^^Well, to me Billie Jean sounds similar to I Can't Go For That by Hall & Oates. Then there are other soundalikes like:

Carribean Queen ~ Billy Ocean

Dirty Dancer ~ Bar Kays

Night Rider ~ Midnight Star

Like A Virgin ~ Madonna

Superstar ~ Lydia Murdock

Even Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love has a similar beat and rhythm, although with a more rock sound.

.

There's also several Good Times offsprings:

Rappin' Blow ~ Kurtis Blow

Another One Bites The Dust ~ Queen/Sugar Daddy

Rapper's Delight ~ Sugarhill Gang/Xanadu & Sweet Lady

Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll ~ Vaughan Mason & Crew

There's some others I can't think of right now.

.

Pretty much all of these records have different people credited as writers. There's also those many Roxanne Roxanne answer songs in the mid 1980s.

Thriller's album cover even looks similar to these earlier albums:

Stymie said:

MickyDolenz said:

That's not really anything unusual. People generally don't follow their parents and especially not their grandparents music. In the 1980's, the average young person wasn't checking for Perry Como or Dean Martin or Little Richard.

my oldest is 25 and he found that music on his own. He can spot a sample in a heartbeat.

I was listening to my dad's James Brown records and Shaft album at

6 years old almost every day after he left for work. My mom always kid

me about not wanting the children's records she and my dad would by

for me. I would always throw them to the side to listen to some grown

up music. That is how i know the Shaft album backwards and forwards today. My nephew is 12 years old now and he's been a Michael Jackson

fan since he was 7. He even listens to Prince. He even has Prince music downloaded to his MP3 player. He asked me if i liked Wall of Berlin and i didn't know what the hell he was talking about. It is on the Lotusflower album which i hadn't listened to in 4 years.

phunkdaddy said:

Stymie said:

MickyDolenz said: my oldest is 25 and he found that music on his own. He can spot a sample in a heartbeat.

I was listening to my dad's James Brown records and Shaft album at

6 years old almost every day after he left for work. My mom always kid

me about not wanting the children's records she and my dad would by

for me. I would always throw them to the side to listen to some grown

up music. That is how i know the Shaft album backwards and forwards today. My nephew is 12 years old now and he's been a Michael Jackson

fan since he was 7. He even listens to Prince. He even has Prince music downloaded to his MP3 player. He asked me if i liked Wall of Berlin and i didn't know what the hell he was talking about. It is on the Lotusflower album which i hadn't listened to in 4 years.

Cute story about your nephew.

I was listening to Prince's Soft and Wet at 9 years old. Imagine the look on my face when I found out what the hell he was talking about.

Stymie said:

phunkdaddy said:

I was listening to my dad's James Brown records and Shaft album at

6 years old almost every day after he left for work. My mom always kid

me about not wanting the children's records she and my dad would by

for me. I would always throw them to the side to listen to some grown

up music. That is how i know the Shaft album backwards and forwards today. My nephew is 12 years old now and he's been a Michael Jackson

fan since he was 7. He even listens to Prince. He even has Prince music downloaded to his MP3 player. He asked me if i liked Wall of Berlin and i didn't know what the hell he was talking about. It is on the Lotusflower album which i hadn't listened to in 4 years.

Cute story about your nephew.

I was listening to Prince's Soft and Wet at 9 years old. Imagine the look on my face when I found out what the hell he was talking about.