Analysis Of Beat It By Michael Jackson

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Some of my earliest memories of listening to Michael Jackson include his number 1 hit 'Beat It'. I can remember that when I was younger, Michael Jackson’s 'Beat It' was one of his first songs that I ever listened to. Between the driving rock guitar, the soaring vocals, and the overall story that the song delivers, the song has easily become one of my favorite Michael Jackson tracks to this day. Releasing in 1982 as one of numerous number one hits from Michael Jackson’s album Thriller (Amisu, 2016), 'Beat It' is probably one of Michael Jackson’s most groundbreaking and powerful song/short film combinations of his career. In a huge gamble, Michael Jackson used 'Beat It' to really push the boundaries of the music industry, challenging many …show more content…

Secondly, Michael Jackson collaborated with Eddie Van Halen in order to provide the iconic guitar riffs and solo in the song. In today’s world, to most that would seem like a perfectly acceptable collaboration, but at the time of Thriller's release, the pairing of a white rock icon and a black singer/performer was virtually unheard of (Healy, 2013). Despite the “taboo” aspect of the pairing, it obviously paid off in the end and helped create one of Michael’s most recognizable and iconic songs of his …show more content…

‘Beat It’ depicts a rivalry between two opposing gangs, similar to the real-life Crips and Bloods. Tensions between the gangs are shown to be coming to a peak in the short film, and the two gangs decide to face off in what can only be anticipated as a bloodbath. Michael Jackson in the short film plays the protagonist and the narrator, trying to stop the impending massacre. However, Michael always seems to be one step behind the gangs, and they eventually do meet face to face and stage their own sort of duel between what is assumed to be the two leaders. However, just as the fighting starts, Michael arrives on the scene just in time and is able to unify the two gangs in what would become an iconic dance routine, showing the power of music and dance and their unifying effects. Michael used multiple avenues in order to help make the short film feel more realistic, the most notable being hiring actual members of both the Crips and the Bloods to perform in the video. Of course, this decision did lead to its fair share of scuffles on set, but Michael was usually able to quickly defuse the situations and get everybody back on track (Healy, 2013). Another technique that Michael used to make the short film feel more realistic and relatable was using everyday locations for different scenes of the video. Locations such as a

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