Thriller 40

Michael Jackson was already known when his previous album came out. But what he wanted was different: this time he wanted an album that would work not for one genre but for everyone. He goes into the studio with Quincy Jones. The songs are prepared one by one; some come from other writers, some are his own. He calls Paul McCartney in for one track. A rock guitar is added to another. The album is released and does not draw the expected attention in its first months. Then a video is made. Nelson George directs. Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, John Landis, Usher, Mary J. Blige and Mark Ronson speak in it. It was released on 2 December 2023, timed to the fortieth year since the album appeared. The documentary uses previously unpublished studio recordings; conversations from the sessions and trial takes are heard. At its centre is the making of the fourteen minute music video; the man who directed it describes the process himself. The narrative also takes up the refusal of music channels at the time to broadcast Black artists. The documentary does not enter the artist's personal life or the accusations against him; the focus is kept entirely on the making of the album. That choice was argued over on release and found incomplete. Its limit is scope; the narrative is deliberately narrow and there is no critical distance. Who it is for: anyone curious about documentaries on making music and the pop history of the eighties. Who it is not for: it is one directional, the subject narrow, and contested matters are left outside.