Are we seeing a second save of the music business by Michael Jackson? It's no secret that the music business was in a terrible state in 1982 when Michael Jackson's producer Quincy Jones predicted "We're here to bring people back into the record stores," on the first day of recording of MJ's landmark "Thriller."
Surprisingly, his prediction was true. MJ went on to sell nearly 50 million copies of Thriller domestically and reportedly almost 175 million internationally, as the music business went on a streak of unprecedented growth and wealth that lasted 20 more years.
So here we are again 27 years down the road and the music business is in far worse shape than it's ever been, but MJ's untimely death just might bring it out of the doldrums again. Just hours after his death on Thursday, various Michael Jackson albums began climbing up Apple's iTunes Music Store's "Top Albums" list, where his historic "Thriller" now sits at #1.
MJ now holds an unprecedented 9 out of the top 10 chart positions, 14 of the top 20, and 16 of the top 40, which must be some sort of record.
Here's the chart as it stands on Friday afternoon:
• #1: "Thriller"
• #2: "The Essential Michael Jackson"
• #3: "Number Ones"
• #4: "Off The Wall"
• #5: "Thriller (25th Anniversary, Zombie Cover)"
• #6: "Bad"
• #7: "Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection"
• #8: "Dangerous"
• #9: "Michael Jackson Greatest Hits: HIStory, Vol. 1"
• #14: "Off the Wall (Special Edition)"
• #15: "Jackson 5: The Ultimate Collection"
• #18: "History: Past, Present and Future, Book 1"
• #19: "Thriller (25th Anniversary) [Deluxe Edition]"
• #20: "Thriller (25th Anniversary)"
• #21: "Invincible"
• #39: "Anthology: The Best of Michael Jackson"
• #49: "Anthology: Jackson 5"
• #44: "Michael Jackson: Gold"
• #46: "20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection" The Best of The Jackson 5"
• #82: "Blood on the Dance Floor / History in the Mix"
• #87: "Greatest Hits - Jackson 5"
The iTunes singles charts has MJ with 38 out of the top 100 and that doesn't even include Jackson 5 songs.
At Amazon, physical copies of Michael's entire catalog sold out minutes after his passing was announced. He currently has 9 of the top 15 albums and 10 of the top 15 singles.
It should be interesting to see just what this unprecedented sales upturn (in the digital age at least) actually brings in total, but so far it looks like his demise has caused consumers to purchase again. Too bad it's under such sad circumstances.
Below is one of the more bizarre renditions of MJ's truly groundbreaking Thriller video. It's done by inmates from a Philippine prison.
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