Cassandra Powers

English Comp II 1201.505

Charles Freeland

March 1, 2022

“Beat It”

“Beat It” is an iconic song originally produced by Michael Jackson and later covered by

Fall Out Boy. In both the music videos, they are singing about walking away from the fight

instead of allowing the violence to continue to occur. The lyrics and themes are the same,

however, the videos are very different, alluding to different kinds of fights and violence taking

place between the different generations.

In the original song by Michael Jackson, he is using his video to appeal to both black and

white individuals. “The resurgence of racism in the 1980s is reflected in incidents of racial

prejudice across the country, both in the media and on college campuses (Lowy 2)”. Jackson’s

video is an emotional appeal to just walk away and not give into the violence or racism. Jackson

is begging the audience to save their life and just “beat it” or walk away from the fight because

there is no need for the mindless violence and loss of life. He is trying to demonstrate that you

can walk away, it does not matter what kind of argument, or fight it is better to walk away rather

than fuel the fire of violence. He does this by showing various “gangs” of people with the same

emblems on their jackets gathering and heading to the same warehouse for a showdown (0:01-

3:27). He dances through all the places that cleared out while people were leaving and gathering

in their respective gangs or groups (2:17-2:50). I believe this is to show how bad the violence is

to leave many places where we congregate together and abandon them for a big fight in an
abandoned warehouse. When the two groups meet, the two main people are black and white

fighting against each other which alludes to the racial wars taking place (3:20-3:41). In comes

Jackson to break up the fight telling them it doesn’t matter who is wrong or right to just beat it

(3:40-4:00). This leads to everyone coming together and dancing showing the public that there

are better things to do than violence (4:00-4:58). Instead of fighting, maybe dance it out. Either

way, he is making a point that violence is not the answer, no matter the problem. I believe the

last scene where Jackson gets everyone to dance together is an allusion that just like the diner

and pool hall, they can get along no matter their differences. Jackson is trying to appeal to

anyone who is listening to his music and watching his video to just “Beat It” instead of

contributing to the violence and nonsense.

Fall Out Boy did a cover to this song many years later as a tribute to Michael Jackson,

and their music video is much more tailored to this generation. Rather than having just racial

wars, they allude to the violence between different groups of people, not just black and white.

The message of nonviolence is the same, in a different world context. They are also appealing to

emotion just as Jackson did with their video. Instead of having the video about racial hate and

gang wars, they used all the different groups of people all having a person in the group tributing

to Jackson with his iconic glove and a dance move he always did (0:02-3:49). This can be

thought of as a deep tribute to Jackson and how much further we have come as a society from

when he made this song. Yes, there is still people fighting against others, but most people want

to live in peace, and this is shown by when the different groups telling people to beat it (0:00-

3:49). This video is appealing to those who loved Michael Jackson as well as the new, younger

generation that maybe need to see this message portrayed in a different light.
 Although these music videos are vastly different because of the changing generations, the

main point is the same, don’t engage and entertain the violence, just walk away because violence

won’t make you a man. Jackson makes his point relevant by alluding to all the black and white

violence happening around him and Fall Out Boy makes their point by using different groups of

people trying to egg each other on and provoke violence as they walk through the warehouse.

They are both singing about walking away, just in different generational situations. This song is

in my opinion timeless, because as long as we are living in the violent times we are, we should

always be reminded to walk away and be the bigger man because violence is not worth it, and

never solved any problems. Jackson did a great job bringing to light things happening around

him that he found to be unacceptable; Fall Out Boy took the same song to shed light on the

useless violence between different groups of people. Fall Out Boy also had someone in each

group dressed as Jackson and doing his iconic dance moves as well as wearing his iconic gloves

as if to say, you started it, it’s getting better, but we still have work to do. We still need the

message to “Just Beat It.”

Works Cited

Lowy, Richard. "Yuppie Racism." Journal of Black Studies, vol. 21, no. 4, 1991, pp. 445-464.

OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center, doi:10.1177/002193479102100405.

“Michael Jackson - Beat It.” YouTube, uploaded by Michael Jackson, 11 Apr. 2011,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0. Retrieved March 1, 2022.

“Fall Out Boy - Beat It.” YouTube, uploaded by Fall Out Boy, 16, Jun. 2009,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk8Pb17pcQI. Retrieved March 1, 2022.