Textual Analysis Of The Music Video 'Black or White' by Michael Jackson.

'Black Or White' is a single from Micahel Jackson's eight studio album 'Dangerous'. It begins with Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone), a 10 year old boy dancing and jumping on his bed with his father on the floor below. Culkin's father becomes agitated at his son's racket and goes up to tell him to turn it down, on his father's exit of the room when he slams the door, a picture of Michael Jackson (the first sign in the music video to Michael Jackson) that Macaulay had framed, falls to the floor and shatters. In rebellion to this, the 10 year old brings down his electric guitar and turns his amps up to the volume level 'Are you NUTS?!'. Thus making the house tremble and shatter, sending his father, and the chair that he was sitting on, flying through the roof and half way across the world. Where the father lands (Africa) is where the song begins, and finally begins to tie in with the title and meaning of the song's lyrics. This is where we first see Michael Jackson, who dances among various cultures, with the dance routine confirming that it is of a pop genre, and the various cultures finally tying into the title of the song (after 2 minutes). Jackson mirrors the various cultures different traditional dancing, such as West African, Thai, Red Indians, an Indian Bollywood dancer and a group of Russians. Every time these various cultures are introduced the backdrop changes to show them in various environments, however some of the cultures do not seem suited to their allocated backdrops.
Culkin is re-introduced standing amongst other children of similar age, dressed as 'gangsters'. Michael Jackson is there also. Culkin and the other kids present a rap which includes the sentence "I'm not gonna spend my life being a colour."
The rap finishes and then cuts away to Michael Jackson singing at the top of The Statue of Liberty. The camera then zooms slowly out, with Jackson remaining centered. Michael's backdrop shows landmarks from many different cultures and cities from around the world. This shot then swiftly cuts away to a close up of a 'hefty' looking Asian, who then morphs into the famous supermodel Tyra Banks who is slim and of mixed-race, these close-ups constantly morph of people of all races, shapes and sizes, promoting the songs lyrics, showing that even though everyone may look different, but we were all people and that 'it doesn't matter if you're black or white'.
The record company is obviously trying to portray that Michael Jackson is acceptable of everyone which gives him a positive appeal to the audience. There are many scenes within this music video, however there are not many cutaways within the video taking into consideration how many different locations there are, instead we see the change of scenery in front of the camera, often brought to the audience through a panning shot. For Example, when Michael Jackson moves from the West African tribe to the Thai women.