With it being almost 4 years since the death of Michael Jackson, its only right that I dedicate at least one post to him! Michael Jackson has never seemed to disappoint with any of his songs, albums, videos, or short films as he would call them. The song "Billie Jean" is no exception. The second single off of his first solo album could possibly be his trademark song. One of his hit songs that sprung him to super-stardom, and certainly helped him claim the title as the "king of pop".
Michael even debuted his signature dance move called "the moonwalk" while performing this song at the Motown 25 special in 1983.("Michael Jackson Does The Moonwalk During Motown 25th Anniversary Concert | The Urban Daily.") This was just the beginning of Michael Jackson's am
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| The King of Pop displaying the "Moonwalk" for the first time at the Motown 25 Anniversary |
The song is essentially about Michael's groupie situations.
Billy Jean is a fictional character who claims to be the mother of Michael's son, which isn't even proven to be true. Billy Jean pretty much defines all of the problems Michael has had with females claiming to have children by him. Many of them motivated by the money they could get out of him.(Billy Jean)
Michael describes Billy Jean as a beautiful girl."She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene"("Michael Jackson Lyrics - Billie Jean.") Often times women like that gravitate to men with the credentials of someone like Michael Jackson to get something out of it. Majority of the time, it turns out like a situation like this one. So the only thing Michael could possibly do, is deny the accusation. He goes on to say, " Billie Jean is not my lover, shes just a girl who claims that I am the one. But the kid is not my son".("Michael Jackson Lyrics - Billie Jean.")
There is a lot of lyric representation throughout this song. For example when Michael says " Her schemes and her plans, cause we danced on the floor in the round".("Michael Jackson Lyrics - Billie Jean.") I think this represents the casual sex they possibly had. Which is why she is claiming the child is his. Of course Michael used different lyrics to paint that picture for the listener because most of his music and lyrics are clean, and I don't think he really planned to change that at all. Hes also been warned by witnessing this same thing happen to many famous men. He even received advice from his own mother about situations like these. "And mother always told me be careful who you love and be careful what you do because the lies become the truth".("Michael Jackson Lyrics - Billie Jean.") That last lyric has always stuck to me because lies can sometimes become true. Not true as in factual, but true as in you don't have the evidence or anything to prove it wrong. So it essentially becomes true by default.
Probably one of my favorite videos and songs by Michael Jackson. The video is posted above, so you can check out his crazy dance moves!
No this is a post that can go in a variety of directions! Was Jackson ever linked to women in this way (the sleeping-around way?). Not really, right? I do agree that his lyrics are an interesting warning to many athletes and famous men to be careful about women who chase the famous and try to have a baby. We see a lot of this nowadays in the media, certainly.
ReplyDeleteBut I wonder: could you support the "truism" aspect of this with supplemental support in the theme of reporting on Jackson's life around 1980-1983. What types of articles were on him in the tabloids? And he did have a drastic career shift, didn't he, when he became almost obsessed with chimps and children and fairy tales embodied in his Neverland Ranch setup.
Jackson is a very intriguing character and he deserves to be discussed. So dig in a bit more if you want to focus on the lyrics and come up with an argument: was he highlighting past experiences or potentially covering up a very different lifestyle?