Write about a musician album (Michael Jackson). How does this musician album infuse creativity and broad understanding of culture to us and our society and what is our understanding of it impact and values.
* state the importance of this albumin american music culture
*Impact on Genre
*impact on industry
*impact on society
* what part of music and culture have changed dramatically as a result of this music.

SOLUTION

Michael Jackson’s Thriller Album

Michael Jackson was an American songwriter, dancer and singer, and many people regarded him as the “king of pop”. He has always been considered among the significant 20th-century cultural figures and a great entertainer too. Over his career, Michael Jackson had several albums that did quite well. Thriller is among the intriguing albums that emanated from him.

The album had a great impact on the American music culture. To begin with, Thriller came up at a time when the American music culture was struggling to some extent. The music business was suffering its second slump in three years. It was a period when the Billboard was reporting that there was a decline of around [cmppp_restricted] 50 million units record shipments between 1980 and 1982 (Knopper, 2016). A period when CBS had experienced a massive layoff on its staff due to the struggles being experienced. When Thriller came out, it changed everything since fans were lured back into the stores.

Michael Jackson was well known in the pop genre for music. The release of Thriller worked to change the contemporary pop music landscape. Before the album came into being, it was not imaginable for established rock guitarists to collaborate with R’n’B, disco and soul singers. All these genres came together and produced an incredible album.  The fact that the album span across genres shows that Jackson had placed a lot of ambition on the project. At that time, producing an album that would appeal to fans coming from different genres had not been actualized before. This was the first pop record to incorporate so much and do it so well at the same time (Knopper, 2016). Black artists rarely got featured on MTV too before the making of the Thriller Album. The press that was given the black man was little to no coverage, but now they were forced to give him the deserved attention.

The album also had an impact on the music industry as a whole. Michael Jackson was working to change the way the industry was functioning from both the financial and artistic persona. He led by example by showing that an artist can make significant amounts in terms of royalty from just a single album. Jackson earned record-breaking profits from just one album. Initially, the music industry was driven by singles. However, Thriller changed this perception by raising the significance of albums. It also showed that one album could also contain a significant number of successful singles. Thriller even reached a point where it stopped selling like a leisure product; a magazine, tickets to a hit movie, a toy and it started to feel like a household staple(Knopper, 2016).

In addition to the impact that the Thriller album had on the music industry, it also had an impact on society. It was an album that brought about varied cultural changes. Some of the lyrics involved worked to challenge the ideas on how an African American man ought to be seen and behave. Jackson also tried to delve on some of the topics that were being viewed as a taboo at the time, and this showed that he did not fear to challenge the established norms. He took the risk and challenged racial boundaries that existed through music. Thriller showcased a metaphor of the existing conflicting emotions and racism towards African Americans. This is something that brought changes, and African American artists started to get more airplay. The album brought the concept that music can be produced and get promoted everywhere and to everyone despite the individuals involved in it.

Reference

Knopper, S. (2016). MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson. Simon and Schuster. [/cmppp_restricted]