Michael Jackson - Scream
by Catia Faranda
Introduction
What would you do if you had the chance to spend one day in
space? Enjoy the liberty, jump and fly around maybe loosing yourself in
weightlessness? Or enjoy the view at the globe, which would certainly be unique
and not repeatable. This could all be possible options. In the music video
“Scream” from Michael and Janet Jackson, the siblings use their trip into outer
space for the purpose of soul purification. Something seems denied to them on
earth so that they need to go far in order to free all their anger. The reason
for the latter we are going to get to know during the analysis.
This paper will give an overview about the content of the
music video “Scream” with focusing on specific details, connected to the lyrics
and explaining the reason for Michael Jackson to write “Scream”. Then having a
closer look at the music video watching only at the filmic material and the
theme of space and Science Fiction, this examination will introduce an African
American tradition called “Afrofuturism” that is also applied in the music
video. In conclusion the question arises how much this music video is the
artists or the directors work and what should be kept in mind while watching
and analyzing.
Even before the first image on screen appears an electronic
sound initiates a Science Fiction scenario. A space shuttle in the shape of a
massive portable CD player advances. The inside of the space ship is empty and
automats with ‘drinks’, ‘sushi’ and ‘stress caps’ are exposed. In the beginning
Michael and Janet are lying in their cabin in a secure position since the space
shuttle is starting just now. While trespassing the sonic barrier the glass of Michael’s
cabin breaks into pieces and makes him scream. The next image shows the
siblings in the same outfit looking angry and addressing their direct message
to the camera
The music video shows Michael and Janet letting off steam,
while destroying guitars or playing squash in shattering vases. According to
pop cultural theorist Diedrich Diederichsen[1] the song “Scream”
is a mixture of justification, paranoia, anger and grudge, frustration and
resistance. All these emotions find expression here conjoint.
As a matter of fact the siblings use their space trip to
escape from the world’s negativity, a relief that is not possible on earth.
Background
“Scream” was released in the early summer of 1995 when Michael
had been accused of sexual abuse by the tabloid press which had started two
years earlier. This song is primarily directed to the media industry that had
initiated on purpose to create the image of a freak and a monster of Michael
Jackson in favor of selling.
The sibling’s gestures are clearly symbolizing their anger. The
refrain goes: “Stop pressurin’ me”. Michael is making a definite statement. He
is making clear that he has had enough by all the accusations and insults. And
this music video shows how fear can turn into aggression. Both are trying to
cope with an unpleasant situation and to give vent to their anger.
The filmic material
The colorization of the music video is all in black and white
without using any colored special effects.
The black and white character does not convey the impression of watching
a vintage music video but on the contrary succeeds in creating a futuristic image
even watching the video nowadays. The rooms inside the shuttle are empty and
designed very clear and linear. Nothing looks familiar or suggests being from a
specific era. The black and white character fits perfectly into the Science
Fiction genre and creates a distance between the world the audience knows and
the world that is presented on screen. By leaving out color and letting the
protagonists fly through the rooms inside the spacecraft creates a feeling of
alienation.
“Space is the place”
Looking at the
personal background information and the lyrics of the song it becomes evident
why the spatial character is used. Michael and his sister want to
escape from the real world, escape into an illusionary world where only those
two exist. In this spatial surrounding they can do whatever they want but
especially they can express their feelings and they can get rid of all negativity
that humanity is putting on them. This is expressed in their gestures and their
physiognomy. Janet is jumping around and crawling at some parts of the video
like a wild animal. She wears a very dark make up and addresses her haters with
her clear statements.
In one scene Janet is standing in front of a toilet bowl and is
surprised by seeing the camera filming her. This symbolizes how much their life is in the center
of full attention. Even in such a private and intimate
situation they are filmed. Actually it is Michael sitting behind a wall of
glass who seems to control his sister.
In one scene Michael is meditating on his space shuttle and
depicted as Jesus or as Holy Mary with a halo around his head. This statement
is to express his innocence and to show how fragile he is. But his calm turns
in exasperation and finally in rage. He screams and the oculus breaks into
pieces and falls on him.
Dazu passt, dass Michael Jackson sich – wie gesehen – als eine Art
Heiliger präsentiert, der zwar Ruhe und Ausgeglichenheit in der Meditation
sucht, vom vernommenen Unrecht in der Welt jedoch bis zum Verlust der
Beherrschung gequält wird.
Michael Jackson who
has been regarded as a fashion icon, a music icon, the pop icon and finally the
King of Pop was a public character with no personal identity. He
was at the center of attention from childhood on and used as a product for
marketing strategies. The booklet of the single “Scream” takes reference to his
childhood. A picture shows a child huddled in a corner of the room with the
following sentence in Michael’s handwriting: “Before you judge me, try hard to
love me, look within your heart then ask, have you seen my childhood.”
Michael was a public iconic figure treated and sold as a product,
ready to make the music industry, the television industry, the press produce
profit and to make them run a business. Obviously this led Michael to the
desire of total isolation and to escapism. Michael was under constant
optimization. On the one hand this was his personal maxim and on the other hand
the people expected him to come close to perfection.
Particularly because he gave so deep insight in his personal life
he managed to attain a huge fandom what Keazor explains as follows:
[…] so gestaltet sich das durch »Scream« definierte
Verhältnis zwischen Idol und Fan sehr viel komplexer. Denn vorgeführt wird nun
ein Star, der sich zwar in einer technisch überlegenen und mit allen
Raffinessen ausgestatteten, entfernten Umgebung aufhält, sich trotzdem jedoch
sowohl durch das eigene Leben wie durch das Unrecht in der Welt gequält zeigt,
beides zueinander in Parallele und z.T. sogar in eins setzt und sich als
potentieller Erlöser präsentiert, so dass seine Fans in ihm nun eine Figur
haben, die sich in gleich doppelter Weise zur Projektion anbietet.[2]
Although Michael had changed during the years and looked so
different after all his interventions, Michael was on the one side as vulnerable
as his fans and on the other side he was ready to take all the pain in order to
turn it into something positive as for example his song for Africa.
Science Fiction & “Afrofuturism”
Kodwo Eshun claims Michael already looked like a cyborg through
all his plastic surgery procedures. He was a kind of a person one had never
seen before. He was neither African American nor white nor Asian. He was some
kind of prototype of an extremely rich person. In the video interview
“Fantastic Voyages – Eine Kosmologie des Musikvideos” Kodwo Eshun and Diedrich
Diederichsen speak of an “Afrofuturistic Narrative” that is also found in the
music video “Scream”. Afrofuturism is a specific Science Fiction tradition
deriving from African Americans. Initiators were Mark Dery who published an
article in 1993 named “Black to the Future” and Mark Sinker who had published
an article for “The Wire” called “Loving the Alien: Black Science Fiction” one
year before. Ytasha L. Womack defines Afrofuturism as follows:
Whether through literature, visual arts, music, or
grassroots organizing, Afrofuturists redefine culture and notions of blackness
for today and the future. Both an artistic aesthetic and a framework for
critical theory, Afrofuturism combines elements of science fiction, historical
fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with
non-Western beliefs. In some cases, it’s a total reenvisioning of the past and
speculation about the future rife with cultural critiques.[3]
Mark Dery argues that African Americans “[…] are the descendants
of alien abductes […]”[4] and
that [S]peculative Fiction that deals with African American topics and uses “twentieth-century
technoculture” and “images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future”
shall “be called »Afrofuturism«”. The connection between African Americans and
aliens is that one group has been brought on slave ships forcibly and the
others have landed with their space ships on foreign ground/terrain where they
both are not welcomed and where they will always feel strange.
Further the Afrofuturistic idea is a biblical one, their future is
to leave the foreign country and to return to the mother ship one day. Diedrich
Diederichsen and Kodwo Eshun claim that these descendants define themselves as
displaced persons and comparing to an alien space phantasy they have been
brought to a false planet and somewhere must be a space ship waiting, a kind of
mother ship, which is going to pick them up in the future. For Diederichsen this idea is the mythical basic
figure of Afrofuturism. So the alluded departure, to leave the
planet and to be brought into another sphere has to do with an upcoming space
ship.
The inside of the space shuttle is considered as very tiny room
where all the necessities have to be reduced to the essential. Diederichsen
draws the connection between the space ship as a capsule and the womb in which
one could survive for eternity. The total isolation of the world where one can
feel at ease. One gets the same impression while watching the music video
“Scream” because the siblings use the shuttle as a place where they can do and
be what they cannot on earth. Michael and Janet have to travel far away and
need an isolated room in order to give room to their emotions and feelings. That
is the reason why Michael and Janet burst out with their feelings as soon as
they have passed the threshold. If the space ship in “Scream” can be regarded
as the mother ship it makes clear why Janet and Michael are fleeing to get
there in order to let all their emotions free in a motherly surrounding without
being judged anymore.
Das dabei angewendete Kontrastprinzip – es wird einerseits
Schwäche, andererseits aber auch Stärke vorgeführt – setzt sich im Wechsel der
Perspektiven fort, die den Star einmal fernab
der Erde in seinem »super sleek spaceship« zeigen, dem Zuschauer dann aber auch
scheinbar einen Einblick in das Innenleben des Schiffs und seiner Passagiere
gewährt.[5]
Diederichsen presents one possible Science Fiction motive that
qualifies for a Pop Narrative. He compares the journey to nowhere or to the
outer space as the needed distance for a travel into the inner space. That is
exactly the narrative that is used in the “Scream” music video. Michael and
Janet need the distance and isolation to recover from the world’s evil. This is
also implied by the “stress caps terminal” seen at the early beginning of the
video where the siblings can easily help themselves.
The relation between the protagonists and the world is one of
interdependency. Michael and Janet though being in space still listen to the
live news coming from earth and when Michael dances he mostly has a window
behind is back where the world seems to dance with him or to get in contact
with him.
But one should keep in mind that music videos originally were
conceived short films used as pure advertising medium. So how far is “Scream”
the idea of the artist or the work of a director and his team? The director in “Scream”, Mark Romanek made no secret
of having been inspired by the movie “2001: Space Odyssey” by Stanley Kubrick in
becoming a film director. So it can be assumed that Mark Romanek took
the opportunity to make a music video for the King of Pop with an immense huge
budget and realized his personal dream.
Doch Romaneks Wahrnehmung ist hierbei sicherlich auch durch
den Wunsch gelenkt worden, einen Clip oder Film in diesem Genre anzusiedeln,
erzählt er doch an anderer Stelle, dass es der Besuch von Stanley Kubricks
»2001 – A Space Odyssey« im Alter von neun Jahren gewesen sei, der in ihm
überhaupt erst den Wunsch weckte, selbst Filmregisseur zu werden.“[6]
“Scream” is known as the most expensive music video ever
made and it holds an entry in the Guinness Book of Records and scenes and
setting resemble Stanley Kubrick’s movie from 1968 so this may be a personal
homage from fan to artist.
Although being together on the “mother space ship”, Michael and Janet
seem rather lonely. While they are playing a computer game behind them all the
seats are empty. In each scene they do not fill the rooms having at their
disposal. They have all the authority to dispose as is depicted in the
“gallery” area of the space ship. They are able to switch by remote control between
a selection of paintings and sculptures but Janet and Michael are annoyed by
all their possessions and possibilities that is why Janet lies on the armchair
and zaps through the art sculpture “channels”. This implies that although they
can afford everything, it has no high priority for them.
The song itself incorporates elements of pop and electro. There is
a concentration on the moment when something breaks, for example when Michael
smashes his guitar on the floor or a vase breaks it is emphasized through slow
motion pictures. The sound of breaking glass is integrated is seen in the
images and heard in the song. An alarm is also integrated in “Scream” which signifies
that a border has been crossed unauthorized. Michael sets new limits: “I've
got to get stronger. And I won't give up the fight.” This intention is even strengthened
in using profanity for the first time in his song. It foreshadows a new Michael
has yet to come, who is not going to accept the injustice that is done.
Conclusion
Whether the artist or the director had originally the idea of
doing the music video does not make a difference for the analysis. Music videos
can be regarded as an independent art form and not dependent of the songs’
lyrics as Keazor explains:
Tatsächlich jedoch dürfen bei einer Analyse von Videoclips
nie die kommerziellen Interessen außer Acht gelassen werden, die meistens
bedient werden; allerdings ist es hierbei angebracht, eine Unterscheidung zu
treffen: […] Denn tatsächlich stößt man immer wieder auf Musikvideos, die über
ihre Funktion als Werbeträger hinaus sozusagen einen ästhetischen Mehrwert
aufweisen […].[7]
In the case of “Scream” both interpretation approaches
work. The lyrics fit to the music video and it might be coincidence or
providence that Mark Romanek got the chance to make a music video that
resembles his favorite movie.
The idea of “Afrofuturism” shows how the Science Fiction
scenario suits to the lyrics and the desire of escapism. Obviously the space
shuttle is a protective mechanism for Janet and Michael that grants the
siblings shelter from additionally attacks. The electronic instruments create a
futuristic sound that combined with the breaking glass and the alarm signifies
that a barrier has been trespassed and that a given situation is not tolerated
anymore. The space ship scenario gives the protagonists the requisite distance
to their antagonists and in the same time gives their fans the chance to
projection and recognizing themselves in the pain of the artist. Although
having the whole world at their feet the siblings show a very human side of
their being. The anger and pain they feel is transported through the images in
their music video. It is impressive that they succeed to display a fragile part
of their being while they are represented as powerful extraterrestrial figures without
any spacesuits flying into space.
Keazor, Henry and Thorsten Wübbena. Video thrills the Radio
Star. Musikvideos:
Geschichte, Themen, Analysen. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag,
2005.
Womack, Ytasha L. Afrofuturism : the world of black sci-fi
and fantasy culture.
Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2013.
Eshun, Kodwo and Diedrich Diederichsen. Fantastic Voyages.
Space is the Place –
Weltraumfantasien in Musikvideos. Deutschland: ZDF, 2000.
Film. <http://www.fernsehserien.de/fantastic-voyages/folgen/space-is-the-place-weltraumfantasien-in-musikvideos-385392>
Dery, Mark: “Black to the Future. Interviews with Samuel R.
Delany, Greg Tate, and
Tricia Rose.” Flame wars: The discourse of Cyberculture.
Ed. Mark Dery. America: Duke University Press Durham, 1994. p. 179-222.
<http://thenewblack5324.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/mark-dery-black-to-the-future.pdf>
Sinker, Mark. “Loving the Alien: Black Science Fiction.”
The Wire. 2007. Issue 96
(1992): p. 30-34. <http://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/loving-the-alien_black-science-fiction>
[1]
Eshun, Kodwo and Diedrich Diederichsen. Fantastic Voyages. Space is the Place – Weltraumfantasien in Musikvideos. Deutschland:
ZDF. 2000.
[2]
ibid., p. 356
[3] Ytasha, Womack L. Afrofuturism : The world of black sci-fi and
fantasy culture. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books. 2013, p. 9.
[4] Dery, Mark: p. 180
[5] Keazor, Henry and Thorsten Wübbena.
Video thrills the Radio Star. p. 357.
[6] ibid., p. 350.
[7]
ibid., p. 14.