Pop singer was guided by songwriting studies undertaken while still a boy to make the best-selling album in history
It was not by chance that thriller became the best-selling record of all time. Released on November 29, 1982, the sixth solo work by Michael Jackson presented a new way of making pop music. Be it for the super-produced video clips, for the sound aesthetic that goes from post-disco to rock in a snap, for the tight production of Quincy Jones or the undeniable talent of the main artist, many merits can be listed to justify the 70 million copies that would have sold, according to estimates.
One of those trump cards is something that seems obvious but doesn’t always apply to an album: the songs are good. All of them.
At that time, many pop artists who released records were concerned with making just a few good songs to release as singles and play to the radio, filling the rest of the material with what is called out there filler, but here it can be defined as sausage tracks. In thriller, the nine songs inserted have value – not by chance, seven of them were made available in promotional format. The feat achieved here is such that a partnership with Paul McCartney (“The Girl is Mine”) nor is it the most famous work on record.
Was it a chance accident? Michael, at the time aged 24, was it just luck? This does not seem to be the case, as he himself revealed in an interview with the magazine ebony in the year 2007 (via IgorMiranda). The so-called “king of pop” wanted to make thriller an album with only good songs. And interestingly, he was influenced by classical music – in particular Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskylegendary Russian composer of the 19th century.
“Since I was a small child, I studied composition. And it was Tchaikovsky that influenced me the most. If you take the suite ‘The Nutcracker‘, every song is killer, every single one of them. So I said to myself, how can there not be a pop album where all the songs are good?”
Michael Jackson’s restlessness
When remembering the works he studied as a boy, Michael Jackson came up with the idea of making a pop record without disposable songs. All of them should be good. Such a concept had even been worked on in other genres, but not as broadly as in thriller.
“People used to make albums where you had one good song and the rest was like B-sides. They called them ‘album songs’ – and I was like, how come you can’t make every single song a hit? Why can’t all the songs be so good that people would want to buy them if they came out as singles? So I’ve always wanted that. That was my purpose for the next record.”
Namely, the seven songs of thriller released as singles were, in order: “The Girl is Mine”, “Billie Jean”, “beat it”, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin‘”, “human nature”, “PYT (Pretty Young Thing)” and the title track. Only “baby be mine” It is “The Lady in My Life” were not made available in a promotional format. And it wasn’t for lack of quality.
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
