Grade six was an important year for me as it marks a pretty big turning point in my life. It was my first year ever trying out for my elementary school’s track team. Beating the most athletic people in my grade, to making the podium at Swangard Stadium for all three events I tried out for helped me gain confidence. It wasn’t track itself that holds a special place in my heart, but the fact that I was able to discover something I knew I was really good at. To this day, these moments stay very important and influential to my life. At this point in my life, I was going through a huge phase, where much of the music I listened to consisted of Michael Jackson. Listening to his music reminds me of times I was dancing and singing to him with my best friend from elementary school, as well as this core event from my life. This was the song that started it all. 

In one of MJ’s first hits “Thriller”, it’s obvious that his intention was set out to capture the feel of a scary movie, though in a song. His story telling ability helps allow the listeners to feel the thrilling and creepy tone. Yet, MJ also manages to make the song exciting and enjoyable to listen to. In the song, he serenades his audience about how there is always something lurking in the gloomy shadows, even if you don’t always notice. This song is fundamentally based on the same tropes films belonging to the horror genre tend to use  – an evil or monstrous enemy stalking a defenceless woman, who can only be saved by her romantic interest. In fact, if you listen closely, there can be a romantic undertone to “Thriller”. More specifically, MJ’s character is hoping that the woman will be so terrified by the “terror on the screen” that she’ll have no choice but to seek safety in his arms.  

While this song may seem simple, it is actually much more complex than you might think. Michael includes a number of literary devices in his song, and while he represents the “evil lurking” as zombies in his music video, this could even be considered as a metaphor to an aspect of society or one’s life. To name one, “Horror” is personified quite often; “as horror looks you right in between your eyes”(1:25) and “you try to scream, but terror takes the sound before you make it”(1:21). Horror/terror is not a living thing, therefore cannot “look you in the eye” or “take the sound”. However, using personification in this sense, adds to the dramatic tone that is brought through the song. The hyperbole in this song also adds to this effect while exaggerating the smell of the dead as they rise from their graves in the line said by Vince Price, the best-known American horror actor at this time – “the foulest stench is in the air, the funk of forty thousand years”(5:14). Furthermore, imagery also played an important role in “Thriller”. The lines “something evil’s lurkin’ in the dark”(1:02) and “you see a sight that almost stops your heart”(1:09) could provide the listener with a mental image of an evil sight and add to the story telling sense of the song.