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MJ Saved The Music Industry; Myth or Fact?

Gatesy2006

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I've always wondered about this, I remember seeing this claim churned out in a MJ behind the music documentary on mtv years ago. Thriller was so successful in a time when nobody was buying music records that when Thriller was flying off the shelves at nearly a million a week people by circumstance bought other albums. Is this story based in fact or is it just a MJ propaganda myth?

Has anyone got any facts about this?
 
Well I don't know for certain but I do believe around the release of Thriller, most record shops were going out of business, including Tower Records who'd had 3 black Fridays. But when the Thriller short film came out, everybody flooded into record shops to get the album and it's singles, and while they were in there they bought other products. So Thriller did help save the industry.
 
Gatesy2006 said:
I've always wondered about this, I remember seeing this claim churned out in a MJ behind the music documentary on mtv years ago. Thriller was so successful in a time when nobody was buying music records that when Thriller was flying off the shelves at nearly a million a week people by circumstance bought other albums. Is this story based in fact or is it just a MJ propaganda myth?

Has anyone got any facts about this?
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I remember after the demise of disco and the rise of FM radio, that record stores were going out of business. Radio stations were going out of business too. I, for one, only listened to FM Radio at the time-but two days after Motown 25 aired, I was at the record store buying not only "Thriller" but I came home with "Off the Wall" too.

I watched a Time Life doc on "the history of Rock n Roll" where a ton of rockers in the early 80's-Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen, etc. talked about trying to copy the Michael Jackson protype for the next record which led to them doing arena shows. And after Michael's success with MTV, everyone was jumping on ship to make bigger and better videos. It became a golden age for pop and the record industry.

The two articles that Psychoniff posted above-especially the Billboard one-are EXCELLENT in recreating the history of that time. Really excellent.
 
barbee0715 said:
I remember after the demise of disco and the rise of FM radio, that record stores were going out of business. Radio stations were going out of business too. I, for one, only listened to FM Radio at the time-but two days after Motown 25 aired, I was at the record store buying not only "Thriller" but I came home with "Off the Wall" too.

I watched a Time Life doc on "the history of Rock n Roll" where a ton of rockers in the early 80's-Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen, etc. talked about trying to copy the Michael Jackson protype for the next record which led to them doing arena shows. And after Michael's success with MTV, everyone was jumping on ship to make bigger and better videos. It became a golden age for pop and the record industry.

The two articles that Psychoniff posted above-especially the Billboard one-are EXCELLENT in recreating the history of that time. Really excellent.
Click to expand...

FM radio was also responsible for the re-segregation of 'black' and 'white' music in the 70's. This is the reason why as a black artist, MJ was so significant. No other black artists captured the moment in the early 80's like MJ.

WOW! WOW! WOW!:woohoo: Have you got a link for this?
 
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I believe he did to a degree, Thriller helped the industry out of a slump in 1983, but 1984 saw several other huge selling albums by other artists. Recorded music had sold well up to 1978/1979 and then the disco sucks backlash combined with a global recession saw music sales dive. I think the sales figures of 1980 for recorded pop music were half of 1979's as by 1980 country rock and soft metal ruled the airwaves, with disco dead in the water. To me much of the music between late 1979 and mid 1982 is not on the level of music before and after it. (Although there are exceptions, like OTW and Prince's albums Prince, Dirty Mind and Controversy along with Street Songs by Rick James)

1980s biggest albums like Tusk by Fleetwood Mac and a few others (The Wall - Pink Floyd actually late 1979, Guilty Barbra Streisand) barely sold 7 or 8 million. 1981 was similar so no mega smashes. By 1983 that changed with Thriller selling at least 15 million copies world wide and 25 million in 1984. At one stage in early 1984 Thriller was selling 1 million copies a week. 1983 Music sales were higher than 1979s for the first time. 1982 not so much as Thriller was released in late November and sold modestly until Billie Jean dropped as a single in January 1983. Same with Prince's 1999, released in Sep 1982, but only really took off in March 1983 with LRC and selling 2 million copies. Also 1982 saw a mini British invasion with electropop by the Eurthymics, Thompson Twins, Dexys Midnight runners and Culture Club selling large.

1984 saw the biggest sales ever of music. It was the year of Diamond selling blockbusters, Thriller sold the most copies of about 25 million. But there was also Prince's smash Purple Rain which sold 12 million copies in the USA and 5 million globally in 1984, Madonna's first album and Like a Virgin added 10 million more, Lionel Richies cant slow down was 7 or 8 million, Bruce Springsteen sold at least that many of Born in the USA. Other huge sellers were by Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper, Hall and Oates and Tina Turner. If anything 1984 was a bumper year for Music, so yes Thriller started it, but the mid 80s saw a mega revival of big selling albums. The revival continued until the early 1990s when it slumped a bit and then in 1994/97 big selling albums were back and the music industry only really slumped with the arrival of Ipods, digital music and MP3 in the early-mid 2000s and further with music streaming in the 2010s.
 
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Psychoniff said:
FM radio was also responsible for the re-segregation of 'black' and 'white' music in the 70's. This is the reason why as a black artist, MJ was so significant. No other black artists captured the moment in the early 80's like MJ.

What about Prince? The 1999 Album and Tour was the crossover sensation of 1982/83. Without it there would be no Purple Rain.
Then also Lionel Richie who had the crossover mega platinum smashes Lionel Richie 1982, Can't slow down 1983 and Dancing on the Ceiling 1986.
Street Songs by Rick James, also crossed right over and made a lot of white people funk followers.
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^Absolutely, but like Elvis in the mid to late 50's, The Beatles in the 60's, MJ was the one artist who was arguable the biggest of the era.
 
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The strength of culture, the culture that shaped Michael's talent put him in position to lead the recording industry reaching its fulfillment stage with Thriller
 
I've listened to the annual countdowns on SiriusXM for 1980/1981 and the music of Thriller was like a ginormous wake up call for pop music at the time. I was only 12-13 years old at the time, enjoying Olivia Newton John's Physical album... and AC/DC's Back in Black, among others. Michael had a profoundly positive impact on the music industry back then.
 
I wouldn't say he 'SAVED' the music industry, but more so helped revive it.. the music industry would have made a comeback someway.. Music has been around as long mankind. Music is a necessity! and people would have never allowed the industry to crash because of it..

Michael and MTV is what was needed at the time, and that was the vehicle that revived the industry.

Don't get it twisted - the industry was still strong before Thriller.. albums were still selling well (people still selling albums 15mill-25 mill) prior to.. That is good!! It was record stores fading away with the rise of FM radio success.. Connected to that (similar to how downloads today lowered reasons for record stores) the 80's had a huge success with recordable cassette tapes. People recorded the radio more than ever..
 
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