Case Studies on Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson is one of the most important people ever in the music industry. He has achieved and done things that have never been done before. He has been a very controversial, but influential figure in the music industry, and has definitely changed how music and pop videos are. He was always known as the King of Pop, but he was also The King of the Pop Video.




Jackson 5 - Rockin Robin

The first pop video that Michael Jackson was involved in was when he was apart of the Jackson 5. The song was called Rockin Robin and it was made in 1971. When compared to the music videos of today, it was a very basic music video in the way that it was just a performance video. The whole video was based on Michael and his family singing and playing their instruments and this was the basis for the whole video. With regards to the mise-en-scene, the Jackson 5 changed their costumes in this video many times, ranging from really bright colours to basic black and white. There was a simple dance routine in the music video, which is one of the key features of music videos.





Michael Jackson - Billy Jean

The first major music video that Michael Jackson ever done when he split from the Jackson 5 and became a solo artist is for the song "Billy Jean". This music video is famous because it is the first pop video that is not just simple lip-syncing as this video does contain some kind of story within, as well as having the lip-syncing in the video. The story in this video is Michael Jackson walking about while singing the song and he is looking for Billy Jean. This could be supposedly be seen as his love interest and the video is the story of Michael trying to look for her. I also think the lyrics of the song are illustrated within this video because Michael often says "Billy Jean is not my lover" and he is constantly seen to be by himself, which agrees with the lyrics. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is a key feature of music videos.




Michael Jackson - Beat It

The next major music video that Michael Jackson produced as a solo artists was the song "Beat It". By this time, each music video that Michael Jackson released was eagerly anticipated by millions of people across the world. This video is also unique as it was another video which was able to combine lip-syncing and the storyline together to create a more unique video. This video is also well known for the ending because of the well choreographed dance routine that is shown at the end. It is definitely well rehearsed and thought of, and is definitely memorable for the audience. There are lots of close up shots of Michael Jackson throughout this video which is one of the key features of music videos.




Michael Jackson - Thriller

Known as the most famous music video of all time, the song "Thriller" changed the way that music videos were seen and made. The Library of Congress added this music video to its National Film Industry in 2009, which was the first music video ever to be given such credit. The whole video is 14 minutes long, and is made like a mini film, as there is a big storyline to it, with the singing and dancing included with it. It really set the benchmark for all future music videos, and was definitely a video that improved the standards of videos. The costumes, dialogue and dance routine are all iconic. MTV used to show the short 4-5 minute version of this video, but it was so popular that people used to go to the cinema and be able to watch the whole version of this video. The video (Made in 1983) was paid for, and directed by a man called John Landis as Jackson's own record company refused to pay for it.  Jackson didn't have to pay for it, as he also paid made a deal with Showtime and MTV, and gave them the rights to show the video. This video was also the winner of many awards at the 1984 MTV Music Video Awards including Best Performance Video. This video started the trend of group dance scenes in pop videos. Back in the 80's when cassette tapes were a thing, the tape for this video/song became the best selling music video of all time, which was confirmed by Guinness World Records as selling 9 million copies. This was bought usually as a Christmas present for other people.





Michael Jackson - Bad

After making the music video for "Thriller", Michael Jackson was the most popular pop star in the world. The next video after Thriller had a big reputation to live up to, and the next video that he did make was for the song "Bad". When Michael released new videos, they were often seen as being real events as his video made the news because of how popular they was. The music video was so popular that it was shown live on the BBC at midnight, and millions of people even stayed up until midnight just to see this video, hence the popularity. People were very excited to see the new material that Michael Jackson was creating. There are frequent close ups of Michael Jackson, and obviously the reputation of having unique dance routines which are key features of music videos.




Michael Jackson - Black or White

At the time of the release of this video, there was many rumors going around about how Michael Jackson tried to change his skin colour from black to white through surgery. As a result of this, he lost a lot of his black fan base, as they felt they he was ashamed to be black, such was the reason that he wanted to change his skin colour from black to white. To try and win these fans back again, he made this song called "Black Or White". The main message of this song is Michael trying to say that it doesn't matter what skin colour you are, and he is trying to promote race equality. He wants to appeal to all races, and say that he shouldn't be judged based solely on his skin colour. This video always demonstrates a unique Michael Jackson dance routine which is something that is repeated heavily in all of his music videos.

Finishing Our Music Video

Today, we was able to finish the editing of our music video. As a group, we are really happy with the final project and are confident about how successful it has been. The above process shows us exporting our music video out of Adobe Premier Pro.

Rough Cut of Our Music Video

This is the rough cut of our music video. We have almost completed the production of our music video and this shows our progress so far. However, we feel that there is definitely room for improvement so we will be editing a rough cut video by changing a few shots, and adding a few shots in, in order to make our video better.