An Interview with Ryan Garey
Abstract: In this interview, Ryan Garey discusses his Master Thesis and how Michael Jackson influenced him and what he envisions for his future with Michael Jackson. REFERENCE AS: Garey, Ryan. “An Interview with Ryan Gary.” Interview, The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies 3, no. 2 (2016). Published electronically 21/10/16. http://michaeljacksonstudies.org/an-interview-with-ryan-garey/. The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic […]
CHAPTER 6 – “I DON’T KNOW” BODIES DISRUPTING CULTURAL REPRODUCTION
Jackson ends the Bad album the same way he commenced it: with a question. In the same way that it is impossible to answer the question “Who’s Bad?” in any definitive way, the final question leaves us profoundly unsure. “Are you okay?” is sung dozens of times in the song “Smooth Criminal,” and the information […]
“Who’s Bad?” Disrupting Cultural (Re)Production Through Representations of Michael Jackson
Abstract: The dynamic process of producing and consuming commodities shapes not only individuals but also their relations with each other and their societies. Although popular culture theorists have often attributed to popular music the effect of securing the consent of subordinated people for their own domination, Michael Jackson’s pop music has the opposite effect: it […]
CHAPTER 3 – “EXACTLY WHICH MICHAEL JACKSON ARE WE TALKING ABOUT ANYWAY?” AGENCY AND IDENTITY IN BAD
Songs: “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Speed Demon,” “Liberian Girl” The next three songs introduce the more specific normative constructs of gender, identity, and agency and go beyond troubling or disrupting them the way “Bad” did. They envision alternatives to hegemonic constructs and playfully experiment with different answers to questions such as these: What […]
CHAPTER 5 – DOUBLE ENTENDRE: THE MAN AND THE MEDIA
Songs: “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Dirty Diana,” “Leave Me Alone” Michael Jackson’s post-Bad career was very explicitly about redefining, questioning, subverting, and casting a critical eye on cultural assumptions (as Susan Fast documents in Dangerous). But he started these challenges on Bad. Hegemony has never been keen on admitting defeat, though, and the […]
CHAPTER 4 – “THERE IS NO DANGER” SANITIZING BAD AUTHORSHIP
Songs: “Just Good Friends,” “Man in the Mirror,” “Another Part of Me” (Captain EO) At the end of the last chapter, I hypothesized that hegemonic representations of Michael Jackson would generally aver their own authenticity in some way, while counter-hegemonic ones would disrupt any notion of fixity or permanence, even within themselves. This chapter explores […]
APPENDIX A: LIST OF SOURCES FOR SONGS AND VIDEOS
Sources for Songs and Videos: Songs: Jackson, Michael. Bad. Epic Records, 1987. CD. All songs used. Jackson, Michael and John Barnes. “We Are Here to Change the World.” Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection. MJJ Productions, 2004. CD. Videos: “Bad,” dir. Martin Scorsese. Part 1: Gentili, Kelly. “Michael Jackson Bad Part 1.” YouTube video. YouTube.com. 12 […]
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION: LOCATING BAD’S PLACE IN POP CULTURE AND POP CULTURE’S PLACE IN SOCIETY
“I love to create magic—to put something together that’s so unusual, so unexpected that it blows people’s heads off. Something ahead of the times.” (Michael Jackson to Interview Magazine, October 1982). As you walk down the aisle at a record store, you spot a copy of Michael Jackson’s Bad. What strikes you about it? It […]
REFERENCES
Adorno, Theodor. “On Popular Music.” Storey Reader 73-84. Albrecht, Michael Mario. “Dead Man in the Mirror: The Performative Aspects of Michael Jackson’s Posthumous Body.” Journal of Popular Culture. 46.4 (2013): 705-724. Web. Althusser, Louis. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” Storey Reader 336-346. “Bad, adj., n.2, and adv.” Oxford English Dictionary. Web. 5 Nov. 2015. Barthes, […]