'Thriller' turns 25 today.

[U2isthebest]

Appreciate one of the greatest pop albums of all time. It's absolutely genius.

 

[corianderstem]

I think everyone in my sixth-grade class had a copy.

I was in love with Michael Jackson! How embarrassing. I had a poster where he was wearing a white shirt and pants, and a yellow sweater vest.

My grandma knit me a yellow sweater vest because of that. I loved it.

When I drove up to Vancouver for one of the U2 shows in 2004, I was stopped in traffic downtown, and some guy on a street corner was dancing to "PYT" on a boom box. It was blasting, and all the cars around him had their windows down, singing along and/or dancing along in their cars. It was awesome.

 

[tiny dancer]

Appreciate one of the greatest pop albums of all time. It's absolutely genius.

 

[LMP]

The cast of my show is in the process of learning the Beat It dance for the last scene.

It's glorious.

 

[lazarus]

Why didn't we celebrate the 25th anniversary of 1999, which was on October 27th?

It's a better album by a more talented artist.

Little Red Corvette > Michael Jackson's total creative output.

 

[corianderstem]

If it's that good, why didn't you post a thread celebrating it yourself?

Feel free to go start one now, rather than whining about it here.

 

[LMP]

Why didn't we celebrate the 25th anniversary of 1999, which was on October 27th?

It's a better album by a more talented artist.

Little Red Corvette > Michael Jackson's total creative output.

Didn't 1999 come out in '83?

Either way, it's a killer album, too.

 

[Cin]

I was in love with Michael Jackson! How embarrassing. I had a poster where he was wearing a white shirt and pants, and a yellow sweater vest.

My grandma knit me a yellow sweater vest because of that. I loved it.

.

My sister had that poster too
Our grandma knitted us jumpers with clowns on them

I put on the best of Michael Jackson at work all the time and everyone lurves it. . . . even though they wont admit it

 

[Zoots]

Thriller , such a classic! But depending on my mood, I like Bad or Dangerous just as much.

If it's that good, why didn't you post a thread celebrating it yourself?

Feel free to go start one now, rather than whining about it here.

Haha exactly! Wow you really told him!

 

[lazarus]

If it's that good, why didn't you post a thread celebrating it yourself?

Feel free to go start one now, rather than whining about it here.

I wasn't planning on starting any threads celebrating albums' anniversaries. I'm just surprised that a R&B (if you want to label it as generically as that) tour de force was overlooked for another genre classic that is essentially just a collection of hit singles with little depth.

Also, LMP, it was 1982. Maybe you thought it was '83 because it was ahead of its time.


This year also marked the 20th anniversary of Sign O' The Times (double album masterpiece) back in March, but I don't think anyone recognized that either.

 

[corianderstem]

Yeah, I think Prince has more depth than Michael Jackson. But I think the juggernaut that was Thriller is much more than "a collection of hit singles with little depth."

Maybe you had to be there.

Edit: Come to think of it, I have no idea how old you are, so maybe you WERE there.

Eh, maybe no one posted a 1999 thread because it's not as much a presence in our general pop culture experience as Thriller.

 

[lazarus]

I was there (born 1972), and enjoyed those songs as much as the next kid. We've discussed Thriller before and I don't want to get too deep into it again (esp. as I'm in the minority) but I find it a bit overrated as far as art is concerned, if you want to even call it that. It's not much more than a cultural artifact to me, and I don't think it has any more resonance than the other pop music from the period--in fact it has even less social relevance than something like Cyndi Lauper. Prince, on the other hand, was making music that was so fresh, and while the aesthetic itself may sound dated now, the material still impresses beyond the instant gratification of the Me Decade. For a guy whose songs are mostly about fucking, that's no small feat.

I image 1999 had its retrospective in the year of its title, and while it's not as highly regarded by the majority of the public as Thriller, I don't think the latter is much of a landmark aside from its financial success and its effect on the burgeoning phenomenon of music videos, which I don't really think is a good thing.

 

[U2isthebest]

I love Prince as well, and I agree that as a songwriter he's light years ahead of Michael Jackson. There was just a spark Michael Jackson had that Prince has never given off, as huge a fan as I am of him. 'Thriller' is just one of those albums. It never gets old, and it's brilliant pop from start to finish. I will concede that '1999' is superior in terms of depth, but 'Thriller' has something else that I can't put my finger on. It's just "magic", as lame as that sounds. Both albums are genius albums from 2 of the greatest artists of all time. I probably would've started a '1999' thread, but I totally didn't realize the anniversary was this year. I too, thought it came out in 1983 (give me a break, I wasn't born until 88 ). I also never bothered to check the release date because it really doesn't matter much to me. It's not like I was there. To be honest, other than the year, I had no idea what the release date of 'Thriller' was until I read an article about it earlier today and decided to start this thread.

 

[LMP]

Also, LMP, it was 1982. Maybe you thought it was '83 because it was ahead of its time.

*rushes to change iTunes tags*

 

[one4u2]

Wow 25 I officially feel ancient I loved that album

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Yeah, no matter how one feels about Michael Jackson, you can't deny the guy had some good songs. I've not heard this album in full yet , but I've always liked the big hits from it. Someday I'll check out the entire thing.

I do remember seeing the video for "Thriller" on MTV when I was a kid...it always scared me. I love it now, though, it's an awesome video.

Happy 25th anniversary to the Thriller album .

Angela

 

[Bono's shades]

This makes me feel all nostalgic. I was 15 when Thriller came out. I remember being at my boyfriend's house watching MTV (his parents had cable and mine didn't) and we watched the world premiere of the Thriller video. I never liked that particular video, but I loved everything else MJ related.

Then when Purple Rain came out about a year and a half later, my classmates and I were all like "Michael who?"

Although Prince pretty much swamps Michael talent-wise as a whole, Billie Jean and Beat It still deserve to be called classics, IMHO.

 

[last unicorn]

I used to love Michael. Thriller is a mile stone in music history.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

ironicaly enough michael's first molestation victim also truns 25 today

 

[SeattleVertigo]

Never got into the whole Michael Jackson scene. Sure, I've heard some of the songs off of Thriller, but they just never excited me. I guess I'm one of the few people who feel that way. <grin>

 

[yolland]

Mostly what I associate this album with (I was 11 at the time) is the unbelievably ridiculous extent to which US pop culture for the next, what, 2 years? 3 years? seemed to be continuously saturated with Michael Jackson this, Michael Jackson that, Michael Michael Michael blah blah blah. It wasn't just that the songs were popular and the record successful; you couldn't open a magazine or turn on the TV or go to the mall or any kind of preteen-through-to-teen kids' event without some Michael Jackson news story, some Michael Jackson impersonator or someone imitating his dance steps, or several songs from it that you'd already heard hundreds of times (whether or not you owned the album) blaring away in the background. I'm not sure I can think of anyone else who's drawn quite that level of broad-based popular hysteria for that sustained a time since then. I've never owned the album, but it was probably about 10 years before I was able to hear songs from Thriller on the radio without having an automatic-gag-reflex-due-to-overload reaction. And to be fair, I was somewhat surprised by that point to find myself thinking, Yeah, really these are pretty good pop tunes, and even more so dance tunes--I think the sheer danceability of it probably explains the album's success more than anything else. Still, I can't help shaking my head at the memory of how insanely saturated with it everything seemed to be at the time.

 

[Slipstream]

Thriller is 25?

Fuck, I'm old.

 

[Salome]

I was there (born 1972), and enjoyed those songs as much as the next kid. We've discussed Thriller before and I don't want to get too deep into it again (esp. as I'm in the minority) but I find it a bit overrated as far as art is concerned, if you want to even call it that. It's not much more than a cultural artifact to me, and I don't think it has any more resonance than the other pop music from the period--in fact it has even less social relevance than something like Cyndi Lauper.

I was born in 75 and I completely agree, except that even back then I was somehow indifferent to it all also
when I hear any of the songs now all I can hear is that it sounds outdated and has some good melodies

I don't really do musical nostalgia

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

I think everyone in my sixth-grade class had a copy.

I was in love with Michael Jackson! How embarrassing. I had a poster where he was wearing a white shirt and pants, and a yellow sweater vest.

My grandma knit me a yellow sweater vest because of that. I loved it.

I had that same poster.

Or, should that be a

I didn't have any family members knit me a matching sweater, though.

 

[Zoots]

I had that same poster.

Or, should that be a

sorry.

 

[phanan]

Let's see, I was 12 when Thriller came out. I might have had a cassette of it, I don't recall. I never liked him from the beginning, but there's no denying how big that album was.

But in the summer of 1984, I played Purple Rain all the time. Prince was the man.

 

[No spoken words]

Give me "Don't Stop 'Till you Get Enough" or "Shake your Body Down to the Ground" over anything from Thriller, any day.

I was born in 1970, I remember Michaels' acension to superstardom well. I cannot say that I loved Thriller, but I'd be lying if I said I disliked it. My favorite song from the album was, and remains, "Human Nature", which I think it a gorgeous song.

I'd already found U2 by 1984, though, and they were dominating my musical landscape then. If memory serves, I was turned on to REM right around 1984 as well, and I was completely taken with Murmur and Reckoning.

Anyway, I always felt like Michael was judged in extremes, unwarranted extremes....he's not as good as he was made out to be back in the day, nor do I feel that his music should be casually dismissed.

 

[angelordevil]

Really enjoyed your post, yolland! I was eight when Thriller came out, and like you say, the album truly was everywhere. The very definition of a phenomenon. I haven't seen anything like it since--a kind of power that cuts across generations to the extent that even your grandma knows what you're talking about...and can relate.

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven the day my mom brought home a life-sized MJ poster from France. Even bigger than that was the pull to learn the Moonwalk! It was a right of passage, like grasping the ability to tie your shoelaces. I had a patient friend who would give me lessons after school on the linoleum floor...when I finally mastered the motion in my socked feet, it was truly a moment. I can still do it now...like riding a bike.

Great moment in time, brought to us by a great performer...at the time. It's sad that's he's fallen so far since then. Ultimately, he seems to be a full-time member of the Elvis celebrity club, where the pressure and spotlight literally eats at them from the inside-out.

 

[corianderstem]

I'm curious about the comments about it being outdated. Is it because when you hear those songs, it takes you right back to the 80s because, as discussed, it was everywhere? Or do you think the songs themselves are dated?

I will concede the points about nostalgia - I doubt I'd enjoy the music as much if I weren't a child of the 80s, but I don't think the album should be dismissed outright.

It's a collection of amazingly well-crafted pop/dance tunes, and like the songs or roll your eyes at them, I think it's absurd for the album to be dismissed as nostalgia or whatever else without at least acknowledging the album for what it was at the time.

That being said, I just hope there's calvacade of 25th anniversary acclaim for Purple Rain.

 

[kellyahern]

I also remember the yellow sweater vest. I think I had a Michael Jackson doll, with the red vinyl jacket .

The thing about the "Thriller" phenomenon too was that it lasted for about two years. The album came out when I was six and I remember going to a classmate's 8th birthday party where the big thing was watching the making of the "Thriller" video. It was Michael Jackson this, Michael Jackson that constantly from like 82 - 85.