...Songwriting History and Criticism 18 April 2015 Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”: a Groundbreaking Benchmark for Modern Pop “Thriller” by the acclaimed king of pop, Michael Jackson, remains one of the most revolutionary singles in the world. The song, released in 1982, was part of the award winning and revolutionary album titled “Thriller.” In fact, the song and album’s significance is evident by the fact that it remains the best-selling album in the United States of America 35 years after it was released. Statistics indicate that the album has sold between 80 and 100 million copies worldwide and is still tremendously popular today. Defining the monumental value of “Thriller” is not limited to the sales figure alone. The song motivated the creation of a music video that revolutionized the music video industry and set a benchmark for other music videos. Since its release, many artists have tried to emulate the video. “Thriller” not only made history as a song, but also helped to build bridges across different cultures and ethnicities. This term paper examines the attributes of the song that made it a distinguished piece of art; namely, its artist, genre, composition, videography, and influence. Artist Michael Jackson is the artist renowned for the “Thriller” song and album. The singer’s popularity as a musician was on the rise from the time he was part of “The Jackson 5,” a family run band that consisted of five brothers. Michael Jackson, born in 1958, was the youngest in this...
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...since changed the music industry forever. For the first time in history people could watch their music being played with this new 24-hour music channel. With such promotion by MTV it jump started the careers of many artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna. With only playing videos music now couldn’t just sound good, it also had to look good if you were going to be a major star. What Jack Black and many people complain about with MTV is that they may have revolutionized music but with the promotion and the major profits these huge stars were receiving, it was simply building the power of the major record industries and gatekeepers who control popular music. Since the early 80’s, MTV has continued to shape what music is popular through the emergence of videos, ratings, and big business. In this paper, I will outline MTV’s quick rise to pop culture king, racism, influence by big record companies, and how they developed the ultimate pop star. In 1980 the United States along with politics, the economy, and music was in an awkward transition. After two wars, numerous Democratic Presidents, and the worst recession to hit America in nearly 40 years, Conservative Ronald Reagan was elected promising to end the recession. Along with politics there was a major transition in music. Disco and punk were falling off the table leaving a huge category of music that was considered“new music” that described everyone from Michael Jackson to Blondie. (Garofalo, 292) After the music industry had hit...
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...learning * Use connections from real life to add and subtract numbers * Appreciate rhythm in poems by exploring the nuances of the same * Co-create tune for the class poem * Interview and learn from peers, family, relatives and community members * Design an independent project and co-create the same based on interviews, readings and research. Integration of Other Functional/Academic Skills: Problem Solving, Critical thinking/ Analysis are required throughout all the lessons. Each one of these fundamental academic skills can be integrated with the other to produce a project-based outcome. With respect to integration of subjects, it would be Mathematics, History and Geography along with Reading fluency, Comprehension, Speaking and listening, and Writing. There will be use of technology, music and dance throughout the project. Estimated time and brief outline of the project: The estimated time of the project would be around 12-15 days. This completely depends on how students master each skill and how ready are they to learn at a particular pace. Each lesson would be around 45 mins and there would be different phases in the project. Phase 1: Literacy (New Vocabulary, Reading fluency, Comprehension, Speaking and listening and Writing) This phase goes on for 4-5 days, where students by the end would co-create...
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...Starting with its iconic introduction, where Neil Armstrong lands on the moon and plants a fictional MTV flag in the ground, MTV makes history as a “deeper dimension to everything” and introduces viewers to an out-of-this-world program (Tannenbaum 1). It is a sudden, “unheralded, unannounced, un-anything” appearance that crept into the daily lives of young American adults (Tannenbaum 1). MTV Music videos took the world by storm, just like the “prophetic” opening music video for MTV by The Buggles says, “video killed the radio star” (Tannenbaum 5). MTV not only grasped the attention of teenagers, but parents, musicians, actors, and young adults showed interest in its unique culture. As one of the most popular forms of expression, music brings people to feel what they hear. The...
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...Media The last few decades have brought about numerous changes to the audio and video delivery method. Where once a family would gather around a large and stationary radio to hear their favorite programs broadcast, nowadays a person can log in to one of many music sites and listen to pretty much whatever they want. Also, television programming providers such as cable and satellite are getting a run for their money with the introduction of various websites and gadgets that allow one to pay much less for much more personalized content. This has all been made possible by advances in streaming media technology. Streaming media is defined as “video and/or audio data transmitted over a computer network for immediate playback rather than for file download and later (offline) playback” (Mitchell, 2015, para. 1). As streaming media becomes more accessible, it is forever changing how the general population receives content and communicates with one another. Without a doubt, consumers have seen the ability to obtain, view, save, and replay various types of streaming media change drastically over the last 100 years. Radio started the whole streaming media movement back in 1916 with regular Morse Code weather pattern communications in Wisconsin. These were the first regular broadcasts outside of a military or maritime function (VanBerkum, 2014, para. 3). From there, Muzak, recorded background music transmitted by radio, telephone, or satellite to a built-in receiver set, was introduced...
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...commitment to the Pleasure” is a short story written by Hanif Kureishi. The story is about a father who takes his twin sons to a rock concert. During the concert, he thinks back on his own youth and the music back then. He discovers music again through his sons and like his sons; he spends a lot of time listening to it. Through the short British history, we get from the father. He tells us that regardless if you are Black, Asian, gay, lesbian, hetero or what class you are in music is for everyone. It is the way to speak out freely, being heard, the way we get our identity, and the way. 2. All the texts have partly the same vision on each other. In the first text “The commitment to the Pleasure”, the main character's statement about pop music is very positive. He sees pop music as something everybody can hear and something where one can express themselves. He believes that pop music is Britain's identity. In the second story, the narrator is not quite agreeing with the statement of the main character of the first text, about pop music. He agrees that everybody can listen to pop music but believes that pop music has become more or less pornographic. He also believes that children can be damaged by the music and that Lady Gaga and Rihanna are the ones that show the way forward in the music world. In the third text, the narrator agrees with the opinion about Lady Gaga singing too much about sex and through that damaging the children. But the reason why Lady Gaga is doing her shows...
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...artists have made, recorded and listened to music has evolved since its implementation in American culture. First, people mainly performed music until the Great Depression struck and music’s focus shifted towards recorded sound. Musical pioneers, such as John Phillip Sousa, were upset at this shift and rightly so as it threatened artists’ passions and livelihood. But what the public desires will ultimately drown out old voices and new and more sophisticated technology will prevail. Eventually, the radio and recorded music were the norm, gradually rising in the early 1900s. Although radio was an astronomical marketing tool for the music industry, it did not compare to the effect that motion pictures had on music (Popart University). Contrary to popular belief, the...
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...PROBLEM From 1985 to 1992, Blockbuster has managed to become a video-rental giant. But by 1993, Blockbuster through its Chairman, H. Wayne Huizenga was seeking a new image, that of a multimedia company. Steps were taken towards this goal including sponsorships of concert tours, music retailing, television and film production and operating indoor children’s play centers. These diversification strategies, however, did not escape from several criticisms and by the fall of 1993, Chairman Huizenga had enough reasons to rethink of what he wanted for the company. The myriad of difficult decisions concerning Blockbuster’s future can be traced to the dramatic changes in the company’s strategic context. This and Huizenga’s hurried and scattered approach to diversification had put the company into danger. How should Chairman Huizenga address the criticisms that arise from his abrupt and scattered decisions on the diversification of Blockbuster? CASE FACTS Three factors that make up strategic context which could have helped Huizenga understand the opportunities and constraints set before the company are: (1) history of Blockbuster, (2) the environment in which Blockbuster operates, and (3) the resources available to Blockbuster. Once the strategic context is understood, deliberate choices can be made, critical tasks defined and alignment checked between those critical tasks and the company’s interests. History The first Blockbuster store was opened in October 1985 in Dallas...
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...as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became the dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It," "Billie Jean," and "Thriller," were credited with breaking down racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped to bring the then relatively new television channel MTV to fame. With videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" he continued to innovate the medium throughout the 1990s, as well as forging a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot, and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop, and rock artists. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. His other records, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been...
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...the self worth of a person, to such a degree that the exposure and pressure exerted by music videos contribute to the increase of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Over the course of time, not only has the hip hop industry encouraged eating disorders, but has also led to the disrespect of an entire generation of...
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...Wednesdays, 10:30am-1:30pm 311 Level: * Jonathan Chism, chism@rice.edu, Office hours: Thursdays, 1:00pm-4:00pm * Darrius Hills, darrius.d.hills@rice.edu, Office Hours: Tuesdays, 1:00pm-4:00pm * Jason Jeffries, joj1@rice.edu, Office Hours: Wednesdays, 9:00pm-12:00pm Course Description: Understanding religion as the “Quest for Complex Subjectivity” or more simply the effort to make life meaningful in complex ways, this course explores the relationship between Hip Hop culture and religion. That is to say, this course is concerned with discussion of the ways in which Hip Hop culture discusses and provides life meaning in complex ways. This will be accomplished by: (1) discussion of the history and content of Rap Music; (2) examination of religion in rap music; (3) exploration of the religious...
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...Why does it seem that women in Country music today are always portrayed in the same, stereotypical way? The newly popular country duo Maddie and Tae are protesting ‘Bro Country’ and have decided to turn the tables in their hilarious video for ‘Girl in a Country Song.’ Since being posted on the YouTube Channel MaddieandTaeVEVO less than four months ago, the video has gotten 12,000,000 views. This video puts a very interesting twist on what most viewers think of a “country” song, and It’s no surprise that this video has become so popular,as it is an obvious parody on how most modern country music videos portray women. This isn’t your everyday parody video. It is very well thought out, and even from the first few lines, the theme of this video becomes apparent right away. But the theme of "Girl in a Country Song" and its video can't be misunderstood. The song is not...
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...Making money off of cultural appropriation- * adopting twerking as her “thing” * “#twerkteam” something like that on a picture * talking about it in interviews, explaining it like it’s her own * viral videos * took a dance from another culture, performed it and claimed ownership of it, gained popularity through it…. Using people from that culture * minstrelsy * black women being used as props in the video/performance Trey suggests, "twerking is one ofthose things you know when you see it, rather than necessarily being able to write a definition ofit." History of twerking- heavily quote from Baskerville thesis * “Most interviewees resisted this notion that twerking is inherently sexual and instead argued that it is hypersexualized in its current representations.” Pg 24 * The name is relatively new but the concept has been around for much longer * Page 24- tanisha scott talking about history of twerking- comes from traditional African dances. * Popularized in black America- 1990s and 2000s * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HT7-yFYXyk Cultural appropriation in pop music * selena gomez wearing a bindi on her head during a music video * lady gaga wearing a burqa * katy perry - geisha * while these are examples of cultural appropriation, like miley’s, the question of if they are problematic depends on how the “culture” is used. * Katy perry dressed as a geisha- less offensive than miley...
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...Spike and Michael The music can be used to intensify the reaction and understanding of the image as well as imagines are used to reinforce the emotional response to the music. The two most recognized producers of this concept are Spike Jonze and Michael Gondry. With styles totally different, Skipe and Michael opened way to a new course of the music and image through their innovative videos, which were rewarded and/or nominated in many occasions for an award. Adam Spiegel, well known as Spike Jonze, was born in 1969. Owner of a good sense of humor showed in his personality. Jonze always claimed to be an heir of the Spiegel magazine fortune which was far away from the reality. In the beginning of his career, being a marker of skateboard videos was the job that could be denominated as the door that opened the road to success. Jonze’s videos can be appreciated many times as ironic, simples or sometimes more complex. For example, “Cannonball”, his first MTV success music video made for the Breeders Band in 1993 and codirected by Michael Gordon, is notable for its creating a bite-sized, juniors version and pan outlandishness. The video shows Kim Deal singing underwater as a metal ball rolls down a suburban street going to different directions. At the same time the band is playing in a place that looks like a garage. Later, at the end of the video the group changed their clothes for clothes that are more colorful and with different style. With this characterizing Jonez wants to show...
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...MICHAEL JACKSON: THE LEGEND Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009), unless you’ve been living under a rock, was a legendary singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, actor and music icon that practically dominated the 20th Century. He rose to fame as the lead singer of his all siblings group, The Jackson 5, before skyrocketing to mega-stardom as a solo artist. His ability to belt out chart topping hits after hits, dance moves and style permanently engraved him in history as the “King of Pop”. He has been credited as the catalyst for several advancements in the music industry and remains an inspiration to both new and old artists but sadly his personal life was not as glamorous or successful as his music career; with controversial...
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