The purpose of the following paper is to make a critical review of the piece of the music. The critical analysis of the songs is a very interesting thing since it brings out the important elements within the piece of music. The listeners can still feel that chill in their veins when they listen to the beats of this song. The baseline of the song is the E baseline. The groovy funk of the music has been recorded repeatedly as well. A great many number of the sounds are being played in this song to attract the attention of the listeners in the best manner. The piece of the music that has been chosen in this paper is a famous one. It belongs to the pop genre and it has been presented by Michael Jackson. The name of the song is Thriller from the music album of the same name (Bruhm 267). The genre of rock had not been practice in the global music industry. The song was released in the year 1982 on 30th November. As the background of this song, it must be mentioned that this music album was published after around 3 years of his last publication of his music album Off the Wall. The music album of Thriller came as a result of the determination from the fact that he wanted to be the greatest star in the global music industry. The various categories that will be discussed throughout the paper are the invention of the disco-funk genre through this song, the quality of vocals by the singer, the various sound effects and the impact of the song on the minds of the audience.
This section will deal with the critical acclaim of the song and the rise of Michael Jackson. The song ‘Thriller’ is believed to be the one of the most favorite songs of the critical experts. As per the experts, it os one of the biggest hits during that time since the extraordinary display of pop-music has been evident in this song (Wiley 101). This song of Michael Jackson could be rated as the biggest chartbusters for years in the 90s. The vocals of the song are quite enthralling and Jackson has put up a great performance of the song in his public concerts as well. The song almost became the signature song for Jackson and people could recognize Jackson as the biggest blooming star in the industry (Bruhm 267).
The various inherent elements and themes have been discussed within this section. This song is considered as one of the best since the components of fright and pop beats have been felt all throughout. The presentation of the song in the concerts and the music video is eccentric and it has brought out the passion and stamina of Jackson in the best ways. This is why this song is considered as one of the best songs of all time. The element of terror has been present in the song all through (Manning 156). The song has been termed as ‘groovy’ by some sources as well. The beats of the song were quite out of the box as per that time. The lyrics were too terrifying as well. The popularity of Michael Jackson began to rise through this song and the song had sold more than a million copies and topped the chartbusters as well (Mercer 67). I would also like to state that the best technology had been used in this song by focusing mainly on the drum machine. This technology has been implemented in the music so the clear sound of the drum can be heard. This is why I believe that this song is quite based on the funk beats and it has captivated the audience for over decades now. There are some main themes of the song that could be discussed within this paper. The main protagonists of this song are Michael and the young woman. The difficult situation analyzes when the two of them were travelling by a car and the car had run out of gas in a deserted area (Corona 725). Their aim would be to get out of that place in a safe way. The failure of the engine in the deserted place worked as the catalyst in the situation that signified that both the characters were in a great danger (Campbell 423).
The lyrics of the song will be very important to be analyzed. The lyrics of the song have some Biblical interpretations. The lyrics of this song have exposed the beast and the ending times of this earth. This theme has been portrayed in the best manner by Michael Jackson. The lyrics of the song are as goes ‘darkness falling on the land’. This line portrays the Doomsday which is the ultimate destiny of all the human beings on earth. The Beast is always ready to mark the people with the number 666. The portrayal of the demonic creature of the song and the background lyrics are the realities of negative side of the human beings. The lyrics of the song suggest the things that will take place on the final day of this earth.
The kinds of sound effects that have been used in this song have been discussed in this song. Some creepy sound effects have been used in this song like the creaking of the doors, the sound of the thunder, the sound of the feet walking on the wooden planks, the howl of the dogs and the wind have been utilized properly in this song (Corona 725). The fact of lightning has been taken up from the movies of Hollywood of the old times. However, the sound of the howl has been regarded as the best sound effect when the two characters of the song go out in the desert and they come face to face with a coyote (Sian and Dion 462). Lots of work has been put into the proper practice so that it could capture the attention of the audience in the best ways. Many instruments have been played and I think this is the unique selling point for the song. All the instruments have contributed to the overall success of the song. Various instruments have been used here like the keyboard, bass, drum machine, guitar and horns. The cacophony of these sounds has made this song a fantastic one indeed. The uses of crescendos and diminuendos have been noticed in this song as well. This is why I feel that this song has created a frightful ambience when the listeners go on to listen to this song in the dark rooms. The powerful vocals of Michael have been the most useful thing to give the song a strange feeling and he goes back to the original style of the song with the constant beats. I feel this is the actual beauty of the song indeed.
The use of symbols has been highlighted in this paragraph. These sound effects are generally the classic symbols of the horror genre that arouses a sense of fear among the minds and hearts of the audience (Fast 281). The song has been presented through a fantastic music video as well. In this video, the audience gets to see the two Michaels. The first Michael is the well-educated student and the second Michael is the zombie type and it turns into the werewolf as well. This makes the background of the song more frightful as well (Mauch 334). The young girl gets terrified and she screams out in utter horror. The choice of the words in the song has been exquisite because the lyrics have made the atmosphere more eerie as well. The dual side of Michael has pointed out that he is kind of a schizophrenic person. The song is a very intriguing one since this has portrayed the horror within the minds of the listeners to succeed the purpose of the song. The audience has really enjoyed the song because of its sound effects and the eerie atmosphere it has created in the minds of the people.
The impacts of the sound effects on the minds of the audience are described. The breathing noises of Michael himself have some clear significance. These breathing noises make the things clear that the atmosphere will be created more eerie to stay there for a longer time indeed. The song creates a boundary between the real life and fiction as the frightening part of the song is the fruit of imagination (Johansson 261). The wide range of instrumentation has been used in this song to keep the attention of the listeners. The 1 bar is being kept repeated all over and the consistently changing things are very much appropriate to keep the rhythms moving. The main vocals that have been used in this song are generally very quick. This is why the song sounds to be much aggressive and attacking. The groovy feeling makes the spine chilling atmosphere within the audience. The forceful sound of the song is a major thing indeed. The sounds of the hand clapping have been the major things of the song because sounds have been forcefully included to create that eerie feeling.
As per the above discussion, it can be concluded that the Thriller song by Michael Jackson has been regarded as a masterpiece and it is quite appropriate as well. The dark themes of the song have been applied to the song with the perfect sound effects. The lyrics of the song are quite fascinating since they have been much exemplary in nature. The disco-funk nature of the song has been much appealing to the new and young generation. This is why this song has captured the minds of the youth in a great manner. The sound effects and the creepy music have made the song quite eerie to listen.
References:
Bruhm, Steven. “Michael Jackson’s queer funk.” Queering the Gothic. Manchester University Press, 2017.
Bush, Michael. The King of Style: Dressing Michael Jackson. Insight Editions, 2012.
Campbell, Michael. Popular music in America: The beat goes on. Cengage Learning, 2018.
Corona, Victor P. “Memory, Monsters, and Lady Gaga.” The Journal of Popular Culture 46.4 (2013): 725-744.
Fast, Susan. “Michael Jackson’s Queer Musical Belongings.” Popular Music and Society 35.2 (2012): 281-300.
Jefferson, Margo. On Michael Jackson. Granta Books, 2018.
Johansson, Mats. “Michael Jackson and the expressive power of voice-produced sound.” Popular Music and Society 35.2 (2012): 261-279.
Manning, Harriet J. Michael Jackson and the blackface mask. Routledge, 2016.
Mauch, Matthias, et al. “The evolution of popular music: USA 1960–2010.” Royal Society open science 2.5 (2015): 150081.
Mercer, Kobena. Welcome to the jungle: New positions in black cultural studies. Routledge, 2013.
Sian Lee, Chei, and Dion Hoe-Lian Goh. ““Gone too soon”: did Twitter grieve for Michael Jackson?.” Online Information Review37.3 (2013): 462-478.
Wiley, Christopher. “Putting the Music Back into Michael Jackson Studies.” Michael Jackson. Routledge, 2017. 101-116.
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