King of Pop’s zombies still thrill 25 years on

PARIS – The zombies are a quarter century old, but the years have been kind.

The best-selling album of all time, Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, is to be re-released this week, 25 years after first appearing with its success and popularity still unchallenged. The album made Michael Jackson the undisputed pop artist of the modern age and the ‘Thriller’ video introduced the world to break-dancing back-from-the-dead monsters whose moves inspired a generation.Having already sold an estimated 55 million copies according to the latest Guinness Book of Records, anniversary copies of the album and videos are to hit shelves worldwide today and tomorrow.With the music industry in crisis and sales of albums declining due to Internet downloads, the records set by ‘Thriller’ in the 1980s appear safe from competition.It spent eighty weeks in the US top ten album chart, was certified 27 times platinum (27 million sales) in the country and was and still is the only album to have been a best-seller in the United States for two consecutive years (1983 and 1984).It went platinum or diamond in 27 other countries; out of nine tracks, seven were released as singles; and it won eight Grammys at the US music awards in 1984.The music, a mix of soul, disco and funk, also inspired one of Michael Jackson’s most famous dance moves, a backwards sliding motion that stands among the greatest of his many contributions to the world of pop – the ‘moonwalk’.Nampa-AFPThe album made Michael Jackson the undisputed pop artist of the modern age and the ‘Thriller’ video introduced the world to break-dancing back-from-the-dead monsters whose moves inspired a generation.Having already sold an estimated 55 million copies according to the latest Guinness Book of Records, anniversary copies of the album and videos are to hit shelves worldwide today and tomorrow.With the music industry in crisis and sales of albums declining due to Internet downloads, the records set by ‘Thriller’ in the 1980s appear safe from competition.It spent eighty weeks in the US top ten album chart, was certified 27 times platinum (27 million sales) in the country and was and still is the only album to have been a best-seller in the United States for two consecutive years (1983 and 1984).It went platinum or diamond in 27 other countries; out of nine tracks, seven were released as singles; and it won eight Grammys at the US music awards in 1984.The music, a mix of soul, disco and funk, also inspired one of Michael Jackson’s most famous dance moves, a backwards sliding motion that stands among the greatest of his many contributions to the world of pop – the ‘moonwalk’.Nampa-AFP

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