"Thriller"

Michael Jackson's death on 25th June 2009, which took place just days before a comeback shrouded in mystery, was as unexpected as it was inevitable. The King of Pop did not belong to any genre, indeed, he took on a genre all of his own. From pop, soul and rock through to disco and funk, he embodied the image of Jekyll & Hyde: a killer showman on the one hand, a prisoner of loneliness and frenetic unease on the other. But if there are three words that will always be linked, it’s Michael, Jackson and Thriller. This record of all records (the best-selling album of all time, with 66 million copies!) was also the first album to be inseparable from its music videos. Released on 30th November 1982 and topping the US charts on February 26, 1983, Thriller turned the star into a superstar and pop music has never been quite the same since... Though disco had reigned a few years earlier and had infiltrated Jackson’s groovy Off The Wall (1979), by the beginning of the 80s it was no longer everybody’s cup of tea. And so, he set out to find a new sound, a new musical identity, and to bring the audience together. All audiences that is: black and white. That’s how Thriller became the first record to be loved by the entire planet, back then and forever since...