Starting Something: Synthesizers and Rhythmic Reorientations in Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”

In 1983, Michael Jackson brought the world to its feet by spinning into the moonwalk while performing “Billie Jean” on live television during the Motown 25 special. In this article, I chart how the analog synthesizers in “Billie Jean” both helped facilitate Jackson’s movement towards black futurity and connected him back to black rhythmic histories encapsulated in disco and funk. By unpacking how he moves with and against these synthesizers in the music video and subsequent live performance, I consider the ways in which this relatively new musical technology allowed Jackson to transmit a black queer phenomenology to his audiences.