Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” attempts to convey messages of anti-violence sentiment to African-American youth audiences across the United States as can be seen through the song itself. With his high commercial success, Jackson reached an audience of individuals across the United States, most importantly the white middle class. Jackson accomplished through his sounds. In “Beat It,” this is seen very greatly as not only do Jackson’s groove, riffs, and melody of the song fall into the category of rock but also Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo strengthens this argument (Fast Ebook). Using influences of rock to introduce and influence his sound, allows for his audience spectrum to widen and to bring in more individuals than his African-American audience who is listening because of his Motown black soul sound. Although he is reaching a white audience, his main target is still the African-American youth. It is extremely important, however, for the white audience to hear this song as well because it is important for this audience to understand a small aspect of the tough lives of many African-American children across the United States, especially since this white middle class audience is the group of people who typically hold the “power” for change.
Jackson’s lyrics in not only “Beat It” but the majority of his songs are important because they chart pivotal life moments for individuals (Scriven 100). Having lyrics that resemble and relate to individuals significant life moments is important because it allows the message he is attempting to convey with those lyrics to stick to his audience. In “Beat It” the lyrics depict primarily a young male adult who wants to seem “macho” and “like a man” through violence or fighting. This is perfectly seen in the first two verses of the song with lyrics such as “They told him, ‘Don’t you ever come around here. Don’t wanna see your face. You better disappear.’ The fire’s in their eyes and their words are really clear./ You better run, you better do what you can. Don’t wanna see no blood, don’t be a macho man. You wanna be tough, better do what you can.” Despite the tension rising in these verses and several others throughout the song, the final refraining line of each verse is “so beat it” or “beat it.” By doing this, Jackson is telling young individuals that although you find yourselves in these tough situations where other people are testing your masculinity, there is nothing wrong with deciding to do the mature thing by beating the urge to fight and walking away. This idea of walking away from the violence being an act of maturity and true masculinity is further strengthened with Jackson’s delivery of the lyrics. By using a sharp and tough timbre to deliver these lyrics Jackson is furthering his message of anti-violence. In the chorus this delivery is different as he uses a more gentle but still loud timbre to further implement this message into the heads of listeners. Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” attempts to convey messages of anti-violence sentiment to African-American youth audiences across the United States through not only the song itself but also through its music video.