Billboard Greatest Of All Time, Michael in top 10

Didn't they say the samething about Beyoncé and Taylor swift's album? That they were going to top thriller.but they didn't.
 
So congrats to Adele for selling 2,4 Mio in a week...but let's just wait and see....it's a long way up to Thriller.

MJ-drinking-water-michael-jackson-31943989-500-281.gif
 
Today album sales are massively first week heavy. Her selling 3 million copies in the first week doesn't mean she will continue to sell that many every week. N'Sync sold 2.4 million copies the first week but the album did not catch Thriller either. It stopped at around 10 million eventually. For 25 to beat Thriller it would need to sell 2.5 times as many in the US as 21 did. To me it is even doubtful if 25 will eventually catch 21 since it does not have as a song like Rolling in the Deep which was the big pull for 21.

Fastest selling albums in the US (of course now 25 is #1 ):

RankYearTitleArtistSalesReference
12000No Strings Attached*NSYNC2,415,859[SUP][33][/SUP]
22001Celebrity*NSYNC1,879,955[SUP][34][/SUP]
32000The Marshall Mathers LPEminem1,760,049[SUP][35][/SUP]
42000Black & BlueBackstreet Boys1,591,191[SUP][36][/SUP]
52000Oops!... I Did It AgainBritney Spears1,319,193[SUP][37][/SUP]
620141989Taylor Swift1,287,000[SUP][38][/SUP]
72012RedTaylor Swift1,208,000[SUP][39][/SUP]
82005The Massacre[SUP]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest-selling_albums#endnote_50Cent[/SUP]

[TD="align: left"]50 Cent[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1,140,638[/TD]
[TD="align: center"][SUP][40][/SUP][/TD]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]9[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1999[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]Millennium[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]Backstreet Boys[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1,133,505[/TD]
[TD="align: center"][SUP][41][/SUP][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]10[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2011[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]Born This Way[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]Lady Gaga[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1,108,000[/TD]
[TD="align: center"][SUP][42][/SUP][/TD]
[/TR]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest-selling_albums

As you can see most of those albums were released between 2000-2015, not earlier, even though most of the really huge blockbusters come from earlier times. These were good selling albums, but all of them stopped eventually at around 10-13 million or lower. None of them came anywhere near Thriller. Heavy first week sales is simply how sales dynamics work since the 2000s. Before that people had to learn about an album through the radio playing some of its songs before they bought it.
 
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mkgenie said:
OH!

In this chart
http://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboard-200-artists

Taylor Swift is No. 8 and Michael is at 10

a joke?
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What the heck at this chart?! Not just Taylor Swift in at 8 but Elvis in at number 38!!!

For me any chart of the best artists of all time should have a top three of only MJ, Elvis and The Beatles. I'm not sure what positions I'd put them in, but who's had a bigger impact on music than these three? They're also the three greatest selling artists of all time.
 
Bad7 said:
For me any chart of the best artists of all time should have a top three of only MJ, Elvis and The Beatles. I'm not sure what positions I'd put them in, but who's had a bigger impact on music than these three? They're also the three greatest selling artists of all time.
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Its 4: don't forget Sinatra. :)
 
respect77 said:
As you can see most of those albums were released between 2000-2015, not earlier, even though most of the really huge blockbusters come from earlier times. These were good selling albums, but all of them stopped eventually at around 10-13 million or lower. None of them came anywhere near Thriller. Heavy first week sales is simply how sales dynamics work since the 2000s. Before that people had to learn about an album through the radio playing some of its songs before they bought it.
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Exactly true-I knew exactly when Taylor's and Adele's albums were going to drop because of the massive amount of intrnet press on them. And now, you have things like pre-order.
Back in the "olden" days you had to hear a single on the radio-or maybe more than one single-or the artists made appearances on talk shows, variety shows, Soul Train, American Bandstand, etc and performed.

I knew about "Triumph" and "Off the Wall" because I was a "disco" nut and they played and I danced to DSTYGE and RWY, etc. And I watched the Disney 25 special and the Diana Special. But it wasn't until the Motown 25 special that I ran to the record store and bought "Thriller" and "Off the Wall". I had to have them.
 
barbee0715 said:
Its 4: don't forget Sinatra. :)
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MJ, Elvis & The Beatles are "The Holy Trinity" of music. It will always be like that. Rankings among those 3 are subjective and can variate from people to people.
 
OnirMJ said:
MJ, Elvis & The Beatles are "The Holy Trinity" of music. It will always be like that. Rankings among those 3 are subjective and can variate from people to people.
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Really? Because all the Sinatra fans are dead?

I think of Sinatra starting this whole phenomenon with all the "bobby soxers" fainting at the sight of him-they never did that with singers before-maybe Bing Crosby, but he didn't quite stir mass hysteria. Then we had the Presley fanatics, Beatlemania, Michaelmania-and then nothing after that-that I know of. Even Michael talked about being called "the Sinatra of his time."

I ran across this the other day and Quincy agrees with me-although he gives the 70's to Star Wars-I guess I agree with that.

 
throwback hits/facts ?@goldenerahits 30. Nov.

#funfact: To this day, "Thriller" [album] sells up to 130,000 copies annually in the United States.

#funfact: During "Thriller"'s peak, the album sold 1 million copies each week.
CVEmZDNU4AAtcnc.jpg
 
Michael Jackson ?@michaeljackson 30. Nov.

#MJFunFact: Michael has the most No. 1s in the 52-year history of the @Billboard Hot 100.
CVE5tHlVEAE57Hx.png
 
^^^YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:bow:


Billboard should have touted THIS in their Greatest of All Time article!
 
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There's Thriller and then there's everything else! No album had the same impact both musically & visually. I see sooo many of these top-100 lists. There nothing more than publicity stunts designed to get people talking about Billboard, Rolling Stone etc. I understand why they do it and it's never really bothered me. The only thing that slightly irks me is when people turn on Artists who get exceptionally high placings when those Artists have nothing to do with these lists. Another thing I just want to throw out there, you or I may not be listening to Adele, Taylor in 20 years but some people most certainly will. All of the people who bought Thriller in the 80's, 90's , 00's are nothing necessarily listening to Thriller today. This is all subjective stuff and we've all got out own TASTE. Thriller was a cultural phenomenon but there's more to life and certainly more to music than Thriller. Saleswise it will never be beat (I hate the fact that the industry has turned into some sort of compititon) but culturally, at least for me, many other albums have and will continue to make an impact on people, their lives, society and that (in most cases) can only be a good thing. Are the industry trying to dilute, discredit, take away MJ's achievements? I don't know. All I know is that I love Thriller and that I listen to it. What else matters and how important is it?
 
Ok I think I'm just as qualified to make a list of top artist...

Here is a Top 1 artist list...

#1 Michael Jackson


no need to continue. Feel free to vote lol! I think hands down you all will agree.
 
http://www.ibtimes.com/adeles-25-about-do-something-no-album-history-has-done-2210353

Adele's second week

...Tacking another million onto the 3.38 million copies it sold during that first week, the resultant total would make “25” the second-highest selling album of the past 10 years...

What would push it further into the history books would be several more weeks of sustained high sales. The highest-selling albums in history reached their respective heights thanks to years -- not months -- of sustained interest.
Michael Jackson's "Thriller," for example, was the top-selling album in the world for two consecutive years in the early 1980s, and it remains a reliable, trustworthy Christmastime purchase for any young pop music fan.
 
Paris78 said:
Michael Jackson's "Thriller," for example, was the top-selling album in the world for two consecutive years in the early 1980s, and it remains a reliable, trustworthy Christmastime purchase for any young pop music fan.
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Actually Adele's 21 was only the second album in history that managed that feat of being the biggest selling album for two years. However, that still not brought it anywhere near Thriller in terms of sales numbers. 21 sold 11.2 million copies, Thriller more than 2.5 times that many (29 million). I doubt 25 will have the same longevity as its sales seem to be massively frontloaded (that wasn't the case with 21).

And yes, Thriller STILL sells pretty decently and regularly charts. And I think that type of decades long longevity is the most difficult to have for any album.
 
The media is trying so hard to de thrown Thriller. It ain't happening any time soon.
 
"Thriller" has already crossed the 30 million mark in The USA, it must be easily around 30,500,000.
It was at 29,4 million in August 2009, but has sold 1,2 million through Soundscan since then.
 
respect77 said:
Actually Adele's 21 was only the second album in history that managed that feat of being the biggest selling album for two years. However, that still not brought it anywhere near Thriller in terms of sales numbers. 21 sold 11.2 million copies, Thriller more than 2.5 times that many (29 million). I doubt 25 will have the same longevity as its sales seem to be massively frontloaded (that wasn't the case with 21).

And yes, Thriller STILL sells pretty decently and regularly charts. And I think that type of decades long longevity is the most difficult to have for any album.
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I don't see Adele's albums selling in 20 years time.
Her music is neither revolutionary, nor influential.
When her label will release a GH , her studio albums sales will be cannibilized by it.

"Thriller" still sells a lot, because is iconic and revolutionary, in spite of ghs that contain basically all its songs.
Also "Bad" is selling very well in the USA.
It is the best selling Mike's album in the US this year.
 
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Soundmind said:
The media is trying so hard to de thrown Thriller. It ain't happening any time soon.
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It won't happen at all unless music industry experiences a true revolution which so far isn't in the cards at all.


I learned to shrug my shoulders and smile when it comes to that. They tried so hard to tear MJ down and say he was overrated, only to bend over themselves now calling everyone who has one hit the next MJ.
Obviously he was IT! Otherwise they wouldn't try to find the next one. And they know there won't be a next one. You can call it blasphemy and it kind of is, but it's also a testament to how those who tried to shit on MJ at the end of the day have to give him credit, because they use him as the ultimate thing.
So while yeah it is annoying as heck, it is also basically haters spiting in their own faces, and I'm over here just smiling.
They KNOW Michael won't be beaten. But they also know the clicks they will get, the media coverage, the hype. Heck, I saw someone ask Paris on social media how she feels about the possibility that Adele could break Thriller records.
You think that came from numbers and realistic statistics? No, it came from media hype. Bull, and they all know it. They are wetting their panties because after all they tried to do to MJ, he is still THE ONE! And they know MJ stays the one, they just like to use his name for clicks and hype.
 
pierpinto1 said:
I don't see Adele's albums selling in 20 years time.
Her music is neither revolutionary, nor influential.
When her label will release a GH , her studio albums sales will be cannibilized by it.

"Thriller" still sells a lot, because is iconic and revolutionary, in spite of ghs that contain basically all its songs.
Also "Bad" is selling very well in the USA.
It is the best selling Mike's album in the US this year.
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Yes, I have seen that Michael is basically the best selling catalog artist, even if his album sales are divided among four albums. He sold about 400,000 albums so far this year alone in the US which is by far the biggest catalog sales by an artist. With no any kind of anniversary, fanfare or hype.

And indeed what makes Thriller's (and Bad's) persistence even more impressive is that Michael also has popular greatest hits album which basically contain - "cannibalize" - most of Thriller and Bad (Essential especially). So I'd guess many casual fans or people of the general public who buy Essential won't buy Thriller/Bad, but they still sells very well. And even Michael's greatest hits sales are divided between two albums (Essential and Number Ones) which prevents him a little from building up one massive GH album like in the case of Queen or Bob Marley, but thing is that he has at least four albums which constantly chart, among them two studio albums, while those artists just have their one GH album on the charts.
 
respect77 said:
Yes, I have seen that Michael is basically the best selling catalog artist, even if his album sales are divided among four albums. He sold about 400,000 albums so far this year alone in the US which is by far the biggest catalog sales by an artist. With no any kind of anniversary, fanfare or hype.

And indeed what makes Thriller's (and Bad's) persistence even more impressive is that Michael also has popular greatest hits album which basically contain - "cannibalize" - most of Thriller and Bad (Essential especially). So I'd guess many casual fans or people of the general public who buy Essential won't buy Thriller/Bad, but they still sells very well. And even Michael's greatest hits sales are divided between two albums (Essential and Number Ones) which prevents him a little from building up one massive GH album like in the case of Queen or Bob Marley, but thing is that he has at least four albums which constantly chart, among them two studio albums, while those artists just have their one GH album on the charts.
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Yes, i agree.
His catalogue sales are very healthy even without any promo whatsoever.
400,000 copies is just the amount sold by the big 4 albums, "Thriller", "Bad" and the 2 ghs by early November.
With the rest of the catalogue that figure might be close to 500,000 for sure and it will probably go up to 600,000 by the end of December.
 
This is just slightly related but not completely irrelevant. This was shared on Prince's (the singer) Twitter. (I can't see it there any more so maybe they deleted it). In any case, it is interesting - not that it is surprising:

CVXYmXiWIAAro-4.jpg



CVXYl-RWcAAoqlr.jpg
 
pierpinto1 said:
"Thriller" has already crossed the 30 million mark in The USA, it must be easily around 30,500,000.
It was at 29,4 million in August 2009, but has sold 1,2 million through Soundscan since then.
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Exactly, and thats why I have always wondered why RIAA or Sony havent updated the new sales numbers yet and got the new certifications for Thriller ... and ALL the OTHER MJs albums - including HIStory, Dangerous, BAD, Off the Wall, and hey... all the solo albums from the 70s!!!! Those albums from the 70s are completely ignored..., WHY?
 
ILoveHIStory said:
Exactly, and thats why I have always wondered why RIAA or Sony havent updated the new sales numbers yet and got the new certifications for Thriller ... and ALL the OTHER MJs albums - including HIStory, Dangerous, BAD, Off the Wall, and hey... all the solo albums from the 70s!!!! Those albums from the 70s are completely ignored..., WHY?
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Sony has to apply to the RIAA in order to get an album certified.
The RIAA doesn't certify records automatically.

"Got To Be There" is the only album from the '70s certified through the RIAA, Gold for 500,000+ copies in 2013.
The lack of certifications for Motown records is due to the fact that it wasn't an affiliated member of the RIAA.

I am pretty confident we will have more old records certified in the future.
 
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