Unless you were 9,10,11 or 12 in 84' you'll never fully understand the Thiller.
That's why these 80's and 90's babies hate on it. They had no equivalent to it so they're mad about it. They don't "get it".
Its kinda funny that kids under 13 "fully understand" Thriller.
b/w
1. Shania Twain- Come on Over (22 Million Sales)
2. Whitney Houston- The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album (19.1 Million Sales)
3. Alanis Morissette- Jagged Little Pill (19 Million Sales)
4. Hootie & the Blowfish- Cracked Rear View (16.1 Million Sales)
5. Garth Brooks- No Fences (16 Million Sales)
6. Garth Brooks (lol)- Double Live (15 Million Sales)
7. Santana- Supernatural (14.6 Million Sales)
8. Backstreet Boys- Backstreet Boys (14.1 Million Sales)
9. Garth Brooks- Ropin the Wind by Garth Brooks (2000) - Original recording reissued (14 Million Sales)
10. Britney Spears- ...Baby One More Time [ENHANCED CD] (13.9 Million Sales)
11. Backstreet Boys- Millennium (13.3 Million Sales)
12. Metallica- Metallica (13.3 Million Sales)
13. Celine Dion- Falling Into You (13.1 Million Sales)
14. Shania Twain- The Woman in Me (12.3 Million Sales)
15. Dixie Chicks- Wide Open Spaces (12.1 Million Sales)
16. Forest Gump Soundtrack- Forrest Gump (12.1 Million Sales)
17. Kenny G- Breathless (12.1 Million Sales)
18. Pearl Jam- Ten (12.1 Million Sales)
19. Matchbox 20- Yourself Or Someone Like You (12 Million Sales)
20. Boyz II Men- II (12 Million Sales)
BUT IF YOU WERE NOT A YOUNGSTER WHEN THE THRILLER CAME OUT YOU WILL NEVER FULLY UNDERSTAND THE MAGIC OF THE THRILLER.
The Thriller was made for kids (Monster movie themes)(Gangs and violence), budding youngans trying to figure out how to get girls...That's why its so special to us.
I was 16 when Thriller dropped. I remember it very well. The parties. The tapes. The attempted dances.
The hype was around the videos, because no-one had pushed the boat out that far before. He had the moves, the moonwalk was everywhere, and the voice. The songs were rammed with hooks that the airwaves loved. It came with the kind of polished, professional, slick commercialism only the yanks could do.
It couldn't fail in Euroland.
IIRC, the EVH hookup was the catalyst that allowed white kids in the US and A to legitimately own a "Black" rekkid. I remember reading an article in one of the learn-ed music mags at the time that cited the "Beat It" solo as the bridge that allowed MJ to truly "Crossover" to the white media. MTV before that was all U2, Madonna and Cindy Lauper b/w Trenchcoat MOR.
A Flock Of, FFS...
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
This was how I remember it back then; before Beat It, MJ was a soul/r&b/"disco" singer. Afterwards, he was "the biggest rock star in the world". I actually remember people starting to refer to him in those terms, and thinking how strange it was.
The "worldwide hysteria" thing doesn't really stand up. At the time it was released, Thriller was just the new Michael Jackson album, no more than that. It wasn't an event record the way Bad was. It only when Billie Jean and, later, Beat It had been huge hits that people began to realise it might be something special. Even then I doubt there were many people who anticipated quite what a game-changer it'd become.
I remember me, my brother and a mate of ours going down to London for a weekend in December '82, ostensibly to see a few bands - I don't remember who - and we stayed in New Cross at the gaff of this girl we knew. Her fella worked in the industry - I think he might have been managing Renaissance at the time - and he was raving over Thriller which had just come out, calling it a masterpiece. He was a big Quincy fan - Thriller and the Donna Summer album which had come out earlier that year were pretty much all he played all weekend, so this would have been the first time I heard it. I honestly don't remember it leaving that big an impression. I might even have said it wasn't as good as Off The Wall, but this guy was immediately sold on its genius.
I think that, for many people, it's a record that crept up on them in the way that colossally successful records often do; something that quietly, almost by stealth, got bigger and bigger until John Landis was spending $1m on a video for the seventh single and its total domination of the pop-cultural landscape was pretty much complete.
It's interesting that, whenever The Canon is discussed or ruminated upon, Thriller is rarely, if ever, mentioned. I have my theories as to why that is - too successful/popular, MJ insufficiently "serious" for those rockist types most attracted to the idea of a Canon to begin with - but I do know that, whenever its significance is discussed it's almost always in terms of how many copies it sold, how many hit singles it generated, how lavish or groundbreaking the videos were. Yet it'd be easy to make a case for it as one of the most important post-Beatles pop albums purely on musical terms.
Funny, Doc as good as Thriller was im finding it hard to comb through my collection for sonic style copycats.
I have plenty of Off The Wall clones, but Thriller-esque joints in 85/86?
Yeah folks realized the new next level of crossover but im looking for influenced joints.
Funny, Doc as good as Thriller was im finding it hard to comb through my collection for sonic style copycats.
I have plenty of Off The Wall clones, but Thriller-esque joints in 85/86?
Yeah folks realized the new next level of crossover but im looking for influenced joints.
I don't think there was anyone else able to pull off that whole package at the time.
Next one along to make that size of noise in the media was Prince. But he was coming from a different place.
I sense the market for such artists was already drying up in terms of the kids wanting it.
By '86 kids were all checking LL, no? R&B/Soul had took a backseat to hip hop or so it seemed. I noticed the clubs going to electro/Slick Rick/Cult Jam around that time. A little later, Once PE blew up, that was pretty much it. The odd ripple of Blackstreet, New Jack Swing, but the tide had turned in terms of what was being promoted out of the US.
This was how I remember it back then; before Beat It, MJ was a soul/r&b/"disco" singer. Afterwards, he was "the biggest rock star in the world". I actually remember people starting to refer to him in those terms, and thinking how strange it was.
The "worldwide hysteria" thing doesn't really stand up. At the time it was released, Thriller was just the new Michael Jackson album, no more than that. It wasn't an event record the way Bad was. It only when Billie Jean and, later, Beat It had been huge hits that people began to realise it might be something special. Even then I doubt there were many people who anticipated quite what a game-changer it'd become.
I remember me, my brother and a mate of ours going down to London for a weekend in December '82, ostensibly to see a few bands - I don't remember who - and we stayed in New Cross at the gaff of this girl we knew. Her fella worked in the industry - I think he might have been managing Renaissance at the time - and he was raving over Thriller which had just come out, calling it a masterpiece. He was a big Quincy fan - Thriller and the Donna Summer album which had come out earlier that year were pretty much all he played all weekend, so this would have been the first time I heard it. I honestly don't remember it leaving that big an impression. I might even have said it wasn't as good as Off The Wall, but this guy was immediately sold on its genius.
I think that, for many people, it's a record that crept up on them in the way that colossally successful records often do; something that quietly, almost by stealth, got bigger and bigger until John Landis was spending $1m on a video for the seventh single and its total domination of the pop-cultural landscape was pretty much complete.
It's interesting that, whenever The Canon is discussed or ruminated upon, Thriller is rarely, if ever, mentioned. I have my theories as to why that is - too successful/popular, MJ insufficiently "serious" for those rockist types most attracted to the idea of a Canon to begin with - but I do know that, whenever its significance is discussed it's almost always in terms of how many copies it sold, how many hit singles it generated, how lavish or groundbreaking the videos were. Yet it'd be easy to make a case for it as one of the most important post-Beatles pop albums purely on musical terms.
Funny, Doc as good as Thriller was im finding it hard to comb through my collection for sonic style copycats.
I have plenty of Off The Wall clones, but Thriller-esque joints in 85/86?
Yeah folks realized the new next level of crossover but im looking for influenced joints.
I don't think there was anyone else able to pull off that whole package at the time.
Next one along to make that size of noise in the media was Prince. But he was coming from a different place.
I sense the market for such artists was already drying up in terms of the kids wanting it.
By '86 kids were all checking LL, no? R&B/Soul had took a backseat to hip hop or so it seemed. I noticed the clubs going to electro/Slick Rick/Cult Jam around that time. A little later, Once PE blew up, that was pretty much it. The odd ripple of Blackstreet, New Jack Swing, but the tide had turned in terms of what was being promoted out of the US.
Yeah...im just wondering who tried to do that stripped down Rod Temperton slickly produced R&B before New Jack Swing hit?
Between Thriller and Guy/Bobby Brown......?
Theres a gang of Purple Rain clones.
And the kids didnt tottally steer the market. Im trying rack my brain to see what club folks were doin.....in thinking House by then or just straight up R&B. Or slick Disco. Hip Hop didnt take over till later. Peter Piper wasnt the norm.
I don't think there was anyone else able to pull off that whole package at the time.
Next one along to make that size of noise in the media was Prince. But he was coming from a different place.
I sense the market for such artists was already drying up in terms of the kids wanting it.
By '86 kids were all checking LL, no? R&B/Soul had took a backseat to hip hop or so it seemed. I noticed the clubs going to electro/Slick Rick/Cult Jam around that time. A little later, Once PE blew up, that was pretty much it. The odd ripple of Blackstreet, New Jack Swing, but the tide had turned in terms of what was being promoted out of the US.
I agree, I think the overwhelming massiveness of Thriller, and the fact that everyone from your 5 year old cousin to your great-grandma was digging it made it fairly un-cool among kids my age after it blew up (I was 13-14 in 1983). Most kids that age who aspire to some kind of coolness don't want to be sharing a record collection with the whole family, so a lot of us looked for stuff that our parents didn't approve of quite so much. Run-DMC dropped "Sucker MC's" right in the middle of Thriller-mania and for me and my friends, as soon as we heard that we were all in on Run DMC. Michael was for little kids and girls. I suspect the same thing happened for a lot of other teenagers, whether it was black kids going crazy for hip-hop or white kids turning to heavy metal or punk. Of course there was still a HUGE audience that adored MJ, but it seemed like they were all older or younger than I was.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
Eggplant Xanadoo said:
DocMcCoy said:
This was how I remember it back then; before Beat It, MJ was a soul/r&b/"disco" singer. Afterwards, he was "the biggest rock star in the world". I actually remember people starting to refer to him in those terms, and thinking how strange it was.
The "worldwide hysteria" thing doesn't really stand up. At the time it was released, Thriller was just the new Michael Jackson album, no more than that. It wasn't an event record the way Bad was. It only when Billie Jean and, later, Beat It had been huge hits that people began to realise it might be something special. Even then I doubt there were many people who anticipated quite what a game-changer it'd become.
I remember me, my brother and a mate of ours going down to London for a weekend in December '82, ostensibly to see a few bands - I don't remember who - and we stayed in New Cross at the gaff of this girl we knew. Her fella worked in the industry - I think he might have been managing Renaissance at the time - and he was raving over Thriller which had just come out, calling it a masterpiece. He was a big Quincy fan - Thriller and the Donna Summer album which had come out earlier that year were pretty much all he played all weekend, so this would have been the first time I heard it. I honestly don't remember it leaving that big an impression. I might even have said it wasn't as good as Off The Wall, but this guy was immediately sold on its genius.
I think that, for many people, it's a record that crept up on them in the way that colossally successful records often do; something that quietly, almost by stealth, got bigger and bigger until John Landis was spending $1m on a video for the seventh single and its total domination of the pop-cultural landscape was pretty much complete.
It's interesting that, whenever The Canon is discussed or ruminated upon, Thriller is rarely, if ever, mentioned. I have my theories as to why that is - too successful/popular, MJ insufficiently "serious" for those rockist types most attracted to the idea of a Canon to begin with - but I do know that, whenever its significance is discussed it's almost always in terms of how many copies it sold, how many hit singles it generated, how lavish or groundbreaking the videos were. Yet it'd be easy to make a case for it as one of the most important post-Beatles pop albums purely on musical terms.
How old we're you at the time?
I was 22 when Thriller came out. In other words, I was old enough to be completely aware of what was going on, and of the way people's reactions basically changed from "Hey, that new Michael Jackson LP is pretty good", to "This is the biggest fucking thing there's ever been", all inside the space of 18 months.
I'm not trying to dismiss your personal experience here, by the way. I don't believe there's a "correct" way to respond to music, and I don't think it matters that other people may have a completely different relationship, say, to a piece of music with a very specific meaning for me.
But I would suggest that, if you were very young when it came out and it was perhaps your Star Wars moment as far as music is concerned, then your relationship to it will be very different - not better or worse, or any more or less valid, just different - from that of someone who'd already grown up with MJ (or at the very least who'd bought OTW), and who was maybe better able to grasp just what a leap forward it represented.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
skel said:
He was about 49
B/w how Doc gonna do me like that?
::ironic rockist smiley::
Never considered you as someone prone to obsequiousness in the face of canons, received wisdom & such, skel. I had in mind yer professional list-makers, self-appointed experts and time-honoured go-to guys/rent-a-quote merchants who always seem to crop up whenever someone asks the question; "Just what is the greatest album of all time..?"
I tend to view everything through a lens flecked with power chords, tinged by four on the floor, suffused with a peeled star shower, shot through with white bread song structure.
A childhood damaged by a diet of Freddie & Teh Dreamers and Pinky n Perky 45s.
Truth told, my funk is a hard won attribute, fought over in a daily battle with the ghosts of Di Anno era Maiden, the wholly formative Anarcho Punk years and a profoundly real love for the Pilots and Gilbert O'Sullivans of this world.
In other words, my funk be phoney.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
skel said:
I tend to view everything through a lens flecked with power chords, tinged by four on the floor, suffused with a peeled star shower, shot through with white bread song structure.
A childhood damaged by a diet of Freddie & Teh Dreamers and Pinky n Perky 45s.
Truth told, my funk is a hard won attribute, fought over in a daily battle with the ghosts of Di Anno era Maiden, the wholly formative Anarcho Punk years and a profoundly real love for the Pilots and Gilbert O'Sullivans of this world.
In other words, my funk be phoney.
On the other hand, maybe you're someone who likes music rather than genre tags, or whose relationship with it runs a little deeper than that of the people who just treat it as an extension of all their other lifestyle choices.
Would it be fair to say that Thriller became more and more popular with every successful single that was released from it?
Over what period of time were all singles released?
The Girl Is Mine - 82 Released October 18, 1982 ...It was released as the first single for Jackson's sixth solo album, Thriller (1982
Billie Jean - 83
Beat It - 83
Wanna Be - 83
Human Nature - 83
PYT - 83 Released September 19, 1983
Say Say Say - Released October 3 1983 - The song was recorded during production of McCartney's 1982 Tug of War album, about a year before the release of "The Girl Is Mine", the pair's first duet from Jackson's album Thriller (1982). After its release in October 1983, "Say Say Say" became Jackson's seventh top-ten hit inside a year.
This was how I remember it back then; before Beat It, MJ was a soul/r&b/"disco" singer. Afterwards, he was "the biggest rock star in the world". I actually remember people starting to refer to him in those terms, and thinking how strange it was.
The "worldwide hysteria" thing doesn't really stand up. At the time it was released, Thriller was just the new Michael Jackson album, no more than that. It wasn't an event record the way Bad was. It only when Billie Jean and, later, Beat It had been huge hits that people began to realise it might be something special. Even then I doubt there were many people who anticipated quite what a game-changer it'd become.
I remember me, my brother and a mate of ours going down to London for a weekend in December '82, ostensibly to see a few bands - I don't remember who - and we stayed in New Cross at the gaff of this girl we knew. Her fella worked in the industry - I think he might have been managing Renaissance at the time - and he was raving over Thriller which had just come out, calling it a masterpiece. He was a big Quincy fan - Thriller and the Donna Summer album which had come out earlier that year were pretty much all he played all weekend, so this would have been the first time I heard it. I honestly don't remember it leaving that big an impression. I might even have said it wasn't as good as Off The Wall, but this guy was immediately sold on its genius.
I think that, for many people, it's a record that crept up on them in the way that colossally successful records often do; something that quietly, almost by stealth, got bigger and bigger until John Landis was spending $1m on a video for the seventh single and its total domination of the pop-cultural landscape was pretty much complete.
It's interesting that, whenever The Canon is discussed or ruminated upon, Thriller is rarely, if ever, mentioned. I have my theories as to why that is - too successful/popular, MJ insufficiently "serious" for those rockist types most attracted to the idea of a Canon to begin with - but I do know that, whenever its significance is discussed it's almost always in terms of how many copies it sold, how many hit singles it generated, how lavish or groundbreaking the videos were. Yet it'd be easy to make a case for it as one of the most important post-Beatles pop albums purely on musical terms.
How old we're you at the time?
I was 22 when Thriller came out. In other words, I was old enough to be completely aware of what was going on, and of the way people's reactions basically changed from "Hey, that new Michael Jackson LP is pretty good", to "This is the biggest fucking thing there's ever been", all inside the space of 18 months.
I'm not trying to dismiss your personal experience here, by the way. I don't believe there's a "correct" way to respond to music, and I don't think it matters that other people may have a completely different relationship, say, to a piece of music with a very specific meaning for me.
But I would suggest that, if you were very young when it came out and it was perhaps your Star Wars moment as far as music is concerned, then your relationship to it will be very different - not better or worse, or any more or less valid, just different - from that of someone who'd already grown up with MJ (or at the very least who'd bought OTW), and who was maybe better able to grasp just what a leap forward it represented.
Word. All the dudes in my area above 16 or 17 hated it. Calling it "gay" while playing out the K-Tel "Breakdance" comp. Awesome breakdown though, that's exactly how I feel and didnt realize it.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
batmon said:
I thought Billie Jean was the lead single.
Not long after MJ died, I interviewed Bruce Swedien for the late, lamented Word magazine in the UK, and I'd asked him if there was ever a point during the sessions where they felt they were making a landmark record. He replied that, while nobody was thinking about it in those terms, the day they got to the studio and heard The Girl Is Mine on every station was when they started to feel the pressure - the first single was already a number one and the album wasn't anywhere near finished.
Not long after MJ died, I interviewed Bruce Swedien for the late, lamented Word magazine in the UK, and I'd asked him if there was ever a point during the sessions where they felt they were making a landmark record. He replied that, while nobody was thinking about it in those terms, the day they got to the studio and heard The Girl Is Mine on every station was when they started to feel the pressure - the first single was already a number one and the album wasn't anywhere near finished.
Dude had his Paul McCartney Crossover Card prepped like a muthfucka.
Comments
That's why these 80's and 90's babies hate on it. They had no equivalent to it so they're mad about it. They don't "get it".
Its kinda funny that kids under 13 "fully understand" Thriller.
b/w
1. Shania Twain- Come on Over (22 Million Sales)
2. Whitney Houston- The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album (19.1 Million Sales)
3. Alanis Morissette- Jagged Little Pill (19 Million Sales)
4. Hootie & the Blowfish- Cracked Rear View (16.1 Million Sales)
5. Garth Brooks- No Fences (16 Million Sales)
6. Garth Brooks (lol)- Double Live (15 Million Sales)
7. Santana- Supernatural (14.6 Million Sales)
8. Backstreet Boys- Backstreet Boys (14.1 Million Sales)
9. Garth Brooks- Ropin the Wind by Garth Brooks (2000) - Original recording reissued (14 Million Sales)
10. Britney Spears- ...Baby One More Time [ENHANCED CD] (13.9 Million Sales)
11. Backstreet Boys- Millennium (13.3 Million Sales)
12. Metallica- Metallica (13.3 Million Sales)
13. Celine Dion- Falling Into You (13.1 Million Sales)
14. Shania Twain- The Woman in Me (12.3 Million Sales)
15. Dixie Chicks- Wide Open Spaces (12.1 Million Sales)
16. Forest Gump Soundtrack- Forrest Gump (12.1 Million Sales)
17. Kenny G- Breathless (12.1 Million Sales)
18. Pearl Jam- Ten (12.1 Million Sales)
19. Matchbox 20- Yourself Or Someone Like You (12 Million Sales)
20. Boyz II Men- II (12 Million Sales)
BUT IF YOU WERE NOT A YOUNGSTER WHEN THE THRILLER CAME OUT YOU WILL NEVER FULLY UNDERSTAND THE MAGIC OF THE THRILLER.
The Thriller was made for kids (Monster movie themes)(Gangs and violence), budding youngans trying to figure out how to get girls...That's why its so special to us.
The Thriller is a pre-teen opus.
I can get if kids these days are introduced to it they like it and thinks its good.
But they will never understand the worldwide hysteria it caused in the 80s when we first heard it because they were simply not there.
No, you guys had Frampton Comes Alive.
The hype was around the videos, because no-one had pushed the boat out that far before. He had the moves, the moonwalk was everywhere, and the voice. The songs were rammed with hooks that the airwaves loved. It came with the kind of polished, professional, slick commercialism only the yanks could do.
It couldn't fail in Euroland.
IIRC, the EVH hookup was the catalyst that allowed white kids in the US and A to legitimately own a "Black" rekkid. I remember reading an article in one of the learn-ed music mags at the time that cited the "Beat It" solo as the bridge that allowed MJ to truly "Crossover" to the white media. MTV before that was all U2, Madonna and Cindy Lauper b/w Trenchcoat MOR.
A Flock Of, FFS...
The "worldwide hysteria" thing doesn't really stand up. At the time it was released, Thriller was just the new Michael Jackson album, no more than that. It wasn't an event record the way Bad was. It only when Billie Jean and, later, Beat It had been huge hits that people began to realise it might be something special. Even then I doubt there were many people who anticipated quite what a game-changer it'd become.
I remember me, my brother and a mate of ours going down to London for a weekend in December '82, ostensibly to see a few bands - I don't remember who - and we stayed in New Cross at the gaff of this girl we knew. Her fella worked in the industry - I think he might have been managing Renaissance at the time - and he was raving over Thriller which had just come out, calling it a masterpiece. He was a big Quincy fan - Thriller and the Donna Summer album which had come out earlier that year were pretty much all he played all weekend, so this would have been the first time I heard it. I honestly don't remember it leaving that big an impression. I might even have said it wasn't as good as Off The Wall, but this guy was immediately sold on its genius.
I think that, for many people, it's a record that crept up on them in the way that colossally successful records often do; something that quietly, almost by stealth, got bigger and bigger until John Landis was spending $1m on a video for the seventh single and its total domination of the pop-cultural landscape was pretty much complete.
It's interesting that, whenever The Canon is discussed or ruminated upon, Thriller is rarely, if ever, mentioned. I have my theories as to why that is - too successful/popular, MJ insufficiently "serious" for those rockist types most attracted to the idea of a Canon to begin with - but I do know that, whenever its significance is discussed it's almost always in terms of how many copies it sold, how many hit singles it generated, how lavish or groundbreaking the videos were. Yet it'd be easy to make a case for it as one of the most important post-Beatles pop albums purely on musical terms.
I have plenty of Off The Wall clones, but Thriller-esque joints in 85/86?
Yeah folks realized the new next level of crossover but im looking for influenced joints.
I don't think there was anyone else able to pull off that whole package at the time.
Next one along to make that size of noise in the media was Prince. But he was coming from a different place.
I sense the market for such artists was already drying up in terms of the kids wanting it.
By '86 kids were all checking LL, no? R&B/Soul had took a backseat to hip hop or so it seemed. I noticed the clubs going to electro/Slick Rick/Cult Jam around that time. A little later, Once PE blew up, that was pretty much it. The odd ripple of Blackstreet, New Jack Swing, but the tide had turned in terms of what was being promoted out of the US.
How old we're you at the time?
B/w how Doc gonna do me like that?
::ironic rockist smiley::
Yeah...im just wondering who tried to do that stripped down Rod Temperton slickly produced R&B before New Jack Swing hit?
Between Thriller and Guy/Bobby Brown......?
Theres a gang of Purple Rain clones.
And the kids didnt tottally steer the market. Im trying rack my brain to see what club folks were doin.....in thinking House by then or just straight up R&B. Or slick Disco. Hip Hop didnt take over till later. Peter Piper wasnt the norm.
I agree, I think the overwhelming massiveness of Thriller, and the fact that everyone from your 5 year old cousin to your great-grandma was digging it made it fairly un-cool among kids my age after it blew up (I was 13-14 in 1983). Most kids that age who aspire to some kind of coolness don't want to be sharing a record collection with the whole family, so a lot of us looked for stuff that our parents didn't approve of quite so much. Run-DMC dropped "Sucker MC's" right in the middle of Thriller-mania and for me and my friends, as soon as we heard that we were all in on Run DMC. Michael was for little kids and girls. I suspect the same thing happened for a lot of other teenagers, whether it was black kids going crazy for hip-hop or white kids turning to heavy metal or punk. Of course there was still a HUGE audience that adored MJ, but it seemed like they were all older or younger than I was.
I was 22 when Thriller came out. In other words, I was old enough to be completely aware of what was going on, and of the way people's reactions basically changed from "Hey, that new Michael Jackson LP is pretty good", to "This is the biggest fucking thing there's ever been", all inside the space of 18 months.
I'm not trying to dismiss your personal experience here, by the way. I don't believe there's a "correct" way to respond to music, and I don't think it matters that other people may have a completely different relationship, say, to a piece of music with a very specific meaning for me.
But I would suggest that, if you were very young when it came out and it was perhaps your Star Wars moment as far as music is concerned, then your relationship to it will be very different - not better or worse, or any more or less valid, just different - from that of someone who'd already grown up with MJ (or at the very least who'd bought OTW), and who was maybe better able to grasp just what a leap forward it represented.
Never considered you as someone prone to obsequiousness in the face of canons, received wisdom & such, skel. I had in mind yer professional list-makers, self-appointed experts and time-honoured go-to guys/rent-a-quote merchants who always seem to crop up whenever someone asks the question; "Just what is the greatest album of all time..?"
A childhood damaged by a diet of Freddie & Teh Dreamers and Pinky n Perky 45s.
Truth told, my funk is a hard won attribute, fought over in a daily battle with the ghosts of Di Anno era Maiden, the wholly formative Anarcho Punk years and a profoundly real love for the Pilots and Gilbert O'Sullivans of this world.
In other words, my funk be phoney.
On the other hand, maybe you're someone who likes music rather than genre tags, or whose relationship with it runs a little deeper than that of the people who just treat it as an extension of all their other lifestyle choices.
Over what period of time were all singles released?
The Girl Is Mine - 82 Released October 18, 1982 ...It was released as the first single for Jackson's sixth solo album, Thriller (1982
Billie Jean - 83
Beat It - 83
Wanna Be - 83
Human Nature - 83
PYT - 83 Released September 19, 1983
Say Say Say - Released October 3 1983 - The song was recorded during production of McCartney's 1982 Tug of War album, about a year before the release of "The Girl Is Mine", the pair's first duet from Jackson's album Thriller (1982). After its release in October 1983, "Say Say Say" became Jackson's seventh top-ten hit inside a year.
I thought Billie Jean was the lead single.
Word. All the dudes in my area above 16 or 17 hated it. Calling it "gay" while playing out the K-Tel "Breakdance" comp. Awesome breakdown though, that's exactly how I feel and didnt realize it.
Not long after MJ died, I interviewed Bruce Swedien for the late, lamented Word magazine in the UK, and I'd asked him if there was ever a point during the sessions where they felt they were making a landmark record. He replied that, while nobody was thinking about it in those terms, the day they got to the studio and heard The Girl Is Mine on every station was when they started to feel the pressure - the first single was already a number one and the album wasn't anywhere near finished.
Dude had his Paul McCartney Crossover Card prepped like a muthfucka.
b/w
I'd say the release of each video is what really propelled it. Until I wiki'd it I didn't even realize The Girl Is Mine was the first single.
When he busted out the moonwalk at the Grammy's that was a huge boost too I'm sure.
Yeah I knew I fucked that up, good look.
It was a moonwalk though.
The Moonwalk is originally called the Backslide.
GIT FAM