Michael Jackson's a punk

In the lecture the other day, something struck me concerning inter-morphology.

Nabeel played Michael Jackson’s infamous Black & White music video, which was first aired on MTV on November 14, 1991. But just so that we are working from the same basis, let me remind you that ‘inter-morphing’ is “the morphing between pre-existing genres”. In this case, this would be the incorporation of certain clothing traits associated to the Punk genre, within MJ’s music video, which in turn, have become iconic of the man himself.

Left-MJ in the B&W music video- fashion setter of '91

Right- The Ramones- trend setters since ages ago.

Now, I propose that this specific outfit of Jackson’s draws upon the visual signifiers of other popular music genres (specifically punk), ie: it illustrates the inter-morphing of punk elements, cognisant of an era before, which have in turn been incorporated into the popular music scene of then. So for example, those black tight jeans Jackson wears in the video have since become signifiers of MJ himself. However, punk jeans were (as they are now) as apart of the punk scene of the late 70’s & 80’s as baggy jeans are to present day hip-hop. Another example would be the unbuttoned-about-to-fall-off-the-shoulder shirt, which is worn over a tight white vest. Although if this were to being true to the Punk theme it would be torn, the shirt is very baggy, which prior to me watching the video again, actually made me think it was torn. I think the idea of it being torn came from the subconscious connection I had between the bandage & safety pin or MJ’s right forearm (-the safety pin being a prominent icon of Punk). So for me, this too contributed to this notion of Punk inspiring Jackson’s costume.

Despite the song’s success, the music video generated much hype in the media, as sceptics (like parents/old-bags) criticized the video’s pro-rebellious youth storyline. At the beginning, a kid (Macaulay Culkin) maliciously disobeys his dad’s order of going to bed, blowing through the ceiling with a guitar & set of massive amps. This came at the same time as the Bart Simpson craze, with FOX being harassed by parents & certain pro-family establishments alike, for promoted rambunctious behaviour in youth. So this MV simply promoted this, and in time, drew more attention to it. Needless to say, this runs parallel with the Punk genre which, as we have seen, encourages a blatant disregard of authority, & well, a sort of disestablishmentarianism really. So by promoting this sort of behaviour, MJ ‘tuned in’ with what was going on in popular culture. (Much more could be said on this, but this is a different topic.)

Macaulay Culkin (left)- a living Bart Simpson (right)

So, one thing that this music video did was spawn a new fashion craze. Michael Jackson was the flavour of the era, with girls wanting to be with him & guys wanting to be him. Therefore, it is little wonder why teenage guys began copying his ‘look’, which has since become as iconic as the outrageous KISS outfits of the 80’s (below).

It’s debateable over whether or not such a fashion as MJ’s could become fashionable again. But if one considers the way the fashion code of the Emo genre has also drawn on certain Punk dress elements; tight jeans, for instance are again the essential must-haves, it is interesting to see how the music fashions of past, provide a ‘palette’ that artists of present draw from, to create their own icons. So in the future, its plausible to invision Nu Metalists (Linkin Park lovers) to wear a green bandage around their forearms, to mimic the lead singer of the latest band-if the lead singer did so. Michael Jackson's costume represents the inter-morphising (if there is such a word) of Punk, into a different music genre which his music was associated with..pop. Whew!

-Ryan