Aesthetics Values in Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" Music Video

 

Michael Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. He, known as “King of Pop”, is regarded as one of 20th century most significant cultural figures and greatest entertainers in the history of music with more than 150 songs writen by him. Heal the World is one of his legendary song from his eighth album, Dangerous (1991). In documentary Living with Michael Jackson (2003), he said that he wrote Heal the World while in his "giving tree" at his Neverland ranch. This song was writen by the legend to call attention to awareness of children that needed help, such as children living in war zones, also to call for understanding and compassion, and decrying inhumanity. Making the world to be a peaceful and happy place is the main purpose this song wants to convey.  

Talking about song, it sometimes can’t be separated with music video (MV). Heal the World has its music video which is directed by Joe Pytka. The music video features children living in countries suffering from unrest, especially Burundi (wikipedia). It is also one of  Michael Jackson's videos not to feature himself. Same as movie, music videos generally also use a wide range of styles and contemporary video-making techniques, including animation, live action, documentary, non-narrative approaches  such as camera movement, cutting, special effect, angle, shot, tonality, that all concluded as cinematography. Music video interprets scenes and images from the lyric of the song. Thus, it contains aesthetics values. Next, this essay will discuss about the aesthetics values in the visual elements in Heal the World MV by Michael Jackson.

This music video opens up with soft, emotional piano sounds and pictures of poor, sick children in a grungy hospital without electricity, shouting and crying for help. Some wrapped with bandages while some others are handicapped. There was a little boy reading a poem. His voice quenched the piano sounds as it says:

“Think about the generations and say that we want to make it a better place for our children, and our children's children, so that they know it's a better world for them. And think, if they can make the world a better place...”

From the poem, supported by the moments in MV, it can be concluded that the clip is refered to the younger generation, to make the world a better place for children and grandchildren. This music video, released in Youtube 10 years ago, shows the sequence of moments about the life of children in the war zone, as the examples, there are the clip of children playing, chasing around, the uniformed soldiers carrying guns, standing guard, and a mansion behind them which is set ablaze as a result of war. And the near ending of the music video, it shows touching clips that symbolize peace, where hundreds of children run and come together, holding hands, while the soldiers throw away their weapons and mingle with them. At the last clips, those hundreds of children seem carrying candles, signifying that the peace will bring the light in the dark.

From the sequence of clips mentioned, in cinematography, Heal the World MV is full of aesthetics values pictured by its techniques such as camera movement, cutting, special effect, angle, shot, and tonality. The first value is at the camera movement. As the concept of the MV is documentary video, the camera movements are set up intentionally trembling and keep moving following the objects. The purpose is to create documentary style and to make an impression as if the audience is the point of view. So, this is also related to the angle. Since the technique used is objective camera angle, it means the audience sees all the visual elements the director gives in the video (Fachrudin:2012). The camera angle also influences the camera shot. In the MV, some use close up and extreme close up shot to show the detailed expressions of the actors which imply sadness, pain, sorrow, fear, tension, and innocence of the children. The viewers can find the aesthetics values by observing those detailed expressions.

Next, it is the cutting technique which becomes the aesthetics values in the music video. In editing process, there are several techniques of cutting and the one used in Heal the World MV is jumping cut. The fade-through transitions used are also the aesthetics point here. Both of them are showed in the way the clips jump roughly from the one moment to another, signified by the fade of the end of the clip as the transition. These two techniques strengthen the impression of memorial, since memories are sometimes played by jumping quickly in mind.

The aesthetics values in Heal the World MV can also be found in its special effect. Since the tone and mood of the video are tense and gloomy caused by a war, the optical effects displayed such as smokes, ashes, and fire represent them. The effects describe the situation happened during the war. Besides special effects, there is also the animation of earth held by hands in the ending. The earth illustrates ‘the world’, as listed on the song title, while the hands holding the earth explain that we have protect our world, as contained in the meaning of the song.

Last about aesthetics values, it is tonality that consists of contrast, brightness, color, and speed. As mentioned above, the concept of video is documentary and the tone and mood of the MV are tense and gloomy. Therefore, the editor set the low contrast, under-exposure (low brightness), faded color tends to black-white, and less-than-normal speed (<24 fps). It brings the viewers to feel the atmosphere trying to convey.

Heal the World is one of Michael Jackson’s pro-social song that preaches peace, love, giving, and care for all the children of the world. The meaning of the song itself and the aesthetics of its music video have given big impacts to the society and people around the world. By listening to the song and watching the MV, it makes us aware about creating peace and a better life in this world without fear, without war. We must not discriminate against race, ethnicity, religion or economic background even until hostilities occur. Until today, the legendary song Heal the World is still listened at the social and humanity events and becomes the icon of music background in several great memorials. It shows that the song has big influences in society.

In conclusion, Michael Jackson invites us all to heal the world, for us and for all the mankind. Not only by the song itself, but the music video which is full of aesthetics values is also meaningful, conveying the importance of achieving peace and humanity. From the MV, we can take many moral values, that there is no need for war and selfish accumulation of wealth at the expense of the poor, the sick, and the deprived. This may not lead to the absolute elimination of poverty, but it will help to improve on the basic needs of all human beings on earth. Therefore, make a little space wherever you are so that our world will shine again in grace for our children and our children’s children.