Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Pop Video: Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and "Race"

- summary/synopsis of Thriller music video

- "in western society, white has been generally portrayed as a norm against which blackness is positioned as aberrant- threatening and perhaps even monstrous"

- 1950s small town America and horror movies

- the "other" in society

- in the late 70s came "crossover films"- stories appeal to black/white which included one/two big named black actors and white sensitivities and values

- "the wiz" to the "wizard of oz"

- Mercer reads the lyrics as sexual

- zombies= asexual

- film, dream, reality

- the black man is a monster pretending not to be

- word "zombie" originates in African voodoo

- terrorizing the neighborhood (supernatural vs. gangs)

- not scary bcd they're black, but because they're zombies!

- presents him as nice all-American boy to monster 3 times

- exclusion of black artists on MTV and B movie horror films and civil rights


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