Aaron May

Prof Snell

ENG 1201

27 September 2020

The famous lyrics stating “You’ve been hit by; you’ve been struck by; a smooth criminal”

in the hit songs “Smooth Criminal” by both Michael Jackson and Alien Ant Farm are very

familiar to rock or pop music lovers. With the different genres of music for the same song

comes a large difference in the styles of the music videos. This comes with the story telling in

the video, the dancing, and even the audiences in the video. It shows the differences between

the pop and rock cultures. I will first focus on the differences in the story telling between Alien

Ant Farm’s version of the song, and Michael Jackson’s version of the song.

The rock style of Alien Ant Farm’s video has a very typical rock music video feel, but with

a twist. The video starts with Alien Ant Farm performing in a boxing ring set up in a suburban

back yard with a crowd head banging around the ring. Then there is a quick scene shift. There is

now a casual crowd listening to the concert on the front lawns, and a kid is shown in a cloth

facemask on the sidewalk in front of the crowd listening to the music. It is what the kid is doing

that is special, he is dancing like Michael Jackson; the original artists of “Smooth Criminal”. This

is Alien Ant Farm’s way of showing tribute to Michael Jackson’s talent and adding their own

twist to the video. Alien Ant Farm will continue this trend through the video.
 Alien Ant Farm will once again pay tribute to Michael Jackson by performing his famous

anti-gravity dance move. This is where Michael Jackson (in this case, Alien Ant Farm) leans

forward a seemingly impossible amount while keeping their feet planted flat on the ground.

After this, Alien Ant Farm returns to their rock out performance as we see the masked kid a few

more times in the video. Once the song ends, the video ends as well. This is much different to

Michael Jackson’s music video.

Michael Jackson’s original version of “Smooth Criminal” has a much different sound and

video than Alien Ant Farm’s cover of the song. Jackson uses a pop sound in the original version

of the song and uses the video to tell a story throughout the song. Jackson starts the video by

showing him going into a bar being watched by starstruck kids as he enters. The bar appears to

be a hostile environment, until the music for “Smooth Criminal” starts playing. This is when we

begin to see classic Michael Jackson.

Jackson starts telling his story through his famous dance moves in the hostile

environment. There are fights in the bar as Jackson dances around the bar with various girls.

Jackson is occasionally attacked during this time but fends off his attackers with ease. As the

video progresses towards the end, you can see shadows in the windows of people with guns,

who appear to be searching for Jackson. After this, there is a collective effort in the bar to

protect Jackson, as they help him rush out a door and immediately act casual. At this point, the

video and storytelling ends.

These videos are nearly complete opposites in every way even though the lyrics are the

same. Alien Ant Farm does not have any story to the music video at all. Their video just looked
like a small concert being performed. The most exciting part of Alien Ant Farm’s video is the

masked kid performing the occasional Michael Jackson dance. On the flip side of the coin,

Michael Jackson’s video always keeps you locked into what is happening in his story.

There is never a dull moment in Michael Jackson’s video. Jackson is constantly telling a

story throughout his video. That story comes in many different forms. That form could be from

his dancing, the fighting, or observing the kids who watched him enter the bar. This style of

video also always keeps the viewer on their toes by not being able to predict what could

happen next in the video. This is completely opposite of Alien Ant Farm’s video which has very

minimal story telling within the video. However, there is one similarity between the two videos.

The only similarities that the two videos have is that they both use pathos throughout

the videos. There is emotion being used in the videos. For Alien Ant Farm, the emotion is the

excitement of a rock concert. Jackson is using pathos by using the action happening in the bar

with the fighting and the dancing. However, this is the only real similarity between the two

videos.

In the end, I think the music video styles also have to do with the genre of Jackson and

Alien Ant Farm. Pop music videos tend to have more story telling in their videos compared to

rock. With Alien Ant Farm being a rock band, it is not surprising that there is minimal story

telling in their video. This really tells how the cultures are between the two genres of music are.

Both videos are very different when it comes to style and storytelling. There is no right

way or wrong way to present “Smooth Criminal” whether that is the style of music, or video.

Everyone has a different opinion on the style of music video and music genre for “Smooth
Criminal”. In the end, both versions of the song made it big and are recognizable to a lot of

music lovers everywhere!

Works Cited

Farm, Alien Ant. “Smooth Criminal.” YouTube, 7 Oct. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?

v=CDl9ZMfj6aE. Accessed 27 Sep. 2020.
Jackson, Michael. “Smooth Criminal.” YouTube, 19 Nov. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?
v=h_D3VFfhvs4. Accessed 27 Sep. 2020.