Racism is a theme that permeates the ‘Black or White’ song by Michael Jackson in many ways, both implicitly and explicitly. The author of the song, Michael Jackson, was an American entertainer widely recognized and respected for his influence on the pop culture. In the beginning of 1991, a song “Black or White” associated with racial synchronization was recorded. It later became the biggest radio hit worldwide.
The “Black or White” song is interesting and has excellent lyrics that are accompanied by instruments that include guitar, drums, as well as a keyboard which create a perfect tandem. Firts of all, the listeners’ attention is attracted by the singer’s vocals and words. Most of the pronounced words contain a good message to the audience and it is possible to describe the song as an educative message that is enjoyable and attractive to the listeners’ ears (Wrotham 45).
Division on emotional suffering
When one listens to the “Black or White” song, it is clear that Michael Jackson is not expecting his audience to be either white or black people to listen and learn the message he is expressing to the world, the message is ment to be for all people, no matter what race or religion they are.
The signeer tries to say that racism is a great ‘obstacle’ that affects various ethnicities. Several lines in the song attract attention of the audience: some of the lines include a message to those people who practice racism and try to show and express Michael’s message in an awkward manner.
However, the song was to express the criticism by condemning racism. Through the lyrics, Michael states that all people are equal and that he himself is not a superhuman, but an ordinary man with all treats and imperfections of an ordinary human being. In the next lines of the song, Michael informs people about equality which is true: he emphasizes that one may be wrong or right but it’s vital to uphold togetherness.
What Michael is expressing in the song is that everyone may have various opinions and each person is right to express his or her opinion in a free manner. Later in the song, Michael sings that he is tired of the racism devil and also exhausted with this racism stuff. With this statement, Jackson is trying to say that he is not afraid of anyone when things are getting dreadful and cannot allow racism in the world around him (Monica 123).
While various artists could utilize their fame to try to censor racism, no one could earn the same favor of the fans that Michael had. The time, juncture, and the context contained all the vital information as released by the song. The listeners to this track can understand and be grateful for what is communicated, as well as for the historical background created by the track influence.
Michael tries to communicate his idea using a flashback viewpoint and recounts the events that spread out to come up with the song. He believes that he can accomplish something using his own words through the song with unknown third party audiences. Roughly, Michael is accomplishing his message and ends with the line “people are one and equal among each other”, because being black or white does not matter, and because all races are equal (John & Johnson 491).
The lyrics of the song flow perfectly in sync, the lines are organized according to traditional principles. Following the lines, the guitar energizes the listener with a spark up once again at the end of every line, and stresses the very end terminology prior to directing into the solo. In this song, Michael expresses his thoughts about racism, each time after the main line he stresses the words ” It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White” which show his belief that people can overcome racial issues.
In the “Black or White” song, there is an emergence of clear vocal message, with a guitar taking an imprecisely lesser amount of poppy resonance and permits Michael to voice out the message. Whereas, the lyrics stay parallel to the song’s overall theme, it is placed into the song now where it actually attracts the audience’s attention (Browne 43).
Whilst the audiences excavate deeper into the song, they still get pleasure from the dance beat, and Michael takes time to change vocal tones and pass the required point through rap. Here Michael does utter the vocal word in a rap method, but modifies his vocal traits to portray a different approach to the listeners.
The “devil” that Michael refers to can be interpreted as things that people hate, while, the “stuff” portrays the half-truths, as well as, people actions in case they let their hate devastate them.
However, Michael comes back to the focal theme and returns back to the original vocal tone and passes the message. Michael says that the racism that he sees around him, cannot scare him or anyone, here he portrays his feelings of racism to be incredibly real and close to everyone.
Following this envenomed diatribe in musical outline, Michael employees a different music technique to show his passion for eradicating discrimination and racism. Michael turns to a structure of music that had just been accepted by the conventional culture and was still in the foundation of gaining credibility and changed to rap music later.
In spite of Michael‘s frequent industry acquaintances, he did not select, thus, building references to the a variety of race organizations, as well as, color division. The overall Co principal theme of the song can be slammed home at the end, following the rap, Michael proceeds to his original pace from this beginning line (Alba 67).
Grunge communication using electric guitars towards emotional trauma in the second section of the song, Michael makes a concise twist of the words to portray that one should not pay attention to the person’s skin color, but who the person is. Thus, he refers to a girls in the song as follows, “Don’t Tell Me You Agree With Me, When I Saw You Kicking Dirt In My Eye, But, If You’re Thinkin’ About My Baby It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White”.
The lady in this situation can also be referred to indicate any type of friendship or association one might concentrate on. If anyone wants to be his friend, he does not care if one may be black or white, he just loves them all. Michael repeats using the phrase: that if anyone may be black or white as the clasp for the song, this is to ideal his preferred message.
Though, Michael could have incorporated the themes into the song and express his ideas directly focusing on racial differences and prejudises, he chose more elaborate approach and just forced his fans to admired music while placing the message on the tips of their tongues. Due to the rythm and melody, the song is reachable and pleasant to a much wider audience.
The disparity of the beat of the song in connection to the message can be ironic in nature (John 45). Recurrently a significance that can be solemn and vital may be advanced in various vocal techniques to attract attention of the listeners to providing the message straight instead of concluding the song with vocal flavor.
Michael knew that the audience cannot respond to the song using the freestyle or concert style and had to meet the audience where they might be. He does not expect them to change to hear the song’s message, and therefore, keeps the same order to acquire the preferred results.
Michael tries to apply various forms of rational arguments. At the beginning of the song, he makes use of the image of a woman who is so beautiful that almost all men crave to be with her, in spite of her race. The other form of rational argument is through a raping vocal, at this point of view, listeners seek to acknowledge the brighter universe where people can work together and how powerful people can be if this human in fighting stop.
Most say that the song “Black or White” was produced at the right moment in human culture, the song’s message was capable of becoming the vital point of a movement that shifted a generation and pessimistically concentrated people to think over what other people understood and how they sought to treat others rather than racism.
Works Cited
Alba, Debra. Michael Jackson Broke Down Racial Barriers. London: George Allen & Unwin Limited, 2012. Print
Browne, David. Michael Jackson’s Black or White Blues. NY: Kniff, 2009. Print
John, Pareles. Michael Jackson at 25: A Musical Phenomenon. New York: State University of New York, 2010. Print.
John, Ramage & Johnson, John. Writing arguments: a rhetoric with readings. Chicago: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. Print
Monica, Lewis. 20 people who changed black music. Miami: Miami Herald, 2007. Print
Wrotham, Jenna. Michael Jackson Tops the Charts on Twitter. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 2009. Print.