Hey Everyone!

I've always been fascinated with the Michael Jackson/Thriller Mania that swept the world in the early 1980s. I've always felt cheated out of it because I was born in 1986. What I'd like to know from people who lived during this time, what was it like? Like did you really wear the jackets and single gloves to school? Did you imitate the moves with your buddies? Did you go to the Victory tour concerts?
I know I'd probably be ten times worse than I am now if this were 1984. I'd have everything probably imaginable. LOL And have my parents VERY upset at me.  ;D

I'm interested in all this and if you'd like to share, please do!

http://mjjpictures.free.fr/thriller/appearances/tussaud/003.jpg
(I missed this because at the time, I was still in my mommy's tummy!)

Thank you!

I was in my 20's in the 1980's. I remember when I first heard Billie Jean. I had just come back from a trip to Florida. I turned on the radio and heard this awesome beat and I was thinking WOW, what is this song? I never attended his concerts but enjoyed his music. I have always liked the Jackson 5 because I grew up with their music. Michael Jackson and Madonna really kickstarted the 1980's imo.


Dan

I was in 6th grade in 1983/1984.  That's when I became cognizant of "Thriller Mania".  I got the album on cassette for Christmas.  Kids at school including myself were emulating MJ's moves, including the moonwalk, as well as other breakdance-style moves.  We didn't wear the jacket nor the glove.

I was just a little girl in kindergarten, but I still have memories of listening to songs from "Thriller" on the radio all the time.  I also remember this one girl used to carry around a MJ folder with her everywhere she went.  Another fond memory was watching the "Thriller" video at a Girl Scout slumber party!  :)

Oh, yes, I also remember a classmate would wear these silver socks and would tell everyone they were her "Michael Jackson socks".  :)

I was in 7th grade when Thriller came out.  I remember watching the video over and over.  I don't know anyone who wore the glove but there were quite a few people with that red leather jacket.

Gosh, I envy y'all.

I always wish that I could have been a part of it. I reallly honestly think if I'd been around then, I would have been able to find a way to meet Michael. He didnt even have to say hi, just pause long enough to shake my hand. (And I could have bragged forevermore) What do I have left now? Prince?  8-P No thanks.


LOL.

But that was wonderful. And Ladybug, I was about the age you were when I first saw Thriller as a kid. I was enamored with everything about it. (That's why I'm so heavy into the 80s now!)

I was just a kid, but I remember most of the songs from radio and his Pepsi commercials.  The biggest memory I have of Michael Jackson is his video game 'Michael Jackson's Moonwalker' that came out in 1990.  I spent tons of quarters playing that thing, mostly because of the cool video game music versions of his songs 8)


Here's a Pepsi Ad he did in 1984 with Alfonso Ribeiro.  I totally remember this one:  
Michael Jackson commercial

I remember when thriller came out too...  and how MJ was always on MTV... I hated the Billie Jean video (I preferred Beat It)  but I was mesmerized by his performance...the dance... during the 25th anniversary motown special. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfIE3Rz6IgE

I don't know anyone who didn't try to moonwalk after that.


but when Thriller (the video) premiered I was sitting there with popcorn like I was about to watch a movie....

I never owned a sequin glove but anyone I knew who wore just one glove was doing so to mock him... sorry Tiff.... but that's really when that all started...

I have both of those performances on DVD and it's awesome.

And gosh, I think if people were mocking MJ with the wearing of the one glove, I'd be spending ALOT of time in detention clapping erasers. I've done it before.  ::) Not exceptionally proud of it, but I have had a couple of scraps about Michael.

A little OT, but I was 6th grade and this girl who bullied me rubbed me the absolute wrong way in math class and I literally threw her ass over one row of desks and she landed into a row of others. Funny thing is, the teacher SAW me do and did nothing to discipline me at all. It was like she understood what I was going through and totally looked the other way.  ;D That girl left me alone fot quite a while after that. LOL.

I have both of those performances on DVD and it's awesome.

And gosh, I think if people were mocking MJ with the wearing of the one glove, I'd be spending ALOT of time in detention clapping erasers. I've done it before.  ::) Not exceptionally proud of it, but I have had a couple of scraps about Michael.

A little OT, but I was 6th grade and this girl who bullied me rubbed me the absolute wrong way in math class and I literally threw her ass over one row of desks and she landed into a row of others. Funny thing is, the teacher SAW me do and did nothing to discipline me at all. It was like she understood what I was going through and totally looked the other way.  ;D That girl left me alone fot quite a while after that. LOL.



and my arse still hurts from that landing!  ;D

I remember when thriller came out too...  and how MJ was always on MTV... I hated the Billie Jean video (I preferred Beat It)  but I was mesmerized by his performance...the dance... during the 25th anniversary motown special. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfIE3Rz6IgE

Fred Astaire called Michael Jackson after his performance on the 25th Anniversary Motown Special...


ASTAIRE STUNNED BY JACKSON'S MOONWALK

Late dancing icon FRED ASTAIRE was so stunned by MICHAEL JACKSON's famous `moonwalk' at the Motown 25 concert in 1983 he called the pop superstar to congratulate him - and then stole one of his moves. The Thriller singer tells Ebony magazine he choreographed the dance sequence and insisted on taking charge of all the camerawork and stage lighting when his performance was filmed - to make sure his moonwalk amazed. And it did just that to Astaire. Jackson says, "Fred Astaire calls and said, `I watched it last night, and I taped it, and I watched it again this morning. You're a helluva mover.' "So, later, when I saw Fred Astaire, he did this (moonwalk move) with his fingers."

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/astaire%20stunned%20by%20jacksons%20moonwalk_1050045



Dan

Man, Michael was the man in 1983!  :)

 

  Was in the 8th grade.  My girlfriend at the time kept Thriller on heavy rotation in her room while I was thinking of ways to get her out of her pants.  Anytime I hear a song from that album I think of her...

  I remember Michael Mania but I don't think I ever knew any MJ wannabes.  He made some okay pop songs but I never understood the appeal, then or now.  Maybe you had to be a girl to understand.  Most girls I knew were drooling over Steve Perry or John Taylor...

  My great-aunt (grandmother's sister) compared MJ to the devil and asked me, one fine day, if I was listening to him on my walkman.  The notion was so ridiculous I wasn't sure if she was serious or was just kidding around with me.  Anyways...

  I did make a point of staying-up late to watch the Thriller premiere on MTV, back when MTV premiere's were the thing to watch.  Admittedly it was pretty awesome, but I was so much easier to please back then...

  So sorry for your loss, apollonia...

Hey Y'all

@Sozzie: I didn't throw you that hard.  ;D

@Clay: I like to hear Michael speak about that. How Freddie said he was a "hell" of a mover. I remember I heard that and gasped because I didn't think Michael ever swore. LOL.

@80sfan: I like you. You speak the truth.  ;)

@Dave: I'm glad that you have some nice memories of Thriller. And if that were my great aunt...wow. Well my family knows not to (bleep) with me about Michael. Let's put it that way.  ;) And thank you for the condolences. I've gotten so many, I almost feel like Michael's widow It's alot to get because so many people have expressed they're sorry about it. It's nice that people are being so kind to me. I really do appreaciate it.

@Dave: I'm glad that you have some nice memories of Thriller. And if that were my great aunt...wow. Well my family knows not to (bleep) with me about Michael. Let's put it that way.  ;) And thank you for the condolences. I've gotten so many, I almost feel like Michael's widow It's alot to get because so many people have expressed they're sorry about it. It's nice that people are being so kind to me. I really do appreaciate it.


  Ha, I figured you must feel like his widow.  If anyone around here felt the loss it had to be you.  You'd've been right at home in his heyday, no doubt about it.  Pop idols are in short supply these days.  A daft MJ disciple can do nothing but keep a little of the spirit of that celebrated decade alive.  And that's not such a bad thing in this world of "GIT THE TERRIST - GIT THE TERRIST!"

  Aye, what a day that was, when Michael, Farrah and Big Ed took off.  I was going-over, in my mind, who's gone - Christopher Reeve, John Ritter, David Carradine, Dom DeLuise, Kelly Groucutt (ELO), &etc...

  It sucks, not to put too fine a point on it...

  I'll never forget that surreal exchange with my great aunt regarding MJ.  One of those bizarre moments.  I admit I was a little taken aback, too.  How in the world could she have me pegged as a Michael Jackson fan..?

Michael Jackson first release from the 'Thriller' album was actually 'The Girl's is Mine" with Paul McCartney it did ok but it was the single 'Billie Jean' that catapulted MJ's career coincided with 'The Motown 25 Special" where he perform Billie Jean llive on the show that Michael Mania was just beginnging ,by the end '83 the Thriller video was release as you know the rest is history.

Let's see....

In '83 I was in 7th grade and then finished the year in 8th. I had the Red Leather Zipper jacket (although mine was lined for the winter months). The sleeves actually did come off and it was the coolest jacket ever!!! I Mom wouldn't buy me the glove because she said they cost too much, so instead I had a pair of those white stretchy gloves, I would wear only one. I rolled my pants up to look like floods, and I wore deck shoes with wool socks, only because my purple Donny Osmond socks didn't fit me anymore. ;D

I was a Michael Jackson fiend! Every teen magazine with him - I owned! I would babysit just to make money to buy the latest issue. My favorite poster of him still to this day is this one: http://michaeljacksonstore.com/images/89.jpg and it was hung on my ceiling over my bed! Unfortunately I never did get to go to one of his concerts. At the time, the closest he came to me was in Toronto or Montreal - and my parents refused to pay the price of the ticket or even drive me in order to get tickets. (ditto for Duran Duran) but I watched everything there was on tv about him. I used to stay up to watch Good Rockin' Tonight and Friday Night Video's to see his video's and moves. (Canada didn't get MTV then.) ::)

I did have one boy make fun of me for lliking MJ, but it turned out that said boy actually liked me. We 'dated' for a bit in 8th grade - but then I went to a different high school from him and that was it. LOL

Let's see....

In '83 I was in 7th grade and then finished the year in 8th. I had the Red Leather Zipper jacket (although mine was lined for the winter months). The sleeves actually did come off and it was the coolest jacket ever!!! I Mom wouldn't buy me the glove because she said they cost too much, so instead I had a pair of those white stretchy gloves, I would wear only one. I rolled my pants up to look like floods, and I wore deck shoes with wool socks, only because my purple Donny Osmond socks didn't fit me anymore. ;D

I was a Michael Jackson fiend! Every teen magazine with him - I owned! I would babysit just to make money to buy the latest issue. My favorite poster of him still to this day is this one: http://michaeljacksonstore.com/images/89.jpg and it was hung on my ceiling over my bed! Unfortunately I never did get to go to one of his concerts. At the time, the closest he came to me was in Toronto or Montreal - and my parents refused to pay the price of the ticket or even drive me in order to get tickets. (ditto for Duran Duran) but I watched everything there was on tv about him. I used to stay up to watch Good Rockin' Tonight and Friday Night Video's to see his video's and moves. (Canada didn't get MTV then.) ::)

I did have one boy make fun of me for lliking MJ, but it turned out that said boy actually liked me. We 'dated' for a bit in 8th grade - but then I went to a different high school from him and that was it. LOL


I totally had that poster!  8)

I totally had that poster!  8)


I was completely in love with this one! I dunno what it was/is about it - but my dreams were always in yellow and white! He was gorgeous and I swore I was going to marry him! 8)

;D Tam sounds like an 80s version of me. I ran my mother up the damn wall with Michael, Michael, MICHAEL! I do like that poster of Michael. I actually have a framed 8 by 10 of that on my dresser.  ;) That's not my favorite MJ pic from the era.

This is it :

http://i27.tinypic.com/vqmatv.jpg

I saw a shot from the same shoot used for an old issue of Rolling Stone, but this particular shot just took my breath away. If this was 1984, THAT pic would be in my high school locker and my binder. LOL. I was so done when I saw tht pic.  I was like I love this man and I NEED to be a fan. And the rest is history. LOL.

http://content.barewalls.com/preview/m3/m3rs0417cp.jpg
That's the pic that was on RS. I loved it.

;D Tam sounds like an 80s version of me. I ran my mother up the damn wall with Michael, Michael, MICHAEL! I do like that poster of Michael. I actually have a framed 8 by 10 of that on my dresser.  ;) That's not my favorite MJ pic from the era.

This is it :


I saw a shot from the same shoot used for an old issue of Rolling Stone, but this particular shot just took my breath away. If this was 1984, THAT pic would be in my high school locker and my binder. LOL. I was so done when I saw tht pic.  I was like I love this man and I NEED to be a fan. And the rest is history. LOL.


That's the pic that was on RS. I loved it.


Those are a couple of awesome ones as well. I never liked RS - only because they always messed with the pictures - airbrushing and crap! It looks like MJ has a serious 5 o'clock shadow - which we both know he didn't ever have in pictures until later years. If anything, it was always just his little peach fuzz moustache.... Gah! It drove me crazy!! I used to think it would be so soft and all I wanted to do was kiss it!!! ;D

Memories are getting pretty fuzzy with me nowadays so the only things I remember about Michael-mania from those days are:

Some girls that were in the high school band singing P.Y.T. on the school bus on the way to an away football game.  Don't know exactly why I remember that particularily, although I thought it would be a hard song to sing accapella. 

Don't know anybody that wore the red jacket or glove back then, but there was a guy that wore red leather pants (I doubt it was in homage to Michael though) and I don't think he wore them more the once or twice since I went to a really small high school and everybody wore jeans and t-shirts there.

I rented the Making of thriller video so many times from the video store, I think I was one of the few people who had it at their house every couple days.  I loved the documentary feel to it, I kinda was into the monster make-up of it all.

I also remember his amazing performance in Motown25.  Although for some reason and now I can't confirm it, but I thought that at the start of one of his performances, Diana Ross was just slightly offstage and she stuck her butt out onto the stage and was wiggling it, like she was a trying to tempt Michael or something.  I thought it was a little weird since she was old enough to be his mom or at least older sister or something, but I might be remembering it wrong now.  I dunno.

For awhile I was a big collector of pictures of Michael from all those teeny-bopper magazine, I used to keep them in a folder.  I gave all of it to my younger cousin for her birthday (in 1985ish) because I didn't have money for a gift and she was just starting to like Michael then.  I wonder if she still has it, I'll have to ask her.  lol

These are great memories. Damn, I was born in the wrong decade! :( >:(

;D Tam sounds like an 80s version of me. I ran my mother up the damn wall with Michael, Michael, MICHAEL! I do like that poster of Michael. I actually have a framed 8 by 10 of that on my dresser.  ;) That's not my favorite MJ pic from the era.

This is it :

http://i27.tinypic.com/vqmatv.jpg

I saw a shot from the same shoot used for an old issue of Rolling Stone, but this particular shot just took my breath away. If this was 1984, THAT pic would be in my high school locker and my binder. LOL. I was so done when I saw tht pic.  I was like I love this man and I NEED to be a fan. And the rest is history. LOL.

http://content.barewalls.com/preview/m3/m3rs0417cp.jpg
That's the pic that was on RS. I loved it.


I so agree. Hahaha. ;D

Hey Y'all!

@Tam: I've never had a desire to kiss Michael's peach fuzz mustache. I remember the first time I saw him with one. I was just geting into my "Thriller" stage and my friend Stacie, who also loves Michael, gave me a book from the era and the cover had Michael with whiskers and I giggled at it. I always equated Michael with being hairless on his body and then Prince with looking like a Mini-Chewbacca. But it was cute. I remember I tripped out about ten years ago when he tried to bring the bead back. I didn't really go for it so much. Since he was so pale and only grew it in as a 5 o'clock shadow, from far off, his face looked smudged with dirt. LOL. I liked him better smooth. That way you could his lovley cheek bones and that cute chin. I know he's a man, we don't need him to have a furry face.  ::)

@Bookmistress: That sounds like fun times. And you can sing PYT acapella. I do.  ;D I wish I could have done things like that. When I was in school, if you mentioned Michael, you were labeled a freak and having weekly fist fights about it. I now know that most of the kids I attended middle school with were ignorant and intolerant.  ;) I pity the adults they are in society today.

@Starde: You and me both were born in the wrong decade. I totally think that if my mother had had me in 1969 when she gradiuted high school everyrhing would have been perfect. I'd have been13 when the Thriller juggernaugt when into orbit. (Not to mention 16 when Bad hit! LOL) And I still think that if this were 1984, I'd have elbowed my way into his hotel when he played Dallas and met him and that cute Marlon!  ;)

I was just thinking about this the other day......I remember this one boy (he was several years younger than me) would carry a VHS copy of Michael Jackson's "Moonwalker" everywhere he went.  Whether at the bus stop, the cafeteria, or the playground, that boy never let that video out of his sight!    :)

Alot of kids still liked him (not just Bad, but "Rock With You" and the Thriller stuff) around 1989, even the early 90s from what I can remember. Maybe it's because he was still relevant at the time, though?

I know this girl who's about 22 that said once about how she grew up on MJ, and I'm sure she must've watched his videos or other stuff on MTV or VH1 a little later on during the 90s. That just says something about his staying power. I don't think it was even just the kids who "kinda liked Billie Jean" either, I don't remember anyone fully dressed in MJesque clothes or Moonwalking by that point lol, but I know he was still popular and well liked.

I kept wanting to reply to this thread but never had the time to give it proper justice. I think to really appreciate Michael-mania, you had to be young in the 80s. I remember the worldwide anticipation for the Thriller video. I used to beg my mother to rent me “The Making of” video from the store. I must’ve had the video out a dozen times that year! I even have photographs of me attempting bits of the Thriller dance in full Halloween gear. :D

My prized MJ possession back then was a digital watch that played the Thriller tune. A Frakenstein type face popped up whenever you pressed the button to play the tune. Used to get me in major trouble in class when someone pressed it during a lesson! Fantastic times!

@Starde: You and me both were born in the wrong decade. I totally think that if my mother had had me in 1969 when she gradiuted high school everyrhing would have been perfect. I'd have been13 when the Thriller juggernaugt when into orbit. (Not to mention 16 when Bad hit! LOL) And I still think that if this were 1984, I'd have elbowed my way into his hotel when he played Dallas and met him and that cute Marlon!  ;)



Lol. I swear, I would've gone HOMELESS just to go to one of his concerts! :D
I'll never forgot at a school talent show a couple of years ago, these two kids danced to "Billie Jean". They had the glove, did the moonwalk and everything. I think they won first place. The entire audience danced and cheered. It was amazing!

Those 1984 Rolling Stone pictures... Are there more pictures from that shoot? Do you know?

I kept wanting to reply to this thread but never had the time to give it proper justice. I think to really appreciate Michael-mania, you had to be young in the 80s. I remember the worldwide anticipation for the Thriller video. I used to beg my mother to rent me “The Making of” video from the store. I must’ve had the video out a dozen times that year! I even have photographs of me attempting bits of the Thriller dance in full Halloween gear. :D

My prized MJ possession back then was a digital watch that played the Thriller tune. A Frakenstein type face popped up whenever you pressed the button to play the tune. Used to get me in major trouble in class when someone pressed it during a lesson! Fantastic times!

I hear the premiere of the "Thriller" video in early 1984 was something basically everyone stopped what they were doing to see, though. Even if they didn't particularly care about music videos, just because it was such an event and really was like a short movie. Was there anyone who simply didn't care? I've said this so many times, but one really neat thing about 80s pop culture, including the mainstream music, is that it seemed to appeal to kids and older adults alike.

  ^
 
  Thriller vid debuted in early December '83...

  Splitting hairs, I know... :P

I hear the premiere of the "Thriller" video in early 1984 was something basically everyone stopped what they were doing to see, though. Even if they didn't particularly care about music videos, just because it was such an event and really was like a short movie. Was there anyone who simply didn't care? I've said this so many times, but one really neat thing about 80s pop culture, including the mainstream music, is that it seemed to appeal to kids and older adults alike.


There's always someone that doesn't care, but who cares about them?