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From Cautionary Chart-Topper to Friendly Beverage Anthem: Michael Jackson's “Billie Jean” and Pepsi's “Choice of a New Generation” Television Campaign

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2015

JOANNA LOVE
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Abstract

In 1984 Pepsi-Cola released two groundbreaking commercials for its “Choice of a New Generation” campaign. Marketers reimagined Pepsi's product alongside superstar Michael Jackson's most iconic visual “symbols” and composed a slogan to be sung over fragments of the backing-track to his then-hit song, “Billie Jean.” Although merely replacing Jackson's original lyrics about lust and revenge with a family-oriented slogan had the potential to change meaning potentials the song held in other contexts, it was the re-working of Jackson's celebrity image and omission of key musical structures present within the original that allowed “Billie Jean” to acquire new meanings in the commercials. On the album, careful voice leading practices that pivot precariously between the natural and flat-VI underpin the score's complex harmonic structures to reinforce Jackson's cautionary tale. Pepsi's commercials, on the other hand, skillfully pick “Billie Jean” apart, extract its most memorable themes, and stitch the fragments back together. Consequently, when paired with Pepsi's overtly positive images, the reworked track noticeably diffuses the tension expressed in the original. By incorporating formal musical analysis, musicological inquiry, and formative cultural theory on advertising, MTV, and musical meaning in multimedia, this article contributes to growing discussions about pre-existing popular music's roles in advertising.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 178 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2015 

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References

References

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Stilwell, Robynn. “The Fantastical Gap between Diegetic and Nondiegetic.” In Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema, ed. Goldmark, Daniel, Kramer, Lawrence, and Leppert, Richard, 184–204. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Swedien, Bruce. In the Studio with Michael Jackson. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Books, 2009.Google Scholar
Taylor, Timothy D.The Sounds of Capitalism: Advertising, Music, and the Conquest of Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Taylor, Timothy D.. “Advertising and the Conquest of Culture.” Social Semiotics 19/4 (2009): 405–25.Google Scholar
Taylor, Timothy D.. “The Changing Shape of the Culture Industry; or, How Did Electronica Music Get into Television Commercials?” Television and New Media 8/3 (2007): 235–58.Google Scholar
Vernallis, Carol. Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Walser, Robert. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Williams, Raymond. “Advertising: The Magic System.” In Media Studies: a Reader, ed. Marris, Paul and Thornham, Sue. New York: New York University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Williamson, Judith. Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertisements. London: Boyars, 1978.Google Scholar
Jackson, Michael. Thriller. Epic, EK 38112, 1982, LP.Google Scholar
Michael Jackson: Video Greatest Hits—HIStory. “Billie Jean.” Directed by Martin Scorsese. New York: Epic Music Video, 2001, DVD.Google Scholar
“The MTV Premiere of Michael Jackson Pepsi.” YouTube.Google Scholar
“The Pepsi Generation.” Pepsi World 45/1 (Winter 1984). LP.Google Scholar
PepsiCo., Inc. “The Concert.” 1984. YouTube.Google Scholar
PepsiCo., Inc. “The Street.” 1984. YouTube.Google Scholar
PepsiCo., Inc. “Music Icons.” 2011. YouTube.Google Scholar
Van Halen: Video Hits, Vol. 1. “Jump.” Directed by David Lee Roth. Burbank, CA: Warner Off Roster, 1996, DVD.Google Scholar
Giraldi, Bob. 2010. Telephone interview by author. 8 October.Google Scholar
Fred/Alan MTV Network Collection, 1981–1982. Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Bonde, Anders. “On the Commercialization of Shostakovich's ‘Waltz No. 2’: A Case Study of Textual, Contextual, and Intertextual Meaning of Music.” In Music in Advertising: Commercial Sounds in Media Communication and Other Settings, ed. Graakjaer, Nicolai and Jantzen, Christian, 141–67. Aalborg: Aalborg University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Brackett, David. Interpreting Popular Music [1995]. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Brackett, David. “Jackson, Michael.” In The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2013. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.Google Scholar
Cohan, Steven. “‘Feminizing’ the Song-and-Dance Man.” In Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in the Hollywood Cinema, ed. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae, 46–69. New York: Routledge, 1993.Google Scholar
Cook, Nicholas. Analysing Musical Multimedia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Demers, Joanna. Steal This Music: How Intellectual Property Law Effects Musical Creativity. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Dusenberry, Phil. Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents for a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising. New York: Penguin Group, 2005.Google Scholar
Enrico, Roger. The Other Guy Blinked: How Pepsi Won the Cola Wars. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1986.Google Scholar
Frank, Thomas. The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Goldman, Robert, and Papson, Stephen. Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh. London: Sage Publications, 1998.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Andrew. Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Graakjaer, Nicolai and Jantzen, Christian. “Mapping Research on Music in Television Commercials.” In Music in Advertising: Commercial Sounds in Media Communication and Other Settings, ed. Graakjaer, Nicolai and Jantzen, Christian, 13–73. Aalborg: Aalborg University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Herrera, Monica. “Michael Jackson, Pepsi Made Marketing History.” Billboard. July 3, 2009. http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/268213/michael-jackson-pepsi-made-marketing-history?page=0%2C1.Google Scholar
Huron, David. “Music in Advertising: An Analytic Paradigm.” Musical Quarterly 73/4 (1989): 557–74.Google Scholar
Jackson, Michael. Moonwalk. New York: Doubleday, 1988.Google Scholar
Jhally, Sut. “Advertising as Religion.” In The Spectacle of Accumulation: Essays in Culture, Media, and Politics, 85–98. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2006.Google Scholar
Kaplan, E. Ann. Rocking Around the Clock: Music Television, Postmodernism, and Consumer Culture. New York: Routledge, 1987.Google Scholar
Kassabian, Anahid. Ubiquitous Listening: Affect, Attention and Distributed Subjectivity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Kellner, Douglas. Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity, and Politics between the Modern and Postmodern. New York: Routledge, 1995.Google Scholar
Kellner, Douglas. Media Spectacle. New York: Routledge, 2003.Google Scholar
Klein, Bethany. As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009.Google Scholar
Kooijman, Jaap. “Michael Jackson: Motown 25 Pasadena Civic Auditorium 25 March 1983.” In Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time, ed. Inglis, Ian, 119–27. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006.Google Scholar
Kramer, Lawrence. Musical Meaning: Toward a Critical History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Lapedis, Hilary. “Popping the Question: The Function and Effect of Popular Music in Cinema.” Popular Music 18/3 (1999): 367–79.Google Scholar
Meier, Leslie M. “Promotional Ubiquitous Musics: Recording Artists, Brands, and ‘Rendering Authenticity.’” Popular Music and Society 34/4 (2011): 399–415.Google Scholar
Mercer, Kobena. “Monster Metaphors: Notes on Michael Jackson's Thriller.” In Sound and Vision: The Music Video Reader, ed. Frith, Simon, Andrew Goodwin, and Lawrence Grossberg, 80–93. London: Routledge, 1993.Google Scholar
Packard, Vance. The Hidden Persuaders. New York: David McKay Co., 1957.Google Scholar
Powers, Devon. “Strange Powers: The Branded Sensorium and the Intrigue of Musical Sound.” In Blowing up the Brand: Critical Perspectives on Promotional Culture, ed. Aronczyk, Melissa and Powers, Devon, 285–306. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.Google Scholar
Schudson, Michael. Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion: Its Dubious Impact on American Society. New York: Basic Books, 1984.Google Scholar
Senior, Mike. “Bruce Swedien: Recording Michael Jackson.” Sound on Sound. November 2009. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov09/articles/swedien.htm.Google Scholar
Smit, Christopher R., ed. Michael Jackson: Grasping the Spectacle. Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2012.Google Scholar
Sterne, Jonathan. “Sounds Like the Mall of America: Programmed Music and the Architectonics of Commercial Space.” Ethnomusicology 41/1 (1997): 22–50.Google Scholar
Stilwell, Robynn. “The Fantastical Gap between Diegetic and Nondiegetic.” In Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema, ed. Goldmark, Daniel, Kramer, Lawrence, and Leppert, Richard, 184–204. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Swedien, Bruce. In the Studio with Michael Jackson. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Books, 2009.Google Scholar
Taylor, Timothy D.The Sounds of Capitalism: Advertising, Music, and the Conquest of Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Taylor, Timothy D.. “Advertising and the Conquest of Culture.” Social Semiotics 19/4 (2009): 405–25.Google Scholar
Taylor, Timothy D.. “The Changing Shape of the Culture Industry; or, How Did Electronica Music Get into Television Commercials?” Television and New Media 8/3 (2007): 235–58.Google Scholar
Vernallis, Carol. Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Walser, Robert. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Williams, Raymond. “Advertising: The Magic System.” In Media Studies: a Reader, ed. Marris, Paul and Thornham, Sue. New York: New York University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Williamson, Judith. Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertisements. London: Boyars, 1978.Google Scholar
Jackson, Michael. Thriller. Epic, EK 38112, 1982, LP.Google Scholar
Michael Jackson: Video Greatest Hits—HIStory. “Billie Jean.” Directed by Martin Scorsese. New York: Epic Music Video, 2001, DVD.Google Scholar
“The MTV Premiere of Michael Jackson Pepsi.” YouTube.Google Scholar
“The Pepsi Generation.” Pepsi World 45/1 (Winter 1984). LP.Google Scholar
PepsiCo., Inc. “The Concert.” 1984. YouTube.Google Scholar
PepsiCo., Inc. “The Street.” 1984. YouTube.Google Scholar
PepsiCo., Inc. “Music Icons.” 2011. YouTube.Google Scholar
Van Halen: Video Hits, Vol. 1. “Jump.” Directed by David Lee Roth. Burbank, CA: Warner Off Roster, 1996, DVD.Google Scholar
Giraldi, Bob. 2010. Telephone interview by author. 8 October.Google Scholar