I would say that I have only played Thriller 4 times since I bought it in 83 and only once since about 87 I never really liked it,I think the song Thriller spooked me to much when I was a kid and it just had a bad vibe for me after that.

This was the time of the release of the last Police album too Synchronicity :nostalgia:

pbs said:

wha??!
Thriller blows. music for by castrati for eunuchs.
to me, its just sissy music.
i never intentionally put that album on once ever.

can u imagine prince doing anything like that thriller video, oh lawd!


purple rain could make a comeback because its so bangin, so rockin, so slammin
thriller, tho? yeah, for shits and giggles

IMHO I think MJ only has at the most 6 or 7 great tracks. I mean I LOVE those tracks, and when I was a kid I thought Michael Jackson was the shit, but he has nothing on Prince at all

I burned my favourite tracks by MJ to CD and I never, ever, listen to one of his albums all the way through. I just don't think they are astrong enough

But for Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal I can overlook almost anything.

For the record, does anyone think MJ would have been anywhere near as good without Quincy Jones?

sermwanderer said:

I doubt it I was actually suprised when someone metioned that Jacko has loads of unreleased tunes etc .I was always of the impression that his contributions were minimal in the songwriting etc department and all he did was sing and dance to the songs.

sermwanderer said:

Yep! I do. Having heard some of his early demos it proves that all Quincy really did was put a sheen on them.

I also think if MJ cut his albums back to 10 tracks a time then his later albums would match up to the work he did with QJ. Unfortunately, like Prince, he fills the CD's up with some filler tracks. Of course, the arguments then are which tracks are actually filler as people like different things. Overall tho', I prefer Michael's catalogue simply 'cos he's released less stuff. He doesn't suffer as much from the hit and miss syndrome that Prince does. Naturally, I'm in the minority here as this is a Prince site but I feel that with all the crap that P has released in the last 15 years to pad out his albums he's done himself a disservice. If he'd kept the length of his albums to about 45 - 50 mins using only his best work then he may not have fallen out of favour with the general public.

Cloudbuster said:

Does Jacko actually write his music,I've read a few times that he does If so what instruments does he write them on as I was unaware he actually could play anything.

Also Cloudbuster I can see your point of view with the hit and miss situation but I break it down into the most high quality songs rather than albums and in that catagory Prince simply blows MJ out the water.IMO

Cloudbuster said:

I hear what you are saying, and I'd be the first to admit Prince has released some real crap, but if you made up one CD of say 15 tracks, for both MJ and Prince, which would you prefer?

I may be biased (fuck, I plain am!) but for me Prince would blow MJ away (not literally)

As for Prince releasing too much, I know what you mean aobut it being overkill, but I love the fact I can hear a new record almost every year. For someones favourite artist to be that prolific is a dream come true. Would you not like a bit more Kate Bush, Cloudbuster

I recon I could make up 10 prince albums and they would still like them all better then any of jackos. I just dont take Jackos music serious enough it just isnt diverse enough for me just to poppy ,Kate Bush on the other hand wrote mostly exelent music and it was diverse ,all six albums were strong"well not in everyones opinion" and I just worked out that Kate averaged an album approx every 2.6 years not counting the Whole Story or the fact that its been 11 since her last.not to bad really

richierich said:

For the record MJ releases an album on average every 3.5714285 years

richierich said:[quote]

richierich said:

That looks like some formula for Pi or something.. too funny

PBS said:

Didn't Thriller debut in 1982? "Beat It" was '82, "Billy Jean" was '83. A more appropriate comparison would be Madonna's "Like A Virgin," which debued in 1984.

Cloudbuster said:

Thriller is so very overrated!!! In fact, I think Quincy Jones should gotten more credit. It was his writing and his music, production that made MJ what he is today. VH-1 re-aired a 1991 tribute concert for MJ and he did the same lame-ass dances he'd been doing for over 20 years now. There's nothing new or fresh about him. Just the same shit over and over. And I'm like "so what!" How many times can one do the Moon Walk and leg jerks before it gets boring? I don't care what anyone says, Michael Jackson is the most overrated public figure who ever lived.

laylow03 said:

No that award goes to Robert Williams.

richierich said:

Who's Robert Williams?

Anyone got a list of comparative albums for 82-83 just to see?

laylow03 said:

Robbie Williams ex take that twat

Here are some of the big sellers from 82-83 for comparison - talk about nostalgia.
There are some classics amongst this list (Talking Heads, Bowie, U2, Police)...

1982

Prince - 1999
Queen - Hot Space
Stevie Wonder - Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium
Supertramp - Famous Last Words
The Bangles - Bangles
Van Halen - Diver Down
Fleetwood Mac - Mirage
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 4 (Security)
Phil Collins - Hello, I Must Be Going

1983

Bee Gees - Staying Alive (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1983)
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell (1983)
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (1983)
David Bowie - Let's Dance (1983)
Duran Duran - Seven & The Ragged Tiger (1983)
Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (1983)
Lionel Richie - Can't Slow Down (1983)
Madonna - First Album (1983)
Men At Work - Cargo (1983)
Paul Mccartney - Pipes Of Peace (1983)
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut (1983)
R.E.M. - Murmur (1983)
Rod Stewart - Body Wishes (1983)
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood (1983)
Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues (1983)
Tears For Fears - The Hurting (1983)
The Cure - Japanese Whispers (1983)
The Police - Synchronicity (1983)
The Rolling Stones - Undercover (1983)
U2 - War (1983)
UB40 - Labour Of Love (1983)
Wham! - Fantastic (1983)

sermwanderer said:

I'd still prefer MJ. Purely from a compositional stance I think he has a slight edge and also I've always found MJ's work to be more infectious than Prince's. I actually like MJ's music more today than I ever have done. As far as I'm concerned he's one of the few true genius's in the business. Prince is too, it's just simply that his genius is more notably erratic because of the amount of work that he puts out (MJ's would be too if he released more) and he clearly doesn't have the magic touch as often as he used to. I know I'm just asking for trouble here, what with being surrounded by a ton of people who obviously rate Prince much higher than Michael but I ain't gonna back down and give false statements about which artist I prefer just to keep some fams happy.

And of course I'd like a bit more Kate Bush. But I'd rather wait 11 years and get a truly solid album (along with Bjork she's the only artist in my music collection who has made more than three albums of which I can honestly say I like every record that they've done) than get an album a year with only two or three genuinely good songs on it.

richierich said:

Drums, guitar and keyboards.

laylow03 said:

What a bunch of crap. It's obvious that Michael was naturally gifted by seeing him as a performer in the Jackson Five long before Quincy was on the scene. And as I posted before, Michael's demos show that the majority of ideas came from his brain alone. Are you gonna tell
me that Quincy taught Michael how to sing and dance, too?

Cloudbuster said:

I don't think this is true. When Bashir sat him down at the piano and asked him to play, he looked as if he was a deer caught in car head lights! Yet, when he asked him to dance, he got up immediately and put on a sorry-ass moonwalk show. I don't think can play a lick. I wish people would stop comparing P and MJ. P is a musician (TRUE ARTIST) and MJ is an entertainer. That's it! MJ couldn't play his way out of a paper bag. Truly overrated, IMHO!

laylow03 said:

Truly overrated in your opinion yet you'll watch a two hour documentary about him.

And don't call me a liar. Michael can play those instruments mentioned.

Cloudbuster said:

I myself like MJ he is a good entertainer fantastic singer,but obviously its a little hard for peeps to believe that he can play these instruments when its something you never see,I aint sayin it aint true but proof would be great as its something I aint seen ,By the way I dont mean that to sound patronising.

xt1000 said:

Purple Rain Thriller
i don't ever want to see them side by side again.

PurpleRainDancr said:

I'ma Youngin' on this 2 *15* I bet we 1 da few pplz in our area(even tho way far) be da 1s think 2day's music type dumb & da same. I love Rap(only ol'skoo kind-new kind type sux) The only rappa I think is koo is 'J-Kwon'("Tipsy"). I can't stand Britney,she annoyin' in my opinion. I'm not an MJ fan,but 'Thriller' would be my 1st song by him I do like otha than that I could careless about da guy. I know 1 thing I'm gettin' tired of seein' MJ's celebration thingy on VH1 so damn much(wuz on earlier 2day-4/6/04). Needa be a special celebration 4 *Prince* 4 24 hrs. lolz well maybe not that long but long enuff.

To the people who think Quincy deserves all the credit: Y'all are carazy.

What was the biggest hit off of Off The Wall? Don't Stop Till U Get Enough. Who wrote that song? Michael Jackson.

What were the biggest hits off of Thriller? Billie Jean and Beat It. Who wrote those songs? Michael Jackson.

What were the biggest songs off of Bad? Bad, The Way U Make Me Feel. Who wrote those songs? Michael Jackson.

Dangerous: There was no Quincy to guide Michael (which he basically stopped doing on the Bad album anyway) and that album is brilliant.

Not to mention all the great songs he wrote while he was with the Jacksons and the great stuff he wrote for himself that never bacame big hits (Stranger In Moscow, Liberian Girl, Who Is It, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc)

Give credit were credit is due.

WildStyle said:

I think and it might seem crazy that MJ strengths are his singing his dancing (which now is boring due to repetition of the same trademark moves) I think he perhaps wrote some of the lyrics to his tunes ,but I believe he has enough money etc that he could actually pay people to have his full songwriting title on the records ,I dont think he is a songwriting in the sense of Prince Dylan the Beatles etc.
As for playing these instruments I believe at best he can knock a few chords out maybes play Wonderwall at a push big deal. For me to actually believe that he is anything on the guitar keys or drums I'm afraid I wanna see him playing them perhaps do a unplugged gig then I'll take my hat off to him in that respect.

Cloudbuster said:

U're not alone Cloud. I play it 2. It still is great. At the time it had a sound that was really so catchy and infectious that you couldn't help but like it (i am referring to Thriller, the song of the album and it's video but same goes for BJ and Beat It). So infectious that it brought in the people who weren't into that type of music or him into shops to purchase MJ's Thriller. With so many different types of music and peoples' diversifying tastes in what they listen to, Thriller had something special and indeed 'infectious'. that it crossed boundaries and made these ppl come in and buy Thriller. That is special. It was an album of absolute genius at work. If nothing else, Billy Jean, Thriller and Beat It are so bloody good that they are still great 2 to this day, and props to him for writing Billy Jean and Beat It. Props 2 him also 4 always giving the fans these songs on stage to just about utter perfection. Can the same be said so many years later of some1 like Bowie and his hits live....are they performed as well now as they were then? Granted that MJ doesn't have the energy he used 2 all those years ago, but he still kicks the crap out of anything live on stage that his peers can do when he gets up there 4 his Billy Jean routine.