Szörnyek tánca – a Thriller öröksége
Monsters’ Dance ‒ The Legacy of Thriller

Author(s): Orsolya Milián
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Music, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: video clip; cultural heritage; remakes; Michael Jackson; Thriller;
Summary/Abstract: Although music videos are often thought of as short-lived, easily forgettable, and disposable audio-visual advertisements, over the decades, there emerged several valuable, high-quality works that have marked a turning point in the history of music videos and continue to shape global culture today. One of these is the music video created for Michael Jackson’s song Thriller (John Landis, 1983), a nearly 14-minute version of which established the form of the big-budget, long-form, sophisticated narrative music video and also paved the way for African-American musicians to appear on the US television music channel MTV. Thriller was a huge success in the 1980s, and the popularity of the music video has continued to this day, with animated short films (Shrek: Thriller Night [Sean Bishop, Gary Trousdale, 2011]; Sing: Thriller [Garth Jennings, 2024]), music videos, flash mobs, YouTube and TikTok videos, and even as part of prison therapy. In the first part of my essay, I will outline why and how Thriller made music video history in 1983, and then I will explore the elements of the music video that are still with us today. Contemporary, multigenerational remakes of Thriller clearly cherish and perpetuate the memory and cultural legacy of Michael Jackson, the ‘King of Pop’, but give new meanings and cultural functions to the music video created 42 years ago.

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