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Thriller 40th Anniversary

BlackAnon said:
But why? The fact that they made it about them is sad
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Like I said in a previous post the fact that they put that there is sooooo WTF. That's like going to see a Star Wars movie and then during the credits they push the credit text scroll to the side and show a promo trailer for the Star Wars rides at the Disney theme parks and/or all the Star Wars shows/movies you can stream on Disney+. Like... time and place, guys.
 
I watched this documentary as soon as it became available, which was actually a day earlier than advertised at around 8:30pm.
I had been anticipating this more than any other release..

my heart sank only seconds into it when the first (of a few) profanities was uttered 😩 what makes it worse is that this documentary was made through michael’s own optimum productions. a production company he created to release the original ‘making of thriller’, which didn’t contain any swearing despite its 15 certificate, and director john landis being heavily featured. it’s disrespectful and ironic considering that the overarching theme of ‘thriller 40’ was michael wanting his work to appeal to all audiences. this further limits michael’s reach, which had already been reduced due to the profanity of the previous posthumous spike lee documentaries, which caused it to air post watershed. those documentaries also benefited from more promotion such as film premieres and tv interviews. ‘thriller 40’ wasn’t broadcast on mainstream television, but on a streaming app that not everybody had. it was already at a disadvantage by comparison.
I felt that ‘thriller 40’ should have continued from where ‘journey from motown to off the wall’ left off. rather than rehashing the jackson 5 story, it could have begun with michael’s disappointment with the lack of grammy acknowledgment that ‘off the wall’ received, and his vow that it would never happen again..
as someone whose favourite era is ‘thriller’ (particularly 1983), and who is on a daily lookout for content from that time, I didn’t really come away learning anything new. the two takeaways were how michael was given his masters and him originally wanting to do a solo tour for ‘thriller’ instead of the ‘victory’ tour. the latter was revealed during the trailer..

there are so many interesting stories that could have made the final edit. I think 90 minutes is plenty of time. it all depends on how it’s managed. the more footage I saw of ‘the girl is mine’ only furthered my belief that it was one of the weakest songs on the album. it benefited from having two big names attached to it. I personally think that ‘thriller’ would’ve initially sold even faster had ‘billie jean’ been the lead single.

the documentary wasn’t off to a good start. I was already bored🙁
I still maintain that there was a healthy balance of contributors; people who originally worked on the project, and peers inspired by it. it’s always good to hear from the walters family, who sang background on my favourite song ‘wanna be startin’ somethin’. I appreciated seeing steve barron who directed my favourite video ‘billie jean’ (I think it was archive footage?). it wouldn’t be complete without keyboardist greg phillinganes and engineer anthony marinelli, who has his own podcast series on the ‘thriller’ album called ‘stories in the room’. I appreciated his recreations of sections of the songs, but I felt that it was best kept to a minimum. his podcast is better suited to the more technical aspects of things. I thought that mark ronson had an interesting perspective on michael’s more angry/aggressive approach to some of the songs. I always love when michael’s dancing is analysed 💜 the two dancers (I forgot their names, and they’re not credited on imdb) did a great job of that👍🏽

the glaring disappointments were the comments from usher and mary j blige. ‘toxic r&b’? ‘we all love a bad boy’? it’s one thing to interpret the meaning of a song, it’s another to distort it to fit your own values. michael already made it clear what ‘billie jean’ was about. they could have even used audio reference from him. he didn’t impregnate anyone. it was disrespectful to imply otherwise. I was also offended by usher equating gang culture with black culture in regards to ‘beat it’. the short film didn’t reflect that at all. there were literally gang members of different ethnicities depicted. he also ignored michael’s crucial role as the peacemaker ☮️ this would have been the perfect opportunity to cut to his interview with tom joyner on the set of the short film, where he explains the concept of it.

at this point it’s not known which footage the estate had the rights to. or who was unavailable, or refused to take part in the documentary . I personally would have traded brooke shields for ola ray..

as predicted, the highlight was hearing michael tell his own story. it’s interesting how candid he was off camera versus on camera. he came across as fiercely driven, yet soft spoken and playful at the same time.

it was actually troubling to see him performing ‘human nature’ on the ‘victory’ tour with so much anger🙁 it only showed that he never wanted to do that tour on the first place. there wasn’t one moment where he looked happy. he was vex the entire time. I understand its inclusion due to the songs from ‘thriller’ being performed, but I honestly could have done without it. the same goes for the mention of the pepsi accident. I would have focused solely on 1983, between the release of ‘billie jean’ and ‘thriller’. it would’ve been better to combine the outtakes from ‘the making of thriller’ and rerelease that in higher quality on the updated formats.

what’s amazing is that there was never a definitive plan for making ‘thriller’ the biggest selling album, beyond recording it. vital factors such as motown 25 and the title short film, happened organically.

the album is still the biggest selling worldwide, yet this documentary focused exclusively on its impact in america (granted michael was american). couldn’t they have shown the scene that michael caused when he came to the uk to see his waxwork, in which he climbed on top the car surrounded by fans? there was also a documentary created by michael in the mid eighties, that showed fans from countries like; japan, australia, france, etc holding up copies of the ‘thriller’ album, and professing their love for him.

more could have been done to maintain a sense of excitement. I think I watched this documentary once more before deleting the app. this was far from the be all and end all of ‘thriller that I hoped it would be..
 
Fuzball said:
www.billboard.com

40 Years Ago, Michael Jackson Lifted the 1984 Grammys to Their All-Time Highest Rating (And He Didn’t Sing a Note)

40 Years Ago, Michael Jackson lifted the Grammys to their all-time highest rating (and he didn’t sing a note). A close look at the Feb. 28, 1984 show.
www.billboard.com www.billboard.com
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MJ didn't have to perform and I don't blame him.

But as a fan, it would've been something special if he performed The Lady In My Life and that spawned another hit official single.
 
although it’s always exciting to think of what could have been, I’d be really nervous for michael. whatever he did would be compared to his motown 25 performance, which people were still recovering from.

I don’t think michael was capable of performing at the grammys. it had only been a month since his hair caught fire.

if anything, i felt he was ready at the ama’s, which took place before the accident. he even danced in celebration when he went up onstage to receive the artist of merit award.
‘thriller’ would have been the most appropriate song choice, as it was big and theatrical. michael could have basically recreated the video with the zombies, etc. it was also the latest single.
 
The thriller 40 project was not successful, it could have been implemented better billie jean no 4k motown25 performance no 4k no making of thriller blue ray and bad thriller40 documentary
 
mjfanboy27 said:
The thriller 40 project was not successful, it could have been implemented better billie jean no 4k motown25 performance no 4k no making of thriller blue ray and bad thriller40 documentary
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Not the BJ music video nor Motown 25 can be 4K. Original film negatives of BJ were discarded after editing and M25 is shot on tape.
 
MJbr2 said:
Not the BJ music video nor Motown 25 can be 4K. Original film negatives of BJ were discarded after editing and M25 is shot on tape.
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The thought of M25 being shot on 35mm would be a dream come true.
 
MJbr2 said:
Why would they shoot a TV special on film? Videotape was the obvious/most reasonable option. Besides, no one thought MJ would give such a unique and iconic performance.
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We know the special wouldn't be shot on film, just the aspect of Michael having his personal crew shoot the moments
 
this article is a month old now, but I just discovered it. it covers a lot of ground in the overall creation of ‘billie jean’. quite a bit of technical studio information for a mainstream publication.


www.smoothradio.com

The Story of... 'Billie Jean' by Michael Jackson

Unravelling the enigmatic allure of Michael Jackson's iconic hit, 'Billie Jean', unveils a narrative as intriguing as the song's infectious rhythm.
www.smoothradio.com www.smoothradio.com
 
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