Thriller

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

1. Why is Thriller the biggest-selling album evar*?

2. Do you think anything will ever outsell it?

*There's no official documentation of this but nobody I've found seriously disputes it either. Wikipedia suggests the worldwide gap between it and the next-biggest selling is something like 60 million copies, though I personally am suspicious of the "100 million" figure.

Comments

[datura800.livejournal.com]

I think the 100 million figure is completely plucked out of the air. Anyway, apart from the videos and the moonwalk, let's not forget the fact that 'Thriller' was almost the first 'focus group' album. That's not to detract from the quality of the album, but it had songs that were pure r & b, the big rock crossover ('Beat It'), the big sappy pop crossover ('The Girl Is Mine') etc.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

most pop albums were constructed like this prior to 1967, a touch of something for everyone (admittedly not put together via data from actual real out-in-the-world focus groups, but definitely via the knowledge and experience of the record company's in-house equivalent; it's largely what they hired the producer for...)