Massive

I thought that The Very Best of the Eagles had overtaken Thriller in the last 12 months - or don't compilations count?

Does 'how much a record sells' really matter?

yes. context is always interesting

Julio, your response for sure did not matter. As that is not the question.

Lee Greenwood?

I think culture has become too fragmented for one album to completely dominate the charts the way Thriller did in it's day.

One thing Thriller had on it's side is that it seemed that Mtv played the videos off it on a constant basis -- with their music programming being what it is now a person isn't likely to see a video more than a couple of times a day, and that would be taking into account that the person's been watching all day.

Another thing is that radio formatting has changed quite a bit in the US. Whereas top 40 used to be the most popular format and you were likely to hear all of the hits of the day regardless of genre, it's much more segregated now: stations that play nu-metal or r'n'b exclusively and never stray from the rigid programming that's been set by the station. There are still top 40 stations of course, but they're nowhere near as prevalent as they were in the days that Thriller was released.

If there's one thing I've learned in life it's that seemingly unbreakable records always get broken eventually. The next highest- seller may not be judged in terms of units sold, however, so a meaningful comparison might not be easy. As to what sort of 'record' it might be, it will be associated with something non-musical, i.e. as in the example of Candle In The Wind '97.

is context always interesting? I find it very simple to tune out top 40 music almost entirely simply by not listening to the radio, only going to snob-arthouse films, etc. Of course I know about the boybands and computer generated r'n'b that dominates the popular music scene these days but I'd be hard pressed to tell you who is most popular or even name any song by n'sync, britney, christina, or any of the others..

I think the Eagles compilation has marginally outsold Thriller in the US, but obviously not worldwide.

Nicole makes a good point about radio. Not too different in the UK with the fragmentation of the radio industry (albeit not to the same extent, and from a much smaller basis to start with) and Radio 1 becoming more oriented towards its own niche than "the nation's favourite".

Of course in Britain, I *believe* that Thriller is neither the biggest-selling Jackson album (this was the one major country where Bad outsold Thriller, I think, though that may have changed), nor his album with the longest chart run (Off The Wall - helped by coming out earliest).

Alex- Many thrads get sidetracked and by responding with another question was the attempt to do this.

To answer the actual question abt thriller: Who cares? When people start talking abt how much a record sells then that is the death of music.

To answer Tom's other Q: The "market" has changed as there are more labels therefore potential pop buyers may get into other stuff: Loads of labels though I suspect quality isn't better.

if music dies that easily, good riddance

The Harry Potter OST?

Mark s- What I meant was: Sales talk has nothing to do with music talk.

"Talking about how much a record sells" = The charts = the birth of pop music. It's nothing to do with the quality of music but its everything to do with the circumstances in which that music is created and consumed.

Of COURSE the record will be broken, and broken big style. I assume Tom is talking about worldwide sales. Once China opens up completely (and perhaps gets bootlegging under control), we'll see pop phenoms with nine-figure sales, easy.