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Do you think Michael wrote better song for Off The Wall or Thriller?

Themidwestcowboy

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Off The Wall
Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough
Wanna Be Starting Something
Working Day And Night
(Little Susie 1979)

Thriller
Billie Jean
Beat It
The Girl Is Mine
The Toy
P.Y.T (demo)
Messin round?
Much too soon (81)




I’m only listing the songs we have heard so far. I’m not including songs like who do you know or What a lovely way to go because I don’t believe those were written for Thriller.

What do you guys think?
 
Thriller, no question.

In my opinion, Off the Wall consists of decent-to-good songs that any miscellaneous disco/R&B artist could’ve pulled off. Thriller is when MJ really distinguished himself and started churning out top-tier melodies and musical brilliance that nobody could possibly measure up to.
 
Great question mate
Got to agree with @AlwaysThere Thriller no doubt

Off The Wall was the first glimpse the world had as Mike as a solo artist, but Thriller was a whole different stratosphere. His songs on OTW were brilliant, but Thriller's were more focused and a were based around their memorable hooks and unforgettable melodies.

I think Heartbreak Hotel was the turning point. The song had a wonderful narrative (foreshadowing Billie Jean) and was a really great bridge between OTW and Thriller. It had OTW's funk and it had Thriller's direction
 
You all make some really great points but for me, personally, I’m torn. With thriller, Mike created some of his most iconic songs that was unlike anything from that period. Though I love the thriller era tracks I’m gravitating more towards his songs from Off The Wall. Maybe it’s just because I’m more of a funk, RnB orientated person but I feel that musically, there was some really interesting stuff he did that I haven’t heard him do ever since. While Thriller had much more concentrated and linear songwriting I feel that OTW was more experimental and looser. WBSS is my favorite song from Mike and the song structure of that song still boggles my mind to this day. It’s just something completely different.
 
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It's pretty nuanced actually. Because The Girl is Mine straight up weak, while Beat It and Billie Jean both are top tier. Billie Jean is definitely peak though, it really is his absolute greatest song. I love the demo of PYT but it's truthfully not better than the Quincy version. And you didn't include Behind The Mask, which is actually a great song lyrically, especially for a song that essentially didn't have lyrics.

Meanwhile, Workin' Day and Night is quite underrated, and Little Susie... Actually is right next to Billie Jean. So like I said, nuanced.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
It's pretty nuanced actually. Because The Girl is Mine straight up weak, while Beat It and Billie Jean both are top tier. Billie Jean is definitely peak though, it really is his absolute greatest song. I love the demo of PYT but it's truthfully not better than the Quincy version. And you didn't include Behind The Mask, which is actually a great song lyrically, especially for a song that essentially didn't have lyrics.

Meanwhile, Workin' Day and Night is quite underrated, and Little Susie... Actually is right next to Billie Jean. So like I said, nuanced.
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I didn’t include behind the mask because it wasn’t composed by him. I’m only talking about the songs he wrote, composed and also produced/co produced. Otherwise I would have also included get on the floor.
 
Also, Wanna Be Startin Somethin is a huge thriller hit, written in the OTW era. So it's pretty insane to see how it's just a few schematics keeping things projected certain ways.
 
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