Image Analysis Through Time - Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was an American singer and songwriter. He managed to be one of the biggest pop stars in the music industry from a very young age and maintained this success up until his death in 2009. He is still known by the world today as 'The King Of Pop'.

Michael Jackson started his music career in 1964, when he was just 6 years old, by joining his four older brothers in The Jackson 5. It was not until 1967 that the group signed to a record company and not until 1970 that they began to gain popularity. By this time Michael was still young, being only 12, yet he was the lead singer of the group (likely one of the reasons for his successful solo career). Despite this Michael was still displayed as the young, cute member of the Jackson 5 which can be seen in early videos of the group by his clothing and the way he acts.





While performing as part of the Jackson 5, Michael was also producing solo albums and in 1979 he released 'Off the Wall' which was his first real step to becoming a solo artist. This album consisted of some well known songs such as 'Rock With You' and 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough'. By this time Michael was much older yet his presentation in his music videos hadn't changed much. He was still being presented as a child in ways. For example in the videos for the songs mentioned he has a very similar display as in the Jackson 5 videos as he is still shown dancing and wearing colourful/bright outfits. However the content of his songs have changed to suit his age.





In 1984 he left the Jackson 5 to work solely on his own career. Around this time 'Thriller' was released, which became the best-selling album of all time. Some of Michael Jackson's most famous songs came from this album. For example, 'Beat It', 'Billie Jean' and 'Thriller'. By this point in his career Michael was becoming more of an icon and a product of the music industry. His music videos became much more cinematic, especially 'Thriller' which was directed by John Landis, a popular director at the time, and ran for nearly 14 minutes. Unlike his previous videos, which often just showed him singing and dancing, these new videos combined his singing and dancing with story telling, making more short films than music videos.



Michael starred in all of these videos as his career was not only based off his music but off his appearance too. People would not only associate his name with his music but equally with his dancing and various performances in his videos. In his videos, Michael's costumes and general look is often quite unique but considered 'cool' at the time he wore them. These costume choices would've added to his popularity as he didn't just have good music he also had a style which fans could copy and be like him.

Michael's videos involved a lot of close up shots of his face because he was a product of his record company so his videos were like an advertisement for him as an artist which helped. The videos also include a lot of wide shots to show his dancing because it is an equally big part of his image. Depending on the music video the editing varies however there are a lot of long shots as he is performing continuous dance routines so the single long shots will show them of better than any fast-paced editing.

I think that Michael Jackson's popularity came from him being in the music industry for so long and having so many image changes throughout his career. Obviously, Michael being in the music industry from an early age boosted him into popularity as he had his entire life to gain it but his unique style, especially in his videos, also contributed to this.