"Beat It" is the third single from Michael Jackson's sixth studio-album, Thriller. Produced by Jackson and frequent colloborator, Quincy Jones, the song is renowned for its mixture of pop and rock, with its now iconic main guitar riff and the inclusion of a guitar solo from legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen.
Released in 1983, the song was met with universal acclaim and quickly rose to number one on several music charts on Billboard. Much like with the previous single, "Billie Jean", this early success was only built on with the release of the song's music video on MTV in a primetime premiere on March 31, 1983. The video sees two rival street gangs preparing to have an all out gang war when they are interrupted by Jackson, who through the power of music is able to get both gangs to reconcile their differences. While the lowkey video for "Billie Jean" made Jackson an icon in the United States, it's this video that launched him into the international stardom that he would only go on to expand upon for the rest of his career.
The song and video have received a litany of awards and remains on several publication' lists for the best songs ever made, including Rolling Stone magazine, who most recently ranked the song at #185 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Tropes:
- Badass Pacifist: Michael intervenes in a Mob War Knife Fight to stop the violence and gets both sides to stop fighting by dancing.
- Bad Guy Bar: When they aren't popping out of the sewers or appearing from dark alleys, the gang members are seen coming out of seedy bars, implying this trope.
- Combat by Champion: Both gangs have their leaders fight on their behalf before Michael intervenes to stop the duel entirely.
- Concept Video: Michael intervenes and stops a Mob War through the power of dance.
- Dancing Is Serious Business: Michael is able to Reconcile the Bitter Foes by intervening in their Mob War and getting both sides to join him in a dance in the street.
- Duels Decide Everything: The rival gangs are planning on settling their differences with a duel in the streets, until Jackson enters as a mediator and has them settle their differences with a dance battle.
- Duel to the Death: Heavily implied to be the case as the two leaders engaged in the Knife Fight have their wrists bound to each other, meaning escape is not possible.
- Finger-Snapping Street Gang: The music video is an homage to West Side Story and features Jackson and others doing the snap walk throughout the video, most notably when Jackson stops the gang war and leads the gangs into the walk, before launching into the video's famous dance routine.
- Gangbangers: The two gangs featured in the video are depicted as such, wearing denim, leather, and bandanas. This is intentional as the concept of the song and the video is based on real-world gang violence and the video actually features actual members of the infamous real life rival gangs, the Bloods and the Crips.
- Hot-Blooded: The song describes the people out to get the subject of the song as such, noting that "the fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear" meaning that their threats aren't just words and they are resolved in their decision to beat you up/harm you.
- I Want to Be a Real Man: The person Michael is directing his song to is the kind of guy who gets into fights that they would be better off avoiding to prove that they are a man. As he sings in the third verse, "They're out to get you, better leave while you can. Don't wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man."
- Knife Fight: The two gang leaders have their wrists tied to each other while they engage in a knife fight in the street, in order to prevent either side from being able to run away or escape.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: The entire song is about both avoiding violence when you can and knowing when to back out of a situation that has escalated to the point of unreasonable violence, i.e. knowing when to "beat it."
- Mob War: The video features two gangs preparing for and engaging in the beginnings of an all out gang war in the streets before Michael intervenes.
- Protest Song: The song protests violence and its association with masculinity, advocating that violence isn't the only option to resolve disputes.You have to show them that you're really not scared
You're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare
They'll kick you, then they beat you
Then they'll tell you it's fair
So beat it, but you wanna be bad
Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated - Reconcile the Bitter Foes: Michael ends the animosity (temporarily or permanently is up to interpretation) between two rival gangs through the power of dance.
- Red Hot Masculinity: The song discusses the issue that violence is often not worth it, but because guys "don't want to be a boy, [they] want to be a man," they refuse to back down from a fight. However, the more sensible thing to do is to back down or "beat it." In other words, fighting isn't the manly thing to do; knowing when to backdown or solve the issue without violence is. In the video, the gangs wear primarily black or white. Michael, who intervenes and shows the gangs that violence isn't the answer, wears what would later become his iconic bright red leather coat in contrast.
- Staredown Faceoff: Before the duel begins, the camera pans over both sides to show them staring at each other in an entire gang vs entire gang faceoff.
- Sunglasses at Night: The gang leader in the white coat is wearing sunglasses inside a bar despite it being nighttime for the entirety of the video.
- Violence is the Only Option: Defying this trope is one of the main points of the song and music video as the former dicusses backing away from fights and the latter shows Jackson resolving a Mob War through the power of dance.
- White Gangbangers: Several of the gang members are shown to be white. In fact, both gangs are very multi-racial, in contrast to many of the gangs that were prominent at the time, which are more often than not segregated by race.
