Jackson State University’s ‘Sonic Boom of the South’ chosen to promote Michael Jackson film

Meant to evoke the excitement of a traditional historically Black college and university (HBCU) homecoming performance, a film crew used drones and attached cameras to the instruments of band members to draw audiences in. Jackson State University’s band was one of three HBCU bands, including those of Florida A&M and Southern University, chosen to perform in the promotional campaign of the upcoming MJ biopic “Michael.” 

“I mean ‘Don't Stop Till You Get Enough.’ It's just one of those mainstay type of tunes that I feel was one that catapulted the solo artist career of Michael to the next level,” said Dr. Roderick Little, a JSU professor of music at JSU and the director of bands.

“We were extremely excited to be connected to, not only the movie, but just to be connected to something that's going to make a global impact,” he said. “It's just going to be seen by millions of people. That's what we want to juxtapose our program to, we want to make sure we place them in front of not just people locally, but also people globally as well.”

A 2024 Michael Jackson ‘Sonic Boom’ tribute performance went viral and caught the attention of a Lionsgate Films marketing executive with ties to JSU. She asked Little if his band would participate in the campaign months ago, but the ‘Sonic Boom’ wouldn’t discover when they would until recently. Little said it made it easy to keep the campaign a secret.

“With the Michael Jackson shoot, we didn't have a long time to keep it a secret, we probably had to keep it a secret for about two weeks,” he said. “But for the Superbowl, we had to keep that a secret probably for a month or two.”

JSU’s iconic HBCU band performed during Usher’s 2024 Superbowl performance and has also participated in the Rose Bowl parade. Little said the success the band has achieved does not always equate to useful support.

“Unfortunately, although we do have this major success, financially, we don't have enough people to reach out to us to actually support our students,” he said. “I mean, you would think like, okay, we see these bands that are connected to this Michael Jackson biopic, let me give $1 million to them to help support this program. We don't see that.”

Michael Jackson passed away in 2009, but his music has been a mainstay in the ‘Sonic Boom’s’ performances over the years. Little said students were honored to participate.

“I think that Michael Jackson is timeless, even though he passed away a very long time ago,” he said. “His music definitely lives on, his impact, his entertainment value lives on. When somebody is timeless like that, it's just a reintroduction. It's really hard to forget him.”

“Michael” will be released in U.S. theatres April 24.