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The Michael Jackson Chart Watch

I’d rather see sales numbers. For all we know only 5000 vinyl records have been sold to hit nr 1.
It is like the time of the Visionary project where all of MJ’s singles got rereleased in 2006 I believe, almost all MJ songles hit nr 1 in Spain which on paper looks impressive but in reality the singles market in Spain was almost nonexistent at that time. It only required a few 100 sales to hit nr 1.

But it is good, certainly.
 
filmandmusic said:
I’d rather see sales numbers. For all we know only 5000 vinyl records have been sold to hit nr 1.
It is like the time of the Visionary project where all of MJ’s singles got rereleased in 2006 I believe, almost all MJ songles hit nr 1 in Spain which on paper looks impressive but in reality the singles market in Spain was almost nonexistent at that time. It only required a few 100 sales to hit nr 1.

But it is good, certainly.
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Lol ok.
 
staywild23 said:
This is amazing! I feel like people really need to recognize how incredible this is!
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It is amazing. For Michael to be at No.5 on this particular Billboard chart, only a couple of places below Harry Styles, that is awesome. Say what you like about Harry Styles but he is having a moment, he really is. So for Thriller to come in at No.5 is a fabulous achievement. Vinyl sales are pretty healthy these days but this is still SO significant.

Ngl, I don't generally get that bothered about sales figures and chart placings and the like but because Michael has been dead for 13 years and because Thriller is 40, well, this chart placing is really saying something.

"Really saying something ...
Bop bop shoo be doo wah"
(Banarama song, can't even remember which one, lol)
 
zinniabooklover said:
It is amazing. For Michael to be at No.5 on this particular Billboard chart, only a couple of places below Harry Styles, that is awesome. Say what you like about Harry Styles but he is having a moment, he really is. So for Thriller to come in at No.5 is a fabulous achievement. Vinyl sales are pretty healthy these days but this is still SO significant.
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So glad you see it this way too! I don't know anything about current music, but apparently the other four albums on this list were all released in 2021 or 2022. So the fact that Thriller is 40 years old and in the top 5, therefore beating out all of these other current records is incredible to me. The sales numbers don't matter to me because there are how many other albums that came out in recent years that could have been up there but aren't. It still says something, no matter what the numbers are. 😊

zinniabooklover said:
Ngl, I don't generally get that bothered about sales figures and chart placings and the like but because Michael has been dead for 13 years and because Thriller is 40, well, this chart placing is really saying something.
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Exactly! Michael is the only artist who I even think about this stuff with. It gave me chills when I saw this post!

zinniabooklover said:
"Really saying something ...
Bop bop shoo be doo wah"
(Banarama song, can't even remember which one, lol)
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😂 😂 😍
 
Paris78 said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1546855396773695491
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The other thing I love about this little chart is what we see here. Harry Styles was in one of the most successful ever boy bands and is now carving out a fabulous solo career. Looks like he's got what it takes to build a really long, solid career. Olivia Rodrigo is one the hottest young female solo artists around at the moment. I don't know much about her and don't know if she's got what it takes to build a long career but she's huge at the moment. tylerthecreator, hot rap artist, clearly a fan of Michael, as far as I can tell. Shinedown, rock band, been around for ages, really solid. It's such a great mix of contemporary artists at the top of their game or breaking through to Grammy award - winning level. And Thriller is right there in the mix. Awesome! ☺️
 
No matter how many copies needs to be sold to enter the top 5, it is impressive for a 40-year-old album to be able to compete with current artists and new releases. It's the same for every artist. And to see MJ in those chart is massively impressive no matter how you look at it.
 
zinniabooklover said:
What is the placing based on? Do we know? I'm clueless!
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According to Billboard's website they compile data including album and individual song sales, as well as radio play. I started tracking this weekly since February and Michael has always been in the hot 100, but typically he's been in the 70s or higher. So a jump down to 49 is great to see... especially bc from what I understand the fall tends to be his time to shine. So this is a good sign :)
 
zinniabooklover said:
Thank you so much for checking this stuff and posting here. This is so helpful.
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I love following this data! Idk why. I just find it fascinating. I have never concerned myself with any of it before but with Michael, I think because his legacy has been challenged so much, it thrills me beyond reason to see him do so well! Im grateful for @Nite Line and others in here who stay on top of it all the time!
 
staywild23 said:
I love following this data! Idk why. I just find it fascinating. I have never concerned myself with any of it before but with Michael, I think because his legacy has been challenged so much, it thrills me beyond reason to see him do so well! Im grateful for @Nite Line and others in here who stay on top of it all the time!
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I just don't have the time to track it all. It's great that @Nite Line does this and, as you say, the others who pitch in. Can't remember who just now but I know there's at least one or two others that keep on top of this stuff. And you, of course! You keep an eye on it, as well. The nation is grateful. Well, OK, maybe not the nation but I certainly am, lol.
 
Been awhile since I checked out Apple Music Pop Album Charts, but I just looked and it's pretty good! This is the first time I've seen Bad and higher than 120ish, so that is pretty notable. Also, with Chicago trending I think that explains Xscape. Great to see 😊

#41 Thriller
#42 Off the Wall
#70 Invincible
#87 The Essential Michael Jackson
#97 Bad
#107 Xscape
 
staywild23 said:
I love following this data! Idk why. I just find it fascinating. I have never concerned myself with any of it before but with Michael, I think because his legacy has been
zinniabooklover said:
I just don't have the time to track it all. It's great that @Nite Line does this and, as you say, the others who pitch in. Can't remember who just now but I know there's at least one or two others that keep on top of this stuff. And you, of course! You keep an eye on it, as well. The nation is grateful. Well, OK, maybe not the nation but I certainly am, lol.
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challenged so much, it thrills me beyond reason to see him do so well! Im grateful for @Nite Line and others in here who stay on top of it all the time!
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Thank you guys. I am a keen follower of the charts since 2010 and while a lot of fans don't care much about commercial success, I do and seeing Michael on charts years after his passing brings me a lot of happiness.
 
Nite Line said:
Thank you guys. I am a keen follower of the charts since 2010 and while a lot of fans don't care much about commercial success, I do and seeing Michael on charts years after his passing brings me a lot of happiness.
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I understand! I have never cared about chart success with any other artist. In fact, I sort of took pride in loving artists that didn't chart lol. But with Michael, it's just totally different. I want to see his commercial success. I want to see people appreciating him and loving him in real quantifiable data lol. I want to know that attempts to destroy his legacy have been unsuccessful. I just want all the success and love and status in the world for him! It is the antithesis of who I normally am, but I claim this boldly and proudly lol.
 
Nite Line said:
Thank you guys. I am a keen follower of the charts since 2010 and while a lot of fans don't care much about commercial success, I do and seeing Michael on charts years after his passing brings me a lot of happiness.
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I really do appreciate what you and others do on this thread. I've said before that I'm not usually bothered about chart data. As usual with me, that's only partly true. I'm the same age as Michael and grew up in an era when your entire weekly life revolved around the pop charts. I'm not joking. Your entire week would revolve around TOTP on Thursday evenings and then also on Sunday (Radio One) for the chart countdown.
OMG!! Was there going to be a new no. 1? Would it be one of your bands?

The excitement, lol. :D

But more lately, sales figures don't figure at all in my life. Except here with Michael. For all the obvious reasons, all the sh#t that got thrown at him, but also cos I find it genuinely exciting and emotional and meaningful. But I don't have the werewithal to pursue if myself (too much IRL crap going on) so I massively appreciate that other people bother to do this. Love it.
 
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staywild23 said:
Been awhile since I checked out Apple Music Pop Album Charts, but I just looked and it's pretty good! This is the first time I've seen Bad and higher than 120ish, so that is pretty notable. Also, with Chicago trending I think that explains Xscape. Great to see 😊

#41 Thriller
#42 Off the Wall
#70 Invincible
#87 The Essential Michael Jackson
#97 Bad
#107 Xscape
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That chart position for Invincible makes me happy. ☺️
 
https://imgur.com/a/RvpGVZX

Can't verify this comment, but someone on Reddit said it was around 1billion in 2021. In which case that would mean it gained 2 billion in one year?

Either way, whether that bit is true or not, *remarkable* feat for a 40 year old pre-streaming era album. These are competitive numbers. Amazing!
 
It's too bad there is no way to find out how much Thriller sold in each of its 37 weeks at nr. It is such a surreal length at nr 1.

Prince's Purple rain also had a whopping 24 week run at nr 1 in 1984, still Thriller outsold it in 1984. It was the only album in history to be the best selling album in the USA for 2 consecutive years until Adele equalled this feat.
 
filmandmusic said:
It's too bad there is no way to find out how much Thriller sold in each of its 37 weeks at nr. It is such a surreal length at nr 1.
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At the risk of contradicting myself (in earlier posts), this is why I don't have a huge amount of interest in chart data. I just get so confused. I grew up in an era when a record had to sell one million units to get a gold record. Pretty simple, easy to understand. I took it for granted that someone somewhere was on top of the sales figures and the chart data. I just assumed that the sales figures were being logged in some reliable way that made sense. And yet, here in 2022, there is so much confusion over the correct sales figures for Thriller.

It does my head in, lol.
 
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zinniabooklover said:
At the risk of contradicting myself (in earlier posts), this is why I don't have a huge amount of interest in chart data. I just get so confused. I grew up in an era when a record had to sell one million units to get a gold record. Pretty simple, easy to understand. I took it for granted that someone somewhere was on top of the sales figures and the chart data. I just assumed that the sales figures were being logged in some reliable way that made sense. And yet, here in 2022, there is so much confusion over the correct sales figures for Thriller.

It does my head in, lol.
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Apparently pre soundscan (the system that counts and registers the sales since 1991) charts would just call record stores and ask them what sold well. They’d get some rough figures and compiled the charts from there.
Then there were also the shipment numbers. When a record company ships 20 million CD’s to stores around the country it means they expect the vast majority of them to get sold. Invincible for example often gets sales figures of about 9 to 10 million based on shipment numbers but since we have soundscan we know the vast majority never got sold. Official numbers are hardly above 5 million.

So basically pre 1991 sales numbers could get tampered with. So you get all these wild sales figures of the Beatles and Elvis selling a billion records which is a wild exaggeration but the same applies to MJ’s thriller 100 million claim or the J5 number of 100 million sales. The band barely sold records outsike the US/UK so they cannot possibly be close to that figure.
 
@Nite Line

It's weird because on my Spotify it still isn't in MJ's top 10 most streamed tracks. Heaven can wait still is nr 10 closing in on 20 million streams in a day or 2. So by that logic shouldn't that also be on the viral chart then?
 
filmandmusic said:
@Nite Line

It's weird because on my Spotify it still isn't in MJ's top 10 most streamed tracks. Heaven can wait still is nr 10 closing in on 20 million streams in a day or 2. So by that logic shouldn't that also be on the viral chart then?
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I don’t know how Spotify works but is the top 10 about most overall streams or songs that are currently the most streamed?
 
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