Darkness_Fish wrote:The stand out for me is Thriller, but again, that might kinda be self-fulfilling. As a child, I remember the all encompassing ubiquity of Michael Jackson at the time, and there's certainly a lot to admire about tracks like "Billie Jean", but I don't know if I see that as a stand-out because it brilliantly captured the public's imagination, or if it was pretty much foisted there by an immense marketing machine, a couple of well-crafted songs, and the emergence of MTV as a major force in music promotion.
I guess there lies the issue, right? Does the music on
Thriller somehow, in as objective a way as you can see, add up to being a set of songs most people wanted to buy and own? Or was it some other set of "lucky" circumstances - unexpected crossover appeal, not much competition, the right thing at the right time, multi-media influences - that made a great/good/average set of music become THAT popular?
Personally, I think
Off The Wall is a better set of songs, but objectively 'Billie Jean' amd 'Beat It' etc. had more cross-over appeal, and when you add in the explosion of MJ media hysteria, well, it adds up. But musically? For me, well, i'm not sure