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Themes and cultural appeals of Michael Jackson's THRILLER video

FionaM

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An in depth analysis of the Thriller short film

 
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very good!


"...munching prominently on popcorn, like he's eating the girl"
rolf.gif
 
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I Know I Am Someone: Michael Jackson, “Thriller”, and American Identity - ProQuest

Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.
www.proquest.com www.proquest.com

"I Know I Am Someone: Michael Jackson, Thriller, and American Identity" by Sara Tenenbaum

Haven't had time to read the whole thing. As far as I can tell the content is OK. The bit I did read was really interesting.

Here's the abstract:

Abstract of Thesis "I Know I Am Someone: Michael Jackson, Thriller, and American Identity"

"This thesis addresses the cultural phenomenon surrounding Michael Jackson's 1982 album Thriller and uses it as a lens through which to view and analyze the development of a distinct American, primarily youth, identity in 1983 and 1984. It is structured using a three-prong approach that first analyzes the sonic work of the music of Thriller, second explores the characteristics of Michaelmania and the youth identity being constructed within the Michael Jackson pop explosion, and third analyzes the backlash from both the white and African American communities against Jackson in that time to illuminate his subversion and danger to the status quo. I argue that Jackson's act of profound crossover during the Thriller era triggered within the American youth an equally profound act of identity formation that transcended racial stratification in America's past and created a foundational part of our contemporary identity that moves slightly beyond America's troubled racial history. Using both the voices of his fans and his critics to tease out the work his person and his music did in the early 1980's, I advocate we keep Jackson and his work foregrounded in our study of popular culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as his pop explosion fundamentally and permanently effected how Americans understand ourselves and our relations with each other."
(Sara Tenenbaum)

***********************************************************************************

And here's a quote from the introduction:

"My intention is to use [Greil] Marcus' framework of the pop explosion to explore the effects of Michael and Thriller in 1983, configuring it not as a total break with the past but as a powerful eruption of African American culture into the American mainstream. Though he does not utilize the tropes of Black Nationalism or civil rights explicitly in his lyrics, Jackson in both sound and image conjures black history and culture while simultaneously transforming them into a product so compelling that the white mainstream was helpless to resist it."
(Sara Tenenbaum)

******************************************************************************

And a further quote from the introduction which gives one of the most accurate accounts of the whole MTV / Thriller video story that I have seen:

"Bob Pittman, the channel's founder and head, had relied on extensive market research of widespread, largely white consumer markets and determined that white suburbanites between the ages of 14 and 34 (MTV's target demographic) were not interested in black music, and would be more likely to stop watching if they saw a black face on their TV. There were very few exceptions, mostly for established acts like Tina Turner, and also for one Prince song that was deemed to have enough guitars to make it rock 'n' roll. "Billie Jean" became the first black video made for a black song put into heavy rotation by MTV despite the fact that it didn't fit the channel's supposed format."
(Sara Tenenbaum)
 
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4 Pop Video: Michael Jackson's ‘Thriller’ and ‘Race’: Approach: ‘Race’ Studies​

Peter Childs

  • Published: September 2006
academic.oup.com

Pop Video: Michael Jackson's ‘Thriller’ and ‘Race’: Approach: ‘Race’ Studies

Abstract. One of Michael Jackson’s hit singles has the consistent line in its chorus, ‘It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White’: the statement of an ideal
academic.oup.com academic.oup.com

Abstract​

"One of Michael Jackson’s hit singles has the consistent line in its chorus, ‘It Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White’: the statement of an ideal rather than a social fact. In Western society, white has been generally portrayed as a norm against which blackness is positioned as aberrant – threatening and perhaps even monstrous. As well as telling a mini-story familiar from teen horror, Michael Jackson’s music video for his song ‘Thriller’ invokes a number of discourses about ‘race’ and race relations in the US. Riffing on 1950s horror movies, it divides small-town America between respectable cinemagoers, fascinated and appalled by celluloid monsters, and unseen street zombies who re-colonise the night. By drawing on the xenophobia of cold war America and its continuing segregationist racial policies, ‘Thriller’, like many 1950s sci-fi movies, preaches both a fear and acceptance of ‘the Other’ outside and within society. Jackson’s own troubled relationship with chromatism forms a further context for readings of the video, as does his position in both black and white popular music."
(Peter Childs)

Keywords: ‘Race’ Studies, Michael Jackson, ‘Thriller’, music video
Subject: Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)Literary Theory and Cultural Studies

Posting this abstract as another example of people's fascination with the depth and richness to be found in Michael's work.
 
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"Thriller" in the Library of Congress: 2007 National Recording Registry Announced

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named 25 additions to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress as part of its efforts to preserve the nation’s aural history.
www.loc.gov

Thriller's official entry into the Library of Congress National Registry. Here are the bits I think are most relevant:

"What our president said to the nation, what the nation said to the universe, and a cornucopia of musical milestones highlight the major themes of the 2007 National Recording Registry. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named 25 additions to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress as part of its efforts to preserve the nation’s aural history. Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian, with advice from the Library’s National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB), annually selects 25 recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" to preserve for all time. Registry recordings must be at least 10 years old. The selections for 2007 bring the total number of recordings in the registry to 250 ... Among the selections are Harry S. Truman’s legendary address to the Democratic National Convention in 1948; a collection of more than 1,000 radio broadcast recordings by Ronald Reagan before his election to the White House; the first trans-Atlantic radio broadcast in 1925; Michael Jackson’s "Thriller," the best-selling album of all time, produced by the legendary Quincy Jones ... "

"25. "Thriller," Michael Jackson (1982) Michael Jackson’s second album with legendary producer Quincy Jones attained stratospheric national and international success. Featuring outstanding performances by Paul McCartney on "The Girl is Mine" and a metallic Eddie Van Halen guitar lead on "Beat It," the album’s influence on the record industry and subsequent popular music is immeasurable. The album also includes the strong disco-inflected "Billie Jean" and the compelling title track "Thriller," featuring an eerie voice-over by Vincent Price. Jackson’s keen pop sensibilities, performances by a wide range of talented musicians and Quincy Jones’ expert production all contributed to making "Thriller" the best-selling album of all time."
 

"The Untold Truth of Michael Jackson's Thriller video"

Bless them. The video seems to have been posted on YT in 2020 so I don't know how much sense it makes to call it the 'Untold Truth'.

Anyway, from 9m to approx 11m there's a couple of minutes of stuff relating to Ola Ray and John Landis suing for unpaid monies. The rest of it is OK. For me, the only new thing was the Michael quote from the Jehovah's Witness publication 'Awake'. But it's a nicely put together video. Lots of lovely images of Michael.
 
www.thehypemagazine.com

Michael Jackson’s Influence on Culture Proves Immortal 10 Years After His Death

<strong>Ten years ago, the world watched as an emotional Jermaine Jackson announced the shocking new...
www.thehypemagazine.com www.thehypemagazine.com

Published June 2019

It's not specifically about Thriller, more a general appraisal of Michael's career.

These paragraphs are relevant to Thriller:

"When dusk became nightfall on that summer evening, his music could be heard blasting from open car windows, restaurants, television sets, computers, and CD players. Groups of people danced together in the street to “Thriller,” to replicate that famous choreographed scene from the video that broke color barriers and sealed Jackson’s place as an iconic crossover artist when it appeared on MTV. People of all ages, races, and ethnicities sang, spun, and danced to the soundtrack of their lives provided by the creative genius that was Michael Jackson.

Across genres and generations, the name Michael Jackson remains unboxed –he was not just the King of Pop, he was more like the King of Lifestyle and Culture. His work set standards; standards even he devoted time to surpass, as he was admittedly his own most formidable competitor.

Michael’s brilliance, edginess, and courage to explore uncharted territory became part of his brand and influenced a new generation of artists. In 1983, it became clear to the world that Michael was built for super stardom, as his uniqueness could never be considered trend – far from it. He was the first artist to push and define a new concept for music videos; why just tell the story through lyrics when you can give the audience a short film?

The production of “Thriller,” a 13:42 film, was the first of its kind but soon spawned the documentary format in the music industry we know today. Even though MTV played the video in regular rotation, fans wanted on-demand viewing access, which led to the sale of millions of VHS copies of the film, ultimately, driving the increase of album sales as well."
 

Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ at 35: A Look Back at the Groundbreaking Album​

The New York Times / By Claudio E. Cabrera / Nov. 30, 2017



Afaik, the New York Times is behind a paywall so that link probably won't last very long. Posting a couple of paragraphs from the piece:

"On Dec. 19, 1982, the Times music critic John Rockwell reviewed Mr. Jackson’s album in glowing terms:

“Thriller” is a wonderful pop record, the latest statement by one of the great singers in popular music today. But it is more than that. It is as hopeful a sign as we have had yet that the destructive barriers that spring up regularly between white and black music — and between whites and blacks — in this culture may be breached once again. Most important of all, it is another signpost on the road to Michael Jackson’s own artistic fulfillment.
Click to expand...


"The cultural presence of the album was such that in January 1984, Mr. Jackson was called “a pioneering entertainer” by the Times’s pop music critic Jon Pareles:

Over the last year, Mr. Jackson’s songs have defined dance music. The arrangements on the “Thriller” album mesh his piping voice with a muscular blend of real and electronic sounds, in rhythms that can’t be categorized as rock or funk or disco.
“Thriller” is now played on rock radio stations that cater largely to young white listeners as well as on urban dance-music stations that appeal largely to blacks. Before “Thriller,” few entertainers were able to cross that subtle color line. A similar crossover has taken place on cable television, where Mr. Jackson’s video clips are shown on programs that rarely offer black performers.
Click to expand...
 
I know the thread title specifies the video but I can't separate the video in my mind from the song and the album. Here's another quote from the Sara Tenenbaum thesis:

"The power of Jackson's performance, on television for the Motown 25: Yesterday,
Today, Forever special, in music videos, and on stage, made him an object of desire and worship.
Though by modern standards Thriller exploded almost without promotion – seven singles, sure,
but only three videos and a meager handful of public appearances by Jackson – it and the artist
behind it saturated every aspect of American life without dampening or compromising his racial
expression." (emphasis added)

(quoted from P.3 - "I Know I Am Someone: Michael Jackson, Thriller, and American Identity" - 2011 Master's thesis by Sara Tenenbaum)

I can't really remember the promotion campaign for the album. But if the promotion really was relatively modest the success of the album becomes even more astonishing than it already is. I feel like I want to know more about this bit of the story.
 
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www.vanityfair.com

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”: How an Iconic Music Video Was Made

Behind the scenes of Michael Jackson’s music video “Thriller,” the production of which revealed how damaged the young pop idol already was.
www.vanityfair.com www.vanityfair.com

The 'Thriller' Diaries / by Nancy Griffin / Vanity Fair / 2010

A lengthy piece primarily looking at the making of the Thriller video but also examining some other aspects of Michael's career and personal life along the way.

Here's a selection of quotes from the piece:

"The video’s frenzied reception, whipped up by round-the-clock showings on MTV, would more than double album sales ... "

"Jackson would dominate pop culture for the remainder of the decade, owning the 80s as Elvis had owned the 50s and the Beatles the 60s"

"Executives at Epic pushed the LP tirelessly, pressuring a range of radio formats to play it and marketing it as a mainstream disc."

"Most serendipitously, Jackson was the ideal video star. Not only did he radiate an epicene glamour that was at once innocent and intensely erotic, but he was also conceptually inventive, a great dancer, and a sartorial trendsetter."

"The A-list turned out for the premiere at the 500-seat historic Crest Theatre: Diana Ross, Warren Beatty, Prince, Eddie Murphy. “I’ve been to the Oscars, the BAFTAs, the Emmys, and the Golden Globes, and I had never seen anything like this,” remembers Landis."

"Landis warmed up the audience with a new print of the Mickey Mouse cartoon “The Band Concert.” Then came “Thriller,” with its sound mix cranked up to top volume. Fourteen minutes later the crowd was on its feet, applauding and crying, “Encore! Encore!” Eddie Murphy shouted, “Show the goddamn thing again!” And they did."

"As the December 2 MTV debut of “Thriller” approached, there was massive audience anticipation. Former MTV executive Les Garland says the network settled on a saturation strategy he describes as “ ‘Every time we play “Thriller,” let’s tell them when we are going to play it again.’ We played it three to five times a day. We were getting audience ratings 10 times the usual when we popped ‘Thriller.' "
 
zinniabooklover said:
"Most serendipitously, Jackson was the ideal video star. Not only did he radiate an epicene glamour that was at once innocent and intensely erotic
Click to expand...
OMG if this isn't the realest description I've ever read...

zinniabooklover said:
but he was also conceptually inventive, a great dancer, and a sartorial trendsetter."
Click to expand...
YES!!! Honestly, every time I watch Billie Jean, when he struts down that pathway in front of the billboard, lighting up the tiles, popping his collar, oh my lord... simultaneously the coolest, sexiest, most fascinating person alive.

zinniabooklover said:
"The A-list turned out for the premiere at the 500-seat historic Crest Theatre: Diana Ross, Warren Beatty, Prince, Eddie Murphy. “I’ve been to the Oscars, the BAFTAs, the Emmys, and the Golden Globes, and I had never seen anything like this,” remembers Landis."

"Landis warmed up the audience with a new print of the Mickey Mouse cartoon “The Band Concert.” Then came “Thriller,” with its sound mix cranked up to top volume. Fourteen minutes later the crowd was on its feet, applauding and crying, “Encore! Encore!” Eddie Murphy shouted, “Show the goddamn thing again!” And they did."
Click to expand...
Every time I read this description I want to burst into tears. I can't even imagine witnessing this. It must have been electric to be there.
 
zinniabooklover said:
I know the thread title specifies the video but I can't separate the video in my mind from the song and the album. Here's another quote from the Sara Tenenbaum thesis:

"The power of Jackson's performance, on television for the Motown 25: Yesterday,
Today, Forever special, in music videos, and on stage, made him an object of desire and worship.
Though by modern standards Thriller exploded almost without promotion – seven singles, sure,
but only three videos and a meager handful of public appearances by Jackson – it and the artist
behind it saturated every aspect of American life without dampening or compromising his racial
expression." (emphasis added)

(quoted from P.3 - "I Know I Am Someone: Michael Jackson, Thriller, and American Identity" - 2006 Master's thesis by Sara Tenenbaum)

I can't really remember the promotion campaign for the album. But if the promotion really was relatively modest the success of the album becomes even more astonishing than it already is. I feel like I want to know more about this bit of the story.
Click to expand...
You have me sooooo excited to read this thesis!! I think I will save it for December when my semester lets out. I need to not forget about this!
 
staywild23 said:
You have me sooooo excited to read this thesis!! I think I will save it for December when my semester lets out. I need to not forget about this!
Click to expand...
Yesterday I was reading fragments. Today I'm doing it properly. Have only just done the intro. Really, really enjoyed it. There are a couple of tiny typos but, so far, that's my only complaint. Next up is Ch.1 so I'll be properly finding out what she really wants to say. Based on what I've read so far I'm expecting it to be good. I like her thinking style, her writing style. She's taking it seriously but isn't being an idiot academic (apologies, lol) with stupid jargon. She's made some bold statements. It's looking good so far.
 

Michael Jackson broke the colour barrier​

Natasha Fatah · CBC News · Posted: Jun 29, 2009 5:25 PM ET | Last Updated: June 29, 2009

"When Thriller was released in 1982, music lovers around the world rushed to record stores to get the highly anticipated new album from Michael Jackson. His deliciously catchy lyrics and melodies poured out from radio stations everywhere."

"From Mexico to Moscow, Calgary to Cape Town, New York to New Delhi – Michael belonged to all of us. There were millions of kids like me dancing in their bedrooms to his music. Sure, stars like The Beatles or Elvis also had international reach. But Michael was black, and for little kids of colour, that made him different. It made him more accessible than the others; he was one of us."
 
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zinniabooklover said:

Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ at 35: A Look Back at the Groundbreaking Album​

The New York Times / By Claudio E. Cabrera / Nov. 30, 2017



Afaik, the New York Times is behind a paywall so that link probably won't last very long. Posting a couple of paragraphs from the piece:

"On Dec. 19, 1982, the Times music critic John Rockwell reviewed Mr. Jackson’s album in glowing terms:




"The cultural presence of the album was such that in January 1984, Mr. Jackson was called “a pioneering entertainer” by the Times’s pop music critic Jon Pareles:
Click to expand...
I love and agree with this comment in particular. ‘thriller’ defied genres, and became one in itself. Michael created his own unique sound with that album. it continues to be imitated to this day.
 
zinniabooklover said:

I Know I Am Someone: Michael Jackson, “Thriller”, and American Identity - ProQuest

Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.
www.proquest.com www.proquest.com

"I Know I Am Someone: Michael Jackson, Thriller, and American Identity" by Sara Tenenbaum

Haven't had time to read the whole thing. As far as I can tell the content is OK. The bit I did read was really interesting.

Here's the abstract:

Abstract of Thesis "I Know I Am Someone: Michael Jackson, Thriller, and American Identity"

"This thesis addresses the cultural phenomenon surrounding Michael Jackson's 1982 album Thriller and uses it as a lens through which to view and analyze the development of a distinct American, primarily youth, identity in 1983 and 1984. It is structured using a three-prong approach that first analyzes the sonic work of the music of Thriller, second explores the characteristics of Michaelmania and the youth identity being constructed within the Michael Jackson pop explosion, and third analyzes the backlash from both the white and African American communities against Jackson in that time to illuminate his subversion and danger to the status quo. I argue that Jackson's act of profound crossover during the Thriller era triggered within the American youth an equally profound act of identity formation that transcended racial stratification in America's past and created a foundational part of our contemporary identity that moves slightly beyond America's troubled racial history. Using both the voices of his fans and his critics to tease out the work his person and his music did in the early 1980's, I advocate we keep Jackson and his work foregrounded in our study of popular culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as his pop explosion fundamentally and permanently effected how Americans understand ourselves and our relations with each other."
(Sara Tenenbaum)

***********************************************************************************

And here's a quote from the introduction:

"My intention is to use [Greil] Marcus' framework of the pop explosion to explore the effects of Michael and Thriller in 1983, configuring it not as a total break with the past but as a powerful eruption of African American culture into the American mainstream. Though he does not utilize the tropes of Black Nationalism or civil rights explicitly in his lyrics, Jackson in both sound and image conjures black history and culture while simultaneously transforming them into a product so compelling that the white mainstream was helpless to resist it."
(Sara Tenenbaum)

******************************************************************************

And a further quote from the introduction which gives one of the most accurate accounts of the whole MTV / Thriller video story that I have seen:

"Bob Pittman, the channel's founder and head, had relied on extensive market research of widespread, largely white consumer markets and determined that white suburbanites between the ages of 14 and 34 (MTV's target demographic) were not interested in black music, and would be more likely to stop watching if they saw a black face on their TV. There were very few exceptions, mostly for established acts like Tina Turner, and also for one Prince song that was deemed to have enough guitars to make it rock 'n' roll. "Billie Jean" became the first black video made for a black song put into heavy rotation by MTV despite the fact that it didn't fit the channel's supposed format."
(Sara Tenenbaum)
Click to expand...

@83magic

This might not be your sort of thing at all. Alternatively, you might already have read this. You are the Thriller / 1983 Ninja!!! :D
Anyway, I thought I'd bump it bc you said this on another thread:

"I actually think that the cultural impact, particularly the barriers Michael broke down, is one of, if not the most important thing about ‘thriller’"

This is pretty much what Sara Tenenbaum is addressing in her thesis. I have read the whole thing and have just started going through it for a second time. I really enjoyed it. I don't agree with every assertion she makes but I hardly expected to. That would just be weird. But she has a lot of interesting things to say, imo. She has many bold statements to make. Her writing style is very accessible and she takes Michael seriously. It basically reads like a piece of intelligent journalism. I wish I could read more stuff like this.
 
thanks for sharing this. I look forward to reading this, and sharing my opinion 🙂

love the title by the way. it’s taken from my favourite song ever 💜
 
83magic said:
thanks for sharing this. I look forward to reading this, and sharing my opinion 🙂

love the title by the way. it’s taken from my favourite song ever 💜
Click to expand...
She has a LOT to say about WBSS. Also Beat It. I really enjoyed reading the thesis but it was also kinda frustrating. I want ongoing conversations about Michael, his work, his cultural importance. I'm really grateful for the existence of the web otherwise I'd never have found this. But I want the conversation to continue.

Ah well, better to have this than nothing at all.

You might not like her writing or her theories but I'm confident that you will see that she does take Michael seriously. That alone is quite something.
 
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