Jackson’s video clip entitled “Black or White” and also to recognize the song message related to the visual communication representation in clip.
1.5. Research Methods
Research can be defined as a careful study of a subject, especially in order to discover new fact or information about the subject. There are three aspects in
connection with the data, namely data source, method and technique of collecting data, and method and technique of analyzing data.
1.5.1.Data Source
The data were taken from Michael Jackson’s video clip entitled “Black or White”.Black Or White was written and composed by Michael, the rap lyrics in the
song were written by Bill Bottrell. Guns Roses former lead guitarist Slash was used to play the introduction and main riff for the song, which is said to be very
similar to the 1982 track Hurts So Good by John Cougar Mellencamp. The single was released on October 11th 1991 from Michaels hit Dangerous album, hitting the
number 1 spot in 18 countries worldwide. It took Black or White 3 weeks in the chart it hit the number 1 spot on December 7th 1991. It became the fastest single to hit the
number 1 spot since The Beatles track Get Back. Black or White stayed at number 1 for a total of 7 weeks in the US, becoming the Christmas number 1 and the first single
to be in the number 1 spot in 1992. Black or White sold over 1 million copies in the US making it go platinum.
The music video to Black Or White was directed by John Landis who also directed Thriller.The song is about bringing all types of races and cultures together,
this music video tries to portray that.A big part of this video was the morphing, changing one image to another through special effects, as it was a new technology
that had only been used a few times in films such as Willow, Terminator 2 and Godley Cremes music video to their song Cry in 1985.The video features child star
McCauley Culkin playing loud music in his room, and his dad who is played by actor George Wendt, McCauleys mother in the video is played by actress Tess
Harper.McCauley decides to blow his father half way round the world to Africa with his music speakers. It is then that Michael starts singing with different scenes of
people dancing from different cultures.Throughout the video Michael makes references to racial groups with his lyrics, such as “I aint scared of no sheets, I aint
scared of nobody” which refers to the KluKutz Klan.McCauley Culkin features in the rap scene, making it look like he himself is singing the rap.Towards the end of the
video different people are dancing, morphing into one another.The music video features Tyra Banks who was just starting her modelling career, it also features
actress Cree Summer and Michaels niece Brandy Jackson.
