Early Pop Videos with Jackson 5.
“Rockin Robin” 1971
Basic video – promoting song
Limited sophistication
Lip synching
“Rock with You” 1979
Him singing
Interest is costuming and the use of light in the video
“Billy Jean” 1982
·
First interesting Pop Video that tells a story and does more than just
Lip Synching.
"Beat it" 1983
Tells a story.
Elaborate choreographing at end
sequence.
“Thriller” 1983
• The
music video is considered the most famous music video of all time, at least by
the Library of Congress, which added it to its National Film Registry in 2009,
the first music video in their registry.
The video was a cultural milestone introducing:
• elaborate choreography
• costumes and dialogue
• the concept of the long-form music video,
where a mini-movie was made for a song, then edited down for the short version.
• The
long version of "Thriller" runs nearly 14 minutes, but had remarkable
longevity, easily racking up over 100 million views when it showed up on
YouTube. MTV usually ran the short version, which ran a little under five
minutes but still contained about a minute of non-song content in a storyline
that omits most of the movie the couple is watching at the beginning.
• The
video cost about $500,000 to make.
• Jackson's
record company had no intention of paying for it, since the album was on the
downswing and they had already financed videos for two of its songs.
• According
to John Landis (Director), Jackson really wanted to turn into a monster, so he
offered to pay for the clip himself. Landis took on the project because he saw
it as a way to revive the short film genre, which he loved.
• Jackson
didn't have to pay for the video out of pocket because they made deals with
Showtime and MTV to cover the costs. Showtime got to air a one hour special
with the "making of" documentary and the 14-minute film before it was
broadcast anywhere else.
• When
MTV heard about this, their executive Bob Pittman decided that losing a Michael
Jackson video to Showtime was unacceptable, and paid $250,000 for the exclusive
broadcast rights once Showtime's window ended. MTV was founded on the principle
of not paying for videos, so Pittman got around this by paying for the
documentary, even though the money was really used to pay for the film.
• The
video won for Best Performance Video, Best Choreography, and Viewers Choice at
the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984.
• With
its famous graveyard dance, the video started the trend of group dance scenes
in Pop videos.
• The
video owes a debt to Alice Cooper, who in 1975 created a movie based on the
stage show for his "Welcome to My Noghtmare"
tour. Cooper's production was based on an entire album, but it also used a
horror theme and was narrated by Vincent Price.
• Most
homes had Video Cassette Recorders in 1983 and sales of videos were big
business.
• You
could buy a VHS or beta copy of Michael Jackson's Thriller, which
included the full video and also "The Making of Michael Jackson's
Thriller," a behind the scenes documentary.
• This tape became the bestselling music video
at the time, and was later certified by Guinness World Records as the top
selling music video of all time, moving 9 million units.
The timing helped, as the video was released a
few weeks before Christmas.
“Bad” 1987
• Following
“Thriller” he was the biggest pop star in the world.
• His
videos made the news.
• The
video of “Bad” was a major event. Shown for the first time on BBC.
• People
wanted to see his new image and the dancing.
“Black or White” 1991
• The
pop video was very expensive and inventive.
• Used
to try and resurrect his career (allegations of being ‘strange’)
• Problems
with his image – white skin.
• Serious
message.
·
The end sequence referenced Peter Gabriel’s
ground-breaking video “Sledgehammer”.
“Earth Song” 1995
• A
serious message.
• Jackson
portrayed as a ‘Christlike’ figure?
