Michael Jackson Thriller is undoubtedly one of the most influential records of all time. The 1982 album is one of the best-selling of all time and is still considered groundbreaking. It’s not just the music: the accompanying video clips have had just as big an impact. Images to singles like Run away in Thriller it changed the way the music industry views video clips.
“I’m not going to give you any more video clips and I’m going to tell everyone you don’t want to play music from a black artist.” Walter Yetnikoff, director of the CBS Records record label, clearly expressed his dissatisfaction in the early 80s with these unequivocal words.
He is furious on MTV when it is discovered that the channel has released the music video for the song Billie John from Jackson refuses to run. The channel rejected the video clip because the music by a black artist didn’t suit the music station, which focused on rock music. After this confrontation, MTV veered quickly, with great acclaim for Jackson as a result.
The idea of television channels completely dedicated to broadcasting video clips was still in its infancy. The same goes for narrative video clips as we know them today.
At the time, MTV almost exclusively played rock music by white artists. This comes Billie John change to. The video clip in which Jackson dances to shake off a pursuing photographer, has been played countless times and contributes to the growing popularity of the channel.
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Beat It and mass choreography
Jackson has enough taste. The singer hires director Bob Giraldi for the video clip Run away. He counts out of his own pocket 150,000 dollars (now more than 144,000 euros) to get the project off the ground, because the record company keeps its hands on the purse strings. The video, shot in Los Angeles, featuring members of local gangs, furthers Jackson’s superstar status.
It is also one of the first video clips in which a so-called mass choreography is incorporated into the plot. Near the end of the video, two bands reunite with Jackson, then perform an iconic choreography choreography together.
Video clips are showered with awards in the year of release, including seven Video Billboard Awards. The video is seen to date as one of the clips that has had the biggest impact on the music industry.
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Thriller short film
Run away it turns out not yet to be the ambitious project Jackson has in mind Thriller-album. A year after the album’s release, she started working on the video clip for the seventh single, title track Thriller. The singer is working with director John Landis on a short horror film in which he plays the lead role alongside actress Ola Ray.
In the fourteen-minute video, Jackson takes on the role of a werewolf and a zombie. Furthermore, he performs a choreography that is still recognized by the masses in an instant. The video is a great success, receives several important awards and also increases the sales of the album. In the week following the video’s release, more than a year after the album’s release, the record sold another million times.
De videoclips van het album Thriller blijven ongekend populair. Zo vaak zijn ze bekeken op YouTube:
- Billie Jean – 1,2 miljard keer bekeken
- Beat It – 882 miljoen keer bekeken
- Thriller – 863 miljoen keer bekeken
Jackson’s method of success becomes the new standard
The album contains only nine songs. The fact that no fewer than seven were eventually released as singles is truly remarkable. All become top ten hits in the US, an unprecedented success at the time.
Jackson and his team continue to extend the album’s success with new singles and accompanying video clips. The method is seen as the new standard in the music industry, where record companies are going bigger and bigger with video clips and investing more in releasing more singles per album.
This was exactly what Jackson wanted to do upon release Thriller. She wanted to make a pop album where every track hit the mark and there were no weaker songs to fill the record.
“There are so many albums that have one really good song and the rest are B-sides. Why can’t every song be a hit? That people would buy every song if it came out as a single. That was my goal with this album,” he said. said the singer. In this he succeeded in all respects.
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