When Thriller was first released, listeners could only expect greatness considering Michael Jackson’s prior experience in the music industry. Ever since he started singing at the age of just 5 years old, Jackson had stunned the world with his musical and performing skills. It is certainly an understatement to say this guy had already had some success in the industry before releasing Thriller. Coming off of his hugely-successful album, Off the Wall in 1980, he certainly had high expectations to fill, but there is no doubt that he surpassed any expectations that anyone could have had. Recorded by Westlake Audio in Los Angeles, produced by the legend Quincy Jones, and co-written by genius Rod Temperton, the album has just a few honors worth noting.
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Many of Jackson’s lyrics have very personal ties, which gives the album an urgent, emotional appeal. For example, “Billie Jean” depicts how he felt about an incident where a random women sued Michael for being the alleged father of her twin son. His deep, strong, passionate voice combined with his dark lyrics made the album extremely unique and interesting to listen too. If you listen closely to most of the songs, you’ll notice how powerful Thriller’s use of bass was. Billy Swedien, an editing engineer that played a role in the production of the album, said that he actually implemented a UTC transformer to make the bass even more intense. The album is also known for its use of drums. According to Swedien, a wall of gobos were set around the drums to enhance their noise. Swedien also used a system he called the “Acusonic Recording Process” which is a nickname for his approach to a recording technique in which he recorded multiple acoustic sources separately and then combined them all. The result? A stronger, more powerful depth to all of Jackson’s songs’ sound. Moving forward, each and every song had intricate production characteristics that made them all such great hits. For example, in “Thriller”, Jackson literally made wolf howls, which added to the song’s horror theme. Overall, the amount of production that went into each and every one of Michael’s songs in Thriller is what made it such a great selling album with almost all of its songs in America’s top ten most popular at some point in
Many of Jackson’s lyrics have very personal ties, which gives the album an urgent, emotional appeal. For example, “Billie Jean” depicts how he felt about an incident where a random women sued Michael for being the alleged father of her twin son. His deep, strong, passionate voice combined with his dark lyrics made the album extremely unique and interesting to listen too. If you listen closely to most of the songs, you’ll notice how powerful Thriller’s use of bass was. Billy Swedien, an editing engineer that played a role in the production of the album, said that he actually implemented a UTC transformer to make the bass even more intense. The album is also known for its use of drums. According to Swedien, a wall of gobos were set around the drums to enhance their noise. Swedien also used a system he called the “Acusonic Recording Process” which is a nickname for his approach to a recording technique in which he recorded multiple acoustic sources separately and then combined them all. The result? A stronger, more powerful depth to all of Jackson’s songs’ sound. Moving forward, each and every song had intricate production characteristics that made them all such great hits. For example, in “Thriller”, Jackson literally made wolf howls, which added to the song’s horror theme. Overall, the amount of production that went into each and every one of Michael’s songs in Thriller is what made it such a great selling album with almost all of its songs in America’s top ten most popular at some point in