Thriller is the sixth studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released on November 30, 1982 by Epic Records. Reunited with Off the Wall producer Quincy Jones, Jackson was inspired to create an album where "every song was a killer". With the ongoing backlash against disco, Jackson moved in a different musical direction from the disco-heavy Off the Wall.
Thriller features a single guest appearance, with Paul McCartney becoming the first artist to be featured on Jackson's albums. Recording took place from April to November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, with a production budget of $750,000. Thriller explores genres including pop, R&B, post-disco, rock and funk.
Thriller became Jackson's first number one album on the Billboard 200. It produced seven singles: "The Girl Is Mine", "Billie Jean", "Beat It", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' ", "Human Nature", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", and "Thriller". All the singles reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, setting the record for the most top 10 singles from an album, with "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" reaching number one on the chart. Following Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" at Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, where he debuted his signature moonwalk dance, the sales of Thriller significantly increased, selling one million copies worldwide per week. Michael Jackson's Thriller, the "Thriller" music video, was premiered to great anticipation in December 1983 and played regularly on MTV, which also increased the sales of the album. By the end of 1983, Thriller became the world's best-selling album, having sold 32 million copies. It was the best-selling album worldwide of 1983 and 1984, and was also the best-selling album in the United States in 1983 and 1984, making it the first album to be the country's best-selling for two years. It spent a record 37 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, from February 26, 1983 to April 14, 1984, and has spent 400 weeks on the chart and counting.
Thriller's success set the standard for the music industry with its songs, music videos and promotion strategies influencing artists, record labels, producers, marketers and choreographers. In 1984, a pop art of Jackson designed by Andy Warhol was featured on the cover of Time who acclaimed the impact of the album, writing, "The pulse of America and much of the rest of the world moves irregularly, beating in time to the tough strut of 'Billie Jean', the asphalt aria of 'Beat It', the supremely cool chills of 'Thriller'." Thriller broke racial barriers in popular music, enabling Jackson's appearances on MTV and meeting with President Ronald Reagan at the White House. The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools, and the videos for the songs "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" and the short film Michael Jackson's Thriller all received regular rotation on MTV and are credited for transforming music videos into a serious art form, with the latter also popularizing short films in the music industry.
Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with sales of 66 million copies worldwide. It is the second-best-selling album in the United States and was the first to reach 30× Platinum or 3× Diamond. As of February 2017, it has sold 33 million certified album-equivalent units in the US. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 26th Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year (for "Beat It"). Thriller is viewed by critics and publications as one of the greatest albums of all time. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant recordings", and Michael Jackson's Thriller was inducted into the National Film Preservation Board's National Film Registry of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films". Regarding the importance of Thriller, Rolling Stone wrote; "It's hard to imagine the present-day musical landscape without Thriller, which changed the game both sonically and marketwise."
