The Thriller Thread

[gav09]

Classic album, I love all the tracks on here, but Ive gone 4 Billie Jean cos the track still makes me go  when I hear it!!!

[Tha G In Deee]

I'm going with Billie Jean. It never gets old & the video is crazy. Also the live performance from Motown 25 was wow.

[white Boy]

i think the production on it is dope as hell, compared to backsteets back and one more time

[QuietTruth]

I can't see how somebody would compare him to fuckin' Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

Their Albums are considered: Pop
Mike's Albums could be considered: R&B, Pop, Rock & every thang in between those

Their production ain't nuthin' compared to Quincy.

Record sales ain't even close.

Michael's shit is timeless, I highly doubt ya'll can say that about 'Oops I did it again'.

Talent wise...ya'll be trippin'.

They CAN'T even put a FINGER TIP to Michael's ability on stage! The greatest entertainer that ever lived? Hellz yes!!

Come on, dude's one of the biggests selling artist of all time.

Word???

[B-Blaze]

and apart from it being timeless it appealed to a mass audience...from 5-50 years old even my grandmother loved watchin MJ and she doesn't even know english....funny thing is an usher video was on tv a couple months ago and my grandma was like...hey that guys tyrin to be like Michael Jackson..and thas coming from an immigrant who doesn't watch any english programming lollll

[Paul]

lol^^^^

I can't see how somebody would compare him to fuckin' Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

Their Albums are considered: Pop
Mike's Albums could be considered: R&B, Pop, Rock & every thang in between those

Their production ain't nuthin' compared to Quincy.

Record sales ain't even close.

Michael's shit is timeless, I highly doubt ya'll can say that about 'Oops I did it again'.

Talent wise...ya'll be trippin'.

They CAN'T even put a FINGER TIP to Michael's ability on stage! The greatest entertainer that ever lived? Hellz yes!!

Come on, dude's one of the biggests selling artist of all time.

Word???

exactly +1

[Layeth THe Smacketh Down]

This is an amazing album.  The arrangements on Wanna Be Startin Somethin are incredible.

[Shallow]

40 million people would not have bought a whack album....10 million may buy a whack album yeah....but the last 30 million that bought Thriller wouldn't have bought that shit unless the FIRST 10 million told them that that shit was the fucking shit. Have been bumping PYT(my choice for best track on the record) non stop lately.

-T

Well to be fair, it wasn't 40 million people. A lot of people bought the album at least twice, many three times. This was the Reagan years so the US and US affiliates had extreme amounts of disposable income. The audio cassette, walkman, and cassette deck in cars were getting very popular and the CD was just around the corner. So while the number 1 format was still the LP most people still wanted the album for portable use. Throw in the fact that the LP only cost like 3 or 4 dollars and you have a hit. I mean look at all the other albums from that era. Everyone was going diamond or eventually went diamond. Reagan's 80s was a big time for music sales.

The only difference between Thriller and ...Baby One More Time or Backstreet's Back is that MJ wrote some of the songs himself. It was a corperate album that took sounds that were being innovated by acts like Queen and Rick James and glossed those sounds up a bit while adding big bugdets for videos. Is it a terrible album? No, but Phantom Menace isn't a terrible movie either, yet the just shy of a billion dollars in revenue doesn't make it a great film.


I picked Beat It. I like the riff, and love the VH solo.

Well, I've taken the point into consideration, howvwer the difference between this album and the Backstrret boys or whoever, is that this music is timeless.

Glossy? Hell Yeah!

Radio friendly? Ofcourse!

Listening to it 20+ years after it's released, and it's still as fresh as when I was was 4 and copped the record for the 1st time. I don't think many can say that about NSync or Backstreet.

I doubt any Backstreet album would be in the "classic" catagory.

Back to the topic... my 2 faves are PYT, Billie Jean, and on the re-issue, they put a new song on Carousel, propduced by Temperton, BEAUTIFUL song, download it you can, I'll try to uploadit. It was a 1982 - 1983 master that wasn't released until the reissue.

Thriller is my nu,mber one 1 record, follwed very closley by Off The Wall

To you it's still as fresh as when you first heard it. To me it's still as goofy as when I first heard it. Do I think Britney or N 'Synch or whoever will be as remembered as MJ? No, those acts will be as remembered as the Monkees, who were also huge once upon a time and had great tunes written for them. They'll be as remembered as Men at Work who were number for like 15 weeks on the album charts before Thriller or the Footloose soundtrack which dominated the weeks after Thriller.

My point isn't that they are just as remembered or considered as legendary. My point is that the quality of work isn't that far off. In my eyes Who Can It Be Now is no worse than Thriller the song and Footloose the song is no worse than Beat It. Add to that list "I Want it That Way", "As Long As You Love Me", and "All I Have to Give" by the Backstreet Boys. I don't consider any of the above songs high art as far as music goes. I don't put them anywhere near songs like Communication Breakdown, Like a Rolling Stone, Eleanor Rigby, Thunder Road, or Purple Haze.

I don't like the songs that much. I don't like the over the top production, I don't like the gloss. I don't like the lyrics, and I only like a couple of the melodees but they wear thin after a few listens. That's just my taste.

I'll always see it as Saturday Night Fever recorded after Queen and Van Halen's influences.

Now if Thriller invented the sound I'd give it some credit but it didn't.


It's remembered like Elvis is remembered. There were plenty of  singers just as good as Presley in the mid to late 50s but we rarely ever hear about those acts. Jerry Lee Lewis is on limited rotation. Chuck Berry gets a mention here and there. Jackie Wilson and Eddie Cochran are forgotten completely. Little Richard was as good or better than Elvis on every level, and he had the songs and influence on future music, Buddy Holly gets no where near the regard he deserves. You'll hear Heartbreak Hotel, and Hound Dog a thousand more times than you'll ever hear High School Confidential, Rollover Beethoven, Lonely Teardrops, Summertime Blues, Bama Lama Loo or Oh Boy!. MJ like Elvis has a lobby of business men who choose to promote certain acts and forget about the others, and they had those same lobbyists while they were active. RCA and Sony respectively chose to push Elvis and MJ more than all the other acts.

[white Boy]

^ i always thought jackie wilson, whos great btw, sounds verry similar to elvis.

[Shallow]

^ i always thought jackie wilson, whos great btw, sounds verry similar to elvis.

I always thought they looked alike. Elvis had that country drawl about him unique toi white singers (except Charlie Pride). They both had that voice that sounds like it's coming from the neck and they both could swith to the throat and that's when they began to differ. It's almost impossible that Elvis would have heard Jackie before he started recording, and just as unlikely that Jackie heard Elvis he started in the clubs. Elvis did borrrow some moves from Wilson later on in his career though.

[jeromechickenbone]

LOL, Off The Wall was much more Saturday Night Fever than Thriller.

And you're trivializing the 40 million in sales.  Sure, people bought it 2 or 3 times.  If the album was just average they would have bought it once (or not at all) and been satisfied there.  People buying it multiple times is a testament to how great of an album it was.  Now please don't get me wrong, I'm not a record sales type of guy, but saying he sold 40 million because of Reaganomics is beyond a stretch.

And BTW, Guiness Book of World Records shows that Thriller has sold over 104 million albums worldwide.

Michael Jackson was a true child prodigy, and emerged as one of the most gifted and talented singer/dancer/entertainers ever.  Quincy Jones is regarded by some as the greatest record producer ever.  Rod Temperton is also regarded as one of the greatest songwriters ever. 

I do agree with part of what you're saying (I think).  There are times that it's just a little over the top production wise, and sure some of the lyrics can be a bit cheesy (particularly "The Girl is Mine").  But compared to the immensity of this album those are minor flaws.

[Tanjential]

Shallow, I'm twice the fan of Zeppelin, Hendrix and Dylan that I am of Michael but to me, P.Y.T and Billie Jean is on the level of Purple Haze, Communication Breakdown, and Like A Rolling Stone easily.

-T

[The-Leak (aka) kingwell (bka) JULES]

Why the fuck do you have 11 tracks to choose from in the poll, Thriller only had 9 tracks.

[R-Tistic]

I never even heard "Lady in my life" like that til two months ago, and that's easily one of my favorite songs ever......

But damn, that Billie Jean bassline has to be the sickest in history.

[Tanjential]

Why the fuck do you have 11 tracks to choose from in the poll, Thriller only had 9 tracks.

the reissue has those two tracks in their entirety after the first 9 tracks. bad, thriller, and off the wall all have extra songs on the reissues. it's awesome. the "Bad" extra tracks are better than most of the regular tracks on "Bad" imo.

-T