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When you listen to Billie Jean what do you picture in your head?

When you listen to Billie Jean what do you picture most in your head?

  • The Video

    Votes: 13 9.4%

  • Michael performing it live

    Votes: 120 86.3%

  • I don't picture anything when i listen to it

    Votes: 6 4.3%
  • Total voters
    139
^me too and the Billie Jeans performance from This is it - he seems to have so much fun.:(:)
 
I mostly picture him performing it live on the Dangerous tour.
 
For some reason, I think about MJ recording the song in the studio. Probably beacuse I always wonder how he did all those vocals and how he sang the bass line and the strings and everything.
 
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:wub:
 
WOW... So many votes for the LIVE thingy so yeah... I see Michael on stage too... Glitterly jacket; fedora; white glove... Just soaring :angel:
 
I go back and fourth between Motown 25 and the short film. I think the brief montage used in 'moonwalker' was perfection. same goes for 'human nature'.
 
This song is always synonymous with the video for me, so I always see Michael in his shiny black suit and pink shirt, stepping on the light-up pavement. It's great how a video can match a song so well!
 
Motown 25. He scared me when he turned around to the camera and glared-actually freaked me out. And he slammed the fedora on his head, and struck the Bob Fosse/Ben Vereen type of pose, and I thought what in the world is he going to do.
Then, of course, I hyperventilated through the rest of it.

I actually never saw the video or heard the song before Motown 25. And actually, I saw Steve Martin's PARODY of the Billie Jean video months before I saw the actual vid.

Although, I like the video, his live performance actually enacts the lyrics of the song. Just incredible. From combing his hair, to strutting down the street, to protesting violently that she's lying-just amazing.
 
barbee0715 said:
Although, I like the video, his live performance actually enacts the lyrics of the song. Just incredible. From combing his hair, to strutting down the street, to protesting violently that she's lying-just amazing.
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly. In my head, I picture any one of his many brilliant live/concert performances. The Motown performance, the 30th Anniversary concert performance, some of the extra-memorable performances from the HIStory tour....the Victory tour....the list goes on....but it's ALWAYS the concert performance for me, over the video. I actually don't think that the video fits well, with the song lyrics, at all....I have always thought it to be a strange interpretation of the meaning of the song, with too many random and unconnected elements within it.
 
I thought the whole point of the video was that the detective was trying to frame Michael as Billie Jean's lover? with Michael constantly evading him, only to turn the tables at the end.

the newspaper headline, the ladies on the billboard, and the scene in the bedroom, all link to the song's narrative.

Michael had used magic in the past ('can you feel it', 'don't stop til you get enough', and 'blame it on the boogie'), but this was the first time that the element of mystery was introduced, in both the overall visual and persona. he was otherworldly. literally. his character was an alien in disguise, reconfiguring the DNA of each environment that he stepped foot it.

I love the colour scheme of the street backdrop, and how Michael's outfit matches it. the tiger is also a reference to the album cover.

of course Michael dancing alone and unchoreographed is the nucleus. 'violently protesting his innocence' as Barbee so wonderfully described it. he was venting. we felt his torment. this expression was a far cry from 'don't stop til you get enough'.

it may not be the most straight forward piece, but not all of michael's videos were. in some cases they were the most interesting. after years of watching 'Billie jean', I still come away with something new. so many possibilities! this is how the art survives forever. Michael immortalised himself, and that is the essence!
 
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