1. Purple Rain

2. Abbey Road

3. Led Zeppelin IV

4. Thriller

5. Nevermind

6. Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack

7. CrazySexyCool

8. The White Album

9. Like A Virgin

10. The Marshall Mathers LP

Full List

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/billboard-lists/7526410/diamond-certified-album-riaa-ranked

rogifan said:

So this is just some writer at billboard ranking these based on what he thinks is the best?

Duh

How can it beat Thriller?

2freaky4church1 said:

2freaky4church1 said:

How can it beat Thriller?

Easily. It has 9 songs and 2 of them are filler.

2freaky4church1 said:

Silvertongue7 said:

laytonian said:

Purple Rain is an album...Thriller is a collection of singles. That's the way I see it anyway...

2freaky4church1 said:

How can it beat Thriller?

The same exact way it beat ALL of the other 90 Diamond Albums on the list.

By...
expertly flowing from track to track while delighting, surprising and astounding at each bend. Personal and universal, familiar and challenging, romantic and narcissistic, religious and orgasmic, accessible to all and profoundly weird, Purple Rain rightly remains the cornerstone of Prince’s recorded legacy, almost too obvious in its brilliance to even be worth discussing at length.

[Edited 12/20/17 19:00pm]

laytonian said:

Take away Quincy Jones, and what is MJ?

If that's the case, how come James Ingram, Patti Austin, Rufus, Tevin Campbell, Leslie Gore, Frank Sinatra, Brothers Johnson, etc. or Quincy's albums under his own name didn't sell as well as Mike? If Mike sold only because of Quincy, then Patti Austin should be just as popular. How about Jackson 5/Jacksons records that Quincy had nothing to do with and the albums after Bad?

On the 10 albums on the OP. I go with The Beatles album as the one I like the best.

Purple Rain is dope.. every notye is brilliant... a much better album than Thriller,

Ok Thriller had some amazing hit singles

Purple Rain, this is after all a much better album.

laytonian said:

Silvertongue7 said:

Easily.

Exactly. Take away Quincy Jones, and what is MJ?

Yup -

I became a fan when I first listened to Purple Rain from start to finish - it was like a story with a proper build up, climax and resolution.

That being said, I don't think Thriller had any filler songs - and MJ can still do plenty without Quincy (see the Destiny and Triumph albums for proof).

But PR still deserves the lead for me, as it's more than a collection of very good songs, it's an adventure.

rogifan said:

laytonian said:

purple05 said:

rogifan said:

So this is just some writer at billboard ranking these based on what he thinks is the best?

Precisely. His reasoning for ranking Thriller 4 is whack. He quotes Chris Rock as if his opinion matters. None of those albums have hit after hit like Thriller. It comes down to personal preference. Thriller is more than an album, it's a cultural moment

It always comes down to personal preference. There is no objective measure. The worst measure is the number of hit singles. With that logic, the Katy Perry album with 5 (or 6?) number one singles would be vying for best album of all time. Furthermore, that is to suggest that Top 40 radio has the best music that there is rather than it's true aim: to be the most commercial music that appeals to teeny-boppers. Besides, singles are not necessarily connected with each other if the overall album doesn't have an overarching aesthetic that connects the songs, so the album often doesn't play well as a whole. IMO, Purple Rain has it all.

accessible to all and profoundly weird, Purple Rain

How is Purple Rain accesible to all, when the PMRC wanted to sticker it because Tipper Gore heard her daughter listening to it? The movie was R-rated as well, not G. I've never heard of anyone concerned about their children listening to a Lionel Richie or Huey Lewis & The News album.

MickyDolenz said:

accessible to all and profoundly weird, Purple Rain

How is Purple Rain accesible to all, when the PMRC wanted to sticker it because Tipper Gore heard her daughter listening to it? The movie was R-rated as well, not G. I've never heard of anyone concerned about their children listening to a Lionel Richie or Huey Lewis & The News album.

The writer means that it is accessible in its universal themes and its song-writing, yet it still manages to be strange 'Prince-ly' album, and have the appearance of being a personal work to the artist who created it. As Tom Waits said, 'Prince is rare, a rare exotic bird. There's only a few others. To be that popular and that uncompromising. It's like Superman walking through walls.'

Compare Lovesexy and TRC. Both are deeply religous projects that are very personal to Prince. Yet one is easily accessible, and the other isn't. (And that's not a knock on TRC, it's one of my very favourite Prince albums!)

MickyDolenz said:

accessible to all and profoundly weird, Purple Rain

How is Purple Rain accesible to all, when the PMRC wanted to sticker it because Tipper Gore heard her daughter listening to it? The movie was R-rated as well, not G. I've never heard of anyone concerned about their children listening to a Lionel Richie or Huey Lewis & The News album.

have u never heard, ?

Purple Rain, the concert scenes are fantastic, the music even won an Oscar.. wow..

F*ck Tipper, the hysterical american.. there was a list of the filthy fifteen list as well, with Prince at number 1.

So weird.... Tipper.. f*ck her.... she's a hysterical crazy mf..

purple05 said:

thedance said:
Purple Rain, the concert scenes are fantastic, the music even won an Oscar.. wow..

Winning an award daoes not make something accessible to all. This also won an Oscar, but I would not say that it's appropriate for everybody. It's not like it's Celine Dion or Kenny G, where it's not offensive to people who care about that.

rogifan said:

purple05 said:

Precisely. His reasoning for ranking Thriller 4 is whack. He quotes Chris Rock as if his opinion matters. None of those albums have hit after hit like Thriller. It comes down to personal preference. Thriller is more than an album, it's a cultural moment

Sorry I was never really an MJ fan. IMO Prince had more talent in his pinky finger than MJ in his whole body. Of course I know it’s sacrilege to say that.

thedance said:

NorthC said:

Aww, c'mon, be nice, Tipper only added to the hype... There's no better way to sell a rock & roll album than to have all the old folks go on and on about how it's a threat to society and immoral and the devil's music... This has worked ever since Elvis started shaking his pelvis...

Actually it goes back to the flapper era and the popularity of jazz with that generation. That's also around the time when the Hays Code started censoring Hollywood movies and alcohol being banned by prohibition laws, which made the mafia more powerful. So prohibition backfired on the government.

MickyDolenz said: