“A black artist on the front page doesn’t sell”
Upon its release, the album redefined the contours of pop. And yet, it was not won. Because Michael Jackson was black and at the time, we didn't focus on black artists. Even MTV didn't show them.
When “Thriller” broke the barrier of racial segregation on radio and television
During an interview with a journalist from the magazine Rolling Stonehe coldly asked the question: “Could I hope for the cover of your magazine?” Honest, the journalist answered him : “No! We consider that a black artist on the front page does not sell.”
In 1979, with Off The WallMichael Jackson was already hoping to break the deadlock. But the Grammy Award won and the 6 million sales, if they made his record company happy, left him far behind the superstars of the moment: the Bee Gees and the 25 million copies of Saturday Night Fever elapsed. Insufficient in his eyes! No matter how much we kept telling him that Elvis Presley never had a Grammy and that the Beatles only had four, Michael Jackson wouldn't budge. He intended to change things, black as he was.
Quincy Jones in 5 musical highlights: from the King of Pop to humanitarian song via The Voice!
300 draft songs for 9 eternal hits
To achieve this, he decides to give himself the means, the great means. He once again calls on Quincy Jones, already in charge on Off The Wall. They met in 1978 on the set of The Wiza noir version of The Wizard of Oz. A genius producer, he will be daring to bring the singer's ideas to life. Remember that Michael Jackson did not know how to play an instrument. He recorded his models on a dictaphone with his voice alone. It was up to Q, as he was nicknamed, to transform all of this through instruments and machines, for example by stacking sounds from different basses to create the groove of “Billie Jean”, etc.
Quincy Jones: genius jazzman, pop goldsmith and very committed artist
Together, they entered the studio in April 1982. Michael Jackson brought 300 drafts of songs. He will only keep nine on the disk. And if all turned out to be hits, there was no confidence before the release of the album. He will have the mixing started again, dissatisfied with the first result despite Quincy Jones in charge.
Quincy Jones was wrong
Worried, his close colleagues tried to reason with him. Quincy Jones first. He told him not to expect to sell more than Off The Wall. Ron Weisner, another close collaborator of Michael, gave him the same speech: “Mike, you know that the record market is currently in decline. Today, two million albums are a hit!”
Terrified by this wave of pessimism, Michael Jackson wanted to stop everything and not go out Thriller. It took all the persuasion of the head of the CBS record company to change his mind, trusting him rather than Quincy Jones. This is perhaps one of the rare times when the producer was not right… He was considering two million sales, Thriller recorded more than 70 million!
