Cloudbuster said:

well ok, Cloud u ain't too bad:)

Cloudbuster said:

Cloudbuster said:

uz'e mighty fonkay, but still dunno 'boout the "ace" bit

agentmonday said:

Oh, you will. In time.

WildStyle said:

I read it in a Prince Carlton book by John Ewing he says that his reputation as a dancer began to be the envy of even micheal jackson.

You guys act like I'm all green and all ,I used to love MJ I still think he has a lot of good qualitys, I have seen smooth criminal etc a thousand times it dont appeal to me anymore,when I watch the likes of SOTT the Lovesexy vids etc etc Prince comes out top to me every time sorry guys.Its just the way it is whether you agree or not.I dont regard myself as a OTT fan of any music I never follow trends or anything I just make up my mind and If I thought Prince wasnt as good I would say so.

Cloudbuster said:

Cloud, u know wot? I ain't evening lookin' at the recent post about some guy called John Ewing and his 'special' book. I more interested in having a live televised segment where we xchange our own views whether or not you are indeed "ace" Could b a ratings winner:)

riverdean7 said:

Actually, The Eagles' Greatest Hits album outsold Thriller a few years ago. 28 mil. vs. 26 mil. copies are the current RIAA certifications. And Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' is presently at 23 million copies. That seems very close to me.

sextonseven said:

Forget America, worldwide, Thriller has sold far more. It's even debatable if the eagles have sold more stateside. Thriller's sales there havn't been re-classified in years.

sextonseven said:

Thriller hasn't been re-certified since 2000 if my memory seves me correct. That was before the healthy sales of Thriller Special Edition. The Eagles Greatest Hits get's certified every year. I think it is safe to say that Thriller is the biggest selling album in US history. Even if it isn't "official"... yet.

Thriller, Purple Rain, and Like A Virgin were ALL huge hits . . . Prince even comments on them during his Chris Rock interview. They were the albums that propelled each of them into superstardom, and remain their "signature" albums.

Thriller was a "little" too close to the disco-era for my taste, so when PR came out it blew me away. I guess it's all about timing . . .

Besides, I'd put 1999 up against Thriller any day (in critical terms, not sales).

WildStyle said:

Thriller IS the biggest selling album of original content. The Eagles Greatest Hits is the best-selling disc, but it is a compilation. It's not the same thing, technically. It's semantics, but I give more kudos to an ALBUM's sales than I do a GREATEST HIT'S sales . . .

Supernova said:

December 1, 1982, if I'm not mistaken. Supernova, you and I must operate from the same database...

Sorry for just chiming in on this. It's hard to keep up with you guys!!

As for Thriller vs. Purple Rain, I was a Jackson fan LONG before I was a Prince fan, and being that Thriller was my favorite album when it came out, I still favor it over PR. The Thriller days were sweet and innocent; PR turned me out and dirtied me up a bit.

Thriller might even be better than Around the World in a Day (my favorite Prince album, including 12" singles and B-sides)...but I don't think I want to make that claim just yet!

Zoot

zootjames said:

I think we must. I'm a stickler for album release years.


I'm partial to Off The Wall myself. Although I still dig the hell out of "Human Nature" and "Billie Jean."

i THOUGHT IT WAS 1983-THRILLER????

PinkPeach said:

Well... you are wrong

Cloudbuster said:

Mj wears his face well....can i get a high five too?


.
[This message was edited Thu Apr 8 22:32:24 2004 by Christopher]

sextonseven those figures u quoted are for sales in the usa only worldwide sales of thriller are over 50 million worldwide hence my original statement was correct why dont u do some research next time

Both thriller and purple rain were strong albums, but neither was the artist's best work in my opinion. I don't think michael ever did better than off the wall, Prince had quite a few albums I would put over purple rain. Either way, these albums had great timing for the artists and sold in concordance to the times they were released. Neither album would sell that much if it were released at any other time. I think both were very good, and with michael, people always forget how great an artist he truly was. With Prince it's almost the opposite, he could get pretty mainstream in his heyday. I really don't believe Prince would have been as big without the impetus given to the whole industry by thriller. Thriller singlehandedly pulled the record business out of it's post disco slump and along with the pioneering videos gave an element of freshness to pop music. I don't believe Purple Rain would have sold what it did without the vacuum created by the need for an antimichael. Just as the stones' manager knew that a band with the opposite image of the beatles would be very successful. It's not either or to me, they both were great, as an artist I'd be a fool to pick michael over prince but I've always felt michael was underatted as a creative force.

Just a couple of things I wanna say...

laylow03 said:

I hear ya, but to say MJ only makes songs to please masses is not true either. There are amazing less known, lyrically and vocally tremendious tracks in his later albums which rarely get any attention, because critics have panned anything and everything he's ever done after Thriller. So in that sense I think Thriller is overrated. You don't hear songs like Is It Scary, Who Is It, Stranger In Moscow, They Don't Care About Us, Little Susie, Childhood, Will You Be There, Speechless etc. on the air. They're far from radio hits.

Commercial success, hits and popularity (how is that even countable?) are not the measure of a good artist, on that I agree, but a person must be blind not to see why MJ's been so successful in his career. If he didn't have any talent there would be no Michael Jackson, simple as that. When you're comparing Prince and MJ it's like comparing apples to oranges because it's a matter of taste. Both are good, but it's you and your subjective thinking when you decide who is better.

richierich said:

So, with the same logic, wouldn't you cringe to Thriller where he's acting a werewolf? Or Smooth Criminal? Billie Jean? My point is that it's about ART. It's the way he presents his songs visually. I mean, I would find it very boring if he just sung about Bubbles and climbing trees just because he's not 'acting' there. I'm sorry but I'd find THAT extremely laughable.

Seesaw said:

co-sign

Seesaw said:

Your right I guess its just my point of view, about BAD.
I suppose I don't care for it as much as I used to because I think of it as the music I liked when I was young ,though I still like the songs Human Nature,Man in the Mirror ,Liberian Girl and others I prefer Prince much more.
I think certain members on here have got me totally wrong in thinking I dislkie Jacko as I dont I dig his honest child like nature and the world would be a better place if more people were like him.

My 2 favorite artists, the pinnacles of their careers ($aleswise)

I can't choose, never will, love em both.

p.s. It was definately 1982 (THRILLER), it just came out so late in that year, that most peops think it was 1983 (the year in which it ruled).

p.p.s. THRILLER has sold waaay more copies worldwide than The Eagles greatest hits!

"R"...

yeah seesaw those songs u mentioned are great and u dont hear them onthe radio at all

RonnyRon2000 said:

well said mate.
cheerz

Supernova said:[quote]

zootjames said:

It's funny how most people here prefer Off the Wall to Thriller. The former was clearly a warmup to the latter, in my opinion. There are a couple of songs on Off the Wall that it took me quite a while to warm up to, like "Burn This Disco Out" and "It's the Falling In Love." There weren't ANY songs on Thriller like that; they were all slammin' from the jump!

Do people have more of a problem with Thriller because it was more polished? That sounds strange to me as I write it though, because Off the Wall was extremely polished too, for its time (1979).

This has the potential of becoming a very enlightening thread.

Zoot

riverdean7 said:

I did my research. You only said biggest selling album of all time. You didn't specify U.S. vs world. The biggest U.S. catalog album each year sells less than one million copies and according to Billboard, Thriller even after the special edition rerelease, went nowhere near #1. His U.S. sales will never pass the Eagles GH album, (which was last certified in 2002) because his image has been tarnished too much by all the child molestation allegations.

PBS said:

I LOVE BOTH ALBUMZ BUT I HAVE 2 ADMIT PRINCE 'S PURPLE RAIN IZ BETTER IT'S 1 OF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS PERIOD.THRILLER WAS PRODUCED IN 1982 DECEMBER
OF 1982 2 B XXXACT BUT IT STAYED ON THE CHARTS 4 SO LOOOONG THAT IT SEEMED LIKE 1984 WHEN IT WAS RELEASED,BUT I HAVE 2 ADMIT ALSO THAT I THOUGHT I WAS MJ BACK N THE DAYZ JERRI CURL,1 GLOVE,LOA4Z,SOCKS ,AND THE JACKET.I COULD DANCE LIKE HIM A LITTLE
BUT MY CURL WAS ONLY TIGHT AT TIMES IT DRIED 2 QUICK,SO I CALLED IT THE WELFARE CURL BCUZZ IT ONLY CURLED ON THE 1ST ON MONTH THEN THE REST OF THE TIME IT WAS JUST O.K. BUT FROM THE 1ST 2 ABOUT THE 6TH OF THE MONTH I WAS REALLY MJ. HE-HE.
YES AS U NOTICE PRINCE ,MICHAEL,MADONNA,BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN,AND ALOT OF PEOPLE N THA 80Z HAD MASSIVE SALES NUMBERS.NO 1 IZ GONNA OUTSALE THRILLER NOT EVEN MJ HIMSELF.NOBODY 2DAY IN MUZIC IZ MOVING UNITS LIKE THEY DID IN THE 80Z.I FIND THAT IRONIC BCUZZ THE ECONOMY WAS REALLY MESSED UP THANXXX 2 REAGAN,BUT THEY DID NOT HAVE THE ACCESS 2 INTERNET LIKE THEY DO NOW AND DOWNLOADING MUSIC.

agentmonday said:

Stop scaring me.