1. Michael Jackson ‘Beat It’
Music Video Analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
oRdxUFDoQe0

2. Background
• The song is written and sung by
American ‘Pop King’ Michael
Jackson. The purpose of the
music video is to advertise the
song and promote the artist. It
reached number 3 in the UK
singles chart.
• Unlike most Michael Jackson
songs which are off the pop
genre, this one is off the rock-
pop genre and acts as a mix of
the two.

3. Type of Music Video
• It is a mix of performance and a
narrative.
• The performance element is
intercut with the narrative of shots
of the artist singing, whilst there is a
gang war taking place inside a diner.
• The gang war is prevented by the
singing and dancing of the artist and
the violence seems to stop. This
prevents a knife-crime fight, which
suggests that one person would kill
the other.

4. •
Genreit has qualities of both the
Since it is a pop-rock video,
Characteristics
pop genre and the rock genre.
• The lighting is very dark, dull with out much vibrance.
This is for verisimilitude because it is set at night, but it
gives it the feel of more on the rock side than on the pop
side. The fact that it is set at night adds to this.
• The performance element of singing and dancing
however, is converging to the stereotypical pop music
video though as most pop videos do contain singing and
dancing.
• The costumes are more of the rock genre, tatty jeans,
dark black clothes aren’t things you would really find in a
pop video but could easily be found in a rock video.
• The narrative is something that is more common of the
pop genre, problems being solved by singing and dancing
happens a lot in pop videos.
• All these things clearly show it as a mix of the genres.

5. Relationship between Visuals and
Lyrics
• The visuals are not a direct portrayal
of the lyrics but they are a close
portrayal.
• The lyrics describe someone trying
to act tough, and this annoying
someone ending up in a fight, and
the song is trying to warn the
annoying person not to fight and
that one is imminent. The visuals
are set in the future when the fight
is happening and the lyrics act as
the back story to these visuals.

6. Relationship between Visuals and
Music
• The music is edited in time with the
lyrics. The music gradually picks up
pace over time and each shot time
begins to increase in speed. This
means that as the music gets faster
the pace of the edit gets faster.
• Another bit of relationship between
the visuals and music is that when
the music begins to get an
instrumental section, the fight breaks
out. When the lyrics resume the fight
is broken up. This helps to show the
narrative that it is singing and
dancing that solves the problem.

7. Shot Types
• Throughout most of the narrative
section, long and medium shots
are used (more common of the
rock genre) to help show the
tension and anger between the
rival gangs.
• During the narrative section, it is
mainly close ups, common of the
pop genre. However when the
dancing begins it becomes long
shots so that the dancing can be
seen, this is still common of the
pop genre as it is a performance
element.

8. Voyeurism
• There is no voyeurism in the video. This makes
the artist look more respectable as he is not
needing sex to sell his image or his music.

9. Intertextuality
• The entire plot of the music video is
reminiscent of American Gangster
films. The fact that it is set in a diner,
and two gangs are against each other is
the stereotypical plot for an American
Gangster film.
• The entire music video is a lot like
Broadway Musical ‘West Side Story’ in
the fact that two gangs are out to get
each other, and there is crime involving
knife. However it is not a homage or
pastiche because it was never intended
to look like the musical, it just does.