The Billie Jean music video has a varied representation of ethnicity that are created through stereotypes. Some of these stereotypes are placed on Jackson as he is a young black male who is out at night, meaning that someone is suspecting him of something that is not quite right, and we see this throughout the music video. We also see Jackson subverting some of these during the video.

The music video was filmed and released in 1982, and was ground-breaking for ‘black’ music.  This is because this video was the first by a black artist to be regularly played and shown on MTV. The music video has a story-line behind it and is very socially contextual as Michael Jackson was gaining a lot of coverage through media sources (ie. newspapers), for all of the wrong reasons. This is due to a potential relationship that he had with someone who claims that her son is Jackson's. This song is all about her and the Lyrics back this up as well as the music video. The fact that there is a detective/spy following Michael around shows us an ethnic stereotype as he is getting suspected of something for no real reason whatsoever. The fact that he is some sort of magical character who has ability to make the floor light up would have been unseen much before this, as there would have been a limited level of editing/ CGI when the music video was made.

The fact that the spy/detective can't provide any evidence of Michael's Presence throughout the whole video also emulates his real life problems, and the fact the woman has no proof that her son is also his. Despite virtually admitting that he has had interactions with this woman (we know this from the video as he gets into somebody's bed with them towards the end), he is clearly repeating that the "kid is not my son".  This shows us as the audience that this lack of evidence proves nothing and that he may have been right all along. This emulates the divide in the real world between Jackson and everyone else, something that is also shown in the music video when the shot is split into two halves, with Jackson on one side and the spy/detective on the other. This could show Jackson's loneliness and boredom of having to answer for things he hasn't done as well as the unwanted attention form the press and other people.

Jackson is shown to be an aspirational person to the BAME community and this is shown throughout the whole video. The floor lights up wherever he goes, this shows that he is some sort of 'god' or amazing person. He is also shown as wealthy, and generous, subverting the contemporary stereotypes of a young black male, something that all people want to be in their life, as well as fashionable.

Throughout the video, there is a lot of props that are used to try and emulate the desperation for proof that the detective/spy wants to get to prove something. The Polaroid camera is one of these. The picture is taken but when the picture comes out, you are not able to see Jackson in it. 


The video has a huge link to a theory from Alvardo, who provided four main types of representation. This is evident as the homeless man is pitied and he is shown as weak and vulnerable. Jackson is shown as criminal, or suspected to be criminal, and we know this as there is a detective/spy following him around as if he has done something wrong and he is trying to prove it. This character juxtaposes Jackson as the spy is shown to be the 'respectable white man' from Alvardo's theory.