TIME Magazine Explores Why ‘Thriller’ Is One Of The Most Important Albums Of All Time
January 24, 2018
TIME Magazine Explores Why ‘Thriller’ Is One Of The Most Important Albums Of All Time

“For a record industry stuck on the border between the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop, Thriller was a thorough restoration of confidence, a rejuvenation. Its effect on listeners, especially younger ones, was nearer to a revelation. Thriller brought black music back to mainstream radio, from which it had been effectively banished after restrictive “special-format programming” was introduced in the mid-’70s. Listeners could put more carbonation in their pop and cut their heavy-metal diet with a dose of the fleetest soul around. “No doubt about it,” says Composer-Arranger Quincy Jones, who produced Off the Wall and Thriller with Jackson. “He’s taken us right up there where we belong. Black music had to play second fiddle for a long time, but its spirit is the whole motor of pop. Michael has connected with every soul in the world.”

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