The text was published for the first time on February 26, 2020, on the 38th anniversary of “Thriller” reaching first place in the Billboard 200. We recall it in connection with the 41st anniversary of the album’s release.
On February 26, 1983, “Thriller” soared to number one on the Billboard 200 and spent a record-breaking 37 weeks there. He remained in the top ten throughout the year. To date, no album has managed to catch up with “Thriller”, which is called the best-selling album of all time in the world. with the album “Eagles/Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975”, but globally Jackson remains undefeated. On the occasion of the anniversary of his historic success, we look back on the album that changed the face of pop music forever.
A devastatingly good album
In an exclusive interview with Ebony magazine on the 25th anniversary of Thriller, Jackson said:
Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve been learning about composition. Tchaikovsky influenced me the most. Looking at a work like “The Nutcracker”, you can immediately say that every part of it is simply killer. So I said to myself, “Why can’t there be a pop album where every song is killer?
This album was supposed to be “Thriller”. Jackson needed a change in musical direction after the singer’s disco career in the late 1970s began to lose popularity. In 1982, he locked himself in a California studio with Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton for a few months… and the machine was set in motion. “Thriller” includes nine songs selected from 30 created during the recording sessions. After making their final selections, Jones and Jackson were not satisfied with the shape of any of the songs, so they spent an additional nine weeks reworking each song. Time showed that it was worth it.
On November 30, 1982, “Thriller” appeared on store shelves. The album is a mixture of genres – we have here, among others: pop, r&b, a bit of disco, soul and funk, and even a rock note. “Billie Jean”, the second of seven singles, was a hit with listeners and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In turn, “Beat It”, Jackson’s first love affair with harder music, opened new doors for Jackson and thousands of artists. Thanks to the fact that Eddie Van Halen played a guitar solo on it, the song became interested in radio stations that avoided broadcasting music created by black artists.
Jackson did not let himself be forgotten and released single after single – there were as many as seven in total (“The Lady in My Life” and “Baby Be Mine” were omitted). Some of them were promoted by music videos, thanks to which the artist changed the rules of the game. Particularly memorable in this field was the unforgettable clip, or rather a short film, illustrating the title song from the album. “Thriller” was directed by John Landis (“Blues Brothers”, “Trading Places”), whom Jackson liked through the film “An American Werewolf in London”. The creators rolled up their sleeves and gave the world something that previously seemed simply impossible.
“Thriller”, a historical music video
In 2009, shortly after Jackson’s death, the music video for “Thriller” was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. It was the first music clip to receive this honor. The distinction was justified by “the cultural, historical and aesthetic significance of ‘Thriller’.” To confirm these words, one must recall the fact that in the early 1980s, MTV was a rather niche channel and played mainly music videos of white artists. Michael Jackson decided this couldn’t be the case.
At the beginning of 1983, music videos for “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” were shown on MTV. “Billie Jean” was the first video by any black artist that MTV played at least several times a day. This spring, Jackson skyrocketed his popularity and took America by storm when he appeared on NBC’s “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” and moonwalked into millions of hearts. Subsequent singles did well on the radio and people wanted more and more, so a few months after Jackson’s performance, it was time for an absolute bomb.
The beginnings of the creation of this bomb were not the easiest. Jak, the music video for “Thriller”, the last single from the album, promised to be so expensive (it was supposed to cost a total of about $1.2 million, or $2.5 million in 2020) that Landis and Jackson had to come up with a way to finance it. Producer George Folsey Jr. came up with the idea of creating the so-called making-of that could be sold to TV channels on request. MTV paid 250,000. dollars, and Showtime 300 thousand. hole. for the rights to show the document. Jackson took on some of the costs and the project came to fruition.
On December 2, 1983, the television premiere of “Thriller” took place. The production was promoted by posters with the slogan: “MTV will get you with Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller'”:
What happened next exceeded many people’s wildest expectations. At the height of the “Thriller” craze, MTV would play the 14-minute music video twice in one-hour blocks and even run ads announcing when the video would be back on the air. “Thriller”, of course, was not the first music video in history, but it was the first clip with such impact. Since then, making song illustrations has become, firstly, a common practice and, secondly, an art form in its own right. Jackson, however, became the “King of Pop” and dominated pop culture for quite a few years.
It is worth mentioning that Jackson was hungry for an Oscar for best short film. To make the music video eligible for consideration by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “Thriller” played in U.S. theaters for a week prior to Disney’s “Fantasia.” Although it failed to win a nomination, the film was a resounding success and doubled the sales of the “Thriller” album released over a year earlier. As Landis said, such a spontaneous reaction from the audience was “a surprise to everyone – except Michael.”
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
