I consider the song “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson a good song for various reasons. The reasons why I consider it a good song is the long period of time for which it topped the charts and the impact it had. Billie Jean topped the pop chart for seven weeks in March and April of 1983 which was considered a long period. It also paved the way for more uptempo black music to crossover after three years of post-disco blacklisting by pop radio. Another reason why I consider it a good song is the usage of its various hooks. One after another you’re subject to an onslaught of hooks. The drum beat, bass line, string stabs, funk guitar, vocal punches, and tiny horn runs. It is catchy to the point that everyone recognizes each one of these as being from that song. They share the traits of being independently strong, catchy, and also being significantly memorable. The story behind the song also adds to the charm of the song. According to Jackson’s biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, “Billie Jean” was inspired by letters Jackson received in 1981 from a woman claiming he was the father of one of her twins. Jackson, who regularly received letters of this kind, had never met the woman and ignored those claims. A unit this song could have been featured in was Unit 3: Elements of Sound and Music. In this unit different parts that make up a song are mentioned such as beat, pitch, harmony, melody, vocal, timbre, texture, etc. I believe this song displays a variety of these skills and we could have broken this song down to identify each of these terms. For example, we could have seen how harmony was utilized in the song and what type of texture the song was played in. This would have allowed us to identify terms better and also see how it’s incorporated into popular songs.

A piece of “good” music that im familiar with and that hasn’t been discussed in class would be Man in the Mirror by Micheal Jackson. Micheal Jackson was known to be an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and so much more. This song goes on to highlight the injustices that occur within the world especially during the release time of this song. During the time Micheal Jackson was giving concerts in Yokohama and Osaka, he had dedicated this song in memory to the five year old young boy Yoshiaki Ogiwara from Japan who had been kidnapped for ransom and later murdered. The creation for this song was originally written by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard which would be the first outside song in two years he had accepted to sing. The song displays that inorder to make a change within the world it first has to start with yourself. When it comes to the start of the song the tone that is presented shows how his voice starts off slow and at a low sound and gradually gets a more projected higer tone as the chorus follows him throughout the song. While as for the tempo it does start off slow in the beginning as well as toward the middle of the song although his voice gets higer as we move to the mid- end around the sound his voice picks up along with the beat and the chorus that is supporting his voice but continues like this till the the end. A unit that could feature my piece of music as a listening example would be Unit 5:US Popular Music. I think it would fit in this unit because it was and still is an influential work of music today that many individuals are able to connect back to.