Thursday, February 7, 2008

25th Anniversary Expanded Release of Michael Jackson's Thriller


Ok, for all intents and purposes Thriller is not a rock album, but it is a critcal album in the history of music

1. It launched Michael Jackson’s career into the stratosphere making him the Elvis of the 1980’s

2. It challenged ideas about how many top ten hits one album could produce: 7 in the case of Thriller, more than any other album before it

3. It restored the music industrys confidence in album after the demise of Punk and superficiality of sythesized Pop

4. It heralded a return to form of black music to radio, leading to Prince’s popularity and redeeming it from Disco in these eyes of white and black listeners alike

A Deluxe 25 Year Anniversary edition has just been released. The original album, remastered, clearly stands the test of time, definitely the soundtrack to the 80’s and to so many memories, for those of us who are old enough

The remakes, by will.i.am, Kayne West, Fergie, Akon are a pretty sad affair, pointless additions by artists who sound like they know they can never compete. They demonstrate, very effectively, how the music industry of today can spin superstars into exsistence, regardless of how talented they may be.

Regardless, it should do a great deal better than most remastered albums: the MySpace site for the album, for example, has already received 5 million hits and the year long publicity machine planned for this year has only just begun.

Image: Courtesy Epic/Legacy

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