Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ revolution turns 40

Paris: Mixing rock, pop and RnB like never before, Michael Jackson´s “Thriller”, 40 years old next week, became the most successful album of all time and defined a coming era with its audiovisual ambition.

“Thriller” has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide since its release on November 30, 1982.

It consecrated Jackson as the “King of Pop” and remains a musical lodestone.

Even renewed allegations in the 2019 documentary “Leaving Neverland” failed to dent his popularity, and Jackson´s reach has continued to grow, with his music currently ranked 60th in the world on Spotify with 36.7 million monthly streams.

His influence is still all over the charts, not least in the form of The Weeknd, whose music has channelled Jackson, from an early cover of “Dirty Diana” (2010´s “DD”) through to his recent chart-topping album “Dawn FM”.

“Michael is somebody that I admire. He´s not like a real person, you know? When I started making music, that´s all I wanted to aspire to, just like every other musician,” the Canadian singer-songwriter told GQ magazine recently.

Much of the magic on “Thriller” is thanks to producer Quincy Jones, who had worked with Jackson on 1979´s “Off The Wall”.

“The record company didn´t want Quincy for ´Off The Wall´. They took a dim view of this producer from the jazz world — music that sold peanuts in the eyes of the industry,” said Olivier Cachin, author of two books on Jackson.

But the collaboration saw sparks fly — literally on one occasion.

“When we were finishing ´Beat It´… we were working five nights and five days, with no sleep. And at one point, the speakers overloaded and caught on fire!” Jones recalled to Rolling Stone. (AFP)