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Michael's Popularity Outside The States Before Bad

Psychoniff

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What was the popularity of Michael's career pre Bad (album & tour). Were the Jackson Five, The Jacksons and MJ's early adult solo work (Off The Wall & Thriller) hugely popular as it was in the states?

I'm just curious, because apart for inconsistent and unreliable sales figures for albums and singles, there's no real way to gauge for example if Off The Wall, or Thriller had fans in Europe as large as the U.S. because there were no 'Off The Wall' or 'Thriller' world tours like that with Bad, Dangerous and HIStory around the globe.
 
I think during Thriller he was popular all over the world. Before that I think the Jackson 5 was mainly popular in the US and the UK - slightly more in the US. During the Jacksons era I think that switched and then they were more popular in the UK:

Show You the Way to Go was a #1 hit in the UK, but only #28 in the US.
Blame it on the Boogie was #8 in the UK, but only #54 in the US.
Shake Your Body was #4 in the UK, #7 in the US.
Can You Feel It was #6 in the UK, but only #77 in the US.
Walk Right Now was #7 in the UK, #73 in the US.

But both during the Jacksons and the J5 era their main popularity seemed to be in these countries - US and UK. Two of MJ's solo songs however reached more international popularity:

Ben

USA: 1.
UK: 7.
Australia: 1.
Netherlands: 2.
Canada: 6.

One Day In Your Life

USA: 55.
UK: 1.
Australia: 9.
Netherlands: 1.

I think it was with OTW where MJ gained more populairty outside of the US/UK as well. DSTYGE and RWY were #1 in several countries not just in US/UK.
 
As far as Pakistan goes... Michael had always been the 'in' thing, the definition of 'cool' right from the Thriller era to the end of HIStory era. There was a point - around Bad and Dangerous - when it became a fashion to purchase an MJ album. However, his pre - Bad popularity has only one (albeit massive) peak in my country; the Thriller period. Off the Wall sold almost half of its total record sales in the US and didn't really get into this part of Asia.
 
Although there is no record of sales in that period of time in my country , they were very popular on the radio and also on tv. They came 2 time to a very famous music tv program at New Year evening. Here is a video that you may like to watch it.
[video]http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/aplauso/the-jackson-five-aplauso/533238/[/video]
 
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