Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" music video narrative fits well with the song lyrics. The video starts with Michael entering a nightclub, as mentioned in the lyrics. Throughout the video, the dark, shadowy décor matches descriptions in the lyrics. During the chorus, shadows are shown as he sings about a "black day". Close-up shots of people peering around imply a struggle happened as described in the song. Sounds of banging, police sirens, and a woman in a jail cell further imply the character "Annie" was murdered. The costumes, lighting, and facial expressions create an edgy atmosphere of suspicion between the criminal characters mentioned in the song.

1. Music video narrative analysis
Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal (Short Version)
The video starts off with Michael walks into a nightclub, which is a common
convention of a criminal that the
lyrics mention through out the
video. Then when it moves on little
and he is singing in front of a
window it fits with the window
mentioned in the lyrics with the
décor of the surrounding areas
being very dark and shadowed
people in the background. In the
chorus as Michael sings, “you’ve been it by” the narrative on the screen fits with
lyrics. Dark shadows are shown as he says,“Annie are you okay” and as he goes
up the stairs with very simple and dark décor which fits the lyrics as he says
“what a black day”. The screen then shows
criminals quickly looking and glancing at on
another as it goes into a bright dangerous
looking coloured floor using as match on
action as he says “intimidations”. Then there
is a number of close up shots with people
peering over and around things as if the
singer is making a scene and there could have
been a struggle in the situation he is singing
about. At the second chorus he has people
banging on the tables as he sings, “you’ve
been hit by”.In this bit there are added sounds of bangs, this therefore implying
what had happened to the character Annie. Another extra sound of police sirens
is added in, this could be the noises of the implied murder and the police
arriving.Then near the end there is a
woman in a prison cell who could be the
character Annie as then rest of the
criminals are dancing in the middle. The
costume of all the people in the video is that
of an early 20th century gangster, but they
always have their faces hidden from he
camera. This as well as the lighting used
throughout the video seems to be leading
up to the final part where there is the big
group then the cross cut of the women watching them. The area in which it is set
in looks like a warehouse/pub place that again, is a stereotypical place usually
associated with criminals. This however makes the narrative harder to
understand because the women mentioned is never really seen and the
club/warehouse area isn’t mention and only implies that they are criminals
using conventions like costume, décor and lighting to support it. The facial
expression of the performers in the video shows suspicion, which creates
suspense between the characters and an edginess, which is shown in the
dancing.

2. Single Cover Analysis
This is the album cover for
Michael Jackson’s song
“Smooth Criminal”. The
mise en scene of this image
is similar to the music video
as it has the same colour
scheme, with the dark blue
of the background and the
clean cut white of the font
which fits with the colour
and style of the costume
he’s wearing in the video.
The black shadow of the
character on the front also
fits with the image of
Michael, as it is the same
1930’s design.