By Mike Celizic

TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 10:22 a.m. CT, Thurs., April. 24, 2008

 

What Michael Jackson has become hasn?t changed what he was 25 years ago, when he was riding the greatest album ever made and making the music video that would change forever the way we thought about both.

 

It was one of those defining moments that come along once in a generation, and those who witnessed it when they were young and impressionable will never forget. Elvis Presley had done that when he gyrated his pelvis and belted out his blues-influenced rock a half century ago. A generation later, it was the Beatles ushering in another deathless sound.

 

And then it was 1983, and the man who burned his image and his music into young and febrile minds was Michael Jackson. If you were young then, the ?Thriller? video and Jackson?s music became part of your DNA. But even if you were older, you knew when you turned on MTV and saw Jackson?s breathtaking performance that you were seeing something that had never been seen before.

 

Many would say that the likes of ?Thriller? hasn?t been seen since, either.

 

Not just another Jackson

Jackson was no musical ing?nue. He?d practically been born with a microphone in his mouth, a cute, button-nosed boy with a voice so high and clear and penetrating it seemed on loan from heaven. He was just 11 when he debuted, and he was surrounded by his singing siblings, the Jackson 5. But as good as that group was, he was the star of the show.

 

He had emerged from the family shadow in 1979 with the release of his first album, ?Off the Wall,? the first ever to contribute four singles to the Top 10 charts. The album would sell 20 million copies over the years, but Jackson and his co-producer Quincy Jones felt they could do better.

 

The vehicle that Jackson would use hadn?t even been born yet, but when MTV debuted on the burgeoning cable menu in 1981, he saw the potential of a new medium in ways that no one else did.

 

The album ?Thriller? was released late in 1982 to breathless reviews for the pioneering work of the 24-year-old superstar.

 

?Rather than reheating ?Off the Wall?s? agreeably mindless funk, Jackson has cooked up a zesty LP whose up-tempo workouts don't obscure its harrowing, dark messages,? wrote Rolling Stone. ?Jackson's new attitude gives ?Thriller? a deeper, if less visceral, emotional urgency than any of his previous work, and marks another watershed in the creative development of this prodigiously talented performer.?

 

Even NPR checked in with a review that included this declaration: ?Where lesser artists need a string section or a lusty blast from a synthesizer, Jackson need only sing to convey deep, heartfelt emotion.?

 

?Thriller? would become the best-selling album of original music ever recorded, a title it holds to this day. It remained atop the charts for an incredible 37 weeks. There were nine tracks on the record and seven of them went Top 10, including ?Thriller,? ?Beat It? and ?Billie Jean.?

 

A watershed moment for the industry

But the best was yet to come. MTV played mostly music videos in those early days, but no one had yet considered the possibility of merging filmmaking and music in the way that Jackson envisioned. With co-producer Jones, Jackson enlisted John Landis, the brilliant writer/director whose credits at the time included ?Kentucky Fried Movie,? ?Animal House,? ?The Blues Brothers? and ?American Werewolf in London? to direct what many believe remains the greatest music video ever.

 

The video would run 14 minutes, essentially a miniature feature film that cost $800,000 to make ? an astonishing figure at the time. Vincent Price, the master of the horror movie, was brought in to do a sinister rap under the music.

 

?Thriller? is a horror movie that turns out to be a dream that turns out to be maybe not a dream after all. It begins with a young couple ? apparently of high school age ? walking late at night. Jackson, whose skin was not yet bleached and whose features still resembled a normal human being?s, wears a wide-shouldered, red leather jacket, red leather pants and his trademark white socks. His date, Ola Ray, wears tight, calf-length jeans and a sweater straight out of ?Grease.?

 

The fun starts with the full moon rising and Jackson telling Ray, ?I?m not like other guys.?

 

The line has been repeated often over the years, the irony growing with each new episode in his life. ?It?s close to midnight. Something evil?s lurking in the dark,? he warns her.

 

The something is him. Landis did a takeoff of ?American Werewolf in London? to transform Jackson into something resembling more a werecat than a werewolf. Ray spends a lot of the video running and shrieking, pursued first by the yellow-eyed feline and then by an army of zombies. Like all self-respecting undead, the zombies can barely put one foot in front of the other when walking, but man, can they dance.

 

Along the way, we learn that Jackson and Ray are watching the action in a movie, and then they?re not. Finally, she awakes from a dream, but it ends with Jackson?s eyes flashing yellow feline slits.

 

You watched it for the brilliant music. Kids danced in front of their televisions when Mom and Dad weren?t looking, trying to capture even a fraction of Jackson?s grace and power. And through it all was that heart-stopping plot.

 

The video sold more than a million copies, and every year Lexington, Ky., turns its downtown over to a reenactment of the video performed by its fans-for-life.

 

As Mike Joseph wrote for PopMatters.com: ?Twenty-five years after ?Thriller?s? original release, amidst everything that?s gone on in Michael Jackson?s crazy, insane, screwed-up life, this album still makes people smile, the grooves still make people dance, and the videos still make people stop and stare in awe. This, folks, is where the mere pop stars get separated from the legends. Times may change, music may change, but ?Thriller? is one of those few iconic records whose influence seems to be prevalent no matter the climate.?

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24282347/

I hate the fact that...with every article disguised as "positive", there's always some sort of sting or little side comment/snear about Michael--like his appearance, his mental state/sanity, etc.

 

It really annoys me!

 

Like this:

 

What Michael Jackson has become hasn?t changed what he was 25 years ago

 

What is that supposed to mean?

 

And I'm sick of people acting as if Thriller is his only masterpiece.

 

Someone posted this article on another fan forum and most of the people there actually share my feelings.

 

I just had to get that out.

I hate the fact that...with every article disguised as "positive", there's always some sort of sting or little side comment/snear about Michael--like his appearance, his mental state/sanity, etc.

 

It really annoys me!

 

Like this:

 

What Michael Jackson has become hasn?t changed what he was 25 years ago

 

What is that supposed to mean?

 

And I'm sick of people acting as if Thriller is his only masterpiece.

 

Someone posted this article on another fan forum and most of the people there actually share my feelings.

 

I just had to get that out.

 

Michael does do things that make him appear weird so his name will appear in the paper. They could be talking about some of that. He didn't do any of that back before Thriller was released.

 

I agree. I don't think Thriller is his best work at all. I think the Dangerous album is his best

I love his thriller, Bad and Dangerous albums EQUALLY.. i can't decide which is better.. BUT dangerous is sooooooooo underrated.. .that album is soooo cool.. and rough..

 

anyways... Thriller Anniversary is selling better then Janet's Jackson's latest CD... can you guys believe that

I love his thriller, Bad and Dangerous albums EQUALLY.. i can't decide which is better.. BUT dangerous is sooooooooo underrated.. .that album is soooo cool.. and rough..

 

anyways... Thriller Anniversary is selling better then Janet's Jackson's latest CD... can you guys believe that

 

Thats because sex doesn't sell well anymore

 

I still think Janet's image went down hill ever since the superbowl thing. It was just too skanky, and almost all of her songs are sexual and its just not good anymore.

 

People actually love the songs in Thriller, and the sound of the music, which is why it still sells alot. has nothing really to do with Michael and his image at all, at least not with his present image.

 

After all that has been written about Michael, and things people say he did and actually believe he did, you must admit how amazing it is that Thriller can still sell so well.

Both Off the wall and Thriller had the REAL Mj in it. I dunno, but maybe it didnt. Who knows? I think Mike was trying to go mainstream than anything else. HIS OWN style stopped at dangerous I think. I think, even though people try to deny it, the times changed with MJ.

Both Off the wall and Thriller had the REAL Mj in it. I dunno, but maybe it didnt. Who knows? I think Mike was trying to go mainstream than anything else. HIS OWN style stopped at dangerous I think. I think, even though people try to deny it, the times changed with MJ.

 

i'm not so sure about that. If you think about it OFF THE WALL and Thriller did fit in with the music then and the type. It was maybe more original, but it wasn't a complete new unique style as much as Dangerous and HIStory was. Those were his own unique creations that nothing else sounds like even today. He had total control and freedom on those albums because by then he had earned his right to do what he wanted as an artist and he did.

Forgot about History there. Totally Autobiographical. Yup. But I do still love the first solo albums he did. They put him at a rank of where...here's a cat who can kick it with the big fellows of his time and beyond. Just being an artist. You know?/

Both Off the wall and Thriller had the REAL Mj in it. I dunno, but maybe it didnt. Who knows? I think Mike was trying to go mainstream than anything else. HIS OWN style stopped at dangerous I think. I think, even though people try to deny it, the times changed with MJ.

the dangerous album was soo MJ... No one could have ever wrote or sung those songs like him.. i love that album.. its my first memories of michael.... and believe me.. the dangerous album has a special place cause that is the first MJ songs i heard in my life...