Time-tested music: how did one album change the world? The resounding success of Michael Jackson's Thriller
Содержание
"Thriller" is Michael Jackson's legendary pop record! Released in the early 1980s - it breaks all possible and impossible records to this day... In 2015, the Recording Industry Association of America announced that "Thriller" became the first album of all time to sell 30,000,000 copies in America! Before that, the record belonged to the Eagles and their compilation "Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)". Today, Jackson's creation is still considered the most commercially successful in history: according to Guinness World Records, "Thriller" has sold at least 66 million copies worldwide, while other sources claim that the album sold over 100 million copies... And this is not surprising, considering that two years after its release, sales exceeded 20 million copies (and that's only in the U.S.!).
Given its staggering circulation, "Thriller" can easily be labelled a "diamond" album! The RIAA introduced this status at the end of the 1990s and began to award it to records with more than 10 million copies sold.
A bit about the album
The legendary pop king passed away in 2009, yet Michael Jackson continues to be a sell-out artist. In 2015, Forbes magazine placed Jackson at the top of its ranking of the richest deceased celebrities: the performer's earnings from October 2014 to October 2015 totalled almost $120 million.
The iconic record, which in many ways shaped the pop artist's later influence, was released in 1982: Thriller was Jackson's sixth album and featured nine songs, including the famous hits "Billie Jean" and "Beat It". Two years was enough for the album to sell 20 million copies and win eight Grammy Awards! And who would have thought that this was the album that saved CBS Records... When the label executives got busy preparing for the release, they knew they had an amazing album in their hands from one of the biggest superstars in the music industry. But they were also a little concerned ...
To begin with, at the time, the recording industry as a whole was in a steep recession: between 1980 and 1982, shipments across the industry had fallen by 50 million units. CBS Records' own profits had fallen by 50%, and sales by over 15% for the year... As a result, major layoffs at the company occurred in mid-August, on a day the company remembered as "Black Friday." CBS desperately needed Jackson's album to be a hit, but market conditions seemed daunting. Luckily for them, Jackson produced a truly impressive and delightful record... "Thriller" was later listed in the National Register of the Library of Congress and the video for the song of the same name was listed in the American National Film Registry.
"Thriller" spent the most weeks (37) atop the Billboard 200 of any album by a single artist. Only the "West Side Story" soundtrack reigned longer... "Thriller" also became the first album to make the Hot 100's Top 10 hits list. By the way: Michael Jackson remains the only artist in the world who managed to sell more than a billion copies of his discs...
The hits that "Thriller" presented to the world
Although the album was released almost four decades ago, songs from it, notably "Thriller", "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", are still regularly played on the radio and in nightclubs. Some of these songs, or rather their music videos, have been uploaded to YouTube and have amassed hundreds of millions of views: "Beat It" alone has amassed over 700 million views... The song "Beat It" was the third single from "Thriller", released after hits such as "The Girl Is Mine" and "Billie Jean", and features a dance routine bringing together two rival gangs. Over the years, the song has been sampled by many contemporary artists such as Justin Bieber, Fergie and Eminem.
As for the hit of the same name, the music video for "Thriller" is to this day considered the most famous music video of all time! The video was a cultural milestone, featuring elaborate choreography, costumes and dialogue. And all of this - in the terrifying genre of horror... Yes, you may not get goosebumps watching this video today. But in the distant eighties it looked really creepy ...
"Billie Jean" is a famous song that was inspired by a true story: an unknown girl wrote to Jackson and claimed he was the father of her child.
One last thing
Despite his global success and huge returns, Jackson has been adamant about his career. For this reason, the singer said he refused to display his many awards (such as 13 Grammy Awards for albums and singles) in his home. He didn't want to undermine his work ethic.
"I try not to think about it too much," Jackson said of his success in a 2005 interview. "I don't want my subconscious to think I've done it all. It's kind of like, 'That's it now.' No. That's why I don't display awards or trophies in my house. You won't find a gold record anywhere in my house because it makes you feel like you've done your best. I always want to feel like, "No, I haven't done that yet!"
