Document Type
Article
Abstract
This article investigates the circulation and transformation of Michael Jackson’s star image within new media archives through an analysis of a series of re-enactments of his 1982 Thriller video. Focusing in particular on the viral success of the “original Thriller Wedding Video” on YouTube – one of several Thriller re-enactments staged at wedding receptions and circulated widely online – I examine the consequences of the erasure in these wedding videos of both the horror film mise-en-scène of Thriller and the racial and sexual indeterminacy of Jackson’s performance. I argue that Jackson’s 3D remake of the Thriller video, produced for inclusion in his planned London concert series, restores his star image as the central element of the performance and recuperates the racial and sexual indeterminacy of his original performance while cannily appropriating the image of white brides as elements of the video’s mise-en-scène.
Repository Citation
Patti, Lisa. "White Weddings: New Media Archives and the Transformations of Michael Jackson’s Thriller." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 12, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1–11. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol12/iss1/7