who care

Wrote the song with Mark Ronsons (a man)

The music video was directed by 2 females

The people who came to her were her crew - does the crew really care or are they just there to get on with the show so they can get paid - do they really care about her mental state?

Doesn't portray a traditional love narrative, rather focuses on Gaga's own team

Gaga is emotionally transparent

Stereotypes

Assumptions that are held about a social group.
They are often used in a negative or prejudicial sense and are frequently used to justify certain discriminatory behaviours.
Stereotyping is an important concept in terms of representation.

Stereotype production is based on

Simplification
Exaggeration or distortion
Generalisation
Presentation of cultural attributes as being 'natural'.

Stereotypes associated with women in the music industry

Not to wear a lot of clothes

Love songs

Stereotypes associated with women and femininity in advertising magazines

Young

Slim

Overwhelmingly white

Conforming to our image of ideal beauty (perfect skin, hair and alluring gaze)

Liesbet Van Zoonen: Feminist Theory - My Understanding

Women are objectified 

Men are admired for how they got that body and how they got to look like that - women are used to just emit lust and attraction
Gender is constructed through the media (discourse)
The representation of women changes depending on where you are in the world and what time you are in history

bell hooks: Feminist Theory
To be a feminist you have to politically active
To be a feminist you have to be a feminists
The class, culture and ethnicity changes the amount of discrimination that you receive

Screenshots from the video

Analysis Part 2
Wide shot at the beginning - slow pan - vulnerability/emotional
Close up shot - emotional
Headshot - soften - subverts Van Zoonen's theory
bell hooks - women are objects and can be owned  by people - women exploited - discriminated
Dull lighting - connotations of not wanting the spotlight - wanting to be alone
Alone sad in the desert

Minecraft Essay

Create an essay discussing the evolution of Minecraft as part of the essay you will discuss:
How the ownership of Minecraft has affected the evolution of the game?
How Minecraft is marketed to a variety of audiences?The development of the game through technological change?

Minecraft was first developed and released into the public by Markus "Notch" Persson - an (at the time) thirty-year-old Sweedish man - and was published by the company Mojang on May 17th 2009, which was followed by beta on December 20th 2010. Notch started creating the game in May of 2009 having been inspired by similar games such as Dwarf Fortress, a single player construction and management game; his goal is to produce a Role-Playing Game variation. Minecraft is a game where you dig (mine) and builds (craft) different kinds of 3D blocks within a large world of varying terrains and habitats to explore. Inside the world, the sun rises and sets as the players work, gather materials and make tools. It was created as an experimental game to test random creation for caves; it is inspired by Infiniminer (another game created by Zachary Barth). It is a Sandbox genre game (a game free of structure and constraint - players are free to roam and make choices about how they use available content), sandbox games are often described as having open world settings. Minecraft later created a hybrid genre with the story versions and is sometimes categorised as sandbox, survival, and adventure. Later on, in 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took creative control and released the full version of the game after gradual updates (which are still happening as the game is not at its full potential). Minecraft was originally created as a sandbox independent video game - part exploratory and part creative building - to which it has won many awards since 2011 including the Innovation Award, Best Debut Game Award and Best Downloadable Game. The game has been described as a virtual world of Lego that involves following simple instructions in order to play it. Since 2014, nearly 54 million copies of the game have been sold for all platforms. On September 2014, Microsoft bought Mojang for $2.5 billion, which granted the companies ownership of the games intellectual property. Being the second most successful video game of all time - behind Tetris - to date, Minecraft has sold over 121 million copies across all platforms, including 27 million PC copies of all time. The game is internationally successful - making 4 billion dollars in the UK, 24.4 billion dollars in China, and 32.6 billion dollars in America. 

Without commercial backing of a mainstream publisher, and no money spent on advertising revenue, the game relied on word of mouth between gamers and featured on sites such as the Penny Arcade webcomic to generate interest among gamers. By January 2011, the beta version had passed over one million purchases in just only a month, and by April 2011, Notch estimated that 33 million US dollars of revenue had been made. Minecraft was carefully marketed to audiences, as an online version of Lego and in doing so, aligned itself with one of the most iconic 'learning construction education products' in history. Lego sells Minecraft playsets so that gamers can physically build their Minecraft creations, and Lego Worlds will invite fans to do the same, but in reverse. Daniel Golberg, who wrote a Minecraft book about its growth said that he "was surprised that it has taken them so long". That "Minecraft is exactly what Lego should have done 10 years ago". Answering to the questions on Lego and Minecraft, Goldberg said that the "audience for Minecraft has proved itself to be quite big", however, he is "sure there will be room for both games". David Gram, Lego's marketing director, commented on Minecraft being the "digital lego" and that they "only wish [they] had invented it". In 2011, prior to the games official release, Minecraft had over 16 million registered and 4 million purchases. Due to its popularity, Minecraft was released over multiple platforms and became a viable franchise with increased interactivity. In particular, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released on Sony Xperia Play, available on Sony Xperia smartphones. Minecraft also became available on Andriod and iOS devices shortly after. Soon after that, in 2012, Minecraft became available on Xbox 260 and Xbox Live. In 2014, Microsoft acquired Minecraft intellectual property for 2.5 billion dollars, and in 2015, 30 million copies had been sold. It is now able to be played cross-platforms and holds massive multiplayer servers. The team who work behind Minecraft and the team behind Oculus have teamed together to create a VR game of Minecraft. By doing this, it explores a range of new people who play this. Minecraft is the highest selling 3D game ever, so this brings in a new audience to Oculus as many Minecraft players would now be buying the product. People are more active when playing this as they are having to look around. By doing this, it would give the game designers a feeling that they are at the forefront of technology. The establishment of Minecraft Marketplace is a great example of the industry listening to their audience and allowing them to do many things such as trading different maps, textures and 'add-ons'. The nature of the game has allowed the audience to learn new skills, such as programming. On their website, it says "Minecraft players are using their amazing creative brains to conduct incredible new ways to play on mobile, Xbox One, Windows 10 PCs and Nintendo Switch. From community made skins and textures to hand-crafted worlds and epic adventures, you can find it all on the Minecraft Marketplace". The Minecraft Marketplace is a brand new store for the MCPE and Windows 10 versions of Minecraft that allows the community to sell in-game skins, textured and worlds. Content in the marketplace can be purchased through a new currency that is being introduced called Minecoins. Skins can be customised by the players on different websites. The original ones are Steve and Alex. However, if the players do not like these costumes, they can create their own ones and wear it if they want to. To use the marketplace, the players get Minecoins in the in-game store (which need to be purchased using real money), then they can explore the in-game store and exchange the Minecoins for the skins that the players want. In order to purchase user-created content on the Minecraft Marketplace, you need to purchase Minecoins with real currency. You can purchase Minecraft coins in denominations of 320 for $1.99, 840 for $4.99, and 1,720 for $9.99. Once you have the Minecoins in your account, you can make purchases from the in-game store. There will eventually be free content available in the store as well and it is possible some paid content will temporarily become free or discounted. Block by Block began in 2012 with the radical idea of integrating the computer game Minecraft into public space planning to get community members more involved. Minecraft is easy to use, and people of all ages, backgrounds, and education levels can pick it up quickly. It's a surprisingly effective way to visualise a three-dimensional environment, in a format designed for rapid iteration and idea sharing. Minecraft helps neighbourhood residents model their surroundings, visualise possibilities, express ideas, drive consensus, and accelerate progress. Minecraft helps teachers to teach their students through Computer Science, Engineering, Maths, Stem, Chemistry, Art and Design, and Creative problem solving (collaboration/teamwork). The ways that it teaches is through having videos of people using Minecraft to enlighten the students on how to do things - the students can be aged from 3 all the way up to 18+, with their ages in categories.

Budgets for games vary and Minecraft is a good example of a game that was made and developed using readily available open source software within the gaming community; by creating the original Minecraft using Java, it gave them the advantage of being able to create a cross-platform game (being able to be run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux). Other mainstream games that require entire teams of programmers, artists and engineers to make video games that have budgets equal or proceeding that of mainstream films, for example, Call Of Duty. Minecraft has also been linked to non-profit projects such as the UN's Block by Block project, which encourages communities around the world to redesign their neighbourhoods using Minecraft. An educational version has also been created and developed in 2012 - MinecraftEdu - which has several applications to help teach the subject and develop a culture of computer programming amongst natives.

Versions of the game can be purchased over the internet using outlets the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live Arcade. Recent additions include the Nintendo platform which was excluded from the initial Minecraft releases; available to download from December 2015 with physical copies from June 2016 and most recently Nintendo Switch (May 2017, and Nintendo 3DS (downloadable from September 2017). It is worth considering how a simple PC Java game has become a globally successful phenomenon across all consoles and hand-held devices. In 2017, Minecraft had completely become a multi-platform game which is not only just for PC gamers, but for those who own smartphones, Microsoft consoles (Xbox); PlayStation 3, 4 and PS Vita; and more recently Nintendo consoles (Wii U) and hand-held devices (Nintendo Switch and Nintendo New 3DS, New 2DS XL and New 3DS XL). In 2009, the computer code (developed by Perssons/Mojang) was Java, it's simplicity of coding enabled the gaming community to modify and upgrade the game, consequently "users" were also involved in the production/evolution of the game through improving the code/removing bugs - from being people who tested the game and to see how smoothly it ran. In 2013, Microsoft purchased Mojang for 2.5 billion dollars which resulted in the further development of the game, using complex code (C++) the game could be multiplatform users - and the visual appearance became more sophisticated. This opened up the market for the game. Newer games, e.g. for smartphones were programmed in C++, newer games such as cross-platform plays are more complex and refined in their graphic content. Minecraft: Story Mode follows more of the recognisable institutional conventions of the game development including tutorials on how to play the game. Due to the original nature of the game, most players simply logged in to play Minecraft and didn't need a physical copy of the game. When the Xbox and PlayStation versions were created there was often a chance to offer digital versions of the same game across the Windows 10 operating system. Users were often encouraged to download the game through the cloud servers rather than a physical game which would incur in more of a cost for the institution. Physical copies of the game were released 6 months after the cloud versions to encourage online purchase and reduce the risk of piracy.

Minecraft has universal appeal. It is useful to explore how such a game can appeal to different ages, genders and audiences from different social and cultural backgrounds. The variety of different modes is certainly a contributing factor to the game's success, but also the way in which audience can control and shape their own worlds and create new identities through mods and altering textures, maps and craft skills. Of the people who play Minecraft, 20.59% are under 15, 43.70% are 15-21, 21.01% and 22-30, 8.12% are 31-40, 3.22% are 41-50, 0.70% are 51-60, 0.14% are 61-70, 0.14% are 71-80, and 2.38% are 81+. Overall, over 80% of the demographic is represented by under 15's through to 22-30's. Of the 80%, 50% are aged 15-21, each is under 15 and between 2-30. The introduction of Minecraft Realms (2013) has tried to give the producers more control over the distribution and circulation of the game since some customers were creating their own virtual spaces and hacks across illegitimate servers. Realms are intended for use by small groups of friends or as a family server. Minecraft Realms is a paid multiplayer hosting service, provided by Mojang, designed to be easily set up and used by the user and up to ten of their friends. Minecraft Realms is an official subscription-based server hosting service that allows players to create and manage their own private Minecraft servers. Hosted by Mojang, Realms provides an easy and fast way to create servers and allows the owner to manage them from inside the game, without prior knowledge of the concepts for hosting on the Internet. In Java Edition, Realms also allows players to choose from a list of minigames to play temporarily, as well as several pre-made world templates, adventure maps, experience maps, and inspiration maps. Maps are updated by Mojang approximately every two weeks. Realms are not intended for large public servers, but for groups of friends or as a family server. Minecraft: Story Mode is an episodic point-and-click narrative-driven graphic adventure video game based on the sandbox video game Minecraft, released in October 2015 across multiple platforms with a Windows 10 release on December 16, 2015, a Wii U release on January 21, 2016, a Apple TV release on August 24, 2016, and a Nintendo Switch release on August 22, 2017. The game was developed by Mojang AB, the developer of Minecraft, in collaboration with Telltale Games.- Minecraft: Story Mode is an episodic point-and-click narrative-driven graphic adventure video game based on the sandbox video game Minecraft, released in October 2015 across multiple platforms with a Windows 10 release on December 16, 2015, a Wii U release on January 21, 2016, a Apple TV release on August 24, 2016, and a Nintendo Switch release on August 22, 2017. The game was developed by Mojang AB, the developer of Minecraft, in collaboration with Telltale Games. It uses Minecraft YouTubers to voice over the cast. This introduces the young audience of the YouTubers. The YouTubers have played the play through in their game on their YouTube account to showcase the playthrough. Minecraft and subsequent versions and variations of the game offer familiar pleasures to existing fans (narrative features, open-world gameplay etc.) along with new elements to target a wider audience (e.g. Story Mode). The creation of Minecraft Realms was a well-considered way to attract and encourage audiences to use the game on dedicated servers. Before Realms, there were servers, this was for thousands of people to join servers - play community games, build together and roleplaying - with thousands of other people. This would obviously cost money to create as there is up to thousands of people who are playing on their server, to counteract this, the server owners would set up a way for the players to pay the owners to gain ranks and extras. For example, Hypixel (a server which can host up to 45,000 people playing and has been open since May 2015), is the most played server which has games such as Hunger Games, Bed Wars, Parkour and Skywars. To gain money, Hypixel has set up an online store that the players can buy ranks and money ranging from $6.99 to $44.99.

Minecraft inspired videos gained significant popularity on YouTube generating viral hype and talk-ability. Creating parody videos hits a different type of audience - younger and trendy. With free marketing and increasing the popularity of the game. YouTube, Facebook and online fan communities have enabled Minecraft’s audience to have an active voice in its ongoing production through detailed feedback and commentary on modifications and beta tests. There are several niche forums that should also be investigated across the internet. A few YouTubers who play Minecraft include TheDiamondMinecart (20.9 million subscribers), TheSyndicateProject (9.9 million subscribers), PrestonPlayz - Minecraft (8.1 million subscribers), UnspeakableGaming (2.1) million subscribers), StampyLondHead (9 million subscribers), and Bajan Canadian (5.9 million subscribers). SkyDoesMinecraft - now know as Sky Does Everything - has 11.6 million subscribers and has had over 3.7 billion views in all his years producing videos. He plays Minecraft, fortnite, and does every day vlogs. However, over a year ago, Sky decided to stop recording videos finding that it was no longer for him, and only just coming back into creating videos for his fans. TheDiamondMinecart - now known as DanTDM - has 20.9 million subscribers with 14.1 billion views. Dan plays many games such as Minecraft, Fortnite and small games such as Hello Neighbour. He gained a lot of money through sponsorships and taking part in voicing in films - including the Minecraft Game Play. LDShadowLady has 4.4 million subscribers with over 1.8 billion views. She creates videos such as Minecraft lets plays (One Life 2.0 being one of her most recent ones), Minecraft Mini-games, Sims 4 and small random games here and there.