{"id":6749,"date":"2026-11-03T18:25:46","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T23:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=6749"},"modified":"2026-11-03T18:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T23:27:23","slug":"michael-jackson-the-artist-who-became-the-avatar-for-the-omnipresent-global-pop-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=6749","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson: The Artist Who Became The Avatar For The Omnipresent Global Pop Superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">100 Best Albums There are few pop albums, or even works of art, that denote a wholesale shift in time and space the way Michael Jackson\u2019s Thriller did in 1982. Noting its impact on the career trajectory of a child star turned R&amp;B hitmaker feels reductive; talking about its record-smashing commercial success diminishes its creative leaps. It did nothing less than define the modern pop blockbuster and redefine the scope and reach of music.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Stripping the weight of history from Thriller is a big job, but hearing the record as a statement in itself remains hugely rewarding. Seven of its nine original cuts were Top 10 singles, and it became one of the best-selling albums ever made, but more important is the way Jackson and producer Quincy Jones turned the singer\u2019s obsessions into intricate, stunningly sung pop-funk.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6750\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6750\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Music\/?p=6577\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6750\" src=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Thriller.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Thriller.jpg 270w, http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Thriller-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6750\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Stream Now! Image Courtesy Of Apple.<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The album\u2019s opening throwdown, \u201cWanna Be Startin\u2019 Somethin\u2019,\u201d is Jackson at his fiercest and funkiest, picking up right where 1979\u2019s Off the Wall left off\u2014and shoring up his R&amp;B bona fides. But from the Paul McCartney-blessed pop of the first hit single \u201cThe Girl Is Mine\u201d to the Eddie Van Halen-revved pyrotechnics of \u201cBeat It,\u201d Jackson\u2019s crossover moves opened up the eyes and ears of the industry\u2014and audiences around the world\u2014to what music could sound, look, and feel like if we blurred those old color lines. \u201cBillie Jean\u201d is a gripping psycho-study of the paranoia and persecution that he was already feeling\u2014yet it still maintains the mysterious allure of an artist who became the avatar for the omnipresent global pop superstar.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Every product\/service is selected by editors. Products\/Services you buy through these links may earn &#8220;Streamapse Online Magazine&#8221; a commission or revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>100 Best Albums There are few pop albums, or even works of art, that denote a wholesale shift in time and space the way Michael Jackson\u2019s Thriller did in 1982. Noting its impact on the career trajectory of a child star turned R&amp;B hitmaker feels reductive; talking about its record-smashing commercial success diminishes its creative [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[920],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6752,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6749\/revisions\/6752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}