Genre Analysis Paper: Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' Video (Essay Sample)

A genre, according to Devitt is a dynamic response to and construction of recurring situation. It is a specific type of writing, music or film. Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" largely falls under pop, R&B and funk. The formal features in this song include the melody, the beat and the general atmosphere of the song. The song is accompanied by synchronized dance moves, scary looking dancers who appear from graves. Thriller’s lyrics adopt the popular verse-chorus form that is characteristic of pop music such as Deep Purple’s "Smoke on the water”.
2. What is the situation or context the text is responding to? Who are the participants/audience in the situation? What society uses this piece?
The music video responds to the imagination that was common among the youth in the 70s that zombies would come to life. The audiences are the youth who hold the zombie notion to be a possibility. The video shows Michael, while on a movie date with his girlfriend, suddenly turning into a zombie. Accompanied by fellow zombies, they perform a remarkable dance complete with organized choreography.
3. What is the writer’s purpose? Is she trying to define monster? Explain their origins? Understand social phenomena through monster?
Michael played upon the imagination of the dead coming back to life. Since it is a scary possibility, he intertwined it with his music. The charming lyrics assure one’s lover that "I can thrill you more than any ghost would ever dare try”. This is a magnificent analogy to the thrill the couple in the music clip experienced and Michael magnificently wove it into the zombie culture. The main aim of the song and the video at large was not to define monsters or explain their origins. Rather, it was to bring the thrill of monsters or dead people to the imagination of viewers and listeners, with the aim of showing that he [Michael] could provide his lover with a higher level of excitement.
4. What social action is the text trying to accomplish? What work does it do in the culture? IS the goal to frighten people? Educate people?
The music video is playing upon people’s imagination about the possibility of dead people coming back to haunt the living. The main goal is purely to entertain the audience. This is manifested in the beautifully choreographed dances performed by Michael and the zombies.
5. Think of other situations or contexts that might be similar to the one you identified in #2. What other kinds of texts have people created in response to those situation? How is the text you are considering the same or different from those texts? Does the text you are analyzing seem to follow the same rules as the other texts? How much freedom does the author/creator of your text seem to have?
People have continued to make come up with more scary imaginations. Some have claimed that dolls can come to life; evil dolls would bring torment to their owners. The dolls seem to be possessed by an evil spirit and would be locked away until someone accidentally discovers them. The theme in "Thriller" is different because the dead come to life in the music video but instead of bringing suffering upon normal human beings, they put on a spectacular dance show. They are not shown to hurt anyone and are relatively peaceful. This video shows that the zombies in it do not follow what other "mainstream" zombies would do, such as eating human flesh. Michael had a lot of freedom as he clearly wanted to bring in a fun side to zombies, a departure to the common view that they are bound to bring suffering to humans.
1. Determine the probable purpose of the text. This is the author’s goal or that action she hopes to accomplish through her text. Note that because texts are social, the action will include the audience and the texts’ effect on them. How is the genre the author chose appropriate for her purpose?
The music video was shot to give a "kick" to pop music fans. Michael Jackson, regarded as the king of pop did not disappoint. The dancing zombies would excite the audience who were used to watching zombies eat people. Furthermore, Michael is one of the zombies and the lyrics talk of him being able to thrill the girl more than any of the zombies could. The mere fact that the zombies appear to work out the dance moves with so much perfection is impressive. Viewers are quickly drawn into the music and the dances that they hardly notice the hideous looking creatures. The genre used by Michael perfectly serves his ultimate purpose-that which is to bring excitement and amazement to viewers. In the end, a narration is given that those who would be found not to be willing to "get down" would be consumed by the zombies. This is basically a fun way used by Michael to encourage more youth to actively listen to his music. The use of carefully choreographed moves was meant to get the youth dancing.
The movie date that Michael has on the music clip was popular among the youth. He used it to identify himself with the average youth. This made the music clip highly relatable among young people, who would throng cinemas to watch a scary movie. Ladies would often get scared by the movies, something which their boyfriends looked forward to, so that they could affirm their role as protectors of their partners. This would make them appear brave and therefore unafraid of what may lurk in the dark. Since cinemas were a popular activity, its use in the music clip is very appropriate and it success of his album "Thriller”, named after the popular song, propelled him to greater stardom.
2. Using evidence from the text, identify features of the text (including form)that help you identify it as a particular genre. Which of the expected conventions of that genre does the text conform to? Which, if any, does it disregard?
The music has a series of repeated hooks and melodies. It is a medium-length song written in basic format. It follows the popular verse-chorus form. This form was very popular in rock and roll during the 1950s. Multiple instrumentation is used.The music is softer compared to alternative rock. The music clearly conforms to the pop music style. Pop is short for popular and the two words are often used interchangeably. Since Michael was already re...