In 1979, Michael Jackson released his fifth album Off the Wall, and it was a successful record, selling over 20 million copies worldwide. Between the years of Off the Wall and Thriller, Michael Jackson was in a transitional period. During that time, he became unhappy, and he said, “Even at home, I’m lonely. I sit in my room sometimes and cry. It’s so hard to make friends … I sometimes walk around the neighborhood at night, just hoping to find someone to talk to.
But I just end up coming home.” Jackson was upset because of his fifth albums under performance, and he said It was totally unfair that it didn’t get Record of the year and it can never happen again.” He also felt underrated by the music industry when the Rolling Stone refused to put him on the cover. He said that black people on the cover of magazines doesn’t sell copies, so one day those magazines will be begging me for an interview. Jackson told his new manager that he wanted to become the biggest and wealthiest star in the show business. He was electrified and inspired to create an album in which every song was a hit and every was a killer, and that’s how he created Thriller with that passion in his mind.
The albums has all kinds of genre in it, for example, “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” were funk tracks, “The Girl is mine” and ” The Lady in my life” were ballads, “Baby Be Mine” was a disco song and many other different kinds of songs. In just over a year, Thriller became the world’s best selling album, and it is also one of the greatest pop albums ever created. The album kicks off with an amazing funk piece ” Wanna Be Starin’ Something” written by Michael Jackson. The songs starts in a cheerful mode to attract the attention of the audience. Also, the track has a wide range of instrumentation which keeps the song exciting and attention catching. It starts with a snare drum that is hit three times and it enables the song to play a constant bass.
As the music advances, the drums quickly impulses to an upbeat rhythm which works well to combine with the fast bass line. Overall the song contains a proper use of variety in the vocals with the main vocals which gives a groovy feeling in the music. The use of horns gives the song a powerful sound and maintains the upbeat rhythm. The audience can feel that the song gives a heartfelt feeling from the bass and drums as it is continuously repeating and keeping the audience familiarized to the song.
The message that is conveyed by the song is about how people spread wrong rumors and start a fight over small things like spread gossips which are not true. The second track in the album is “Baby Be Mine”, and the rhythm of the track is R;B love tune. The drums and the bass guitar can be heard clearly, and the keyboard in the track plays an important part in the chorus as it creates uniqueness within the song. When it is combined with the vocals, it creates a disco dance feel for the audience when they listen to the song.
The composition of the song gives it a warm feeling and an excellent groove for the audience who would love to dance on it. The message this songs conveys to the audience is about love, affection, and loneliness. One of the songs in the album called ” The Girl Is Mine” is a duet with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. The song contains a nice mix of soft and pop instrumentation. Also, the lyrics of the song talks about two friends fighting over a woman, arguing over who loves her more, and concludes with a spoken rap.
The start of the song is soft and smooth, but as it reaches the halfway point, the song becomes more robust which adds strength to the song. When Paul McCartney starts singing the song goes back to its original pace. The song has a happy peaceful melodic feel to it yet it is a hurtful song. With the music album Thriller, Michael Jackson started using a motif of paranoia and themes of the songs were dark including supernatural imagery. For example, the song “Thriller” went through several names, for example, “Starlight” and “Midnight Man”, before it was named “Thriller” because of merchandising potential.
The song includes sound effects such as creaking doors, thunder, footsteps, wind, and howling dogs. In the end, the song gives a description of multiple horrors and thriller scenes. In the song, the usage of the guitar is included in the music to make the rhythm sound more funky. There is a variety of instruments used in the track such as horns, bass, guitar, keyboard, drums, and there is also a sinister monologue into the song by Vincent Price to make it more fearful. Each activity in the song has been used very effectively, and every sound in the song is playing its own main role to make the whole thing sound good.
Another example is “Billie Jean”, it was one of the best-selling singles of 1983, and it became the biggest-selling single for Jackson. The song ” Billie Jean” is about a girl who claimed Michael Jackson was the father of her child. It is the best song in the album because of its nice mixture of uptempo funk and themes like paranoia and obsession. Instruments like guitar, electric bass, drum set, drum machine, etc were introduced at the beginning of pre-chorus and chorus. A unique technique that was used to record the song, in the technique the vocals of Michael Jackson were overdubbed through a six-foot-long cardboard tube.
Human Nature is another song with a very calm rhythm that is based more on the sounds being moved with the guitar and drums with the melody from the bass which adds a warm touch to the song in the chorus. Thriller is one the most popular and most successful album in the modern culture. The quality of music produced by Michael Jackson in the album was on a different level because of the mixture of different kinds of genres and his amazing vocals. The album was an inspiration for the upcoming artists, and it also entertained the audience all over the world. The singles topped the charts of the billboard and eliminating the racism barrier on the way top.
It also created a path for the upcoming artists of the generation that are black.
