“For a record industry stuck on the border between the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop, Thriller was a thorough restoration of confidence, a rejuvenation. Its effect on listeners, especially younger ones, was nearer to a revelation. Thriller brought black music back to mainstream radio, from which it had been effectively banished after restrictive “special-format programming” was introduced in the mid-’70s. Listeners could put more carbonation in their pop and cut their heavy-metal diet with a dose of the fleetest soul around. “No doubt about it,” says Composer-Arranger Quincy Jones, who produced Off the Wall and Thriller with Jackson. “He’s taken us right up there where we belong. Black music had to play second fiddle for a long time, but its spirit is the whole motor of pop. Michael has connected with every soul in the world.”
