The original video is fairly typical of Micael Jackson's distinctive style, a largely performance-based video but shown through the lens of a strong narrative. This style, also seen in the videos for "Beat It", "Bad" and "Thriller" has been highly influential on music video in general, particularly in pop music.
The video is essentially a largely inconsequential scene in Moonwalker, other than a sequence in which Jackson's pursuers in the movie appear with guns, forcing a standoff late in the video. Within itself, it has a meta-narrative (Which is how it is able to stand alone as a music video) involving Jackson trying to impress and placate the people in the bar through his dancing, in an effort to avoid an all-out fight.
The dancing itself is very similar to the kind of group, synchronised dancing seen in other Jackson videos like "Thriller" - lines of people performing dance moves as led by Jackson. Amongst the moves shown is, as noted above, the Anti-Gravity Lean, one of the most famous Michael Jackson dance moves ever seen (Along with, for example, the Moonwalk). This move would become so iconic, Jackson and his people would eventually patent a way to perform the move live onstage so as to better replicate the feel of the video when the song was performed live.
As can be expected, there is a lot of focus on Michael and his image. He is shown frequently in closeup, and is almost always the focus of the camera's attention. His costume is very distinctively Michael Jackson too, showing that the video's (And the movie's) producers were very aware of the strength and importance of MJ's image.
This video is a direct evolution of the style originated in the Beat It video (Read more about that here), so we feel it is significant to our research even in its own right. However, the existence of the Alien Ant Farm cover doubles the significance.
The Alien Ant Farm cover's video is significantly different to the original. Although it too is largely performance based, the majority of this performance is the band playing rather than the dancing seen in the original, this is indicative of the difference between rock music videos and pop music videos. Pop audiences, particularly Michael Jackson's target audience, are most interested in seeing the artist and seeing the dancing. Rock audiences care more about the music, so it is almost always wise to show the band playing in rock videos.
Aside from that, the Alien Ant Farm video has a significantly different tone from the Michael Jackson original, taking a much more irreverent and lighthearted approach than the moody and arthouse feel of the original. This reflects the Alien Ant Farm image, which is of a rebellious and fun-loving band. Like Fall Out Boy, they do not take themselves too seriously.
See the original here
See the Alien Ant Farm version here
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