Michael Jackson’s “Thriller†Revolutionized Music Business
Posted on July 14th, 2009
The release of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller†album in November 30, 1982 was a historic event for the music industry. Almost 27 years after its release, “Thriller†remains to be the best-selling studio album in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
The RIAA, which has certified the album 28-times platinum, estimated that the album sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.
The album’s success, however, can’t be measured solely on its sales. “Thriller” set a new standard for music hits. More importantly, it changed MTV, shattered the network’s racial barriers and raised the bar for video quality.
Epic Records which produced “Thriller†made it the first major release to debut worldwide simultaneously and the first album to spin off seven singles to radio. Soon after that, several record labels followed suit.
Ron Weisner who was co-managing Jackson with Freddy DeMann in 1982 said that it has always been Jackson’s plan to take “Thriller” to “the next giant level”. This meant “marrying the album with the visual extension.”
Thus with high hopes, Weisner went to MTV with a rough cut of “Billie Jean.” It immediately went into heavy rotation, playing eight times per day. It was the video that shattered the color barrier. This brought Jackson and MTW into a different level of success.
“‘Billie Jean’ set the standard that day for what excellence in music video stood for,” Les Garland, VP of Programming at MTV Networks at the time said. He said it opened the door to more R&B videos being made and allowed us a wider variety of music.
Although video for “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” heightened Jackson’s fame, the video for “Thriller” became an instant pop culture sensation.
America was so captivated with the video that Epic created an hourlong documentary called “Making Michael Jackson’s Thriller”. This aired on MTV and was eventually sent to retail. The documentary “started a commercial market for videos,” says former RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen.
“Thriller” was on the Billboard 200 for 122 weeks, steering Epic to one of its most prosperous period.
With the current drop in album sales and the rise of digital downloads, no other album will probably affect the collective consciousness the way “Thriller” did.
