A short impromptu survey of the editorial staff of this newspaper is enough to realize the impact this video had on people. transversely Everywhere…“It was New Year’s Eve, I was celebrating at the house of some friends of my parents and when I saw him for the first time I was very scared. Clearly, I was nine years old.” “I remember what it was like going back to school after that. All the children talked about the same thing and recreated the choreography”; “to be able to see it again, my mother recorded it for me on Betacam”. Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video is 40 years old today and shows the mark it has left on society.
To say that Michael Jackson is the King of Pop is an understatement. The artist who began his career at the age of 8, with his brothers in the Jackson Five formation, revolutionized the entertainment and music industry – also fashion – and turned the art of video clip into a business by itself.
To understand it, you have to go back to the end of 1983, when his album Thriller was an overwhelming success. With songs, now legendary, such as Beat it or Billie Jean, it quickly topped the charts, and was the best-selling solo artist album in music history. But far from being content with that, a 25-year-old Michael Jackson wanted to further publicize the album’s eponymous single and produce a video. The production company Epic Records did not consider the short musical to be necessary, so the singer financed it largely out of his own pocket. It cost over half a million dollars. It premiered on MTV on December 2, 1983 and in Spain it was broadcast at the beginning of the year on RTVE, taking advantage of the December 31 special. Its success, seeing the comments it arouses 40 years later, precedes it.
Directed by John Landis, director of titles such as An American Werewolf in London or The Blues Brothers, and with choreography by Michael Peters, the music video for Thriller revolutionized music history as it was 14 minutes long. A bit of what happened in 1975 with Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen (it lasted 5.55 minutes).
It had its stellar protagonist, a Playboy model as a co-star – Ola Ray –, suspense, choreography and even a conceptual background: Landis sought to reflect the changes that take place during puberty. But without a doubt what ended up turning this horror short into a milestone was the costumes.
In charge of costume designer Deborah Nadoolman, Landis’ wife, Michael Jackson’s styling in the music video is part of fashion history and shows how the film industry is able to influence the Modern Bed Designss of an entire generation. In an interview for Vanity Fair, the designer explained that the iconic red and black leather jacket worn by Jackson was based on three ideas: a shape that enhanced his slim figure, a color to make it stand out and bring strength, masculinity. Thus, the shape and complexion of this mythical piece, which reached the figure of 1.27 million euros at auction, actually responded to the need to enhance the star of Thriller. “I think I thought I could turn him into a superhero. Look at the jacket, deep down it looks like a superhero’s uniform: it creates a shape, it brings strength, and the masculinity that helped Michael stand out from the rest,” explains Nadoolman in the same 2018 interview.
The sports jacket crowned with a large M by Michael that the artist wears in his characterization as a wolf also left a mark. Replicated in street style to the point of satiety, the piece has been consecrated as a timeless article without gender labels, as is the fact of showing the white socks. In the case of Jackson, this aspect of his styling responded to the need to highlight the elaborate dance steps. For whatever reason, these wardrobe choices transcended their time and are still part of our wardrobe today.