Michael Jackson - Black Or White

Music genre – Pop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2AitTPI5U0

Deborah H. Holdstein

The ‘3 Striking Qualities’ of a Star in Music Videos:

1. The star as a fantasy ‘seer’ or prophet A ‘seer’ is person of supposed supernatural insight who sees visions of the future.

2. The star as a political commentator or narrator A person who tells what is happening in politics and spreads it around the world.

3. The star as a mediator or point of resolution for social conflictA person who has a solution to social conflict.

The ‘3 Striking Qualities’ fulfilled or challenged• ‘The star as a fantasy ‘seer’ or prophet’ - During the video you can see

Michaels Jacksons future vision of the world. You first see this when you see the black and the white baby sitting on the top of the world, this shows this as the children are the future and in the video he shows them being together, so he sees a future with equality. Another part you see this is when you see all the worlds great landmarks from all around the world in one shot, this shows his vision of everyone being united as one.

• The star as a political commentator or narrator – This is fulfilled in the music video as the lyrics and the message to the song is about how everyone should be treated equally no matter their skin colour or race. You also see him spreading this message around the world in the music video as he goes from country to country in the video to spread the message, as he starts off in Africa, then goes off in to other countries spreading the message.

• The star as a mediator or point of resolution for social conflict – during the video he shows the solution to the problem by showing the two babies. This shows the solution he is trying to get across as he is saying through that one clip that the children are the future and they should learn to unite as one to solve this problem worldwide.

Holdstein - Music Video: Messages and Structures

1. “ Videos seem to divide into two categories: Those with allegedly explicit ‘political’ themes, and those which revive the traditional U.S. film musical.”

2. The fantasy video is based entirely on performance. This format puts “the group or star in a mythical, medieval, exotic or surrealistic series of images and locations.”

3. “ Videos make the artist more accessible to the fans. When they come to a performance, then they bring or wear things they've seen in the video.”

4. “ In the past, artists portrayal will only be left to the viewers imagination or how they are seen in concert, the record album cover pose, photographs and interviews, but nowadays, “the video image is quicker and more powerful.”

Fulfil or challenged Holdstein conventions

• The video does fulfil the first convention as it does fit in to one of the two categories of political themes. The whole music video shows equality which is a very big political issue in the world.

• The video also fulfils the second convention as well as it based a lot on performance and is set in many series of images and locations from around the world.

• We could not see the 3rd convention fulfilled as the music video doesn’t give us any shots of the artist preforming in a concert, so we can not compare the costume in both the video and concert.

• This doesn’t fulfil the 4th convention as the video doesn’t have a lot of quick cuts, but long lingering ones which still give off a powerful message.