Thriller (12) is the sixth studio album by American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, released in November 1982, by Epic Reocrds. It was produced by Quincy Jones, who had previously worked with Jackson on his 1979 album Off the Wall. Jackson wanted to create an album where “every song was a killer”. With the ongoing backlash against disco music at the time, he moved in a new musical direction, resulting in a mix of pop, post-disco, rock, funk, and R&B sounds. Thriller foreshadows the contradictory themes of Jackson’s personal life, as he began using a motif of paranoia and darker themes. The album features a single guest appearance, with Paul McCartney becoming the first artist to be credited as a featured artist on one of Jackson’s albums. Recording took place from April to November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, with a production budget of $750,000.
Thriller became Jackson’s first number one album on the US Billboard chart, where it spent a record 37 non-consecutive weeks at number one, from February 26, 1983, to April 14, 1984. Seven singles were released: “The Girl is Mine”, “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ “, “Human Nature”, “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”, and “Thriller”. They all reached the top 10 on the US Billboard chart, setting the record at the time for the most top 10 singles from an album, with “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” reaching number one. Following Jackson’s performance of “Billie Jean” in the Motown 25 television special, where he debuted his signature moonwalk dance, the sales of the album significantly increased, selling one million copies worldwide per week. The “Thriller” music video was premiered to great anticipation in December 1983 and played regularly on MTV, which also increased the sales of the album.
With 32 million copies sold worldwide by the end of 1983, Thriller became the best selling album of all time. It was the best-selling album of 1983 worldwide, and it was the first album to become the best selling in the US for two years, in 1983 and 1984. It set the standard for the music industry with its songs, music videos, and promotion strategies influencing artists, record labels, producers, marketers, and choreographers. Jackson’s success and immediate influence led to him having a standing of cultural significance that was not attained by a Black American before him in the history of the entertainment industry, with the album’s unprecedented popularity breaking racial barriers in popular music, having enabled Jackson’s regular appearances on MTV and meeting with US President Ronald Reagan at the White House. Thriller was among the first albums to use music videos as promotional tools; the videos for “Billie Jean”, “Beat It” and “Thriller” are credited for transforming music videos into a serious art form.
In a contemporaneous review for Rolling Stone, Christopher Connelly called Thriller “a zesty LP” with a “harrowing, dark message”. He compared the songs on the album with the life challenges that the 24-year-old Jackson had faced since Off the Wall, while observing that he “dropped the boyish falsetto” and was facing his “challenges head-on” with “a feisty determination” and “a full, adult voice”. Connelly emphasized Jackson’s musical progression from Off the Wall, writing, “Jackson’s new attitude gives Thriller a deeper, if less visceral, emotional urgency than any of his previous work, and marks another watershed in the creative development of this prodigiously talented performer.
Thriller remains the best selling album of all time, with sales of 70 million copies worldwide. It was certified 34x platinum by the RIAA in 2021. It won a record breaking eight Grammy Awards in 1984, including Album of the Year, while “Beat It” won Record of the Year. The album is often credited by critics and publications as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2008, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In the same year, the Library of Congress chose to preserve it to the National Recording Registry of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant recordings”.
