Nancy Griffin’s “The Thriller Diaries” & “Thriller”
Directions: Copy and paste the questions and quotes into a new document. Then, work in pairs to answer the questions on the worksheet. Lastly, choose ONE question or prompt and using your notes, write a paragraph response (and post to your blog).
As we watch “Thriller,” consider costuming, lighting, framing, camera angles. How do elements such as costuming, makeup, and framing set up the two characters? How does form help tell the story? (Consider, here too, what Griffin says about Jackson’s costuming and image.)
Extreme detail to make-up
Goal of costuming was about framing / body type / favorite stars
Where does “Thriller” fit within the history of MTV? And, music videos more generally.
It gave MTV a huge boost in popularity. It music videos, it set the way of what successful videos look like.
What is Griffin’s argument and/or the larger purpose of her essay on “Thriller?”
It showed not only what was going on upfront (or what people saw) compared to what was going on behind the scenes (what people didn’t see).
For Griffin, where does “Thriller” fit in Michael Jackson’s career trajectory? Pull a quote from the article that supports your statement.
It was really the peak of his career. It was the point when he was most popular because of his music. “’Thriller’ marked the most incandescent moment in Jackson’s life, his apex creatively as well as commercially”
Griffin weaves key biographical details and themes throughout her essay: Jackson’s childishness; Joe Jackson’s violence; and MJ’s obsessive nature. What is the effect of emphasizing these key details?
Explicate the following quote: “Most serendipitously, Jackson was the ideal video star. Not only did he radiate an epicene glamour that was at once innocent and intensely erotic, but he was also conceptually inventive, a great dancer, and a sartorial trendsetter. He judged the quality of what the fledgling rock network MTV was airing to be poor, and felt he could do better. ”
Explicate the following quote: “Thriller seems like the last time that everyone on the planet got excited at the same time by the same thing: no matter where you went in the world, they were playing those songs, and you could dance to them. Since then, the fragmentation of pop culture has destroyed our sense of collective exhilaration, and I miss that.” Then, consider what’s at stake in Griffin ending her essay in this fashion.