Billie Jean Essay

Analyse how the Billy Jean music video by Michael Jackson represent or subvert black stereotypes of black identity.

700 Words Minimum.

Billie Jean, which was released in 1982 and directed by Steve Barron, is an example of a historically significant music video as it was one of the very first videos on MTV to feature a black artist, it was aired regularly and became extremely popular, which brought MTV to break through racial barriers on TV networks and helped advertise the album 'Thriller' making it a bestseller at the time. It was greatly believed that "Billie Jean" was an autobiographical song, referring to someone who claimed Jackson was the father of her child. 

The music video opens in a movie styled way,introducing the antagonist of the video, which is the inspector, the clip is edited to be black and white making it more mysterious, which would attract the audience. In the next clip Michael Jackson enters for the first time and the screen changes to colour, this could be to show how he is the protagonist and will play the good character, it could also have a deeper meaning, trying to show that just because he's black doesn't mean he's a bad person, as during the time segregation was still happening and the black community was very looked down on. He appears to be wearing a suit, which counter-stereotypes the idea that black people aren't very presentable and neat.There's also a scene where Michael cleans his shoe, showing how he cares for his appearance. He then sees a homeless man and throws a coin into his cup. The cup then begins to glow and the homeless man wakes up wearing a white suit, this then reflects the stereotypical magical negro. A magical negro is a black person who comes to the help of a white person. This is shown in this part of the clip as Jackson supposedly uses his 'powers' to help the homeless man, this also shows how black people are also really nice and help others, going against the stereotype that all black people, especially men, are aggressive. All throughout the video Michael emphasises the magical negro as he disappears on multiple occasions and everything he touches glows, suggesting the 'magic powers' he possess. The next scene is a wide shot showing the setting which the video was located in, being an empty street. There's then a close up of a newspaper which says 'Billie Jean' which corresponds to the lyrics 'told me her name was Billie Jean, as she caused a scene.' which refers back to the original purpose of the song, showing how this woman made a huge deal about Jackson being the father of her child. This then goes along with the stereotype that black men usually abandon women and often don't father their children, all throughout the video Jackson is trying to prove his innocence to go against this stereotype which he was associated with. 
Everything Michael touches seems to turn white, this could be a sign of purity and innocence, showing that he's a good person and trying to prove that the child isn't his, that also reflected through the lyrics as he constantly repeats 'but the kid is not my son', showing how he wants his name cleared from all the accusations he's been getting. 

The video uses advanced and sophisticated editing, such as different filters, quick camera angle changes and cutting and merging clips together. For example, there's a lyric which says 'his eyes were like mine' and at the same time Michael's eyes are cut out and stay focused on the screen while everything else keeps on moving. This links to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos as he believes that there should be a link between the visuals and lyrics, which Michael did. It was one of the first ever music videos to have a large filming budget, which makes it a huge turnover point in the music industry. It was the first time Michael ever showed people how good of a dancer he was. Neale’s genre theory of repetition and difference really appeals to Jackson as he introduced originality and he widened his audience by incorporating different things into his videos, like dance and higher quality editing, making him stand out. 

Michael was a huge turning point into how people perceived black people and their music. This is because before Michael, "Super Freak" by Rick James was released about five months after MTV went on the air. At the time, however, MTV refused to play videos by black artists and they rejected his clip, continuing to feed America a steady stream of rock and EuroPop. This refusal to play black music was the stations fear that they would lose their white listeners if they played black music. Ricks video was also slightly inappropriate as he played a hyper-sexualised black male, who white women found attractive. His video represented many of the more negative stereotypes associated with black people, like pimp/ stud culture, which a black female MTV director said that she as a black woman, did not want him representing her people in the first black video on MTV. Michael's video is completely different and is filled with many more positive stereotypes, which made it a huge step forward for the black community.