#4: Thriller
Before The Lion King, there was Free Willy. I'm sure the Free Willy soundtrack doesn't make many top 5 lists itself, but the album had on it a song called "Will You Be There" by some former motown prodigy named Michael Jackson. Now, these next few sentences may leave me wide open to hackneyed (thank you, SATs) and uncreative jokes, so please try to contain yourselves. Michael Jackson was the first artist I can remember declaring as my favorite artist to listen to, even if I only knew a few of his songs. After stumbling upon a few videos of him performing onstage, I eventually decided that Michael Jackson was the greatest performer of all time (even if he was only one of a handful of performers I had ever actually heard/seen/could recognize). In fact, it wasn't until years after I had decided that Michael Jackson was my favorite artist that I saw him moonwalk across the stage. That video clip still amazes me to this day.
As the Napster era rolled around, music became infinitely times easier to get a hold of, and as a result, my Michael Jackson discography expanded exponentially. All it took was the simple process of typing in "michael jackson" and hitting the search button. But one day, after discussing musical preferences with my best friend, he asked if I had ever heard the album Thriller. Of course, at that point I was still listening to singles and individual songs, and the only albums I owned were Astro Lounge by Smash Mouth and some *NSync and Britney Spears albums (that's a whole other story within itself), so the answer was no. Eventually, my friend burned me a copy of Thriller, and the rest is HIStory (that may be above some of your heads, and for that I apologize). All I can remember is listening to it non-stop after school and thinking, "If other albums are anything like this, then I've really been missing out." Even though the main reasons behind naming Michael Jackson as my favorite artist were pretty misinformed and short-sighted, Thriller gave me the argument I needed to finally back up my opinion. It's only 9 tracks, but I can't remember ever skipping through any of them.
However, what really sold me was happens 3 songs into the album. Tracks 4, 5, and 6 may very well be one of the greatest tracklist trios to have ever been recorded on any album. Thriller. Beat It. Billie Jean. A musical Holy Trinity. While Michael Jackson is no longer the sole owner of my "favorite artist" spot, I'll always remember how he and his music was able to make me stop and think, "Wow." Thriller is what helped me see beyond singles and individual tracks. It helped opened my mind up to the powerful effect that a few songs can have when put together in the right way. It's why I think I fall under the 5% of the population that would have zero qualms about going to Michael Jackson's final tour in Europe. It's why I was so shocked when some people didn't realize Rihanna and Kanye had sampled songs off the album. I'm telling you, he's innocent.
Stay classy,
Mai
Before The Lion King, there was Free Willy. I'm sure the Free Willy soundtrack doesn't make many top 5 lists itself, but the album had on it a song called "Will You Be There" by some former motown prodigy named Michael Jackson. Now, these next few sentences may leave me wide open to hackneyed (thank you, SATs) and uncreative jokes, so please try to contain yourselves. Michael Jackson was the first artist I can remember declaring as my favorite artist to listen to, even if I only knew a few of his songs. After stumbling upon a few videos of him performing onstage, I eventually decided that Michael Jackson was the greatest performer of all time (even if he was only one of a handful of performers I had ever actually heard/seen/could recognize). In fact, it wasn't until years after I had decided that Michael Jackson was my favorite artist that I saw him moonwalk across the stage. That video clip still amazes me to this day.
As the Napster era rolled around, music became infinitely times easier to get a hold of, and as a result, my Michael Jackson discography expanded exponentially. All it took was the simple process of typing in "michael jackson" and hitting the search button. But one day, after discussing musical preferences with my best friend, he asked if I had ever heard the album Thriller. Of course, at that point I was still listening to singles and individual songs, and the only albums I owned were Astro Lounge by Smash Mouth and some *NSync and Britney Spears albums (that's a whole other story within itself), so the answer was no. Eventually, my friend burned me a copy of Thriller, and the rest is HIStory (that may be above some of your heads, and for that I apologize). All I can remember is listening to it non-stop after school and thinking, "If other albums are anything like this, then I've really been missing out." Even though the main reasons behind naming Michael Jackson as my favorite artist were pretty misinformed and short-sighted, Thriller gave me the argument I needed to finally back up my opinion. It's only 9 tracks, but I can't remember ever skipping through any of them.
However, what really sold me was happens 3 songs into the album. Tracks 4, 5, and 6 may very well be one of the greatest tracklist trios to have ever been recorded on any album. Thriller. Beat It. Billie Jean. A musical Holy Trinity. While Michael Jackson is no longer the sole owner of my "favorite artist" spot, I'll always remember how he and his music was able to make me stop and think, "Wow." Thriller is what helped me see beyond singles and individual tracks. It helped opened my mind up to the powerful effect that a few songs can have when put together in the right way. It's why I think I fall under the 5% of the population that would have zero qualms about going to Michael Jackson's final tour in Europe. It's why I was so shocked when some people didn't realize Rihanna and Kanye had sampled songs off the album. I'm telling you, he's innocent.
Stay classy,
Mai
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