Michael Jackson the "King Of Pop"

Michael Jackson is one of pops iconic figures because he produced the best pop videos and music which many current artists use as an inspiration when making their own music and videos from the lights of Chris Brown to Lady Gaga. Chris Brown's single 'She Aint You' he said to have been released as a tribute to Michael Jackson in 2011 on behalf of his death in June 2009. Chris Brown has said "Growing up as a child listening to Michael Jackson is what made me the success I am today". The solo record reflects some of the pop legend's icon attributes which many people know him for such as his dance moves and iconic clothing.



Michael began his musical career at the age of 5 as the lead singer of the Jackson 5 which formed in 1964. In these early years the Jackson 5, Jackie, Jermaine, Tito, Marlon and lead singer Michael played local clubs and bars in Gary Indiana and moving further in the field as there talents grew and they could compete in bigger competitions. From these early days Michael would be at the same clubs as big talented stars of there days, such as Jackie Wilson and would be learning from them even back then. At these early stages Michael was just a regular pop singer in the public eye, but even such a young age people could see that he was going to do wonders in music industry as he grew up which was proven to not be an understatement.



As Michael grew up it became more evident that a boy band was not for him which was why he decided to go solo. One of many of his first pop record was 'Rock with you' which was released on November 3rd 1979. The music video to the record was not too extraordinary in terms of originality or any traces of experimental elements as it looked like a typical pop video with a main artists lip syncing to the song and dancing. However, the costume Michael was dressed in was very eye catching and interesting at the time which turned a lot of heads. The song reached number one on both the pop and R&B singles charts. According to 'Billboards' magazine, the song was the fourth biggest single of 1980. It is also considered one of the last hits of the disco era.



"Billie Jean" was released in January 1983. It was one of Michael's first interesting pop videos when he went solo as it was more experimental and displayed implication of originality. The music video was like a mini film because it told a story about a missing girl. This was rare at the time as pop video's were not made as short films, this video was more than him just lip syncing it displayed sections of special effects and creativity. This can be seen at the point in the music video when he steps on individual blocks on the floor and they glowed up one by one. "Billie Jean" became a worldwide commercial and critical success; "Billie Jean" was one of the best-selling singles of 1983 and is one of the best selling singles worldwide. The song topped both the US and UK charts simultaneously. In other countries, "Billie Jean" topped the charts of Spain and Switzerland, reached the top ten in Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, and peaked at number 45 in France.



In 1982 Michael Jackson released the world's largest selling album of all time 'Thriller' which was directed by John Landis. This album produced 7 hit singles, breaking yet again more records, and went on to sell over 50 million copies worldwide. Michael was keen to use music video or short films as he called them to promote his singles from the album. He worked with the best directors and producers, using the latest technology and special effects for the hit song 'Billie Jean' The short film 'Thriller' used the latest make-up artists technology combined with fantastic dancing and choreography, to produce a 14 minute video, with a start, a middle and an ending. The production of the music video had proven to be expensive but because of the high number of sale due to the release of the record and also the short film which was shown in cinema's made the profit margin's massive.



Later on in November 1991 Michael released 'White or Black' in one of his albums called 'Dangerous'. The making and idea behind this record was all Michael's as it was written, composed and produced by Michael Jackson and Bill Bottrel. This shows us Michael's progression during the years as his previous records were influence by record labels and idea's from directors, this record was much more personal which was why Michael decided to go about producing it himself. This record was significant because it displayed a political statement. The message behind the video was that we are all human beings of equal rights and value, this made such a hit because everyone was able to relate to the song as there wasn't a specific target audience it was targeted at. This personal statement was a reflection of his current personal life as there was a lot of judgements on him bleaching his skin, this song was a basic response to this saying that the colour of your skin doesn't reflect who you are as a person. The music video consists of the head shot from people of different races which supports the concepts behind the lyrics. This idea can be seen to have been a development from the head shots used in Peter Gabriel's music video 'Sledge Hammer'.

1st day of filming

On the 5th of December me and my group had our first filming session of the playground scene  outside of All Saint school. The weather conditions whilst we were filming was not the best as it was extremely windy, this can be seen in come of our footages as the camera was moving a lot in some of our birds-eye-view shots. The idea behind the costume for this scene was to stay in our Sixth form clothing to make the prologue as simple and realistic as possible. By being in such clothing it makes it look like we were just a bunch of school kids in our lunch break hanging out, this was to create the idea that our normal everyday lives in school was boring. This will contrast well with our main scene in London as when going to film this scene we hope to make it as exciting and fun as possible to show London being a more exciting place to be. We are currently undergoing the editing stage of our first footage from filming. We are going to extract all of the unwanted footages which we filmed such as parts where the camera was moving because of the wind. We will also place our footages in order from beginning to end by relating them to our storyboard.

In our first attempt of filming we managed to get all of our variety of shots done for our prologue.
This was achieved because two days before our day of filming we went out to have a look at potential area to film, suitable places to place the camera in order to get the best shots, making sure that the equipment's in the site were safe to be on and also any potential problems we may have in our first filming session. Our successful day of filming has now put us in a good position as now we can start focusing on filming footages for our actual music video and make productive progress before Christmas.

Our next plan of action is to film the beginning of our actual music video were all of the band members are indoors getting ready for our exciting trip to London. This scene will consist of us putting on our ska ties, shoes and other aspects of clothing which we are looking film at Nick's house at the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

"Blurred Lines" Controversy

The 2013 single by Robin Thicke 'Blurred Lines' featuring T.I and Pharrell Williams is said to be an offensive song because there are many remarks to the encouragement of rape. Because of this around 20 universities across the UK band the music, this was not done by the adults such as the head teachers of the schools by the young students themselves as they all personally took offensive to the song. This whole controversy was because of the lyrics, they are very sexist as they talk about women as if they were sex objects.

Pharrell Williams

Robin Thicke

T.I


"Blurred Lines"(feat. T.I. & Pharrell Williams Lyrics)
[Intro: Pharrell]
Everybody get up
Everybody get up
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey

[Verse 1: Robin Thicke]
If you can't hear what I'm trying to say
If you can't read from the same page
Maybe I'm going deaf,
Maybe I'm going blind
Maybe I'm out of my mind
[Pharrell:] Everybody get up

[Pre-chorus: Robin Thicke]
OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you
But you're an animal, baby, it's in your nature
Just let me liberate you
Hey, hey, hey
You don't need no papers
Hey, hey, hey
That man is not your maker

[Chorus: Robin Thicke]
And that's why I'm gon' take a good girl
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
You're a good girl
Can't let it get past meYou're far from plastic
Talk about getting blasted
I hate these blurred lines
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
But you're a good girl
The way you grab me
Must wanna get nasty
Go ahead, get at me[Pharrell:] Everybody get up

[Verse 2: Robin Thicke]
What do they make dreams for
When you got them jeans on
What do we need steam for
You the hottest bitch in this place
I feel so lucky
Hey, hey, hey
You wanna hug me
Hey, hey, hey
What rhymes with hug me?
Hey, hey, hey

[Pre-chorus: Robin Thicke]
OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you
But you're an animal, baby it's in your nature
Just let me liberate youHey, hey, hey
You don't need no papers
Hey, hey, hey
That man is not your maker
Hey, hey, hey

[Chorus: Robin Thicke]
And that's why I'm gon' take a good girl
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
You're a good girl
Can't let it get past me
You're far from plastic
Talk about getting blasted
[Pharrell:] Everybody get up
I hate these blurred lines
I know you want it
I hate them lines
I know you want it
I hate them lines
I know you want it
But you're a good girl
The way you grab me
Must wanna get nasty
Go ahead, get at me

[Verse 3: T.I.]
One thing I ask of you
Let me be the one you back that ass toGo, from Malibu, to Paris, boo
Yeah, I had a bitch, but she ain't bad as you
So hit me up when you pass through
I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in twoSwag on, even when you dress casual
I mean it's almost unbearable
In a hundred years not dare, would I
Pull a Pharside let you pass me by
Nothing like your last guy, he too square for you
He don't smack that ass and pull your hair like that
So I just watch and wait for you to salute
But you didn't pick
Not many women can refuse this pimpin'I'm a nice guy, but don't get it if you get with me

[Bridge: Robin Thicke]
Shake the vibe, get down, get up
Do it like it hurt, like it hurt
What you don't like work?
[Pre-chorus: Robin Thicke]
Baby can you breathe? I got this from Jamaica
It always works for me, Dakota to Decatur, uh huh
No more pretending
Hey, hey, hey
Cause now you winning
Hey, hey, hey
Here's our beginning

[Chorus: Robin Thicke]
I always wanted a good girl
(Pharrell: Everybody get up)
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
You're a good girl
Can't let it get past me
You're far from plastic
Talk about getting blasted
I hate these blurred lines
(Pharrell: Everybody get up)
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
But you're a good girl
The way you grab me
Must wanna get nasty
Go ahead, get at me
[Outro: Pharrell]
Everybody get up
Everybody get up
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey

Above is the lyrics to the song, in blue I have highlighted some of the key phrases and words which supports the implications of the song being overly explicit and offensive towards women. Phrasing such as "You really it" is suggesting that women don't know here own mind as even if one was to say no to sexual intercourse she apparently doesn't really mean it. This can be seen to be highly offensive towards the female audience as it can be seen as an insult to their intelligence as individuals.

On the other hand it can be argued that the song is not in fact offensive as the director of the song was a female. In fact, the actresses in the music video were made to be presented in a dominate way as they always looked at the camera, this displayed elements of bravery and surety. The idea behind the sexual implications in the song was that the women are in control of men as they were the desirable figures which the male artists craved, the females were simply presented as a tease which emphasised there superiority.

This matter has also been said to have been blown out of proportion as there as currently bigger issues which are more certain of being offensive such as the single 'U.O.E.N.O' featuring rape artists Rick Ross and Future. This song can be seen to be offensive and an insult to women as Rick Ross refers to using the street drug 'Molly' to spite a women's drink as he says "Put molly all in her champagne" in order to have sexual intercourse with the lady which is evident as he later on says "I took her home and I enjoyed that" which is referring to using her for sexual intercourse.

Rick Ross

Future