Talk:Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video)/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Sales

This article claims the video has sold in excess of 90 million copies world-wide. Where was this sourced from? I thought it was nearer to the 1 million mark.

The source from Guinness says 1 million 69.209.222.168 (talk) 02:40, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Longest video

How was this beaten by Mike Skinner? What about Ghosts, which was 35 minutes long? Theswillman 01:00, 20 August 2006 (UTC) Ghost beat Thriller.

Bollywood version

Recently on Youtube there has been an Indian parody posted. Does anyone know anything about this? FuturePast 05:31, 28 February 2007 (UTC) FuturePast

      • The Golimar song of Chiranjeevi is from the movie Donga (Tollywood, language Telugu, year 1985). Chiranjeevi definately copied MJ. ***

Trivia clean-up

I made a new heading for references to the video in pop culture. This can be sorted further, however, e.g references in cinema, other music videos, etc. 211.30.189.31 05:24, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Very little of what's in the Trivia section is actually noteworthy. I think we can just delete it all.--24.83.107.213 20:51, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

National Film Registry

You can check the records of the National Film Registry here. Thriller is not mentioned anywhere. I am going to remove that part of the trivia section.UberCryxic 15:17, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

As a matter of fact, Thriller did make the list for films that were nominated to the Registry but not chosen. See here. There were, however, other music videos that were also nominated, so Thriller is not special in that sense.UberCryxic 15:20, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

"Voted as the most influential pop music video of all time,[2] Thriller proved to have a profound effect on popular culture,[3][4] and was named "a watershed moment for the [music] industry"[2] for its unprecedented merging of filmmaking and music. Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over nine million copies.[5] In 2009, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, the first music video to ever receive this honor, for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.[6] It is also the most watched music video of all time, seen by more than four billion people all over the world" ...

...Thriller WAS and IS "special"!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.42.90.232 (talk) 01:54, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Person at the end of the video?

Who might be that person at the very end of the video, dressed up as a curly zombie? It appears to be somebody one should recognize, but I just don't get it. Quincy Jones or someone?

Someone edited the page to say this is Vincent Price in prosthetic makeup. I've been reading about MJ and this video for 20 years, and not once have I ever heard this fact. Since there is no corroborating link or verification info, it should be deleted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.136.1.60 (talk) 15:47, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Only show (complete) Once?

If I remember this correctly, the entire long form video was only shown once on MTV - mostly to drive sales of the video. After that, they only showed the song portion. 24.24.211.239 (talk) 21:49, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

MTV showed the full version in countdowns on greatest videos of all time in the '90s, so it's been shown in full more than once, although long after it was off the charts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.133.8.248 (talk) 13:08, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Thrillertitlecard.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 02:44, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Do we need this

THRILLER IS AWESOME —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.66.36.68 (talk) 22:56, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

I just watched this video and it's really, really bad. Does it really deserve its own article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.193.45.183 (talk) 19:45, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Uh, YES. It is one of the most influential music videos of all time, and even today is still considered one of the best, if not number one. The effects may be tacky by today's standards, but they were groundbreaking and amazing at the time. Also the dance moves are very famous, and deserve to be recognized as one of Michael Jackson's greatest achievements.

Thriller Dance Used in Final Fantasy VIII?

I've been comparing videos of Thriller to the Dealing City Parade cut scene but while I cannot conclusively rule out that the dance steps are not the same it is looking unlikely. Of course this is only minor trivia that doesn't really add anything to the article, but I happen to like the trivia so it might as well be accurate. So if anyone one else can find another source or take a look at it for themselves to see if the dancers in the parade are/n't using the Thriller dance steps then it would be appreciated.

I just watched it myself, and it is NOT the Thriller dance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.34.50.155 (talk) 05:37, 8 August 2008 (UTC) Deepraine (talk) 23:03, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

WHAT? I have watched this video a few times ...It IS the Thriller dance...What planet are you on? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.19.163.8 (talk) 09:15, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

Thriller Dance References and Parodies

The above comment mentioned Final Fantasy VIII, but what of the "Weapon of Choice" music video by Fatboy Slim? I just watched it, and I'm pretty sure that no moves from "Thriller" made it into "Weapon of Choice," unless I'm watching some shortened version. Can anybody confirm this either way? And if this one is incorrect, could it be that others are incorrect as well? KyrieEleison (talk) 07:54, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

It is interesting, however, that one of the extras of the original FINAL FANTASY - THE SPIRITS WITHIN DVD is a parody of the Thriller video with the female protagonist, other characters and aliens performing the THRILLER choreography in a deserted backstreet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi3wV8ebogQ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.23.40.244 (talk) 15:20, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Werecat or Werewolf?

The article says that Michael Jackson turns into a werecat, yet at one point in the video he howls like a werewolf. Just a thought. --♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 15:22, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Certainly an odd hybrid creature. Has slits for pupils (like a feline), but has ears like a canine and howls like one. Any sources pin down just what the creature is supposed to be?
70.105.195.201 (talk) 23:37, 22 April 2009 (UTC)
It is referred to by the lead make-up artist for the video as a "cat monster" in the making of featurette "Making Michael Jackson's Thriller". Source It is also referred to as a "WereCat" by the director of the music video, John Landis, in a column that he wrote for The Guardian that was published on 31 Aug 2017. "Rick eventually came up with his elegant “WereCat” design for Michael’s monster." Source It is my opinion that a change should be made to refer to this creature as a Werecat and not a Werewolf. Feggart (talk) 02:22, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:Mjthriller.jpg

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Who were the zombies?

Were the zombie dancers credited, or were they just anonymous? MJ is an amazing dancer, but the backups were almost as good, and if we know who they were, I think it's fair to give them credit. -thedrtaylor (talk) 21:28, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

New sales figures

Billboard Publishes Top Selling List Sunday, April 12th 2009

US magazine Billboard has published their list of the three hundred Best Selling Albums Of All Time. Not surprisingly, ‘Thriller’ was top of the list with 72,400,000 units sold. ‘Bad’ was Michael’s next entry at Number 9, with 33,200,000 units and ‘Dangerous’ was came in at Number 20 with 30,000,000 units.

‘HIStory’ came in at Number 71 with 19.600,000 units and ‘Off The Wall’ featured at Number 75, with 19,000,000 units sold.

These remarkable sales just prove yet again, that Michael is the best selling artist of all time with over 174 million albums!

Source: Billboard & MJWN Kelvin

Grammy?

This articles lists two grammy award wins. Is that correct? and are the years mixed up? In Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video only the Making of video is listed (for 1985, not 1984). /81.237.244.166 (talk) 15:00, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Correction

{{editsemiprotected}}

I have corrected this article and the Ola Ray article because the text is confusing. I cannot save this change because it's protected :)

Both of these are true

1. Ola Ray sues Michael Jackson 2. Ola Ray apologizes to Michael Jackson

But the ORDER is different

a. Ola Ray apologizes in 2007 link here b. Ola Ray sues Michael in 2009 link here

The text as is implies the order is b,a but it is a, b - an important interpretation point

--64.142.36.76 (talk) 17:07, 27 June 2009 (UTC) MJB

My suggested text:

Ola Ray has complained in the past about difficulties in collecting her fair royalties. Ray first blamed Michael Jackson, then apologized to him in 1997.1

However, on May 6, 2009 it was reported that Ray sued Jackson in a dispute over royalties for the Thriller video.2

Done Thanks. Celestra (talk) 17:36, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

References in Pop Culture

Can this all be deleted? It just gunks up the page.--The lorax (talk) 23:31, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree, tt needs to be massively trimmed. Adding the trivia template to it. Douglasr007 (talk) 04:48, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

External Links?

Is it really necessary to have a link to a book of an online condolence site on this page - which is primarily about Thriller.

It amounts to spam as this is an article about Michael's music (that was in the 1980s).

Not his passing —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.130.135.162 (talk) 09:40, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Go steady???

Could this article please use language that all native English speaking people can understand. I'm British and I've never heard this expression before. I can guess what it means of course. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.71.209.86 (talk) 02:57, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

While 'Go steady' and 'going steady' are US American phrases, they have been in use for at least 50 years and I find it hard to believe that any native English speaker with a moderate exposure to US culture hasn't heard of the term. Apart form that, they are used specifically in the article because they refer to what was said in the video. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.70.217.160 (talk) 05:35, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm British and I've heard "go steady" used many times in my life, though it hasn't entered British English in the way that "dating" has. It's probably a bit too informal for an encyclopedic entry though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.208.221 (talk) 14:16, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Thriller doesn't reference the thriller genre

An unspoken error/artistic twisting of words is that the Thriller video and the words of the song are actually referencing the [Horror] genre rather than the [Thriller] genre. Is it worth mentioning this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.70.217.160 (talk) 05:47, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

No, because the so-called "thriller" genre is a very vague and undefined genre. Many horror films can be and are classified as thrillers because there is nothing even close to an agreed upon uniform definition of what it means for something to be a thriller. If you mean something that is sensationalist, tense, thrilling, etc. there is no reason why some horror films couldn't apply. The thriller genre is almost as bad as the "drama" genre. Things that are called thrillers often have action but not enough to be action films, often have humor but not enough to be comedies, and/or fear and suspense but not enough to be traditional classic horror films. In short it's a genre that doesn't mean very much and has a smattering of a bunch of different genres without quite being one of them, much like "pop." That's the entire point of the thriller album is that the so-called thriller genre is a heavily populist amorphous concept much like the pop genre that Jackson represented. There's nothing notable about elements of horror films being in something called thriller because like pop music borrows from every other musical genre so too does the thriller borrow from other film genre. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdlund (talk • contribs) 03:13, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Not longest ever...

If you have ever watched Interstella 5555, you will obviously see that that is the longest music video ever. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.188.96.145 (talk) 03:33, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Feature Lenght

I went ahead and made a deletion to the opening line of the article because "14 minute feature-length movie" doesn't make any sense. Either it's feature length or its not and 14 minutes isn't close to being feature length. It's not just some meaningless phrase people tack on before the words movie or film, to be feature-length the work has to be at least 40 minutes. Some may argue over what it means but no reasonably intelligent definition would possibly include something as short as 14 minutes. It's a short film, a long music video, whatever, but it is most certainly not a feature-length film. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdlund (talk • contribs) 22:02, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

Secret love affair with Taylor Rose Fulford

This is the second paragraph? Important, it's not 1. I can't find any link/reference between Jackson and this person. Goodle Taylor Fuilford --- nada! 2. Is this trivia even relevant info for this page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.150.160.127 (talk) 14:21, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Awards Section

Would not a better placement of the Awards section be after the Origins, Making of, and Legacy sections? If anything, to be consistent with the majority of Wikipedia articles (which usually place it as the last—or nearly so—content section, but before the See Also and External Links sections)?
I would also move the External Links section immediately after See Also instead of after the References section.
The audio sample that is in the Awards section might be better in the Content section (below the still from the video).
I wasn't going to change these myself as I'm sure the regular editors of this page may have stronger opinions on how it is now than I do. :)—al-Shimoni (talk) 05:23, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

Academy Award

It mentions, in the lead in paragraph, that "To qualify for an Academy Award as a short subject, the film was shown in a theatrical screening along with the 1940 Disney animated feature Fantasia, in December 1983." Yet, it never mentions if it won. I'd like to know, & I'm sure others would, too. Beatriceblue (talk) 16:12, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

As far as my recollection goes, Thriller was never nominated for an Oscar. BrothaTimothy (talk · contribs) 02:39, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

[1]

Requested move 24 January 2015

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: no consensus. No agreement over whether the proposed title is the common name, and a good point made about WP:NATURAL. Number 57 12:57, 25 February 2015 (UTC)


Michael Jackson's Thriller → Thriller (music video) – Ambiguous title could easily confuse the reader into thinking this is an article about the song or album by Jackson. Also WP:COMMONNAME concerns; I don't know anyone who actually refers to this as "Michael Jackson's Thriller". Relisted. Number 57 23:22, 17 February 2015 (UTC) –Chase (talk / contribs) 22:17, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

  • What other music videos are there named "Thriller" that extra disambiguation should be necessary? –Chase (talk / contribs) 18:12, 25 January 2015 (UTC)
  • The viral video is not a music video, and the difference between a "music video" and a "viral video" should be clear to readers. –Chase (talk / contribs) 19:10, 26 January 2015 (UTC)
  • being viral does not mean it isn't a music video. The AMV-style music videos are also not traditional music videos either. And just look at "Call me Maybe" or "Gungnam Style" remixed/etc music videos on Youtube. Indeed some now music stars were discovered when their music videos went viral, becoming viral videos -- 65.94.40.137 (talk) 21:24, 26 January 2015 (UTC)
  • Oppose since the current title seems to be the subject's WP:COMMONNAME. (Also, from the looks of this article, my opinion is that it should be merged into Thriller (song), but that's a discussion for another day.) Steel1943 (talk) 22:26, 26 January 2015 (UTC)
  • Oppose. This is the common name, plus, most people looking for the video of a song will look at the song article first, as most articles contain both song and video.--Richhoncho (talk) 14:53, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
  • How is it the common name? Sources may refer to it as "Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' music video", but not "Michael Jackson's 'Michael Jackson's Thriller'...". Even so, are you telling me that "Michael Jackson's Thriller" isn't at all confusing? Couldn't at all make the reader think the article is about Thriller (Michael Jackson album) or Thriller (Michael Jackson song)? There may be hatnotes currently, but I think it's incredibly irresponsible. –Chase (talk / contribs) 15:18, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
  • Support per nom and WP:COMMONNAME (the most commonly used name for this topic is Thriller, which apparently requires disambiguation). I am mystified by claims that the current title meets COMMONNAME. --В²C ☎ 21:59, 29 January 2015 (UTC)
  • Support per WP:COMMONNAME. HandsomeFella (talk) 19:07, 30 January 2015 (UTC)
  • Support per WP:COMMONNAME. And there is no need to include "Michael Jackson" in the title or in the disambiguator. This is overwhelmingly the most prominent music video of that name.  — Amakuru (talk) 21:39, 11 February 2015 (UTC)
  • Support the proposal (preferred) or another move from the current ambiguous title (if others agree). —  AjaxSmack  00:51, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Question. Does anybody consider the present image on the article which says, "Michael Jackson's Thriller" relevant or irrelevant? --Richhoncho (talk) 09:58, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

I did and judged that the "Michael Jackson's" part is like "National Lampoon's" in National Lampoon's Animal House, not particularly necessary or all that commonly used. Normally this wouldn't bother me, but with the notable album and song out there, it is ambiguous as well. —  AjaxSmack  04:12, 13 February 2015 (UTC)
@AjaxSmack: actually "Michael Jackson's Thriller" is the official legal name for the "film." See my comment below. Wikimandia (talk) 07:40, 16 February 2015 (UTC)
Everybody forgets that Michael Jackson and his advisors decided to call the video "Michael Jackson's video" as the official, common and marketing name. Elsewhere that is probably what it is called, Amazon et al would use the official title. I am not sure outguessing MJ or any other artist is the best option in any event. As a commercial item I am sure they would have renamed the video to what the fans were calling it if they thought there was any additional profit in it. They didn't so we are stuck in an "in universe" argument that belittles Wikipedia --Richhoncho (talk) 09:51, 21 February 2015 (UTC)
PS. Even those who are supporting the change must recognize "Michael Jackson's Thriller" as the title. The question is whether the word (video) should be added. I can't see any harm in that. --Richhoncho (talk) 09:53, 22 February 2015 (UTC)
  • Oppose: The actual name of the video IS "Michael Jackson's Thriller." It was released on videotape, and was called, "Michael Jackson's Thriller" very specifically. In addition to the image you have already, you can see the "Making of" video cover here, and it specifically says, "Included: Michael Jackson's Thriller. A short film by John Landis." It's the correct the way it is now, all italicized as well. Wikimandia (talk) 04:41, 13 February 2015 (UTC)
  • WP:COMMONNAME prefers common names to official names. (COMMONNAME was also cited by the opposing side, but no one has yet demonstrated that "Michael Jackson's Thriller" is the common name for this subject.) Even if we were to retain the current title, there is a matter of ambiguity that many in this discussion have ignored. "Michael Jackson's Thriller" could also refer to Michael Jackson's Thriller or Michael Jackson's "Thriller". –Chase (talk / contribs) 17:01, 14 February 2015 (UTC)
  • Then it should be "Michael Jackson's Thriller (video)" - nothing ambiguous about it, and it includes the accurate title, which the creators apparently very specifically wanted it to be called, and the artist's name, which other people wanted to make sure was not dropped. Wikimandia (talk) 07:34, 16 February 2015 (UTC)
  • Oppose. Perfectly good title as is. Preferred by WP:NATURAL. Preferred as the title as per the primary source. No WP:COMMONNAME issue that I can see, the first reference introduces it as "Michael Jackson’s landmark music video “Thriller”" which is close enough, and google ngram clearly demonstrates frequent usage of the current title. The proposed title doesn't get a single hit. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 04:36, 25 February 2015 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Requested move 5 March 2015

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Moved. Unreal7 (talk) 10:35, 3 April 2015 (UTC)


Michael Jackson's Thriller → Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video) – I won't hassle people with a duplicate RM of the one above that just resulted in "no consensus", but the ambiguity concerns raised by myself and others were inexplicably not addressed by Number 57 who closed the last RM. The title clearly should not remain somewhere where confusion with other topics could easily arise. This is why natural disambiguation doesn't always work. –Chase (talk / contribs) 00:33, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

  • Mild support.
We have the following three related articles.
Thriller (Michael Jackson album)
Thriller (song)
Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video) (proposed).
Even though related, the three titles need to be precise with respect to each other. Currently, as per nom, this one is not. It is too easily mis-recognizable as another.
If would be nice if the titles could be more consistent with each other.
As they are so closely related, it would be nice if one of the three was designated to top article, with the other two more clearly structured as sub-articles. This is most largely an issue of content and structure within the articles, but I note the perverseness of current Wikipedia titling that the apparent top article, the song, is given the least recognizable title. I given the three current titles in a mixed list, I would expect many to mis-recognize Michael Jackson's Thriller as the song, and Thriller (song) mis-guessed to be some obscure different song by a non-famous artist. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 02:33, 5 March 2015 (UTC)
  • Support, However I honestly do not see the importance of this title repeatedly coming back to haunt the RM pages. The new disambiguation seems to me to have a usefully informative content. On its own "Michael Jackson's Thriller" does not disambiguate from "Thriller (Michael Jackson ...)" GregKaye 08:27, 5 March 2015 (UTC)
  • Support per nom and per WP:PRECISION, but would not oppose (video) or (film) if there was consensus. --Richhoncho (talk) 11:23, 5 March 2015 (UTC)
  • Support per nom and per WP:PRECISION In ictu oculi (talk) 07:20, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
  • Support as this was my suggestion!! Still don't feel there is a pressing need for a change; however, this one keeps the CORRECT official title and there is no ambiguity with album or song, so it's a good compromise. Also would not mind "Michael Jackson's Thriller (film)" as it was more than just a video, and the "music video" part is technically just the music part. They used to just play the music video on MTV instead of the whole thing. —МандичкаYO 😜 07:51, 8 March 2015 (UTC) (Wikimandia from above - signature change!)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

“Obsessive”

The word “obsessive” is used in the article, but who is the author quoting there? It’s unprofessional. There are other words used many times throughout the article like “and” and “the” are they quoted in here as well? When Jackson called Walter, did he say, “I’m obsessed over the sales of thriller. Let’s sell more” no. He said “my record is not number one,” thus concerned his record was not number one. TruthGuardians (talk) 15:08, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

I agree w/ TruthGuardians. It is simply the author's wording expressed as if in an editorial, or as if it were an objective statement. If we cannot editorialize Wikipedia articles, then we should not be able to add editorialized content. Israell (talk) 17:55, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

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