Thriller

Jackson, Michael

album cover

Pop Music's Wizard of Oz Moment

Those effervescent Jackson Five singles notwithstanding, Michael Jackson's artistic peak didn't begin until "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough," the disco-strings fantasia that was the first single from Off the Wall (1979). It ended somewhere around "Man in the Mirror," the inspirational trinket from the intermittently bad Bad (1987). After that, the artist the tabloids called Wacko Jacko continued to generate hits (and grab headlines, first for his facial transformations, then the notorious pajama parties with preteen boys at his Neverland Ranch), but something fundamental about his enterprise changed. If he started out easing down the yellow brick road, he wound up the fearful little man behind the curtain, a "King of Pop" desperate for loyal subjects.

Between those mileposts sits Thriller, a confluence of craft and inspiration that sent shockwaves through popular culture. The sounds on this record expanded the palette of the pop hit. The dances became stock elements of music presentation—except for the moonwalk, which only Jackson could do anyway. Thriller's stylized visuals established the basic "language" of music videos. The clothes changed street fashion. And on and on.

How deep is this record? Seven of its nine tracks were Top 10 hits. As of late 2007, the album had sold over sixty million copies. When it came time to put out the "comprehensive" Jackson career overview boxed set, Sony left off one of Thriller's gems, "Human Nature," perhaps because it would have been the seventh of the album's nine tracks to appear on the set.

One revisionist take on Thriller says it's really producer Quincy Jones's baby, that the orchestral lushness he provided would have been successful no matter who was singing. The 2003 Special Edition, a significant sonic upgrade, reveals Jones's strings and horns as catalysts and complementary forces, always providing exactly the right amount of fairy dust. But the hooks are Jackson's doing, as is the ambitious songwriting, which takes him from his dance floor comfort zone into rock and slithery post-disco and even caramel-cream balladry. Jackson turns every selection into high drama, punctuating his lines with fitful sighs and grunts and that squeaky "whee-hee" that soon grew irritating. Heck, he soon grew irritating. But before he crossed that line, before he was the king of anything, he made a record you wanted to hear again and again and again. And after those zillions of spins, it's thrilling still.

Genre: Pop
Released: 1982, Epic
Key Tracks: All of them.
Catalog Choice: Off the Wall.
Next Stop: Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life
After That: Prince: Lovesexy
Book Pages: 386–387