Music Videos - Billie Jean

Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
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What representations are being shown here? Are there any stereotypes?
He subverts stereotypes as he was a young black artist, which wasn't in the music industry at the time.
Stereotypical detective outfit

What is the narrative?
A female fan claimed that Michael Jackson was the father of her son. Michael Jackson used the lyrics to explain the truth and to say that none of the claims were true.

How is Michael Jackson seen? Star Image?
He is wearing a suit, which makes him have a star image.
The detective seemed a bit like paparazzi, so portrayed Michael Jackson's fame as people wanted to take photos of him.
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Brief Notes on Historical Information
- 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.
- The short film for Billie Jean is considered the video that brought MTV, until then a fairly new and unknown music channel, into mainstream attention. It was one of the first videos by a black artist to be aired regularly by the channel, as the network's executives felt black music wasn't "rock" enough.
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How is Michael Jackson presented as a young black male?
He gives a homeless man some change, which transforms the man and changes his life, this is seen as a positive thing, so gives a good name to young, black males, which isn't usually portrayed in the media.

How does it show the hounding/obsession by the groupies as mentioned by Michael Jackson?
He is seen running away, which could portray his daily life of having to run away from these people.

Steve Barron produced the music video.

The Inspiration

'I'd come up with the idea based on an idea that I had for a previous video for Joan Armatrading: The Midas Touch thing. So the plan was that everywhere Michael went, everything would glow and turn to gold in the light. I wrote the concept down in a fax and we faxed Michael this page and a half of content and they said, 'Michael really likes it, he really wants it to feel like a peter pan thing'.

Social, Cultural and Historical Context

The reporter could represent Michael Jackson being hounded by the press.

They also represent a repressed community that is monitored and controlled by the press.

What could the cat changing into the tiger represent?

It may represent women or in particular Billie Jean.

What does the tiger print material represent?

It could be seen as a piece of evidence that someone has been there or that Michael is the father as people are trying to find information out. It was found in the bedroom which is seen as proof and is what the media and press want.

Billie Jean came out in 1982 but can be linked to life beyond the year of its production. Can you make any associations to modern day society?

Flashing lights and cameras link to today's society as everything is documented.

The Interpretation of the Narrative










This screenshot shows a man struggling with a problem. In the lyrics the problem is obviously whether he fathered a child with a women obsessed with him. So the first part is him walking down the street thinking about what he should do.

What may be confusing is the reporter that starts creeping around in the shadows. This issue isn’t really addressed in the song itself but it is about deception and what is more deceiving than a hack paparazzi sneaking around spreading rumours. The reporter drops the newspaper with the headline Billie Jean Scandal.

In this part, Michael Jackson is trying to show how these issues can get so out of hand in the media. He not only has to worry about it personally now but he has to dodge people trying to make the situation even worse.

Then, the video goes into the section where he's thinking about the picture Billie Jean had shown him where the babies eyes were like his own. He uses ‘artist license’. This means that the artist can interpret thoughts, feelings and actions in any way possible even if it goes into a somewhat unreal realm. This part is exhibited with dance, so even though he dances a lot while singing about such a serious subject, he ends up enhancing the power of the feelings and words.

The last part of the film goes back to him trying to escape the paparazzi. He goes up the stairs to the motel and by putting his finger to his lips, he signals to the old women to call the police on the creepy reporter. The reporter gets arrested for violating Michael Jackson’s privacy. At the end you see the Michael looking at the person who is sleeping in the bed (Billie Jean) still with so much confusing and pain about the situation, that he makes himself

disappear after putting the sheet on top of him. This could be his way of saying he just can’t deal with the problem, and he makes his wish to make it go away come true by vanishing. It also represents his vanishing away from the paparazzi.