on the possibilities of seeing the "city" in a starring role

It is always interesting watching something old with new eyes. For example, tonight while channel surfing I saw a tribute to Michael Jackson's music on Fuse tv. The city seemed to have a starring role in several videos. For sure, city streets and/or subways are the backdrops for "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller," hits that took Jackson to never-before-seen heights as a solo artist. The city is present, too, in "Bad" and "Smooth Criminal." 

Noticing as much made me wonder how the city functions in Jackson's videos. For example, would we even think of this space if we heard only the lyrics to some of these songs? What narratives does the urban space produce in these videos? Is the city we see an "American" one? And why does the city appear ever-green in some cases?  "Smooth Criminal" looks like it could be set in the 1920s,1930s or 1940s and even some future apocalyptic moment.  

I also wondered how the students would answer these questions  knowing what they now know about emerging urban life.  For example, "Billie Jean"  finds a bow-tie-wearing Jackson walking past a  store window on some anonymous city street. This brings to mind the arrival of ready-made clothing and department stores. This is a topic they will learn more about while reading Gunther Barth's study on emerging urban culture in the United States. They will learn about fashion, too, something that was important to Jackson, even in edgier videos like "Scream," which finds him and his sister Janet in a space ship with words like "recreation" in neon behind them. Indeed, they play different games, which are some metaphoric release from daily pressures.

Speaking of recreation, as mentioned, next week we turn to baseball, which also figured into emerging urban life in America. We will do as much by taking a tour of Rickwood Field with Dr. Richard Megraw from UA's Department of American Studies.