Thriller Music Video Quotes

The long tail is a myth, a fact evidenced by the current music business, in which 80 percent of the revenue is generated by 1 percent of the content. Even at the height of the early blockbuster era, spawned by Michael Jackson’s Thriller, 80 percent of the revenue was spread among the top 20 percent of the content. So even in a different winner-takes-all scenario, the revenue was spread out among more artists than it is today. Economists have noted that winners “take all” in many sectors (including hedge funds), and that this has clearly contributed to global income equality, but in the digital media business it seems especially Darwinian. In a world where four hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute of every day, the commodification of what was once considered an art (or at least a craft) has become inevitable. For all the stories promoted by Google about YouTube millionaires, the traffic statistics tell another story. Most YouTube videos have fewer than 150 views.

I saw “Thriller” for the first time at Michael’s house, in his screening room, with his brothers Tito, Jackie, and Randy. When Michael said, “I’m not like other boys” in the video, Jackie and Randy started laughing. Jackie put his mouth to my ear and repeated the line: “He’s not like other boys.” Michael said, “Shut up, Jackie, that’s not nice.

On the TV he found cartoons and movies, music videos and game shows, repeat broadcasts and reruns, but there was nothing current, and no news. Many channels were just blank, or displayed brightly coloured test cards.

Catherine also wanted to know if my late friend’s hair had ever been singed by fire. That made no sense to me. However, later we recalled that Michael Jackson’s hair had been singed by fire, and that Forrest J Ackerman had appeared in Michael Jackson’s music video, Thriller, directed by Forry’s close friend John Landis. So the “singed by fire” observation ties together Forry and Michael Jackson and Thriller, which was about vampires and the “undead,” a favorite topic for Forry in fiction.