Michael Jackson: Heal the World

The soft rock and gospel song ‘Heal the World’ is from Michael Jackson’s 1991 album Dangerous. It was released in CD format, 7” and 12”, with this songs duration of 6:23 minutes. This song was believed, by his main fan-base, to be one of the best songs written by Michael Jackson; in fact it was so famous that in 2001 Michael created a charity named after it which helped children around the world.

Jackson’s method of writing was very different to other songwriters. When he would come up with an idea for a song, he would go straight to a recording studio and without lyrics he would record the vocals, he sang the lyrics from the top of his memory. He did that for most of his songs. For this song he used seven chords; Bm7, A, C#m, Bm7 being his main four chords.

In this song he uses his common trick, which he uses in most of his songs, of switching from major to minor. This adds a very sad sense to the whole song, but at the same time giving the readers a sense of hope. It makes them feel that maybe if they take action they can achieve something. 

The instruments used in the song are drum kit, guitar, piano, percussion, electric piano, guitar, synthesiser, bass and synthesiser strings. There is also a male voice, Jacksons own, and backing vocals.

The song starts off with a little girl talking, almost narrating or making a wish, about making the world more appealing for the future generations. The structure of the song is clear to pick out by ear; verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 4, verse, chorus x3 and a coda to finish off. The verses and choruses are all 8 bars. Jackson also used harmonies, counter-melody, in the last two repeats of the chorus, with two different keys. This works well as it tells the listeners that the song will be ending soon.

His hook is also in the middle 4, where he goes to a very high on the line ‘Be God’s glow’. This adds a really good anti-climax which also leads well to the verse. The song ends with the girl, who narrated the beginning, singing ‘Heal the world we live in, save it for our children.’ This gives the song a whole innocent feeling and ends the song the song the way it started; it gave the song a start and finish point.       

The lyrics of the song really emphasise the pain that is being inflicted on the world by humans. ‘Heal the world; make it a better place for you and me, and the entire human race. There are people dying.’ He creates quite a clear image of what is happening to the world. In the lyrics he also talks directly to the listeners, ‘If you care enough for the living, make it a better place for you and me.’ This really touches the listeners and makes them want to take action, hence another reason the song was so famous. It focuses on the caring nature the humans are meant to have. They talk about the world in general and how we are affecting it. He talks about improving it for the future generations; it is written in second person, ‘Heal the world, and make it a better place, for you and for me.’

The music was composed by Michael Jackson too, and most of it was also produced by him. It has had many hits all around the world and many schools played and sang it in school assemblies and recitals. Michael touched many hearts with this song; it gave hope to many for a better future.

In my point of view, Jackson got the message he intended across. The song clearly paints a picture of how the world could be improved for the future, and what we are doing to it at the moment in life. The song is very well mixed with a good balance in the voices and music. The overall feel of the song is sad but still gives me a sense of hope, like something can be done to make the ‘world a better place’.

Afsheen Butt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heal_the_World

http://trowbridgeplanetearth.com/T2/T2MEM/news/michaelj.html