Wed 8/29 @ 6-9pm
Thirty-five years ago there was one sound you were assured of hearing at every beach and pizza parlor, every backyard BBQ and neighborhood carnival: Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
Released at the end of 1982, it dominated not just the airwaves, but the air, for two full years, catapulting Jackson, then in his mid 20s, to a level of stardom reached by only a handful of artists, making him an instantly recognized cultural icon, before he quickly slipped into parody and a tragic early death by overdose in 2009 at the age of 50.
But forget the disfiguring plastic surgeries, likely a result of an abusive father who told him he was ugly, and remember all concepts, in music and movement and image, that he injected into the cultural slipstream when the Rock Hall celebrates his legacy on its plaza on what could have been his 60th birthday. (He was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2001 as a solo artist and as a member of the Jackson 5 in 1997).
There’ll be dance performances, demonstrations and tutorials, costume and trivia contests and a “zombie transformation station,” where apparently people will be turned into the dancing dead from Jackson’s groundbreaking longform “Thriller” video.
All activities on the plaza are free, but if you pay your admission there will be even more Thriller-related activities including a Thriller album spotlight in the Foster Theater and a Legends of Rock Michael Jackson exhibit.
1100 Rock and Roll Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44114