Leave me alone

Jared Sinclair Case study

Michael Jackson

The video I have decide to do my case study on is the well known song of Michael Jackson called “Leave Me Alone”. I wanted to write about this video because it has a huge amount of camera language and connotes so many thing about Michael’s personal life and the subjects the media have panelized him for. “Leave Me Alone” was a attack on the media and the tabloids that back lashed Michael Jackson with false allegations in 1986 after the infamous success of the “Thriller” album. The story were so our outrageous and exaggerate saying that he slept in a oxygen chamber to slow down aging and the classic cliché over his plastic surgery on his nose. The music video is a well illustrated animation of Michael Jackson as a theme park consisting of stylistically crude images based around Jackson's successful career since 1982's Thriller. The reason why Michael made the music video is to connote that his personal life has become a public image in the eyes of the media crowning him the name of “Wacko Jacko” during the 80s.The music video comes under the funk genre which is a genre Michael executes very well along with pop which he has been crowned the king off.

Michael JacksonRecord labels: Motown, Epic, Legacy and MJJ ProductionYears Active:1964–2009

Michael and his brother signed to Motown records during the early 1960s before switch to “Epic” record label. Both labels are a formidable in the record label industry producing artist such as Diana Ross, The Supremes and “The Temptations”.

The Video

The ArtsThere are few artist that care about there music and especially the video and what it connotes to the audience. Some music videos can be made to help show emotion over a certain topic. During music videos artist like to use imagery to help tell a story. This can be a good thing as it will have a lot of people talking about due to social relationships, This helps create more hype around the music video and a lot of people do go to view the video on sites such as YouTube. In Michael Jackson’s video it clearly shows the thought and effort that went in to the project in order for the music video to work and send a message. The video is about Michael Jackson’s pure frustration over the media constantly posting things about his life that are mainly false. In the video we see dogs in suits to show the media’s attitude towards Michael and the dogs were used because the animalistic pressure against him which is show in the picture below.

The imagery used is very brightly colored which stands out to the audience and helps highlight the emotion. Some of the audience members may feel compassion for Michael as the media slams him with harsh articles which

is illustrated I the image above. The imagery to your left shows Michael riding through a shrine dedicated of well known actor called Elizabeth Taylor who is a close friend of Michael Jackson. The reason why Michael Jackson created that segment was to glorify his friend Elizabeth who has been crowned the “Screen Goddess”.

Synergy

Synergy is between two companies that combine together which can be the reason why some music video's are created. Many artist such as Michael Jackson are asked by a company mainly in the film industry to help promote or advertise there programme or product. Artist mainly make music videos for a variety of different media institutions and promote them. In films they tend to team up with an artist to help advertise the movie making potential viewer eager to watch the real thing. At the end of the whole process the industry makes a lot of money. Michael Jackson is linked with Pepsi a well known drink company which is pictured below. In the Pepsi young generation commercial has a song called “new generation” which is a reconstruction of the famous song “Billie Jeans”

Extended Playability

"Leave Me Alone" is a single by American songwriter and recording artist Michael Jackson. The song was featured on Bad in 1987, and was as the eighth single from the album in February 1989. "Leave Me Alone" was recorded during the original album sessions but the song only appeared on the CD editions of Bad as a bonus track, as well as on the 2001 cassette edition. The song was written and composed by Jackson. "Leave Me Alone" was a response to negative and false stories about Jackson that frequently appeared in the media and tabloids post-1986 after the monumental success of Thriller. Due to the success of the Music video the video won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Short Form Music Video at the 32nd Grammy Awards along with receiving six nominations at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year, Viewers' Choice, Breakthrough Video, Best Editing and Best Art Direction; the video won Best Special Effects.

When the video surfaced virally it became a well known track on the air waves and capturing audience members that vary from ages of 13 all the way to 35+.

Promotional

Artist Websites are a great way of promoting an artist current events and music that are coming up with detailed information. Artist websites give exclusive content and behind the scene information. The unfortunate thing about artist websites is that the information and exclusive access is locked to non-members. Artist websites is not available for people with no internet also you may have to pay for information.Promotion is when a someone promotes there releases on site such as Facebook and twitter. Music video create a massive hype over its self especially when the artist gets a premiere for it which get the audience excited to watch the actual video making the artist get loads of hits. Due to the hype it spread from location to location due to the social connection. Social network such as Twitter and Facebook play a important part in the success of promotion because it engages fans for the artist new video etc which can be seen on Facebook fan pages to update fans. Sometimes a artist and record label can come together to create a promotional video to help advertise.

Mainstream TV Mainstream is common outlet for

Music videos to surface the public. The reason why mainstream TV is so affective is due to the amount of viewer that tune in to watch it, unlike some music channels you do not have to subscribe for it. Mainstream TV is easy to access on a 24/7 basis and get a lot of views due the popularity. The sad thing about Mainstream TV is that you have know authority over what you want to view and they don't get played that long compared to music channels also channels are limited. Even though mainstream TV is great for people to watch and listen to music it has lost its value thanks to website streaming which has taken over. Streaming Websites is more affiant because people who don’t like Jackson that much have more control over what they want to watch and when the want to view it.

Music Channels

Music video are the most cliché outlet for music substances which leaks out to the public. Music television is a type of television which focuses mainly on playing music videos from bands, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite or cable. Music TVs may host their own shows charts, award prizes. Examples are VIVA, Scuzz, MTV, JBTV, Much Music, Kerrang TV, VH1, Fuse TV, and Palladia Wigan Pier. As viewers we see artist benefit off the amount of air play or ratings there music gets.A good thing about music TV is that it helps promote the best songs currently on the music charts keeping the public up to date. Music TV always repeat so you rarely miss anything that has been shown, another good thing about music TV is that it has specific genres for different TV programmes. The bad thing about music channels is that the content is very condense into little charts like top 50 and the commercials take up a large amount of TV time.Michael Jackson has been exposed to the public because he always make great music which gets played over and over even in todays music charts when the doing a ‘Throwback convention’. Its good for Michael to get this attention because the record label get money from the music video which lead on to more money because certain people will be willing to buy the CDs online or local stores.

CD Special

This is a great source of a music outlet towards the public. The reason why CD's and special edition's are so useful is because you don't need internet to use these things. CD's are good because they are genuine and legal so there is absolute guarantee that it will perform well. A good thing about CD's is that can be copied easily and can be bought easily aswell. A unique feature about CD's is that it can be exclusive. CDs are a great way of audio playability and ring I additional money to the record label. The record company earns money from each sale. The song ‘Leave me alone’ has been a hit for a long time o the charts. The record label only losses money if people decided to rip official DVD etc and put them on to CDs.

Steaming Websites

Streaming websites is a good source of a music outlet because it allows the public to view music with no cost. Streaming websites have many varieties and is targeted towards mainstream audiences and is very easy to access. The bad thing about streaming websites is that it may be illegal and be crawling with viruses. Some video's can take long to load and you may have to pay, also adverts are to long and some content might be blocked due t age restriction. depending on what site you go on it may be slow. Streaming music video’s is a very common thing in the music industry. Its good to use stream because you can watch the music video when ever you want a and help an artist get exposure. Jackson is a well established artist in the music industry and has massive mainstream appeal in the music world. Websites like MySpace and YouTube help allow viewers the chance to view music as long as they want where ever they want.

Artist Websites Artist Websites are a great way of promoting an

artist current events and music that are coming up with detailed information. Artist websites give exclusive content and behind the scene information. The unfortunate thing about artist websites is that the information and exclusive access is locked to non-members. Artist websites Are key for an artist promotion and allow the fans to be connected more to the actual artist. Artist website provide loads of information about tours, event and locations artist like Jackson will be in.

Downloads (legal and illegal)Downloads are a great source of a music outlet and can be listened to repetitively which can be widely spread. Downloads are very versatile as it can be put on any kind of device such as phone, iPods etc which is better for people of todays modern generation. Downloads have become a social norm and it is very easy to find websites that allow you to download especially for free. Illegal downloads are a very popular thin because it always free so people decide to use illegal sites rather than going to ‘ITunes’ to get the song legally. Record labels don’t get any money due to this and it cripples some of the companies finial funds. Illegal download don’t just hurt the record label it hurts the artist aswell and because its not a major crime the government do not hold this crime as legally important therefore they do little to prevent it. If you look at the statistics it show that only fans that are really committed to the artist are willing to buy the song or album legally.