Case Study

Michael Jackson- Thriller

Michael Jackson is a major selling music artist and was

signed to Epic records 1975which is known world wide.

Epic records is owned by Sony music entertainment which

is a major record label in the media industry.

Michael Jackson released a Thriller in 1982 through Epic

records and hit number 1 in the charts as soon as it was

released.

The recording sessions for Thriller cost $750,000 for Epic

records to make this the most spectacular music video that

has ever been made.

It cost $500,000 to create the actual music video of

Thriller.

Promoting music is one thing that an artist and record label company

struggle find most important, Michael Jackson did all he could to

promote the release of the single Thriller.

They way he could promote Thriller to his fans was by word of mouth,

promotion of his music is vital to his career as it is the main source for

him to get a message to the world.

When Thriller was put on the Cd album ‘Thriller’ it was advertised on

most commercials to get people knowing about the single.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ_ExkfcBao

Michael Jackson was a creative and imaginative music artist that

had great ideas put into his lyrics and music videos that he

wanted to show/share with his fans and the rest of the public.

Because Michael Jackson was a major artist and everyone knew

who he was because of how he represented himself on and off

stage.

Red leather jacket and trousers:

In the music video Thriller Michael Jackson wore

a red leather jacket and trousers, this can be

represented to the audience as anger/danger or

even romance for the colour red, this could be

because he wants to get the message of his

lyrics across, so him wearing red attracts the

audience eyes to him because it’s a bright and

bold colour.

Michael Jackson is well known for the black shoes and white

socks that he always wears whether its on the music video or out

in public, this is so people recognise this look as him.

I think that Michael Jackson wore these items in the Thriller

music video to show the public that even though this video is the

most creative video that he has ever done and parts of the music

video he changes his appearance, he is still himself and he wants

to be remembered as the guy who started and kept this style .

There’s a variety of music channels that have played a wide amount of Michael Jackson's music .

(Magic, Kiss FM, vibe). Michael Jackson got more known about his music because it was on

different music channels repeatedly for days, weeks and even months.

This also meant that his record label company (Epic records) got more money because the music

that was being played on music channels were being played continuously and more viewers were

coming onto the channels which meant the view charts were increasing and more money was

being made, especially the channels that require you to pay to watch music videos.

Adverts were being played daily on the

television and on music website

‘YouTube’.

Every time Michael Jackson’s advert

was being played the record company

would get money and also if you

clicked on the advert.

In 1988 Michael Jackson released a new film ‘Moonwalker’ which was all

about him and his new album ‘Bad’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVaG5po34tM

In the trailer of Moonwalker Michael Jackson sang short parts of all the

songs that was in his album ‘bad’.

Having his songs in the trailer to advertise the film that was being

released helps letting the audience know that the film is about Michael

Jackson and it gets him known more because he is in a film as well as his

song being a huge part of the trailer which is exactly what the audience

will see before the actual film gets released.

The fact that Michael Jackson has created a film that is all about him, it

shows his fans and also the rest of the world that he can do things

independently in other industries, not only in music but also in film. He

also shows how creative and imaginative he can be and how well he can

perform it.

Michael Jackson was a very creative music artist and in the

music video Thriller he made it seem as an art form in

some way.

The colours that were used in the music video for the

artist clothing and the cast could be seen as art because of

the reason why he chose to wear that exact colour for this

video. The red leather jacket and trouser could be seen as

a sign of danger/horror which then matches the title of

the song Thriller.

In the music video Michael Jackson stands out from the

crowd for what he is wearing and shows the audience that

he is the leader of pack of how the other people are

following him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ_ExkfcBao

7.13 Michael Jackson starts to lead the pack and shows

how he is superior of the music, he presents himself bold

and bright and he stands out straight away.

The makeup that was used in the music video is also seen as a type of art because it has

transformed the way that Michael Jackson looked.

The make up had transformed his facial features to look dead, bones and zombie like. Because

Michael Jackson is creative in his videos, he wanted to also show himself as the title of the

music and the way of promoting Thriller and to get the message of the lyrics across is to look

like Thriller.

Michael Jackson was a major music artist and therefore his music was on most music channels:

� Vibe

� Viva

� MTV

� Smash hits

� BOX

All these channels that played Michael Jackson’s music was continuously played, especially when Thriller was

released. Thriller was one of the most expensive and well thought out music video that Michael Jackson has

ever done and when it was released, straight away it was on most music channels being played repeatedly.

This was to get people knowing about the new single that Michael Jackson has created and the new album

that it was going to released also that had the single Thriller on the playlist.

Having Thriller on the music channels continuously it then started to get money into the record company

‘Epic’, this was because more viewers were watching the music video and it was getting played on even more

music channels in different countries and won quite a few awards.

When Michael Jackson released his single Thriller, he then released the album Thriller in January

1984 through Epic records.

Just under 110 million copies of his Thriller album was sold world wide, and Epic records earned

220million dollars for making this album.

Epic records did also release a special edition on the Thriller album which included a few more

songs from his other albums and also demo songs.

The reason they decided to also sell an special edition album was because they wanted to sell

more of his songs, that people may not have heard, because when Thriller album came out that’s

when the numbers increased so most people wouldn’t have heard Michael Jackson’s other music

and so because the special edition had been released they then had a chance to review his older

songs.

YouTube is one of the main streaming websites that have at least all of Michael Jackson’s

music, old and new.

On YouTube Thriller is the first song on the list of Michael Jackson that comes up, this is

because Thriller is one of the best/top music videos that have ever been created by Michael

Jackson and has the most views than his other music.

The fact that the music video is on one of most known streaming website, more people will

know about the single Thriller.

Over 127million people

have viewed ‘Thriller’

through YouTube,

Michael Jackson has his own website where its available for anyone to view where you can

get the latest updates of his music or up coming albums and news about him as an music

artist.

On the website it has all of the music that was on the Thriller album which you can listen to

from the website you can’t watch or download the music.

The website also has information about all the awards that Michael Jackson has won over the

years that he has been performing, including the awards and Grammy's that he had won for

Thriller.

There’s different downloading sites that have Michael Jackson’s music including Thriller.

ITunes is a well known site that allows you to download singles and albums but with a fee

included.

ITunes is an legal site to download any music from it, the quality of music/video is quite good

for what you are paying for, usually the money will go to the record company ‘Epic’.

YouTube is another site that you can download

Thriller music video through the YouTube

convertor.

YouTube convertor can be seen as illegal

downloading because you are taking music

from the official music site, and you are also

not paying for the music video which can be a

problem because the record company Epic

isn’t getting money for what you are

downloading which belongs to their company.