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What do you hope to see addressed in the thriller docu?

If Michael writes lyrically shallow songs then so do Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and James Brown, not too mention Prince.
 
KOPV said:
My hypothesis is many things will be taken from Nelson George's book about Thriller for the documentary.

For those who have not read it, this is the synopsis:
George explores how the album changed the world in 1982, when Michael Jackson was king of the charts, breaking down the color barrier on MTV and heralding in the age of video. This incisive and revealing examination of the making and meaning of Thriller not only illuminates the brilliant creative process and work ethic of Jackson and producer Quincy Jones, but also explores the larger context of the music, life, and seismic impact the King of Pop has had for more than three generations.

In summary it sounds great but my hope is that it is done well.
Click to expand...

So his book was good all in all? I wonder why he did a book on Thriller in time of Michaels 63 birthday.
 
mj_frenzy said:
American music and cultural critic Stanley Crouch is right that Michael Jackson should be classified as an entertainer.

Stanley Crouch's statement is in accordance with statements from organizations and from other people.

For example, Michael Jackson was officially named the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time.

Or, Richard Williams (from The Guardian) who also describes him as an entertainer (his exact words are "the greatest entertainer of his age").

Also, Stanley Crouch's statement about Michael Jackson's songs lyrically having an adolescent vision of life is especially true when it comes to his first, adult solo album ('Off The Wall') and to his final, adult solo album ('Invincible'), which shows that Michael Jackson began and ended his adult, solo career with lyrically shallow albums:

For example:

'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough'
'Rock With You'
'Get On The Floor'
'Off The Wall' (the title track)
'Girlfriend'
'She's Out Of My Life'
'I Can't Help It'
'It's The Falling In Love'
'Burn This Disco Out'
'Heartbreaker'
'Invincible' (the title track)
'Break Of Dawn'
'You Rock My World'
'Butterflies'
'You Are My Life'
'Don't Walk Away'
Click to expand...
You are right, Michael mostly wrote sex songs that tried to hide the fact by acting like they are about dancing. No deeper meaning anywhere.

Everything was just to entertain me, and not think. I never thonked one thonk when I listened to MJ. I just shake my ass
 
filmandmusic said:
Actually there are 2 right? Sonic fantasy and the one the Estate anncounced?

Anyway:

- I like to hear the story how they went from starlight to thriller.
- likewise how they went from PYT demo to the album track

That are two subject I like to see addressed.
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you always have the most interesting threads that require the most thought 🙂

I practically live in this era 💜 although I’m not a technical person, i imagine that there’s very little that I don’t know about it.

I actually think that the cultural impact, particularly the barriers Michael broke down, is one of, if not the most important thing about ‘thriller’.

I hope it’s the definitive documentary that not only covers the album, but the entire time period. from ‘the girl is mine’ to ‘we are the world’ (82-early 85).

there was already a documentary for the ‘thriller’ album back in 2013 or 2014. it aired in the uk on itv perspectives, and was hosted by Ashley banjo. he’s part of the dance troupe ‘diversity’. they are fans of Michael and were due to be his support act on the ‘this is it’ tour. he was able to track down the original back up singers on ‘wanna be startin’ somethin’. they performed the chant 🤩

that was the highlight for me, and the kind of thing I want to see in ‘thriller 40’. I’m interested in seeing more of michael’s performance at bud fest ‘82. what song was he singing? I want to know how far the ‘Peter pan’ movie progressed before Michael decided against doing it. much information is needed on ‘the man’ with Paul McCartney. it would be nice if they could track down Rockwell..

basically I want it to feature every collaborator involved with, and every artist influenced by, ‘thriller’. for it to cover every event during the era. leave no stone unturned.
 
@83magic
Thanks for the compliment

I grew up with the late bad era but especially during the dangerous era. So the latter has always been my to go to album as I neglected the thriller album for most of my life for the simple reason that these songs were on the radio A LOT.
This however has changed a lot this year as I am more and more drawn to the thriller era and overall the 70s era. MJ during these times was just that tad more vibrant vocally and especially in terms of production working with Quincy and Motown it is impeccable. Each instrument and line is perfectly mixed, there is nothing that sounds as overproduced as his 90s material does. On Thriller and earlier records you hear every instrument, nothing got buried in sounds effects. It is absolutely timeless music.
Where Dangerous now sounds outdated (mostly the NJS sound) thriller sounds as fresh as ever.
Also lyrically it all sounds less bloated, is more precise and punctual and without the need to address all kinds of political or controversial topics. I like that simplicity. Having fun in the studio and on stage had the upper hand on feeling the need to prove oneself. In my opinion an artist's best works usually comes when they are happy and relatively carefree in life, there was no pressure yet, at least not like there was some years later.
Michael was hungry, creative and full of life, he relished being free to pursue the music he wanted to produce (after Motown).
I believe Louis Johnson the bassist basically told the same thing. He said what an amazing fun experience it was to play in the studio during the making of off the wall. He said this fun was missing in the 90s. I tend to agree with him although I wasn't there of course :p

I have to say your contributions here definitely pushed me to the thriller era a lot more. I basically rediscovered the era after only listening to these songs whenever they came on the radio. I'm confident enough to say it is the not only the greatest album ever made, it is also my favorite album of all time.
 
mj_frenzy said:
Also, Stanley Crouch's statement about Michael Jackson's songs lyrically having an adolescent vision of life is especially true when it comes to his first, adult solo album ('Off The Wall') and to his final, adult solo album ('Invincible'), which shows that Michael Jackson began and ended his adult, solo career with lyrically shallow albums:

For example:

'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough'
'Rock With You'
'Get On The Floor'
'Off The Wall' (the title track)
'Girlfriend'
'She's Out Of My Life'
'I Can't Help It'
'It's The Falling In Love'
'Burn This Disco Out'
'Heartbreaker'
'Invincible' (the title track)
'Break Of Dawn'
'You Rock My World'
'Butterflies'
'You Are My Life'
'Don't Walk Away'
Click to expand...
And of course out of these songs only two were actually written by Michael himself, and those were disco/funk songs written when he was 20.

I guess these are also shallow lyrics:

Stranger In Moscow (actually written by Michael Joe Jackson)
I was wandering in the rain
Mask of life, feelin’ insane
Swift and sudden fall from grace
Sunny days seem far away
Kremlin’s shadow belittlin’ me
Stalin’s tomb won’t let me be
On and on and on it came
Wish the rain would just let me be.

Is It Scary (again written by MJ)
I'm gonna be exactly what you wanna see
It's you who's haunting me
'Cause you're wanting me
To be the stranger in your life
Am I amusing you or just confusing me?
Am I the beast you visualized?
And if you wanna see eccentrialities
I'll be grotesque before your eyes
Let them all materialize

Who Is It (written and composed by Michael)
And she promised me forever
And a day we'd live as one
We made our vows
We'd live a life anew
And she promised me in secret
That she'd love me for all time
It's a promise so untrue
Tell me what will i do?
And it doesn't seem to matter
And it doesn't seem right
'Cause the will has brought
No fortune
Still i cry alone at night
Don't you judge of my composure
'Cause i'm lying to myself
And the reason why she left me
Did she find in someone else?

Jam (lyrics written by Michael Jackson)
Nation To Nation
All The World
Must Come Together
Face The Problems
That We See
Then Maybe Somehow We Can Work It Out
I Asked My Neighbor
For A Favor
She Said Later
What Has Come Of
All The People
Have We Lost Love
Of What It's About
I Have To Find My Peace Cause
No One Seems To Let Me Be
False Prophets Cry Of Doom
What Are The Possibilities
I Told My Brother
There'll Be Problems,
Times And Tears For Fears,
We Must Live Each Day
Like It's The Last

I Told My Brothers
Don't You Ask Me
For No Favors
I'm Conditioned By
The System
Don't You Talk To Me
Don't Scream And Shout
She Pray To God, To Buddha
Then She Sings A
Talmud Song
Confusions Contradict
The Self
Do We Know Right
From Wrong
I Just Want You To
Recognize Me
In The Temple
You Can't Hurt Me
I Found Peace
Within Myself

And there are more but I guess it’s pointless naming them anyway. It’s also funny how that critic, which you so vehemently rely on, decided to focus exactly on the two albums on which Michael had the least creative input.
 
mj_frenzy said:
American music and cultural critic Stanley Crouch is right that Michael Jackson should be classified as an entertainer.

Stanley Crouch's statement is in accordance with statements from organizations and from other people.

For example, Michael Jackson was officially named the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time.

Or, Richard Williams (from The Guardian) who also describes him as an entertainer (his exact words are "the greatest entertainer of his age").

Also, Stanley Crouch's statement about Michael Jackson's songs lyrically having an adolescent vision of life is especially true when it comes to his first, adult solo album ('Off The Wall') and to his final, adult solo album ('Invincible'), which shows that Michael Jackson began and ended his adult, solo career with lyrically shallow albums:

For example:

'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough'
'Rock With You'
'Get On The Floor'
'Off The Wall' (the title track)
'Girlfriend'
'She's Out Of My Life'
'I Can't Help It'
'It's The Falling In Love'
'Burn This Disco Out'
'Heartbreaker'
'Invincible' (the title track)
'Break Of Dawn'
'You Rock My World'
'Butterflies'
'You Are My Life'
'Don't Walk Away'
Click to expand...
Two things:

1.) Artists can be entertainers and entertainers can be artists. The idea that they’re two separate entities that can never have crossover doesn’t make sense to me.

2.) You’re wrong. Objectively. It’s easy to cherry pick lyrically shallow material from any artist’s catalog. Give me five minutes and I can name songs by Springsteen, The Beatles, Prince, Bowie, and James Brown that have no meaning whatsoever and argue that they’re “simply entertainers, not artists.”
 
dethorro said:
And of course out of these songs only two were actually written by Michael himself, and those were disco/funk songs written when he was 20.

I guess these are also shallow lyrics:

Stranger In Moscow (actually written by Michael Joe Jackson)
I was wandering in the rain
Mask of life, feelin’ insane
Swift and sudden fall from grace
Sunny days seem far away
Kremlin’s shadow belittlin’ me
Stalin’s tomb won’t let me be
On and on and on it came
Wish the rain would just let me be.

Is It Scary (again written by MJ)
I'm gonna be exactly what you wanna see
It's you who's haunting me
'Cause you're wanting me
To be the stranger in your life
Am I amusing you or just confusing me?
Am I the beast you visualized?
And if you wanna see eccentrialities
I'll be grotesque before your eyes
Let them all materialize

Who Is It (written and composed by Michael)
And she promised me forever
And a day we'd live as one
We made our vows
We'd live a life anew
And she promised me in secret
That she'd love me for all time
It's a promise so untrue
Tell me what will i do?
And it doesn't seem to matter
And it doesn't seem right
'Cause the will has brought
No fortune
Still i cry alone at night
Don't you judge of my composure
'Cause i'm lying to myself
And the reason why she left me
Did she find in someone else?

Jam (lyrics written by Michael Jackson)
Nation To Nation
All The World
Must Come Together
Face The Problems
That We See
Then Maybe Somehow We Can Work It Out
I Asked My Neighbor
For A Favor
She Said Later
What Has Come Of
All The People
Have We Lost Love
Of What It's About
I Have To Find My Peace Cause
No One Seems To Let Me Be
False Prophets Cry Of Doom
What Are The Possibilities
I Told My Brother
There'll Be Problems,
Times And Tears For Fears,
We Must Live Each Day
Like It's The Last

I Told My Brothers
Don't You Ask Me
For No Favors
I'm Conditioned By
The System
Don't You Talk To Me
Don't Scream And Shout
She Pray To God, To Buddha
Then She Sings A
Talmud Song
Confusions Contradict
The Self
Do We Know Right
From Wrong
I Just Want You To
Recognize Me
In The Temple
You Can't Hurt Me
I Found Peace
Within Myself

And there are more but I guess it’s pointless naming them anyway. It’s also funny how that critic, which you so vehemently rely on, decided to focus exactly on the two albums on which Michael had the least creative input.
Click to expand...
That, right there? Pure art.

I just love Michael Jackson so much. I don't care what any pretentious, so-called "critic" has to say, about anything really; if there's one thing I've realized over the years, it's that it's the fans who tend to understand whatever they love the best, since they're much more invested in the subject than some critic who likely only has general knowledge of it. Heck, a lot of fan-favorite Michael Jackson songs aren't even that well-known! Several of mine aren't, I know that much. I've already talked in another thread about how I'm cynical about the profession as a whole, and I stand by it.
 
I want them to address the creation of each song that ended up on the album and the inspiration behind each song. I want to see unreleased studio footage of Michael creating the songs. I also want them to address the songs that didn’t make the album.

But obviously, we will get contemporary artists like Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Weekend etc talking about how Thriller inspired them. Basically the same shit as the Off The Wall documentary.
 
I want commentary on Girlfriend. It's not talked about enough how funny it is he would even think to make a song with that subject matter 😂 Maybe even how Michael presented the idea. "I got a song where I'm the side guy and I'm threatening to snitch to her main guy" 😂 I just need to know the process of that song. Keep in mind, this was before the idea of being a "side-piece" was popular conversation like it is today lol
 
TalentedKamarty said:
I want commentary on Girlfriend. It's not talked about enough how funny it is he would even think to make a song with that subject matter 😂 Maybe even how Michael presented the idea. "I got a song where I'm the side guy and I'm threatening to snitch to her main guy" 😂 I just need to know the process of that song. Keep in mind, this was before the idea of being a "side-piece" was popular conversation like it is today lol
Click to expand...
I think asking Paul McCartney about the process would be a better idea. Lol.
 
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