Michael Jackson’s Thriller
Michael Jackson’s Thriller is a 14-minute movie and a music video for the song of the same name released on December 2, 1983 and directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jackson. Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the “most successful music video”, selling over 9 million units.
Often referred to as the greatest music video ever, Thriller proved to have a profound effect on popular culture, and was named “a watershed moment for the [music] industry” for its unprecedented merging of filmmaking and music.
“Thriller” was the first Michael Jackson music video to feature the logos for Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Epic Records Productions at the beginning. It was less a conventional music video and more a full-fledged short subject or mini-film: a horror film homage featuring choreographed zombies performing with Jackson. The music was re-edited to match the video, with the verses being sung one after the other followed by the ending rap from Vincent Price, then the main dance sequence to an instrumental loop, and a climactic dance segment with Jackson singing the choruses. During the video, Jackson transforms into both a werewolf and a zombie; familiar territory for Landis, who had directed An American Werewolf in London two years earlier. The video was also a crossover because MTV at the time did not regularly air black musicians. Jackson became one of the first African American musicians to prominently feature on the station.
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