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Album1982 · Michael Jackson / Quincy Jones

Thriller

The best-selling album ever, and the moment MTV's color line broke.

Impact score

80.1

#1 of 55 in Albums#101 of 773 across all media Compare with a rival

Thriller sold an estimated 70 million copies and proved a single album could be marketed like a blockbuster film, with seven Top 10 singles and an event-scale video premiere.

Its videos forced MTV to integrate its playlist, reshaping the network, the music business and the global reach of Black American pop.

Lineage

What it spawned

Thriller

Movements

  • Music-video-as-cinema
  • Breaking MTV's racial barrier

Works

  • Thriller video (John Landis)

People

  • Generation of pop superstars

Technologies

  • Blockbuster album rollout model