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'Don't be a macho man'

- January 13, 2010

聽'Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it/No one wants to be defeated.'
'They're out to get you, better leave while you can.'
'It doesn't matter who's wrong or right.'
It鈥檚 a strange way to think of the late King of Pop 鈥 not only in light of the accusations and scandals that dogged the later years of his career, but also because he lacked the irony and camp we often find in celebrities and performers embraced by LGBT communities. But Susan Fast, a professor of cultural studies at McMaster University, is interested in Jackson鈥檚 鈥渜ueerness鈥 in a slightly different sense.

As the second lecture in the David Schroeder Music & Culture Series, Dr. Fast鈥檚 visit to 黄色直播 last week was something of a homecoming: she was a Killam post-doctoral fellow in music earlier in her studies. The author of several notable works in popular music studies 鈥 perhaps most famously 2001鈥檚 In the Houses of the Holy: Led Zeppelin and the Power of Rock Music 鈥 she used the occasion to present a new paper exploring how Michael Jackson operated as a "boundary creature": 鈥渂lurring the lines between male and female, child and adult, black and white.鈥

Hence, her use of the word 鈥渜ueer鈥 鈥 not necessarily in a purely sexual sense, but as something that lives at the loose ends, or by the definition of David Halperin, 鈥渨hatever is at odds with the normal.鈥 Dr. Fast argues that one of Jackson鈥檚 most interesting confrontations with normalcy is musical, in his embrace and reworking of genres like heavy metal that are generally associated with masculinity and heteronormativity.

A good deal of her case study focused on the famous video for Beat It, which features two rival street gangs facing off before a didactic Jackson intervenes and leads everyone to cooperate through dance. Though obviously inspired by the film West Side Story, the dancing in that film is used to reinforce a traditional idea of masculinity. Instead, Beat It subverts its metal riffs and Eddie Van Halen guitar solo with its lyric 鈥 鈥渁dvising retreat in the face of adversary,鈥 as Dr. Fast points out 鈥 and with its dance sequence. Rather traditional rock gestures, she argues, 鈥渢he dance focuses on the full-body wave, counter to the solid masculinity of hard rock.鈥 She also showed performances of the song on-tour as Jackson鈥檚 female guitarist, Jennifer Batten, reinterpreted the solo and further complicated the metal narratives Jackson was playing with.

The David Schroeder Music & Culture Series kicked off in October with a presentation by its namesake, who retired from the Department of Music in December after almost 30 years as a faculty member. Dr. Fast, who was a student during Dr. Schroeder鈥檚 time on the faculty, opened her remarks stating: 鈥淚鈥檓 quite honoured to be doing a talk under that rubric.鈥

Beat It

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
So beat it, just beat it

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
So beat it, but you wanna be bad

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right
Just beat it, beat it
Just beat it, beat it
Just beat it, beat it
Just beat it, beat it

They're out to get you, better leave while you can
Don't wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man
You wanna stay alive, better do what you can
So beat it, just beat it

You have to show them that you're really not scared
You're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare
They'll kick you, then they beat you,
Then they'll tell you it's fair
So beat it, but you wanna be bad

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right
Just beat it, beat it
Beat it, beat it, beat it

Beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or who's right

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right
Just beat it, beat it
Beat it, beat it, beat it

Beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or who's right

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Just beat it, beat it
Beat it, beat it, beat it