Michael JacksonNot just ‘King of Pop’ but ‘King of the Pop Video’

Taju Deen

Michael’s Early Pop Videos with the Jackson 5 (Rockin’ Robin – 1972)

Michael’s Early Pop Videos with the Jackson 5 (Rockin’ Robin – 1972)

• The Jackson 5 hit cover of Rockin’ Robin by Bobby Day, was released February 17th 1972.

• The music video is very basic with simple cuts and use of lip syncing. Throughout the video there is a variety of angles shown – high and low, central and side but compared the modern music video it lacks sophistication.

Rock With You - 1979• Rock With You is a song written by the British songwriter

Rod Temperton and record by Michael Jackson. It was released November 3rd 1979. It also Jackson’s second single off of his solo album “Off The Wall”.

• It reached both number one on both the pop and R&B singles chart.

• In this video there is a more bright and modern mood used to show Jackson’s star quality. His sparkled suit and disco dance moves display this. The mise-en scene is carefully thought over with laser lights in the background to enhance his costume with a myriad of shots.

Billie Jean - 1983• “Billie Jean” is Jackson’s second single from his sixth solo

album, “Thriller” (1982). It was written by him and produced by himself and Quincy Jones.

• Billie Jean is a music video that portrays more elements of a short film rather than a music video as it’s purpose is to tell a story not just to lip sync. Throughout the video a range of shot types are employed such as eye-line matches and match on action. The mise-en scene was carefully planned as there was an excellent use of lighting in the video, which is seen when he steps on a pavement slab/staircase step and it lights up.

Eye-line match 1 Eye-line match 2

Match on Action 1 Match on Action 2

The us of lighting and split screen editing

Beat It• “Beat It” is a song written and performed by Michael Jackson

and was produced by Quincy Jones. It’s Jackson’s third single from the singer’s sixth solo album Thriller (1982) .

• This music video established Michael Jackson as an international pop icon and was the first treatment of black youths on the streets in a music video. In the video the gang members were actually real, which was Jackson’s idea, and this created plenty of job opportunities. The music video also sends a positive message as the fantastic choreography at the end merges the rival gangs together in music and dance which encourages them to leave their violence and hatred.

Beat It

MJ’s Thriller - 1983

The music video is considered one of the most famous of all time by the Library of Congress which added it to its National Film Registry in 2009 – the first music video in their registry. This video created a cultural milestone introducing precise and elaborate choreography, costumes and dialogue, the concept of the extended version of Thriller, where a mini-movie was made and edited down for the short version. The extended version of “Thriller” runs for 14 minutes and racking up over 100 million views on YouTube. MTV usually ran the short version which was just under 5 minutes but still contained a minute of dialogue to give a short storyline.

Thriller• The video cost about $500,000 to make in which Jackson’s record company

had no intention of paying since the album wasn’t doing so well. John Landis, the director of the video, said how Jackson really wanted to turn into a monster so he insisted on paying for the project himself. Landis saw this as an opportunity to revive the short-film genre in which he was passionate about, so he took the project on. As deals were made with Showtime and MTV to cover the costs, Jackson didn’t have to pay for the video out of his own pocket. Showtime had the opportunity to air the whole “making of Thriller” documentary followed by the air of the 14 minute extended version of Thriller before it was broadcast anywhere else. When MTV’s executive Bob Pittman heard about this he had no intention of losing a Michael Jackson video to one of their competitors so paid $250,000 for exclusive broadcast rights once Showtime’s window finished. Although MTV was founded on the principle of not paying for videos, Pittman got around this by claiming the money was for the documentary.

Thriller• The video won Best Performance Video, Best Choreography, and

Viewers Choice at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. The popular graveyard dance began a trend of group dance scenes in pop videos. One person that was a huge participant in the video was Alice Cooper who in 1975 created a movie based on the stage show from his Welcome To My Nightmare tour. Most homes had Video Cassette Recorders in 1983 and the sale of videos were big business. You could buy a VHS or beta copy of “Thriller” which included the documentary of the making of the video and behind the scenes footage. This tape became the best-selling music video of all time and was later in the Guinness World Records as the top selling music video of all time with 9 million units sold. The release time played a huge factor too as it was released a few weeks before Christmas.

The Way You Make Me Feel – 1987• Released November 9, 1987.• This song is about love and falling in love which Jackson introduces

women as the main object of attraction. Laura Mulvey’s male gaze is displayed in this music video as the women is viewed as an object of male erotic desire as there is a mid-shot of her body wearing a short, tight fitted dress.

N.B. Jackson is staring at her bum highlighting women as sexual objects.

Bad - 1987

• Released September 7, 1987• Following “Thriller”, Jackson was the biggest pop star in

the world. His videos made the news and so the release of the music video for “Bad” was a huge event. The music video for Bad is another short film at 18 minutes long, written by Richard Price, a novelist and screenwriter. The elaborate dance sequences became have become an essential feature of his music videos. There also seems to be a frequent theme of gang related drama with a positive message to educate the youth.

Bad - 1987

Black or White - 1991• Released November 11, 1991.• Cost $4,000,000 - $6,925,000 Today (accounted for inflation)• This music by Michael Jackson was very expensive and inventive, taking the viewer

on a journey through Africa to Asia to Europe and so on. The message behind this music video was that it doesn’t matter what race you are or where you come from, you are human and everyone is equal. One section of the video outlines war and terrorism which usually form due to race or cultural indifferences. A shot of Jackson at the top of the Statue of Liberty has connotations of freedom and equality. The music video was used to revive his career after all the controversy with the press had started to damage it with allegations of skin bleaching when it was a skin disease.

• The end sequence in which his face morphs is reference to Peter Gabriel’s sledgehammer.

Conclusion• As digital technology developed so did the technical quality of

Michael Jackson’s videos. He used his videos alongside his music in order to form a message as seen in Beat It where he diminishes gang culture and violence through dance. The newer equipment available allowed him to create a sophisticated and artistic choreography with a large cast. In Black or White Jackson had used the digital technology to his advantage with the many effects used as well as the green screen. In order to really display the effective technology advances his videos became very complex making them just as important as the song. The pop videos Jackson created were used to recreate/revive his image throughout his career by addressing serious social issues such as war, terrorism and race.