Smooth Criminal Music Video Analysis

  

Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" was released in 1987. It is to this day a worldwide seller and is very well-known and successful. One of the main reasons why this song was so successful and was solely down to the artist of the song being Michael Jackson who was labelled the "King of Pop".  His incredible voice and his iconic dance moves gave him this title and allowed him to create his own brand of music which made him stand out from the rest of there music industry. For an old song which was released in 1987, it introduced music videos into the modern world and Michael Jackson also introduced the theme of a narrative. This means that the video lasted 9:48 and in theory tells a story along with the music video, causing another unique market to open which caused this song and the artist to be very successful.

The mise-en-scene within this music video helps to further create this narrative of 1920's gangsters with the outfits helping to reinforce this. The lighting is dark to create an ominous feeling and atmosphere within the video to additionally represent gangsters and their personalities casual settings which is dark and dingy. In this shot it shows a classic prop used by gangsters which is a "knife". The mise-en-scene further connotes the theme of violence which is quite fluent throughout the video with a number of attempted assaults on Michael Jackson being attempted.

In terms of Goodwin's theory, he mentions that the actor/singer builds up an iconography around himself. Michael Jackson certainly did this especially in this particular music video. One of the things which he became iconic for was the long narrative within his music videos as I already mentioned but also he became well-known as a very iconic dancer within his music videos. Int his particular music video, he adopted what is known as the "anti-grav lean." This cinematography of this move is unique with the camera tilting whilst rising up high as they lean further and further over. Michael Jackson also brought the famous "moonwalk" to the world which was present in others of his music videos.

Halfway through this music video the narrative turns, with the music and the lyrics halting for a lengthly moment whilst the narrative of the music video is further enhanced through the use of actors and dialogue. This puts a unique spin on the video and gives the audience another feeling towards Michael Jackson and his music. 

I personally like the lyrics to this music videos I believe that they are very catchy and therefore they went on to be very well-known and iconic in the world of music. The narrative is also a very good one with lots of actors being involved to help create a really good atmosphere which complements the lyrics very well indeed and also then ended with Michael Jackson being shown as being the "Smooth Criminal" when throughout the video he had been made to look like the victim within the video. I really like how they did this and used the narrative very well and has given me a few ideas as to how to link narrative in with my final music video when I come to construct it.