Billie Jean- Michael Jackson

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.

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. 

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

•        A link between the visuals & lyrics (compliment, contradict or amplify)
•        Genre characteristics (heavy metal in industrialised settings; rap music in urban street contexts etc.)
•         Contain intertextual references (references to popular culture)
•         Contain notions of looking (e.g. screens within screens)
•        Include objectification of females (e.g. male gaze)
•         Include demands of the record label (close ups of lead singer, symbols or motifs associated with the band / performer etc.)
•        Video will be performance, narrative or concept based.

Neale’s genre theory of Repetition and Difference

 Steve Neale states that though all genres are structured along the identical conventions of plot,

narrative and mise-en-scene, success lies in their ability to manipulate and re-shape these elements.

In this sense, all genres all contain instances of repetition and difference – and difference is essential

to the economy of the genre.

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

•        How much it conforms to its genre’s individual conventions and stereotypes. A product must match the genre’s conventions to be identified as part of that genre if it is to attract that audience.
•         How much a product subverts the genre’s conventions and stereotypes. The product must subvert convention enough to be considered unique and not just a clone of another product.

First impressions:

Michael- hero

Detective- Bad (Paparazzi)

Light Effects- steps, shows how he's pure/ innocent

                     - the hotel sign lighting up= gaining attention everywhere he goes

Religious/spiritual 

in Bed- but disappears

Lyrics "Billie Jean is not my Lover" " the kid is not my son"

"eyes were like mine"- edits to cut to just his eyes

Background:

Jackson said that "Billie Jean" was based on groupies he and his brothers encountered while they

performed 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 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 performed his first moonwalk when he sang ‘Billie Jean’ on the TV show Motown 25:

Yesterday, Today, Forever The performance introduced a number of Jackson's signatures, including

the moonwalk and white sequinned glove, and was widely imitated.

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 SHORT FILM

Director: Steve Barron

Primary Production Location: Los Angeles, California

Michael Jackson's short film for "Billie Jean" was the first of three short films produced for

recordings from Thriller, which continues its reign as the biggest selling album of all time with

worldwide sales in excess of 105 million as of June 1, 2016 and in December, 2015 became the first

ever album to be awarded triple diamond status by the RIAA for US sales alone. The "Billie Jean"

single reached No. 1 in 10 countries in the spring of 1983, including seven consecutive weeks atop

the Billboard Hot 100 - becoming the second-highest selling single in America that same year.

The short film featured a paparazzo attempting to photograph Jackson as he danced through an urban

landscape. A specially created set featured steps and sidewalk tiles that lit up underneath Michael's

feet. It is here that fans first saw some of Michael's best-known dance moves, such as spinning and

landing on his toes. Many of Michael's steps and mannerisms in the video would become

forever associated with The King of Pop.

The "Billie Jean" short film made history as the first video by a black artist to be played in

heavy rotation on MTV, then in its second year. In 1992, the short film was inducted into the

Music Video Producers Hall of Fame. MTV ranked "Billie Jean" as the 35th greatest music video of

all time in 1999, one of three entries of Jackson's on the chart alongside "Thriller" and "Beat It."

Lyrics:

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

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

For forty days and forty nights

The law was on her side

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)

'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

Rick James has Beef with MTV

"Super Freak" was released about five months after MTV went on the air, and Rick James made a

slick video for the song hoping it would get some spins on the network. At the time, however, MTV

refused to play videos by black artists, and they rejected this clip, continuing to feed America a

steady stream of rock and EuroPop. This refusal to play black music was a holdover from radio

station programming, where conventional wisdom was that you would lose your white listeners if you

played black music.

As for exactly why MTV passed on "Super Freak," their director of acquisitions, Carolyn Baker,

explained in the book I Want My MTV: "It wasn't MTV that turned down 'Super Freak.' It was

me. I tuned it down. You know why? Because there were half-naked women in it, and it was a

piece of crap. As a black woman, I did not want that representing my people as the first black

video on MTV."

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 white

producers.

Billie Jean– historical, social and cultural contexts

Stereo-types black men in popular media (Huffington Post) 

•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)

•the absentee father or,

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

Black racial stereotypes

Stereotypes :Positive and negative stereotypes are often seen in contemporary British media.

–Musicians: jazz, hip-hop and soul

–Sportsmen and women

–Comedians

–Criminals

–Socially dysfunctional

–Prostitute/sexually promiscuous

–The stud/pimp