When He Was Bad - An Interesting Comparison

From The Root - Michael Jackson’s Influence on Beyoncé’s “Formation,” Explained

"Formation" is Beyoncé's "Bad."

In “Formation,” Beyoncé proudly shouts out her black Southern roots and calls up imagery of Hurricane Katrina and the Black Lives Matter movement. At the Super Bowl the day after it premiered, she took the overtly political imagery even further, with dancers in black berets as an homage to the Black Panthers who at one point even formed an X on the field, presumably a nod to Malcolm X. After almost 20 years of intense scrutiny by the public, of having her appearance, personal life, and “street cred” interrogated, she wanted to let everyone know that she’s not the apolitical, perfectly curated, tabula rasa we long assumed she was.

Perhaps she was taking a cue from one of her childhood idols, to whom she also paid sartorial tribute during her Super Bowl performance: Michael Jackson. In 1987, after almost 20 years of intense scrutiny by the public, of having his appearance, personal life, and “street cred” interrogated, Jackson made a similarly socially conscious statement to his fans.

That year, Jackson debuted the characteristically elaborate short film for “Bad,” in which he plays Daryl, a kid from the inner city who returns home after finishing his first semester at a fancy, all-white prep school. Daryl is stuck between two worlds, unsure of where he fits in—slightly uncomfortable among the rich white kids, but no longer willing to get into trouble with his wayward childhood friends (including Wesley Snipes, in his debut) from his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. They teasingly address him as “college,” and become upset with his newfound reluctance to participate in their schemes of mugging strangers, claiming he’s not “down” anymore and has gone “soft.” Daryl pushes back against this criticism, which leads us into the iconic West Side Story-esque musical centerpiece set in a Brooklyn subway station, in which he sings about how “bad” he is.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/02/12/how_beyonce_s_formation_follows_in_the_footsteps_of_michael_jackson_s_bad.html