Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Christgau's Record Guide	A
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Entertainment Weekly	A
MusicHound R&B	5/5
Q
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Slant Magazine
The Village Voice	A–

Thriller is the sixth studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records. In just over a year, it became—and currently remains—the world's best-selling album, with estimated sales surpassing 65 million copies. It is the best-selling album in the United States and the first album to be certified 32x multi-platinum, having shipped 32 million album-equivalent units. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in 1984, including Album of the Year. Seven singles were released from the album, all of which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Thriller, the follow-up to Jackson's successful fifth album Off the Wall (1979), explores genres similar to those of its predecessor, including pop, post-disco, rock and funk. Recording sessions for Thriller took place from April to November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles with a production budget of $750,000 (US$1,861,293 in 2017 dollars). Quincy Jones produced the album, while Jackson wrote four of its nine songs.

Thriller enabled Jackson to break down racial barriers in pop music, via his appearances on MTV and meeting with President of the United States Ronald Reagan at the White House. The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools, and the videos for the songs "Thriller", "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" all received regular rotation on MTV. In 2001, a special edition reissue of the album was released, which contains additional audio interviews, demo recordings and the song "Someone in the Dark", which was a Grammy-winning track from the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial storybook. In 2008, the album was reissued again as Thriller 25, containing remixes that feature contemporary artists, a previously unreleased song and a DVD, which features the short films from the album and the Motown 25 performance of "Billie Jean". That same year the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, along with Jackson's Off The Wall album.

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Wikipedia