Intertextuality in Michael

Jacksons Thriller
James Arthey and Jamie Cross
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson was an American singer, he was very successful and a very
popular artist. His songs are still popular today.
The song Thriller is one of Michael Jacksons most successful songs, and the music
video is one of the most successful music videos of all time as well as being one
of the longest.
Referenced texts
The music video for Thriller references a variety of different horror films.
It uses the genre of horror from the time period to reference the styles and conventions from the
time.
Some of the films it uses as inspiration are the likes of Friday the 13th, Frankenstein, Nightmare
On Elm Street and Evil Dead
These films had a lot of conventions that are different from modern day horror movies and we
can see these conventions are in the music video Thriller
How the references are created
There are a variety of ways that the music video Thriller creates these
references through using the conventions of old horror movies.
We see some of the conventions from a variety of horrors from that
time period, these uses of conventions create the style of the older
horror movies.
They also use mise en scene to create the references through the
costumes and set with all of them having similarities to old horror
movies.
How the intertextuality is used
The intertextuality of the music video Thriller is of a pastiche style, this is purely
because the video pays some respect to old horror movies while also putting a
spin on the style to make it different from the original.
This is seen as we see the zombies walk around as expected and then they start
to dance which is unusual and unexpected.
Why the intertextuality is used
Throughout the music video, intertextuality is used to be able to
create a horror movie style in the music video.
This style links greatly to the lyrics of the song creating a interesting
video to watch and makes the song easier to remember to the people
who watch the video and listen to the song.
The music video is also very unique in the visuals and story telling
using the intertextuality and so the video is watched more.