10 Perfect Pop Albums Of The 1980s

In the few years before Thriller, Michael Jackson wasn't really known as the pop juggernaut that he is today. After breaking out of the bubble of The Jackson 5, Michael's first few albums were still trying to figure out what genre he fit into, still coaxing off the R&B ballads that made him so irresistible in the first place. Off the Wall may have gotten everything into sharper focus, but Thriller saw Michael building the modern archetype for pop music in one go.

Bouncing off of producer Quincy Jones at every opportunity, every single one of these songs has the potential to be one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded. In between some of the soulful ballads that he was known for like Human Nature and the collaboration with Paul McCartney on The Girl is Mine, the heavy hitters of the album come when Jacko puts some energy back into his sound, starting from the sleek groove of Wanna Be Startin Somethin and never letting up for a second until the album is done.

There are even some songs that are an anomaly how they ever got on the charts, like the title track being a straight up horror sounding song with Vincent Prince playing the spooky narrator guiding us along. Even when they had enough hits for anyone's greatest hits record, Quincy pushing Michael even further led him to write Beat It and Billie Jean in just a few days, both becoming some of the main highlights of Michael's career. They might not have been thinking in terms of this album's legacy at the time, but that doesn't really matter anymore. You don't have to look at Thriller as the greatest pop album of all time. Just listen to all of the music that's come up in the meantime and you'll probably hear bits and pieces from this album.