The music video for Michael Jackson's "Beat It" combines elements of performance and narrative. It shows Jackson singing to prevent an imminent knife fight between two gangs in a diner. Through its dark lighting, costumes, and use of long shots during tense scenes, the video draws on characteristics of the rock genre, while the inclusion of singing, dancing, and narrative resolution through music echoes pop music videos. The visuals correspond closely to but do not directly illustrate the lyrics, and editing matches the increasing pace of the music.

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

4. Genre Characteristics
● Since it is a pop-rock video, it has qualities of both the
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

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.

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

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