Thriller
The King of Pop reigns forever. Despite coming from a completely different era of media, Michael Jackson‘s seminal “Beat It” music video has become the latest clip to reach one billion views on YouTube, as confirmed by the streaming giant on Wednesday (Nov. 29). “Beat It” is Jackson’s third music video to enter the Billion […]
For record executives, the story of Michael Jackson‘s Thriller begins in 1979, three years before the album came out, when disco crashed and record stores returned millions of unwanted LPs to major labels. That year, recorded-music revenues dropped 10% from the previous year prior, according to RIAA data, and vinyl sales were just beginning to decline after years of growth. CBS Records had massive layoffs that summer; Warner Bros. followed with 55 in December.
“When I came in on Monday, there were half-smoked cigarettes in ashtrays and half-typed memos in typewriters,” recalls Jim Urie, then CBS’ New York branch manager, who pink-slipped 40 on his staff. “It was really, really brutal.”
The industry-wide malaise, coinciding with a worldwide recession, lasted two or three years. “It was the first time all of us young people in the music business had business hit us in the face,” says Dan Beck, Epic Records’ head of publicity at the time, who recalls another “major” wave of company wide CBS layoffs in summer 1982. “One of the first things people cut back was the disposable income — so if somebody bought three or four albums a month, and now they only bought one or two, that was pretty dramatic to our business.”
Thriller, released exactly 40 years ago, on Nov. 30, 1982, helped usher in the music business’ comeback, along with the explosive growth of MTV and the adoption of the compact disc. Jackson’s follow-up to 1979’s Off the Wall took off instantly, beginning with the opening single, “The Girl Is Mine,” a duet with Paul McCartney designed to cross the album over to a white radio audience. All seven of its singles would land in the top 10 of the Hot 100, and the album would spend 37 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Thriller coaxed fans back into record stores to buy multiple copies, thus providing labels with resources to market Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper and, later, hair-metal bands. At the end of 1981, CBS Records, which owned Epic at the time, took in $1 billion in revenue, its worst earnings since 1971; by the end of 1983, its net income increased 26% to $187 million.
“It pulled the music industry out of the doldrums,” says Larry Stessel, then Epic’s West Coast marketing vp. “It helped pull us out of the disco days and it became a whole new world.”
Stessel, who worked closely with Jackson on music videos, says the industry recession from roughly 1979 to 1983 helped his staff learn to economize — which made Epic and other labels leaner and stronger when the business came back.
“It allowed us to utilize our dollars more efficiently, develop local campaigns — if you could break an artist out of Kansas City, then obviously your next goal was to spread it to St. Louis, and maybe your next stop would be Milwaukee or Chicago or Detroit, depending where the airplay was,” he recalls. “It made us smarter marketing people when the doors opened up again after Thriller was released.”
Famously, Thriller‘s sales run kept going and going — it spiked after every new single and video, and surged after Jackson did the moonwalk during NBC’s Motown 25 anniversary special in May 1983. Today, Jackson’s label, Sony, claims Thriller as the best-selling global album of all time; in the U.S., according to the Recording Industry Association of America, it is 34 times platinum, behind the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, at 38 times platinum. Even as Jackson’s legacy is tainted with allegations of child sexual abuse in HBO’s 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, the album has generated 3.87 million U.S. album-equivalent units in the past 10 years, including 1.2 million in physical album sales, according to Luminate.
“I knew then,” Stessel says of Thriller‘s staying power. “We started literally selling 1.2 million copies over the country every week. The album went from 4 to 6 million copies to 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.”
Thriller did more than reverse CBS Records’ fortunes in the early ’80s. It helped encourage Sony Corp. to buy the label home of Jackson, Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond and many other stars for $2 billion in 1988. The idea was to unite software (music) with Sony’s new hardware (compact discs), and Thriller was the most valuable content of all. “You don’t buy Michael Jackson because he sounds like somebody else. You buy him because he resonates with you,” says Mickey Schulhof, then Sony’s top executive in the U.S. “Having content, we knew, was going to be an important part of Sony’s future, and the largest content library in the record industry was CBS Records. It was an easy decision.”
Thriller made Urie, CBS’ New York branch manager back then, forget those painful 1979 layoffs — almost. “If you have a big enough record — and this is certainly true today — it throws off so much profit over its lifetime that it really can change things,” he says. “It cures all ills.”
Welcome to The Contenders, a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Dec. 3): The most successful original album in Billboard 200 history celebrates its 40th anniversary by returning to the chart’s upper tier, while a pair of new sets from Brockhampton could send the group off with a bang.
Michael Jackson, Thriller (Epic): Just a couple weeks ago, we were talking about Michael Jackson‘s Thriller as a factor on the Billboard 200 following its annual Halloween bump – and now, the set may once again be a threat for the chart’s top tier, thanks to a new reissue celebrating the set’s 40th anniversary. The album is available in limited-edition single LP, or as part of a two-CD set that includes a disc of unreleased demos and bonus material.
This revival is practically unheard of – except for Thriller, which has repeatedly made chart history, including with a record 37 nonconsecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 from 1982 to 1984. Still, it will face stiff competition from well-performing incumbents by Taylor Swift, Drake and 21 Savage, and Bad Bunny.
Brockhampton, The Family and TM (Question Everything/RCA): After announcing its impending breakup in January, rap collective and “boy band” Brockhampton teased fans with the prospect of a final album out before the end of the year. The Family came out last Thursday (Nov. 17), followed the next day by TM – a two-set farewell to the group’s fans.
Brockhampton has always sold well, thanks to its devoted fan base, and it is offering box sets of The Family and signed copies of TM on its web site. The idea is to follow the success of 2018’s Iradescence, which became the group’s first (and to date, only) album to top the Billboard 200.
Disturbed, Divisive (Reprise): They might not be the most obvious chart conquerors, but few artists have been as consistently successful on the Billboard 200 this century as mainstream rock stalwarts Disturbed. From 2002 to 2015, they topped the chart with five consecutive albums, a streak finally snapped in 2018 with the No. 4 peak of their Evolution.
The Chicago band will look to start a new chart-topping run with this month’s Divisive, its first new album since 2018, which frontman David Draiman calls a “blisteringly angry” set inspired by the tumultuous time. The early response on radio has been positive, with lead single “Hey You” becoming Disturbed’s 11th single to top the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
IN THE MIX
Rod Wave, Jupiter’s Diary: 7 Day Theory (Alamo): Florida rapper Rod Wave already topped the BIllboard 200 once in 2022, with August’s Beautiful Mind, thanks to robust streaming numbers from his devoted online following. Fans will have fewer tracks to stream on this month’s Jupiter’s Diary, since the EP only runs a scant eight tracks, including the previously released “Break My Heart.”
Roddy Ricch, Feed the Streets III (Bird Vision/Atlantic): Roddy Ricch’s latest mixtape is the third installment of his Feed the Streets series, but his first since breaking through on the national stage with 2019’s Please Excuse Me for Being Anti-Social and the 2020 11-week Hot 100 No. 1 “The Box.” The set features appearances from Lil Durk and Ty Dolla $ign, and a pair of R&B/Hip-Hop Songs-charting advance tracks in “Stop Breathing” and “Aston Martin Truck.”
Nickelback, Get Rollin’ (Nickelback II Productions/BMG): Disturbed aren’t the only hard rock fixtures back this week: Canadian rockers Nickelback return with its first album in five years, the heavier Get Rollin’. The band has seen its commercial fortunes fade since their ‘00s heyday, but it still has an active run of seven consecutive top 10-peaking albums on the Billboard 200, most recently the 2017 No. 5 Feed the Machine.
Dolly Parton, Diamonds & Rhinestones (Sony Music Entertainment): The recently enshrined Rock and Roll Hall of Famer takes a well-earned victory lap this month with the new greatest hits set Diamonds & Rhinestones. The 23-track collection of Dolly Parton’s personal favorites spans from 1971 breakthrough “Coat of My Colors” to 2020’s “Faith” collab with dance artists Gallantis and Mr. Probz, and is available on streaming, CD and double-LP vinyl.
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