 In a Rolling Stone review , Christopher Connelly described " Billie Jean " as a " lean , insistent funk number whose message couldn 't be more blunt : ' She says I am the one / But the kid is not my son ' " . He added that the track was a " sad , almost mournful song , but a thumping resolve underlies [ Jackson 's ] feelings " . Blender stated that the song was " one of the most sonically eccentric , psychologically fraught , downright bizarre things ever to land on Top 40 radio " . They added that it was " frighteningly stark , with a pulsing , cat @-@ on @-@ the @-@ prowl bass figure , whip @-@ crack downbeat and eerie multi @-@ tracked vocals ricocheting in the vast spaces between keyboards and strings " . Overall , the magazine described the track as " a five @-@ minute @-@ long nervous breakdown , set to a beat " . Stylus said of the song , " It 's one of the best representations of film noir in pop music , ending with no resolution except a single mother and selfish , careless <unk> . " In a review of Thriller 25 , AllMusic observed that " Billie Jean " was " startling " in its " futuristic funk " . The track also won praise from Jackson biographers . Nelson George stated that Jerry Hey 's string arrangement added danger to " Billie Jean " , while J. Randy Taraborrelli added that it was " dark and sparse " by Quincy Jones ' production standards . 
