10 Pop Albums That Are Perfect From Front To Back
1. Thriller - Michael Jackson
At the start of the '80s, Michael Jackson had already been a star for a while. Starting out with his brothers in the Jackson 5, it was pretty much a no-brainer to make young Michael a solo star considering his amazing voice and stage charisma. Though the first few Jackson solo records were cute bits of kid-friendly pop, the world was treated to a much different pop force once Jackson grew up.
Starting with Off the Wall, Jackson began to cultivate his new style influenced by disco, funk and R&B. While this first effort did fairly well, things got a lot more interesting once Jackson found his musical soulmate in Quincy Jones. To this day, Thriller is one of the most amazing records in the entire pop canon, with songs like "Billie Jean" and "Pretty Young Thing (PYT)" having enough hooks for an entire artists' career.
Literally every song on this record has a potential to be a hit (which most of them were), from the mix of rock and funk on "Beat It" to the macabre look into the horror genre on the title track. This is one of the greatest collections of tracks ever made in the pop sphere, but even that seems to not do justice to the impact Thriller had. With people still using it as a reference, this record is the sound of pop's past, present, and future all wrapped into one glorious package.