The Town of Odyssey

Is anyone else here a Michael Jackson fan? For most of my life I didn’t really know any of his songs or videos, I just thought ‘Oh yeah he was a famous dancer’, but after he died I started checking out some of his stuff and I saw why he was such a big deal. Definitely one of the greatest dancers of all time, and his major music videos are classic productions that really transformed the medium.

I became a fan of his work shortly before he died (like, two years prior) because I saw the original "Beat It" video on TV. Definitely an artist representative of his time-period, with over-the-top performances and touching and/or daring lyrics. I think "Heal the World" may just be my favorite song ever.

He's definitely missed, controversies aside. Anyone who can pull out such amazing lyrics alongside the extremely effective charitable work is on a league of his own.

My favorite music video is definitely the one for Smooth Criminal. (I haven’t seen the full movie it’s part of, I’m just referring to the part covering the song.) The look is iconic and I think the song itself is ridiculously catchy. And every move of the dancing in this one is absolutely superb. Also, when he goes around the catwalk and then dances down the fire escape: choreographic genius.





As an added bonus I came across this amazing mashup video. I thought I detected hints of Smooth Criminal being the Michael influence in The Piano Guys’ Michael Meets Mozart and sure enough some awesome person did a crossover of the two pieces. It’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.

I really like the Piano Guys, and I've listened to Michael Meets Mozart without giving much thought to who Michael is! Thanks, bookworm!

The other video that holds a special place with me is Thriller. This was my first introduction to his stuff when I started really exploring his work and is of course one of his most famous songs, videos, and dance routines.



True story: One year I was out with a friend’s younger brother on Halloween, not really trick or treating just walking around the neighborhood, and we decided that instead of just walking we should do the Thriller zombie dance. (The sideways walking move with the arms up.) So we went all over town doing that literally the entire time. Including the triple turn (see 10:39) whenever we had to change direction, and also humming the music. I don’t even know how far we walked or how long we were out, it was at least an hour. Our arms were sore by the time we got back home, but we had a blast.



There is also a short film called Ghosts that I stumbled upon which doesn’t seem to be very widely known. I had never heard anyone mention anything about it before anyway. It’s a spiritual successor (pun intended) to Thriller. Longer and with a deeper narrative, it was actually a collaboration with Stephen King and has Michael Jackson playing multiple roles. It’s been a personal tradition for several years now to watch Thriller then this back to back on Halloween night.



(Alternate link in case the YouTube copy goes down.)

Haha, that sounds like it would have been an attention-getting scene! Fun stuff!

I also think his was the best Super Bowl halftime show.