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Zachariah Smallwood

ENG COMP 1201

Professor. Hellmers

2/16/20

Smooth Criminal

“Smooth Criminal” by Alien Ant Farm and “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson use

two different styles of music to the famous song. Alien Ant Farm use a Modern Rock While

Michael Jackson uses a late 80’s pop. Michael Jackson's “Smooth Criminal” focused more on the

new style of dancing back then while Alien Ant Farms “Smooth Criminal” wanted to bring the

rock style to the song.

In Alien Ant Farms music video it set a more of a house rock party with the band in a

middle of a wrestling ring with a lot of people around it cheering and looks to be singing along

with the band. Another thing that Alien Ant Farm conveys in their music video is a lot of

references about Michael Jackson like the drummer has the famous glove on, also has a

references to Michael Jacksons pet chimp bubbles, the lead singer jumps on a car and screams

like Michael Jackson does on a table in his video, and a kid wearing a mask while dancing.

Michael would sometimes wear a mask when he out walking in public. They also show off

Michael Jacksons 45 degree tilt in their video. While Michael Jackson’s music video was more

of a gangster setting with the style of clothing that the people had on in the music video not to

mention that it was set in what to looks to be a secret bar for the gang in the video. In Michael

Jackson music video the dancing had a lot to do with what made this song a huge hit. Michael
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Jackson’s dance moves the moon walk and the 45 degree tilt were one of a kind no one new how

to do them it was revolutionary.

Though that Alien Ant Farm and Michael Jackson both have the same lyrics and are very

similar in their music videos they were made at different times. Michael Jackson’s song was

made in the late 80’ and Alien Ant Farms was made in the early 2000’s. The songs were made

toward two different audiences. Alien Ant Farms was made toward the new modernized rock

fans and Michael Jackson’s was made towards the late 80’s pop fans. The two songs have the

same exact lyrics and same meaning to them but, the only difference is that one has a pop vibe

while one has a more of a rock vibe.

Dancing was the one thing that separated Michael Jackson from the rest of all of the other

pop artist back in the 80’s and 90’s like Prince, Madonna, and Seal. His dancing transformed the

hip-hop dancing through years he was alive. Michael Jackson’s video was about nine minutes

long to Alien Ant Farms three and half minutes that was the one thing that Alien Ant Farm didn’t

have in their video was the amount of hip hop dancing was limited to Michael Jackson’s video,

they had some hip hop dancing in their video like the little boy with the mask but that was about

all of the dancing that was in the video at all besides the regular rock “dancing” that is jumping

up and down while they sing. Michael Jacksons dancing is the one thing that will never be

forgotten about him that and that he was the King of Pop.

Alien Ant Farm and Michael Jackson had the same meaning in their songs they still had

some differences in their videos. Alien Ant Farm made lots of references to Michael Jackson

since it was a cover song, it was most expected. Since Alien Ant Farm is a rock band it made

since for them to do a stereotypical rock setting like a house party while Michael Jackson did a

late 80’s gangster themed setting, which made sense for the pop genre of his music. Michael
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Jackson’s video had more of dancing than anything which revolutionized the hip hop dancing

through the 90’s with the anti-gravity fall and the moon walk. These two songs helped

millennials understand the dancing of Michael Jackson and Generation Z get the modern rock of

the song.

Works Cited Page

Jackson, Michael. “Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson.” Www.youtube.com, 19 Nov. 2010,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_D3VFfhvs4.

Farm, Alien Ant. “Smooth Criminal by Alien Ant Farm.” Www.youtube.com, 7 Oct. 2009,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDl9ZMfj6aE.