1. Michael Jackson - Black Or White
Music genre – Pop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2AitTPI5U0

2. 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
conflict
A person who has a solution to social conflict.

3. 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.

4. • 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.

5. • 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.

6. 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.”

7. 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.