Michael Jackson is one of the most critically acclaimed artists of the 20th Century, and all time. He has sold over 750 million records worldwide. He is multi-talented as a recording artist, dancer, songwriter, musician and philanthropist. He began as a singer within the band ‘The Jackson 5, at the tender age of eleven and his career rocketed since. His voice is very unique and recognizable, and he has made songs of many genres such as hip-hop, pop, rock, soul, dance, funk, and disco and new jack swing.
Most of his earlier videos were stage performances with videos such ‘Ben” and “music and me”. The music video highlighted how innocent Michael Jackson was. It was almost as if he was someone who was performing at a talent show, and it was a live performance so it was really shows how innocent he really is, and because there is not too much going on so they are showing he is really an innocent child. They’re selling him as an innocent child as they do close-ups on his face, which attracts us to his eyes. Nowadays in modern day music videos when portraying children, they are not too innocent, and this is evident in music videos such as Willow Smith- Whip my hair, where she is very sassy and acts like a diva, as if she’s already made great success in music.
As Michael Jackson grew older so did his music. His music grew older. Michael Jackson went from making music that focused on simple innocent things such as “music” and “pets”, then he started talking about women, love and horror themes. He began to play characters in his music videos. This is evident in music videos such as thriller. Michael Jackson plays an actor within a movie he’s watching that turns into a werewolf, but that turned out to be a movie. Then he also was a boyfriend twice, who in one he becomes a zombie, it heavily features dancing and is basically a short film as well as a music video. Within this music video Michael Jackson also performs singing as well as dancing, this is Michael Jackson showcasing his many talents.Within this music video we see many visual motifs that have become associated with Michael Jackson. His traditional red suit has now become very iconic in the music world, as you see artists such as Kanye West wearing what is now called “the thriller suit” His white socks and shoes have become iconic also. Within thriller we also see that Michael Jackson has incorporated a Jheri curl as his hair, which was a successor to his previous hairstyle of an Afro.
There are many close-ups of Michael Jackson throughout his music videos. Within Ben there are many close-ups because they want to sell Michael Jackson to the audience as an artist. In Ben there are many close-ups to sell an image that Michael Jackson is an innocent boy, as they make emphasis on his cute adorable eyes. Within thriller they wanted to highlight and showcase an evil side, as well as one that is very much attractive. They did this when he was at the cinema and when he turned into a ghoul and had yellow eyes. Then within black and white they want to sell someone who is righteous and powerful as well as handsome. His Afro and clothes, which were quite “funky”, sold Michael Jackson as a cute young boy, whereas in thriller his leather jacket, tight trousers and Jheri curl sold him as someone who was very much cool. Although his clothes in black or white sold him as someone who was universal, and his hair fell to his shoulders almost as if he was someone angelic.
Camerawork and editing is used to reinforce and develop the image of the star. In Ben they used a tracking and a slow zoom in to Michael Jackson, which is almost as if they are introducing us to him. They also do many close-ups’ to familiarize us with him, also highlighting his innocent face in which they sell him as an innocent child. Within Thriller we see many cases in which there are close-ups of his face to showcase his smile and hair, which makes him attractive to some women, although when it also does it when Michael Jackson is various monsters to possibly highlight fear, and to say that everybody has two sides to them. There are long shots to highlight his dancing moves and his body, because it those times skinny was attractive, rather than muscles. Within black or white there are mid shots to showcase Michael Jackson’s body and long shots to highlight his dance moves, and close-ups’ for his dance moves. It zooms out to highlight the scenery and landscape. This video is different because Michael Jackson gives everyone involved in the video more screen time than usual.
The wider cultural significance of this star was “cool”. He was so popular in various time periods due to him being able to make music that relates to a huge demographic, and more than one group of people.
In Conclusion Michael Jackson has developed greatly as we saw him go from a young innocent boy, to a bad boy in which many people wanted to look like him or be like him, to someone who brought the world together. He grew from an exciting young prospect, to someone who was an iconic figure in music.
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