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David Vogt

Sandra Riley

English 1201

October 3, 2021

Smooth Criminal

In the music industry sometimes, musicians will make a cover of another artist’s song

in their own genre. They do this as either a homage to the original artist because they respect

the original’s work, or to possibly revive the song while giving it a new twist and gaining

popularity because of it. When artist do this, it usually changes the meaning, or the story of

the song being redone. In 2001 a band named Alien Ant Farm did this with the song “Smooth

Criminal” originally by Michael Jackson. Doing this changed the pop song into an alternative

punk song, which with the new music video changed how the song can be interpreted. While

Alien Ant Farm made their own version of “Smooth Criminal” to appeal to an older audience

and as an homage to Michael Jackson himself, the song and music video appealed to a much

younger audience and showed a slightly different view of the song than the original.

Michael Jackson released “Smooth Criminal” in 1988 as a single on his album Bad. In

Michael Jackson’s version of “Smooth Criminal”, in the music video it starts off in what

appears to be a gang hideout that looks like its set between 1920 and 1930. Jackson’s

character walks in and starts the song. Everyone that appears in the music video is dressed as

a gang character from that time period and the way the area is set up looks like it would not be

a normal bar. The song talks about an elaborate murder of a woman named Annie, and how

they got away with it hence the name of the song. The song even goes into details about how
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she is killed and how the murderer got into her apartment in order to kill her, and even how

paramedics came to try and resuscitate her using CPR. It is never specified who killed her, but

because of the way the video is shot it would seem to be a gang member. However, the song

never specifies why she was killed. The song uses a combination of pathos and logos as

appeal. It uses pathos as a woman has been killed in cold blood, and logos by going through

the exact steps in which the murderer took to kill Annie. The song itself appealed most to the

Michael Jackson fans at the time, which was mostly everyone around the globe, old and

young, as Michael Jackson was very popular at the time around the world. The produced

video was also very popular is it was the first introduction to the gravity defying lean that is

seen towards the middle of the song.

Alien Ant Farm made a cover the song in 2001 which released on their album

Anthology. They did this as they very much respected Michael’s work and often would play

some riffs from his songs during their warmup. Alien Ant Farm is considered a rock band and

did a cover in their own punk rock style and made a new music video for the song as well.

Their version of the song was very popular around the world by fans of the punk rock genre

hitting the top of multiple charts and around the world. The music video for this song takes

place in a much different setting, however. This version of the song takes place in a backyard

and neighborhood during what would appear to be a college party, full of younger adults and

drinking. The video would appeal more younger audiences as that is who we see throughout

the whole video. The video itself seems to imply a different killer or danger in the song to

“Annie”. Because of the setting the video takes place in, while the lyrics are not changed, the

killer in this case could be something inanimate, such as drugs. Since the video takes place

over a party that goes all day and night it would make sense that the smooth criminal in this
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case be drugs at a party that got out of hand as it seems to take over an entire neighborhood.

All this would appeal to an audience likely in college or about to become college students.

This video uses those same appeals as the original video does as the only change is in the

style it is played in.

In conclusion. Michael Jackson’s and Alien Ant Farm’s versions of “Smooth Criminal”

appeal to a slightly different audience with Michael Jackson’s being much broader due to his

popularity. However, the Alien Ant Farm version did do much better hitting more chart tops

around the globe. Their difference in style and presentation tells two similar stories but with a

different killer, in a different age. Michael Jackson’s version being a literal killer from the 1930’s

sneaking into an apartment, and Alien Ant Farm’s version having a silent killer of drugs and

alcohol at a large party.

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Works Cited

Alien Ant Farm. “Smooth Criminal”. Youtube, DreamWorks Records, 2001,

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

Jackson, Michael. “Smooth Criminal”. Youtube, 1988, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=h_D3VFfhvs4