Starting Something: Synthesizers and Rhythmic Reorientations in Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Capetola, Christine
• Is Part Of: Souls. Volume 21:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 77
• Page End: 95
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: blackness -- music technology -- phenomenology -- queerness -- rhythm -- sound; African Americans -- Periodicals; African Americans -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; African Americans -- History -- Periodicals; United States -- Race relations -- Periodicals; 305.896
• DOI: 10.1080/10999949.2019.1612545
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1099-9949

Abstract

Abstract : In 1983, Michael Jackson brought the world to its feet by spinning into the moonwalk while performing "Billie Jean" on live television during the Motown 25 special. In this article, I chart how the analog synthesizers in "Billie Jean" both helped facilitate Jackson's movement towards black futurity and connected him back to black rhythmic histories encapsulated in disco and funk. By unpacking how he moves with and against these synthesizers in the music video and subsequent live performance, I consider the ways in which this relatively new musical technology allowed Jackson to transmit a black queer phenomenology to his audiences.