2. • The ‘3 Striking Qualities’ of a Star in Music Videos
• The star as a fantasy ‘seer’ or prophet
• The star as a political commentator or narrator
• The star as a mediator or point of resolution for social conflict
• Videos are divided into two categories: Those with allegedly explicit
‘political’ themes, and those which revive the traditional U.S. film
musical.”
• 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.”
• “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.”
• “In the past, artist’s portrayal will only be left to the viewer’s imagination
or how they are seen in concert, the record album cover pose,
photographs and interviews in Rolling Stone, Time.”
• But nowadays, “the video image is quicker and more powerful.”
Deborah Holdstein
3. • http://youtu.be/p3jCPtxOkGo
• Holdstein: “Is Jackson portrayed as a ‘fantasy’, a ‘political commentator’, or as a ‘mediator of social
conflict’.”
• The song does address ‘racism’ and ‘social class’: “They told him don't you ever come around here,
don't wanna see your face, you better disappear.”
• It doesn't need words, it has faces, gestures, emphasis, and a narrative one could easily follow
without ‘Beat It’ on the soundtrack.
• Jackson, the mediator, has become a surreal ‘fantasy’ figure, involved yet detached from the action
he seems to resolve.
• With a vivid start to the scene's, we see several men, who we will learn are members of a gang
about to meet their rivals for a ‘rumble.’
• Political Commentator: “We come upon Jackson in his apartment, lying on his bed. Somehow he
instinctively knows there will be trouble.”
• Crosscutting continues from Jackson to the gangs, alternating between one gang piling on a truck,
presumably to the rumble's location, and the other gang, walking.
• The suspense of ‘who'll get there first,’ and ‘what'll happen when they get there’ is heightened by a
question: Where's Michael Jackson, and what role will he play in all of this?
• The traditional U.S. film musical: WEST SIDE STORY is revisited. Both gang leaders line up against
each other, jabbing knife shots.
• But the scene is portrayed as a ‘fantasy’ through dance. Jackson enters to stop the fight (‘mediator
of social conflict’) before all characters dance behind him in one large choreographed routine.
Michael Jackson - ‘Beat It’
4. • http://youtu.be/oOg5VxrRTi0
• The videos' pace and editing are strikingly like that of TV commercials. As Holdstein would state: “It
is the selling of both product and image”, in this case, the ‘star’.
• Cinematic music video, with shots of jungles, rivers, elephants, cafes and marketplaces.
• Referring to Holdstein’s theory that videos ‘revive the traditional U.S. film musical’, the band have
been inspired by the atmosphere of the film: ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.’
• The lead singer is on a hunt in Asia, where black women are painted to resemble and act like
savages.
• In the video, lead singer Simon Le Bon's head rises in slow motion out of the river as rain pours
down.
• He then chases a tiger-like Indian woman played by Bermudian model Sheila Ming, from open
markets in the city through obstacles in the jungle.
• During the chase, Le Bon has his face mopped by a young boy and overturns a bar room table,
culminating in a final chase and struggle in a jungle clearing, which is sexually suggestive.
• Fantasy Video: As Holdstein suggests, the mythical and exotic location is relevant here, with Ming
being the desirable prize of the chase.
• Like in Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’, crosscutting occurs with the other band members in the
meantime, hunting for Le Bon.
Duran Duran – ‘Hungry like the Wolf’
