Alanna wrote that Michael Jackson’s
“Beat It” has no real sophisticated meaning and that the video only serves to
entertain. While I certainly agree that it is entertaining, as anything
featuring Jackson’s impressive dance moves is, I do think there is some sort of
meaning behind this catchy song. It may sound corny but it seems that Jackson’s
real intent with this song’s music video was to bring people together and to
forget all the violence. After all he is known for addressing actual social
issues and during this particular era coming out of the 70s and the beginning
the 80s, violence and gangs were a big issue. So much so that he wasn’t the
only one to address it either. There were movies like West Side Story that
captured this bloodthirsty time period as well.
The video features two gangs and
the build up before the fight that takes place towards the end, which Jackson
interrupts. What is interesting is that the two main gang leaders that get in
the knife fight (a dancing fight, really) are actually two rival gang leaders
in real life, which Jackson requested they use. The gangs in this video are
also made up of mostly real life gang members, outnumbering the actual dancers,
despite the fact that this video is heavily focused on dancing.
The fact that he uses rival gang
members has to mean that Jackson wanted to do more than just entertain. Why
else take the risk of having two groups prone to fighting work on his set when
he could just get some of the best dancers in the business to showcase some
glitzy, flashy production? His choice to hire the gangs instead, contributes to
the possibility that Jackson wants to send the message of peace and
togetherness.
In fact the ending features a mass
dance production number where everyone dances together in peace. Jackson starts
by breaking up the fight between the gangs when he tells them that “It doesn’t
matter who’s wrong or right, just beat it.” He then starts dancing until
everyone joins in and dances collectively as one group, the fight completely forgotten. His
breaking up the fight and making them do something together supports his aim of
advocating peace and togetherness as opposed to the violence of rivalries. However you can't say that he didn't do it in a very entertaining way.
Thanks Julia. I actually like the double negative in the final sentence. This is a great example of a time when a double negative works. First, let me get the criticism out of the way. You really need to learn about proper comma use. There are probably between 10-15 times in this post when you need to use a comma and don't. This makes reading your post a bit challenging. As just a quick lesson, always set off transitions like "however" and "in fact" with commas. Also, use commas to divide compound sentences separated by conjunctions.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, other than this issue, your post is quite interesting. I agree with your interpretation of the video's purpose. Michael Jackson has a fairly well developed social consciousness, and this is evident in almost all of his work. I had no idea that he cast actual gang members in this video. That does add some contextual texture to the piece. For the sake of argument, I will disagree with one part of your post. Watching this video - for the first time in probably 20 years - I was struck by the absence of dancing. Not until the end, in the garage, do we see actual dance from a character other than Michael Jackson. I wonder if this is because so many of the actors were untrained dancers. Even when the group dance number begins, the "moves" seems fairly short and repetitive. Am I right? I am DEFINITELY NOT a dancer, but I really enjoy watching dance routines. The routine at the end of this video leaves me craving a bit more. Maybe I'm wrong.
This is a good post. Thanks for teaching me something.