Saturday 16 June 2012

Research & Planning: Music video analysis [2] - Michael Jackson - You Rock My World


This music video was released August 2001 from Michael's last studio album 'Invincible' (2001). This music video stars a famous actor, Chris Tucker who is widely known for the movies 'Rush Hour'.
A fade in transition starts the video whilst titles appear of the names of the actors and an establishing shot of a billboard sign, which automatically gives the audience an impression of when the video was meant to be set in judging by the billboard as billboards like these were most common in the 40's/50's.
The music is a pop genre, which is clearly shown in the video with the use of dance routines and narrative.
The music video now begins with a high angle shot of the woman walking down the street whilst in this mise-en-scene is at night time with old fashioned cars and buildings seen. We then see a two-shot of the protagonists, Michael & Chris who are eating a chinese takeaway meal, whilst eating the woman we first saw walks passed them and they look over from a male's view objectifying the woman and voyeurism.
The mise-en-scene then changes to a bar with dim lighting with women dancing to jazz music, which we then spot the antagonist, the mafia crew. The diegetic sound of dialogue is heard by the actor Chris Tucker throughout the opening of this music video referring to Michael Jackson's past hit songs, for example "she's a Pretty Young Thing...", "I don't have a good feeling about this, I think we should just Beat It" etc... The costumes of Michael & Chris are alike however completely different to the other characters in the bar. Michael and Chris are both wearing black fedora hats, silk shirts (red for Michael and purple for Chris) and a black blazer, which portrays them as high class men.
It changes over to a different setting of a office and a man, which gives an intertextual reference to the movie 'The Godfather', which was set in the 40's/50's.
We see Michael going behind a curtain and we see his silhouette, which is an iconic image as he is wearing his famous fedora hat and the pose of him with his hands in the air and his legs crossed, a common Michael Jackson pose, which is very famous and well known. The woman is wearing a slim fitting dress to show off her womanly features, showing a males perspective of the female. The music begins and at this point Michael is chasing after this girl by following her around, which is typical in a male pop song (also seen from a previous Michael Jackson song 'The Way You Make Me Feel'). The lyrics reflect what is happening at this point as he is trying to make the girl get with him and convincing her by saying "the things I'll do for you... stay with me, fulfil my dreams and I'll be all you need", which shows his aim of this video, which is to win the girl over. The roles then change as Michael is now in front of the female and the female is following behind him showing his male dominance and control, which is clearly shown in these tracking shots.
There is then a small dance routine and all we see in this mise-en-scene is a dark room with one spotlight on the woman dressed in a black suit with a fedora hat, the same costume as Michael showing that are equal at this point. A close up of Michael's feet is then seen walking into the spotlight, white socks and black shoes, commonly seen and an iconic image well recognised.
We then see a low angle shot of Michael on top of the table at the bar throwing glass bottles at the walls, this shows his superior and his control as the audience are forced to look up at him and the other characters in the mise-en-scene look up at him. There are quick edits at this point, which is reflected by the quick beat and tempo of the music. The music suddenly stops as soon as we hear the diegetic sound of a smashing bottle done by one of the antagonists hearing non-diegetic music playing in the background to build up suspense to keep the audience wanting to keep watching. Michael then walks up onto the stage being higher than everyone else showing he is more dominant at this point and suddenly other dancers dressed the same as him drop down beside him. Non diegetic music is being played to build up suspense and anticipation from the audience. We hear one of the antagonist speak saying "come on big man, show us what you got, you ain't nothing..." in a tone where if he is mocking Michael and encouraging him to fight. There are then close ups of Michael's body such as his hands and his finger tips trembling, which has intertextual reference to typical old fashioned Western movies, when they are getting ready to fight. Diegetic sounds are heard from all over, for example the dripping tap, a man sweeping, a woman tapping her glass, a man cleaning shoes etc... building up to create a simple beat, which then leads into the music playing again where the dance routine begins. The dance routine then leads to a choreographed fight scene, which we have seen before in previous Michael Jackson music videos such as 'Smooth Criminal'. There are quick cuts reflected through the beat and the tempo of the music. At the end of the video, there is a kiss scene between Michael and the leading lady, which is significant as it shows that Michael has accomplished his aim and has won as he had got his lady and as well defeating the mafia crew. In a way, the title of the song refers to the music video as it is called 'You Rock My World' and as there is a lot happening, it all happened because of this one female that Michael was going after and even Chris Tucker himself says at the end "get in the car girl, all this trouble you done caused!" showing that the female played a big role in what this music video was about.
Overall, this music video it made very cleverly as it has a strong narrative, which is clear to observe. There are intertextual references such as 'The Godfather' however, there are more intertextual references to other Michael Jackson videos such as 'Smooth Criminal' and 'The Way You Make Me Feel' as well as dance routines and poses.

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