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Thriller 40th Anniversary

Hess said:
If it is possible to somehow get Motown 25 in 4K that would be nice.
But a live version from Victory tour would be even better since MJ actually sang live during that tour.
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Motown 25 wasn't shot film. Some Victory tour concerts probably were. I hope they shot full shows and not just some songs. They should upload Human Nature performance in 4K to Youtube.
 
Imagine one of the five so-announced videos is a full Victory Tour concert Live from Kansas or so :D

And well, even if Motown25 was not shot on film, I thought that also Billie Jean was shot in worse quality than Thriller or Beat it, no? And now BJ will be upgraded to 4K as well as it seems.
 
MJ5 said:
Imagine one of the five so-announced videos is a full Victory Tour concert Live from Kansas or so :D

And well, even if Motown25 was not shot on film, I thought that also Billie Jean was shot in worse quality than Thriller or Beat it, no? And now BJ will be upgraded to 4K as well as it seems.
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Billie Jean is on 16mm (basically 2K), Thriller and Beat it on 35mm (4K).

Motown is on tape, though.
 
30+ years as a fan of Michael Jackson and I have everything Michael has released to date, pre and post death, but this takes the final straw, for those of you that can take something from Thriller 40 congratulations and I wish I felt the same, but I think the manor in which the estate have run not only this campaign but multiple since 2009 has been nothing short of embarrassing bar a few exceptions.

They are a multi billion dollar business and how they have handled this entire Thriller 40 campaign from announcement to today is shambolic, the original font on the Thriller album concept was embarrassing, they had to be pressured by fans, they then continued to sort of share information regarding the track list without actually saying what the tracks where, they used squashed up repetitive font on a white background, they have completely failed to advertised and promote the album and the most inexcusable of the lot is the fact they have left of legitimate Thriller outtakes and replaced them with already released Off The Wall era tracks, a complete embarrassment.

The estate do not care about the fans, they just want to make money and boost their own ego, I'm done with them, I was given them a chance to redeem with this and they have completely messed up, as expected, and all they had to do to give the fans what they want is just do simple, effective work that the fans are after.

They could have announced the tracks week by week on their IG and Twitter by playing a 3 second teaser and the reveal should have been a black background with the textbook and classic Thriller writing we all know naming each track one by one, simple and effective, the album/vinyl should also just be something like, completely black with Thriller across the front and the classic reverse with the new titles writing in the old font (there is a concept of this somewhere and it looks incredible EDIT - found it

https://www.reddit.com/r/MichaelJackson/comments/ussxjt

A BAD25 style package with Album, Victory Tour, Thriller vids in 4k and vintage poster or something - A complete wasted opportunity

Apologise for ranting and understand people have different opinions but I'm just annoyed.

Sunset Driver and CGOTR LOL

Meanwhile Nite Line and Hot Street rot in the vault. Genuine Thriller outtakes.

Jokers.
 
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filmandmusic said:
It is for me for the following reasons, it is the end of an era which lasted from 1980ish to 1985 (it was filmed in 1985)

1) he still had his short curled hairstyle
2) he still used the same dance moves from the thriller/triumph/victory era
3) he is still the ideal stepson who is seen favorably by parents (this changed when he changed his image and style for bad)
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Sorry nah Captain EO isn't Thriller era, it is closest to Bad rather than Thriller.

And of course, as we all already know, my opinion is the absolute truth (call me mj frenzy) :p
 
Hess said:
Bad internet connection to show Beat It in 4K ??? - This worries me.

Why on earth wouldn't they have the video on a 4K UHD Blu-Ray ?? - That would make best bitrate and best quality no matter what...

I still hope the 4K videos will someday be released on UHD Blu-Ray. - Even though you can see 4K Netflix/Youtube, it's still not as good as from a disc...
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They were probably worried about the file leaking so they decided to stream it or something.
 
Dangerous1991 said:
30+ years as a fan of Michael Jackson and I have everything Michael has released to date, pre and post death, but this takes the final straw, for those of you that can take something from Thriller 40 congratulations and I wish I felt the same, but I think the manor in which the estate have run not only this campaign but multiple since 2009 has been nothing short of embarrassing bar a few exceptions.

They are a multi billion dollar business and how they have handled this entire Thriller 40 campaign from announcement to today is shambolic, the original font on the Thriller album concept was embarrassing, they had to be pressured by fans, they then continued to sort of share information regarding the track list without actually saying what the tracks where, they used squashed up repetitive font on a white background, they have completely failed to advertised and promote the album and the most inexcusable of the lot is the fact they have left of legitimate Thriller outtakes and replaced them with already released Off The Wall era tracks, a complete embarrassment.

The estate do not care about the fans, they just want to make money and boost their own ego, I'm done with them, I was given them a chance to redeem with this and they have completely messed up, as expected, and all they had to do to give the fans what they want is just do simple, effective work that the fans are after.

They could have announced the tracks week by week on their IG and Twitter by playing a 3 second teaser and the reveal should have been a black background with the textbook and classic Thriller writing we all know naming each track one by one, simple and effective, the album/vinyl should also just be something like, completely black with Thriller across the front and the classic reverse with the new titles writing in the old font (there is a concept of this somewhere and it looks incredible EDIT - found it

https://www.reddit.com/r/MichaelJackson/comments/ussxjt

A BAD25 style package with Album, Victory Tour, Thriller vids in 4k and vintage poster or something - A complete wasted opportunity

Apologise for ranting and understand people have different opinions but I'm just annoyed.

Sunset Driver and CGOTR LOL

Meanwhile Nite Line and Hot Street rot in the vault. Genuine Thriller outtakes.

Jokers.
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Lack of advertising is baffling to everyone. They either don't feel like spending money is necessary, or they are just super incapable of doing anything decent. Probably both.
Songs rotting in the vault is also something that makes me mad as hell. With all those millions od dollars that they have at their disposal, they could buy rights to every single demo out there and keep a steady flow of epic releases for years to come.
How come every random forum fan understands this and they don't? And where is the family? I guess Paris is too busy getting new piercings and tattoos, Prince is too busy talking on podcasts and Bigi is...well, useless I guess.
In retrospective, Michael should actually let Joe have more control over the situation. That way, it would at least stay in the family so maybe one of the brothers would pick it up.
 
SilkySnare said:
Lack of advertising is baffling to everyone. They either don't feel like spending money is necessary, or they are just super incapable of doing anything decent. Probably both.
Songs rotting in the vault is also something that makes me mad as hell. With all those millions od dollars that they have at their disposal, they could buy rights to every single demo out there and keep a steady flow of epic releases for years to come.
How come every random forum fan understands this and they don't? And where is the family? I guess Paris is too busy getting new piercings and tattoos, Prince is too busy talking on podcasts and Bigi is...well, useless I guess.
In retrospective, Michael should actually let Joe have more control over the situation. That way, it would at least stay in the family so maybe one of the brothers would pick it up.
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To be fair I think prince was actually promoting this project recently. Paris is busy making her own music. I agree that some of the family should have more input on ideas/projects though.

Let's hope we get the short Films on the 18th..
 
Guys I have a serious question to ask. Who is this release for? I’m not being facetious, I’m serious. The way they have “promoted” and talked about this release, (especially during the early phase of this project) the impression I got was that they were trying to cater to the general audience by first and foremost putting out something that MJ is most recognized for and the general audience also recognize and love. Fair enough. So my question for this approach is how will the general audience even be privy to this when there has been no marketing, no push, nothing to incite the general audience or even put this on their radars. Minimal ads, no guérilla marketing, nothing.

So okay, let’s go with the approach that this was made for the hardcore fanbase (as is the case with most anniversary releases anyways). So for this approach you actually need to give the hardcore fan base what they want and not re-sell old songs and trying to change the details about when songs was conceived and their initial purpose to try and fit a narrative. You don’t also do whatever the hell they were doing with the immersive event. You also don’t block fans on social media for expressing dissenting opinions.

So my question is, who is this really for? It seems to me that in their “effort” to please everybody they alienated a big part of both parties. It’s just mind boggling how this has been handled.
 
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Themidwestcowboy said:
Guys I have a serious question to ask. Who is this release for? I’m not being facetious, I’m serious. The way they have “promoted” and talked about this release (especially during the early phase of this project) the impression I got is that they were trying to cater to the general audience by first and foremost putting out something that MJ is most recognized for and the general audience also recognize and love. Fair enough. So my question for this approach is how will the general audience even be privy to this when there has been no marketing, no push, nothing to incite the general audience or even put this on their radars. Minimal ads, no guérilla marketing, nothing.

So okay, let’s go with the approach that this was made for the hardcore fanbase (as is the case with most anniversary releases anyways). So for this approach you actually need to give the hardcore fan base what they want and not re-sell old songs and trying to change the details about when songs was conceived and their initial purpose to try and fit a narrative. You don’t also do whatever the hell they were doing with the immersive event. You also don’t block fans on social media for expressing dissenting opinion.

So my question is, who is this really for? It seems to me that in their “effort” to please everybody they alienated a big part of both parties. It’s just mind boggling how this has been handled.
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Great post. Agree entirely - It was like they are stuck in the middle and was some sort of pre-commitment to do but they just couldn't be bothered. As you say, appealing to a new fanbase promotion needs to be heavy. they are barely even tweeting/IG'ing it.
 
Dangerous1991 said:
Great post. Agree entirely - It was like they are stuck in the middle and was some sort of pre-commitment to do but they just couldn't be bothered. As you say, appealing to a new fanbase promotion needs to be heavy. they are barely even tweeting/IG'ing it.
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It’s just mind boggling how they have handled this so far.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
Guys I have a serious question to ask. Who is this release for? I’m not being facetious, I’m serious. The way they have “promoted” and talked about this release, (especially during the early phase of this project) the impression I got was that they were trying to cater to the general audience by first and foremost putting out something that MJ is most recognized for and the general audience also recognize and love. Fair enough. So my question for this approach is how will the general audience even be privy to this when there has been no marketing, no push, nothing to incite the general audience or even put this on their radars. Minimal ads, no guérilla marketing, nothing.

So okay, let’s go with the approach that this was made for the hardcore fanbase (as is the case with most anniversary releases anyways). So for this approach you actually need to give the hardcore fan base what they want and not re-sell old songs and trying to change the details about when songs was conceived and their initial purpose to try and fit a narrative. You don’t also do whatever the hell they were doing with the immersive event. You also don’t block fans on social media for expressing dissenting opinions.

So my question is, who is this really for? It seems to me that in their “effort” to please everybody they alienated a big part of both parties. It’s just mind boggling how this has been handled.
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Seen from a marketing perspective, I do not see this as a broad-audience project at all, as there was not much marketing budget invested. I think Thriller40 targets the MJ fanbase, while they thought we would be happy of having CGTOR. To be honest a 9-track release without that song would have been a well-done project imo. And even by including this non-needed track, the project evolved greatly. MJ 4k on top. At least I care. Non-MJ fans do not.

Thriller40 -> Fanbase
Next MJ Album in 2-3 yrs -> Broad Audience (Target Group: Gen Z)
 
It seems to me they’re just a bit afraid of a media backlash after LN. It is not easy to promote something en masse when MJ is connected to pedophilia, especially in the metoo era.
I have said it before but it is a miracle we are getting something in the first place, he could have easily been cancelled by now…

We have been crying out for something new for a long time and we finally get something. T40 anniversary happens to be now and it was a good opportunity to test the current waters. They were never going to risk promoting a “new” album without knowing if the appetite is there.
Thriller is easier to sell, it is a culturally relevant album, even his biggest adversaries can’t really claim otherwise. Does it need very expensive marketing? Probably not, critics will pick it up and write about it, people will talk about it especially when accompanied by the 4K videos it is bound to get some attention.
I think they will make a profit with this release and at the same time it gauges critical and commercial response for future projects.

If the media stays civil with T40 then I wouldn’t be surprised if releases in the future get bigger marketing. If the media goes full on attack and revives the pedophilia scandals we might not get anything anymore and even the biopic will get cancelled. But I guess many fans would like to see that happen, the fans behind the biopic are in an absolute minority.
 
One cannot say that there is no marketing, no push, nothing to incite the general audience or even put this release on their radars.

Here are some important marketing/promotional moves for the 'Thriller 40' anniversary album:

- the flash mob in Times Square (New York City), where the general audience were treated to a full routine by dancers in zombie costume and outfits performing to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' song (John Branca was also there and he happily posed with the dancers for photos)

- the massive LED screens on the Nasdaq Stock Market building, where the cover of the 'Thriller 40' album was projected

- the official announcement of the upcoming 'Thriller' documentary (via various media outlets) that refers also the 'Thriller 40' album

- fan events/fan parties around the world, hosted by the Estate and Sony Music, that the general audience have free access to them in order to participate in immersive experiences, screenings of the 'Thriller 40' documentary and so on

- special 'Thriller'-themed parties around the world in which the general audience have the opportunity to hear the full 'Thriller 40' album for the first time

Note that the 'michaeljackson.com' official website reference accompanies all those events in order for the general audience to get more information and details about that 'Thriller 40' album release.

The 'Thriller 40' album promotion also takes place in an indirect way (for example, by word of mouth).
 
filmandmusic said:
It seems to me they’re just a bit afraid of a media backlash after LN. It is not easy to promote something en masse when MJ is connected to pedophilia, especially in the metoo era.
I have said it before but it is a miracle we are getting something in the first place, he could have easily been cancelled by now…

We have been crying out for something new for a long time and we finally get something. T40 anniversary happens to be now and it was a good opportunity to test the current waters. They were never going to risk promoting a “new” album without knowing if the appetite is there.
Thriller is easier to sell, it is a culturally relevant album, even his biggest adversaries can’t really claim otherwise. Does it need very expensive marketing? Probably not, critics will pick it up and write about it, people will talk about it especially when accompanied by the 4K videos it is bound to get some attention.
I think they will make a profit with this release and at the same time it gauges critical and commercial response for future projects.

If the media stays civil with T40 then I wouldn’t be surprised if releases in the future get bigger marketing. If the media goes full on attack and revives the pedophilia scandals we might not get anything anymore and even the biopic will get cancelled. But I guess many fans would like to see that happen, the fans behind the biopic are in an absolute minority.
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Honestly it's been kinda obvious that they only care about his 80s material for a long time now. Even before LN. I wasn't surprised that the next release was Thriller based as that's all they are interested in because they know it will sell anyway. The next anniversary release will likely be Thriller again, as well.
 
Great Post @Themidwestcowboy mate insightful as always. I agree completely

Hopefully the short films are done correctly and they make a big deal about them being released in 4K for the first time and they can piggyback Thriller 40 onto the 4K releases
 
SmoothCriminal1995 said:
Great Post @Themidwestcowboy mate insightful as always. I agree completely

Hopefully the short films are done correctly and they make a big deal about them being released in 4K for the first time and they can piggyback Thriller 40 onto the 4K releases
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I'm super excited about this. I hope we get confirmation that Billie Jean has been restored to HD as well.
 
I don't think anyone mentioned it here, but since they decided to use the full frame for Beat It (with the original aspect ratio), do you guys think they'll do the same for Thriller rather than using the 16:9 version from 2017?
 
MJbr2 said:
I don't think anyone mentioned it here, but since they decided to use the full frame for Beat It (with the original aspect ratio), do you guys think they'll do the same for Thriller rather than using the 16:9 version from 2017?
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I do hope so mate
 
I may be totally making this up (someone correct me if so, lol) but wasn't thriller filmed with 16:9 in mind? I seem to recall discussion about that at some point when people were complaining about it being cropped in 2017.
 
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SmoothCriminal1995 said:
Great Post @Themidwestcowboy mate insightful as always. I agree completely

Hopefully the short films are done correctly and they make a big deal about them being released in 4K for the first time and they can piggyback Thriller 40 onto the 4K releases
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A reissue of Vision in 4k would be superb - Imagine all those short films remastered
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
The biggest improvement is the color calibration. It's actually accurate, no more oversaturation from being worn out.

Compared to this, pretty excellent fan articulation, no doubt the quality as well will be much crisper.

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what a horrible quality. Destroying the footage. Looks like watching a Cartoon.
 
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