::A Geek in Korea::

Michael Jackson – Thriller (Official Music Video)

When I was a wee lad and had no money of my own, I spent most of my time listening to Sesame Street records on my personal record player. Sing-alongs and whatnot. I had gotten a cassette player as a gift sometime in the 1980’s, and my mother and I were shopping for cassettes. I don’t remember the particulars of the situation, but I do know that I was in a department store with my mother and happened to spy a Michael Jackson “Thriller” cassette. I begged and I pleaded. I might have even thrown a tantrum of some kind.

I really wanted the cassette version of “Thiller”. My mother resisted. I don’t know if it was cultural, generational, racial, or musical resistance to my request that initially caused her to say, “No!” Seeing as I was a little kid, I must have been determined to get this cassette because I remember this being one hell of a crying session. I think I got in big trouble afterwards.

After the long drag out fight, I got my mother to buy the cassette. I ran upstairs when we got home to my tape player in my room and popped in the cassette player. I’m not sure I was first exposed to Michael Jackson’s music, but I do remember seeing the video for “Thriller” around the height of it’s popularity. Perhaps it was shown on television for Halloween? It stuck with me for a long, long time, because it was more of an event than a song. This was before we had cable television or interactions with music outside of the radio in the car. Maybe my older cousins had talked about it at Thanksgiving or Christmas? Whatever happened, it left a mark on me that said, “That’s really awesome.” Also, zombies that vomit up their bowels were really, really scary. Now I had the cassette, and I could listen to it any time I wanted!

I only knew that one song, so it took me a long time to find it. I remember being ready to listen to the song and looking outside to see it was already dark outside. As soon as Vincent Price started rapping, I freaked out and stopped the tape! I couldn’t listen to the rest of that because it was too scary. I waited until the next day before I listened again, and only after I was sure there were no zombies going to chase me down and force me to dance with them before they ate me.

I’m pretty sure Michael Jackson was the first “real music” cassette I had. Thriller is still probably one of my top favorite videos of all time too. It’s a classic that has stood the testament of time. Regardless of what you think of the man, Thriller is still awesome, and always will be.