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.
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