BEAT IT
MUSIC PROJECT

BEAT IT

Michael Jackson

MUSICAL STYLE & PERFORMANCE
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Michael Jackson
MICHAEL JACKSON
01 — INTRODUCTION

Why Beat It?

I chose Beat It because there is much more going on in the song than I first realised.

It mixes pop, rock and dance music, but it also has a really interesting story behind how it was recorded.

Instead of doing a long biography about Michael Jackson, I want to look at the actual music: the rhythm, harmony, guitar, vocals, production and performance.

I also want to see what I can learn from it if I perform the song myself.

Michael Jackson meme
VERY SERIOUS MUSICAL RESEARCH
LISTEN FIRST

Hear It First

Before analysing anything, it makes sense to actually hear the song.

🎧 Try listening once while ignoring the lyrics. Focus on the drums, guitars and the way the song builds.
02 — MUSICAL ANALYSIS

Rhythm & Groove

One of the first things I notice about Beat It is how steady the groove feels.

4/4
TIME SIGNATURE
♪
STEADY PULSE
♫
REPEATED GROOVE

The drums give us a steady beat that is easy to follow. On top of that, the guitar and vocals add their own shorter rhythmic patterns.

That is why the song feels busy without becoming confusing. The drums stay reliable while the other parts move around them.

Michael Jackson's voice is very rhythmic too. Some words are attacked very sharply, almost like his voice is another percussion instrument.

SO WHY DOES THE GROOVE WORK?

There is a balance between repetition and movement. The steady beat gives us something familiar, while the guitar and vocals stop the music from feeling repetitive.

Michael Jackson reaction meme

MUSICAL ANALYSIS IS GOING WELL

03 — MUSICAL ANALYSIS

Harmony & Melody

The song does not need constant chord changes to stay interesting.

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A lot of the harmony repeats. That might sound simple, but it actually helps the song.

Once our ears become used to the chord pattern, smaller changes become easier to notice: a new guitar sound, a vocal change, a drum hit or the arrival of the solo.

The chorus does something similar with the melody. The words Beat It are repeated so much that they become the main hook of the song.

SIMPLE DOES NOT MEAN BORING

The harmony gives the song a stable base. The interesting changes can then happen through rhythm, vocals, guitar, dynamics and production.

04 — BEHIND THE RECORDING

How Beat It Came Together

This is where the story gets really interesting. The finished song was not created perfectly in one attempt.

THE VIDEO I USED

I used the Digging the Greats analysis because it explains some of the strange accidents and changes that happened while Beat It was being recorded.

Click the cards below for the stories.

01

The Intro They Nearly Changed

That strange electronic opening almost sounds like an alarm.
The beginning of Beat It uses a Synclavier sound.

What I find funny is that the production team wanted the sounds on the album to feel original, so using an existing synthesizer sound was not necessarily the obvious choice.

Michael liked it enough to keep it.

Musically, it works because the electronic sound is completely different from the distorted electric guitar we hear later.

This is called a contrast in timbre — basically, two sounds having very different colours or characters.

▶ WATCH 2:04
02

Van Halen Basically Broke the Song

Eddie Van Halen was supposed to add a solo. It became a much bigger job than that.
This was probably the part of the video that surprised me most.

Eddie Van Halen came in to record the guitar solo, but instead of simply playing over the track exactly as it was, the solo changed what needed to happen around it.

In other words, the solo did not neatly fit into the existing recording.

Parts of the song had to be changed and rebuilt around what he played.

That is why the video jokes that Van Halen basically "broke" Beat It.

Musically, the solo also completely changes our attention.

Up to this point Michael's voice has been the main focus. Suddenly the guitar takes over.

The notes become faster, the playing becomes more expressive, and the energy rises.

So the solo is not just impressive guitar playing. It actually changes the structure and feeling of the song.
▶ WATCH 5:45 ▶ CONTINUE 6:42
03
MY FAVOURITE STORY

The Screwdriver Accident

They were looking for a sound. Then somebody accidentally made it.
This is probably my favourite story from the whole recording.

In the Digging the Greats video, the story is told that they were moving the drum kit and equipment around the studio while trying to find the right drum sound.

Then a screwdriver fell onto the drum.

It made this sharp accidental sound.

Normally you would probably stop, pick up the screwdriver and carry on.

Michael heard it and loved it.

Suddenly the accident had become the sound they were looking for.

I like this story because it shows that recording music is not always about knowing exactly what you want before you start.

Sometimes you hear something by accident and think:

"Wait... that actually sounds really good."

The important musical lesson is that a producer needs to listen carefully, even when something goes wrong.

An accident can become part of the music.

▶ WATCH 9:41
04

Then They Had to Put It Back Together

After all these new ideas, the recording had to be rebuilt.
By this point they had a great song, a new guitar solo, new sounds and a few unexpected discoveries.

The problem was that all of those things now had to fit together.

Parts of the recording were changed, moved and re-recorded around the new ideas.

So the final version of Beat It was not simply Michael writing the song and everybody recording it once.

It developed as they worked on it.

That is something I find really interesting: the recording process actually became part of the composition.

The song changed because of the people performing it and the decisions being made in the studio.

▶ WATCH 13:31
WHAT I TOOK FROM THIS

Before researching this, I imagined famous recordings were planned almost perfectly from the beginning.

Beat It shows something different. Performers experimented, accidents happened and parts were changed until the recording worked.

05 — AUDIO EXAMPLES

Listen Closely

My teacher will be sending me some audio examples that I can add here.

Audio Example 1

Intro / Synclavier example.

AUDIO COMING SOON

Audio Example 2

Guitar riff or Van Halen solo.

AUDIO COMING SOON

Audio Example 3

Drum / snare / rhythm example.

AUDIO COMING SOON
WHY AUDIO HELPS

It is much easier to understand musical analysis if you can actually hear the sound being described.

Michael Jackson Hehe meme

HEE HEE — NEARLY FINISHED

06 — PERFORMANCE

How Would I Perform It?

Learning the notes is only part of the job.

VOICE

Vocals

Click to explore
Michael Jackson sings very rhythmically.

Some words have very sharp attacks, so I would need to practise exactly where each word lands against the beat.

Simply singing the correct notes would not be enough.
MOVEMENT

Stage Performance

Click to explore
I would not start by trying to copy Michael Jackson's choreography.

I would first make sure I can sing the song comfortably and stay in time.

Then I could add movement that matches accents and strong beats in the music.
EXPRESSION

Dynamics

Click to explore
Beat It is energetic, but that does not mean every line should be sung at maximum volume.

If everything is loud, nothing feels especially powerful.

Changing the intensity gives the song somewhere to build.
MY PLAN

Rhythm and melody first. Then articulation and dynamics. Movement comes last once the music feels secure.

07 — CONCLUSION

What Did I Learn?

The biggest thing I learned is that Beat It sounds simple on the surface, but there is a lot happening underneath.

The steady groove holds everything together, while the guitars, synthesizers and vocals give the song different colours.

I also liked discovering how messy the recording process could actually be. A guitar solo could force them to change the track, and even an accidental sound could end up becoming useful.

For my own performance, I would focus on timing, articulation, dynamics and movement instead of thinking only about hitting the correct notes.

08 — SOURCES

Sources & Bibliography

Full references and image credits will be added before the final submission.

Main analysis video

Digging the Greats — Beat It: The MJ Song Van Halen Broke (Then Saved)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3NpW_wHyxE


Official music video

Michael Jackson — Beat It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0


Harvard-style references and image credits will be added later.