Apologies if this has already been posted but i couldn't see it after a quick scan.

Am i going crazy or can i not find Michael Jackson's 1983 release Thriller on the list? I even searched 1984 and still no mention. Surely the biggest selling albulm of all time (which even still ocassionally pops up on the top 100 every week) should appear somewhere!! Please be so kind as to direct me to where it is hidden or provide some sort of explanatin as to its omission??

Regards

It's a 1982 album, where it tops the list.

I am such a fool!! Apologies. I was convinced it was a 1983 release. Isn't that why they have the 25th anniversary edition out at the moment?

It was released at the end of 1982, and the anniversary edition at the start of 2008.. so they weren't too far off.

Still suprising to see it at 33rd overall. Goes to show the differences between the record buying publixc and the 'all knowing' critics.

Considering the tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands albums that have been released in the rock & roll era, the difference between 1 and 33 out of all those albums is statistically infinitesimal.

So where's Come On Over then, eh?? I want my Shania. She sold trillions. She has to be above Revolver!!!

That don't impress me much...

not as long as we both are rocket scientists, Ed...

I'm also Brad Pitt-you might remember me from such films as Cool World, Johnny Suede and whatever that piece of Robert Redford shit was called. Oh, and the 10 minutes of Meet Joe Black you might have sat through.

C'mon naw, that Redford flick was about fly-fishing. FLY-FISHING!!! Are you a terrorist or what?!

I'm still agonizing over which Backstreet Boys album is the best one.

Definitely >Black & Blue<. It's their very personal Songs Of Love And Hate I was recently told..

I think you're right! I mean, it's educational (who else but the Boys to educate their young, unwashed teen masses about anatomy with "Shape of My Heart"), inspirational ("The Answer to Our Life") and their song "Shining Star" was totally ripped off by Earth, Wind and Fire!

On a serious note, I think Thriller is as high as it is because of its notoriety as the biggest-selling album of all time. Personally, any album with a song as bad as the indigestible "The Girl Is Mine" belongs nowhere near the top 100! I'd argue that based on content, it's only his fourth best album.

And I prefer the Jacksons' Triumph album to any single effort of the Dynasty, but that's just my 2 kilobytes

You mean the Backstreet Boys when you mention "The Dynasty", right? I mean, 5 consecutive 10+mill sellers is hard to argue!

who else could I mean, mb? the wahlberg brothers?? get.a.life.

pleeze


;)

Netjade's back, alright!

You can't go by sales numbers to argue the quality of a record.

And this isn't a 'regular people are stupid' argument. Here are the reasons.

1. Casual music fans only hear the most heavily marketed music. It doesn't matter how good a record is if nobody's paid a radio station to rotate it for them.

2. People get caught up in trends. A lot of stuff sells millions of copies but people forget they existed five years later. If a record stops having appeal the moment its pop culture trend is over, it was never a good record in the first place.

3. Most people only focus on one or two genres. And when they do, they judge music mostly based on how similar it sounds to their genre of choice. How well it obeys the rules.

I would take the word of a non-critic who's been obsessively listening to all kinds of music for years and years over the word of a critic. But I would take the word of a critic over the word of somebody who either just follows trends or only follows a specific genre.

(So You guys > Critics > Casual music fans)

Thanks, Bill. We obviously all have our own personal tastes and differences in opinion that we hold dear, but we are united by our love of music.

BillAdama said it pretty eloquently. All I can add to that is I think critics sometimes succumb to the temptation to be "hipper" than everyone else in the room and proclaim the genius of something just because it's not within the standard canon. They like to "rock the boat" by suggesting they've heard the genius others have missed.

While I can agree with the statement "Music isn't good just because it's POPULAR", I also accept the corollary many critics seem to find heresy, "The mere fact the average Joe likes something doesn't mean it's crap".