Michael Jackson Interview

BOB COLACELLO: Did you like performing as a child? Did you always love it?

MICHAEL JACKSON: Always did. I always enjoyed the feeling of being onstage—the magic that comes. When I hit the stage it’s like all of a sudden a magic from somewhere just comes and the spirit just hits you and you just lose control of yourself. I came onstage at Quincy’s [Jones] concert at the Rose Bowl and I did not want to go onstage. I was ducking and hiding and hoping he wouldn’t see me hiding behind people when he called me on. Then I went up there and I just went crazy. I started climbing up the scaffold, the speakers, the light gear. The audience started getting into it and I started dancing and singing and that’s what happens.

COLACELLO: How do you compare acting to performing on the stage?

JACKSON: I love both. Acting is the cream of the crop. I love performing. It’s a phenomenal getaway. If you want to really let out everything you feel, that’s the time to do it. With acting, it’s like becoming another person. I think that’s neat, especially when you totally forget. If you totally forget, which I love to do, that’s when it’s magic. I love to create magic—to put something together that’s so unusual, so unexpected that it blows people’s heads off. Something ahead of the times. Five steps ahead of what people are thinking. So people see it and say, “Whoa I wasn’t expecting that.” I love surprising people with a present or a gift or a stage performance or anything. I love John Travolta, who came off that Kotter show. Nobody knew he could dance or do all those things. He is like—boom. Before he knew it, he was the next big Brando or something.

COLACELLO: He hasn’t done much lately.

JACKSON: I know. I think he’s choosing scripts and stuff. It’s always difficult for anyone trying to compete against their past achievements . . .

COLACELLO: It seems that what really motivates you is your desire to entertain people, to please people. What about fame and money? Could you imagine not being famous or does being famous bother you?

JACKSON: It never has bothered me except sometimes when you want peace. Like you go to the theatre and you say, “Nobody’s bothering me tonight, I’m wearing my hat and glasses and I’m going to enjoy this film and that’s all there is to it.” You get in there and everybody’s watching and staring at you and at the climax of the film somebody taps you on the shoulder for an autograph. You just feel like you can’t get away . . .

COLACELLO: You’re very close to your parents. Do they live out here in L.A.?

JACKSON: Yes. My mother’s upstairs. My father’s at the office.

COLACELLO: What’s your typical day like?

JACKSON: Daydreaming most of the day. I get up early and get ready for whatever I’ve got to do, song writing or whatever it is. Planning the future and stuff.

COLACELLO: Are you optimistic about the future?

JACKSON: Yes. I always like to plan ahead of time and follow up . . .

COLACELLO: Do you care about fashion much?

JACKSON: No, I care about what I wear onstage. You know what I love, though? I don’t care about everyday clothes. I love putting on an outfit or a costume and just looking at myself in the mirror. Baggy pants or some real funky shoes and a hat and just feeling the character of it. That’s fun to me.

COLACELLO: You like to act a lot just in everyday life?

JACKSON: I love it so much. It’s escape. It’s fun. It’s just neat to become another thing, another person. Especially when you really believe in it and it’s not like you’re acting. I always hated the word acting—to say, “I’m an actor.” It should be more than that. It should be more like a believer.

COLACELLO: But isn’t that a little frightening when you believe it totally?

JACKSON: No, that’s what I really love about it. I just like to really forget.

COLACELLO: Why do you want to forget so much? Do you think life is really hard?

JACKSON: No, maybe it’s because I just like jumping in other people’s lives and exploring. Like Charlie Chaplin. I just love him to death. The little tramp, the whole gear and everything, and his heart—everything he portrayed on the screen was a truism. It was his whole life. He was born in London, and his father died an alcoholic when he was six. He roamed the streets of England, begging, poor, and hungry. All this reflects on the screen and that’s what I like to do, to bring all of those truths out . . .

COLACELLO: Do you sometimes feel as though you missed out on childhood because you’ve always been performing in the adult world?

JACKSON: Sometimes.

COLACELLO: But you like people older than yourself, experienced people.

JACKSON: I love experienced people. I love people who are phenomenally talented. I love people who’ve worked so hard and been so courageous and are the leaders in their fields. For me to meet somebody like that and learn from them and share words with them—to me that’s magic. To work together. I’m crazy about Steven Spielberg. Another inspiration for me, and I don’t know where it came from, is children. If I’m down, I’ll take a book with children’s pictures and look at it and it will just lift me up. Being around children is magic . . .

COLACELLO: Are you interested in art?

JACKSON: I love to draw—pencil, ink pen—I love art. When I go on tour and visit museums in Holland, Germany or England—you know those huge paintings?—I’m just amazed. You don’t think a painter could do something like that. I can look at a piece of sculpture or a painting and totally lose myself in it. Standing there watching it and becoming part of the scene. It can draw tears; it can touch you so much. See, that’s where I think the actor or performer should be—to touch that truth inside of the person. Touch that reality so much that they become a part of what you’re doing and you can take them anywhere you want to. You’re happy, they’re happy. Whatever the human emotions, they’re right there with you. I love realism. I don’t like plastics. Deep down inside we’re all the same. We all have the same emotions and that’s why a film like E.T. touches everybody. Who doesn’t want to fly like Peter Pan? Who doesn’t want to fly with some magic creature from outer space and be friends with him? Steven went straight to the heart. He knows—when in doubt, go for the heart . . .


This interview shows Michael Jackson's ideology and what he believes in. It also shows what he wanted his music to be about and how his songs have a message behind them. The message is a serious message and he says he is trying to change people through his music. I wanted this style of interview for the interview in my college magazine as it is something more interesting for the readers to read and relate to.

Flat Plans

Flat Plans

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Conventions of the Cover

Music Magazines Analysis

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Music Magazine Analysis

Music Magazines Analysis

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Contents Page - College Magazine

This is the contents page for the college magazine, the photography was taken by myself and photoshop was used for editing.

Front Cover - College Magazine

This is the front cover for the college magazine. The photography was taken by myself and put together using photoshop.

Front Cover First Attempt

This image is my first attempt of the front cover for my college magazine, it was edited on photoshop. Firstly the magic eraser was used to erase the background, then the normal eraser tool was used to erase any other bits that were missed and to make the edges neater.

College Magazine Style

For my college magazine the style I am choosing is The Fashion Edition as from my questionnaire I discovered that fashion aswell as music is very important to my audience. It will include lots of pictures as this is something that was wanted by my audience and the fashion included will be of varied styles as this also came out as something that was wanted by my audience.

Audience Research Questionnaire

I conducted a questionnaire to my college magazine audience to find out what they wanted from a college magazine and what kind of people they are, here are my results;
Audience Research – Questionnaire

1-What are your religious beliefs?

Christian  Christian  Agnostic  Atheist  Muslim 

2-Where abouts in the UK do you live?

North East  North East  North East  North East  North East

3-What are your interests/hobbies?

Music, fashion, family  Partying  Music&Writing  Playing guitar/music  Go-karting

4-Would you say you have a particular fashion sense or style?

Vintage  No  No  No  Yeah

5-Who is your biggest influence in fashion?

Fearne Cotton  Friends  No  No  Gok Wan

6-What is your favourite band?

Jimi Hendrix  Michael Buble  Muse  Joy division  Pendulum

7-How would you describe your personality?

Ask people who know me  Funny, friendly, caring  Different  Friendly  Funny

8-What are your political views?

None  None  Unsure  Labour  Labour

9-What is the typical yearly income for your household?

Don’t know  Don’t know  Don’t know  Don’t know  Don’t know

10-What education have you had? (E.g. describe school, college etc)

School/College  School/College  School/College  School/College  School/College

11-Do you want to go to university? Where?

Maybe-Don’t know  Yes-Edinburgh  Yes-Durham  Yes-Don’t know  Yes-Unsure

12-What is your nationality?

British  British  British  British  British

13-Do you aspire to have your own house/car in the future?

Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes

14-Is respect important to you?

Yes  Yes  Very  Yes  Yes

15-Which is most important to you, friends or success?

Friends  Success  Friends  Friends  Success

16-Would you mind telling me what your parents do for a living?

Teaching  ICI, Coast&Country  Supervisor, Unemployed  Teacher,Contractor  Property Developers 

17-What you aspire to be doing in 10 years time?

Travelling  Married&Kids  Teaching/Writing  Earning loads of money  Earning millions

18-What do you think is most important in a college magazine?

No Comment  Free stuff/vouchers  Variety  Pictures  Pictures

19-When you go out shopping do you usually buy the same brands?

               Yes          No

No  No  No  No  Yes

20-Who is the most influential person in your life and how do they influence you?

Mum&Dad  Mam  No single person  Friends  Omid Djalili-Comedian

The questions I chose to ask in my questionnaire were selected to try and find out as much as possible about my audience. My first two questions, ‘What are your religious beliefs?’ and ‘Where abouts in the UK do you live?’ were used to find out a bit about the person which is part of the 'Reception Theory’. Questions 3 ‘What are your interests/hobbies?’, 4 ‘Would you say you have a particular fashion sense or style?’, 5 ‘Who is your biggest influence in fashion? which is part of the  ‘Two-Step Flow Theory’,6 ‘What is your favourite band?’& 7 ‘How would you describe your personality?’ were asked to distinguish their taste in music and fashion. The rest of the questions were asked to find out about their background and to find out which social grade they belong to, however question 18, ‘What do you think is most important in a college magazine?’ was asked so I could find out what is important to people in a college magazine and what my audience would like to see in the college magazine which is part of the 'Uses & Gratifications’ and ‘Hypodermic’ theories. I used a combination of open and closed questions which gave the participants the opportunity to give their own opinion and it also allowed me to get the answers i wanted or needed.
From my results i concluded that people can be quite unsure about what they mean or who they are, this could be due to the age of the people who were asked. Also i think that it seems that people were saying what they wanted to be or thought they were rather than who they actually are as in society we've put labels on everyone so much that people feel they don't want to have a label so they be 'individual'. I also think that the answers could have been answered to please the researcher and the participants answered with what they thought I wanted to hear rather than the actual truth.

Pop Case Study - Lily Allen

Lily Allen burst onto the pop music scene in 2006 after being signed by a record label after they heard her voice on the social networking site Myspace. When her first album was released she stood out for many reasons including her fashion sense and her down-to-earth attitude. Many people found her views contraversial yet she was still seen as a fashion icon and she later released a fashion line containing her trademark dresses with a popular high-street chain. The pictures below show her when she first came onto the pop scene.

Not long after this she was seen as going 'off the rails' dying her hair pink and having a string of failed relationships. The picture above shows this.

However, throughout this she still maintained her style icon status and modelled for Chanel despite her not fitting the average model stereotype. The pictures above show this. This raised her profile in the fashion world and had her rubbing shoulders with some very influential people.

At present Lily Allen is becoming a mother and has quit the music scene due to reasons that she has not disclosed, she did however post on her official blog that she wasn't going to be making any further albums. Just before announcing this she had been campaigning against music piracy and had said that any money she was making was being swallowed up by the record companies, she also said she isn't giving up on music entirely and is still a fan.

Photography Task

We worked in groups to take photographs using different camera angles. Here are some of them.

This is a low angled shot.

This shot is a close-up shot.

This is a high angled close shot.

This is another close-up.

This is a side view close-up.

This photo uses the rule of three which is popular with album covers of bands.

This is an example of juxtaposition.

Introduction to Coursework

This is my first post for my music magazine coursework blog project. In this blog will be my ideas for my music magazine.
I don't have a particular taste in music, I will listen to any song that I like, regardless of the artist.
The magazine I am going to study is Smash Hits as it focuses on the genre of pop music which is generally what I enjoy and what I would choose to listen to. Smash Hits magazine is now an online magazine which includes the music in the charts. As this isn't available anymore it's not in the top-sellers of magazines.

Some current music magazines include:

-Smash Hits www.smashhits.net
-Q www.qthemusic.com
-Vibe www.vibe.com
-Uncut www.uncut.co.uk/magazine
-NME  www.nme.com
-Kerrang   www.kerrang.com
-Metal Hammer www.metalhammer.co.uk
-Rolling Stone   www.rollingstone.com
-Mix Mag   www.mixmag.net

Music is also often listened to on the internet, some music blogs include:

-Music Blogs, www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog , www.musicbyday.com , www.buzzinmusicblog.co.uk