Jacko album still thrilling 25 years on...

News

It is a quarter of a century since Michael Jackson released Thriller, the biggest-selling album in history. Showbiz Correspondent Maureen Coleman examines how it revolutionised the music industry

Friday, November 30, 2007

Music retailers throughout the world were today expecting a huge surge in sales of Michael Jackson's ground-breaking album Thriller.

Twenty-five years ago this weekend American singer Jackson released his second solo album - catapulting him to international stardom.

Thriller went on to become the biggest-selling album of all time, earning Jackson a place in the Guinness Book of Records. The album won a staggering seven Grammy Awards - the most in a single year.

It is also notable for being one of only three albums to remain in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for one full year and in 2007, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ranked it third on its Definitive 200 list - a compilation of the greatest albums ever.

The accolades and awards are endless and Thriller is considered one of the most important and influential albums ever in the history of pop.

Time magazine applauded the album saying "the fallout from Thriller has given the music business its best years since the heady days of 1978, when it had an estimated total domestic revenue of $$4.1bn".

The Quincy Jones-produced record helped to bring music from Afro-American artists back into mainstream radio for the first time since the mid-1970s and in 1984 - the same year of his record-breaking Grammys - Jackson also won eight American Music Awards, the "special Award of Merit" and three MTV Video Music Awards.

And Thriller is the first album of only three in history to produce seven Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles, including The Girl Is Mine (with Paul McCartney), Thriller, Beat It and Billie Jean.

Twenty five years later, speculation is mounting that the Jackson Five will get back together, with Michael involved.

The rumours of a reunion are sure to spark renewed interest in the eccentric singer and this is likely to help move more copies of Thriller of the shelves.

Undeniably, Jackson's superstar status was dealt a considerable blow with the allegations of child molestation, his increasingly outrageous behaviour and the controversy surrounding his private life, but the legacy of Thriller lives on.

Thanks to the worldwide success of the album, Jackson remains a musical icon - the Elvis or the Beatles of his generation.

Not only was the 15-minute Thriller video the most innovative of its time but the Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, a videotape describing the secrets behind the scenes, had sold some 350,000 copies by March 1984.

The Thriller LP revolutionised the music industry, raising the importance of the album as a means of musical distribution.

It also helped pave the way for many other artists who have cited Jackson as a major influence on their work - Prince, Ne-Yo, Usher, Kanye West and Justin Timberlake to name but a few.

Gennaro Castaldo, head of Press and PR at HMV said: "Thriller is widely recognised as one of Michael Jackson's signature albums and the video is considered by some as the greatest music video of all time. Jackson is often credited with revolutionising the music industry and on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the launch, HMV is expecting a busy weekend in terms of sales of the album."