What makes an album the greatest of all time? Is it the fact that it has sold the most copies ever, has been streamed the most, or is it the most critically acclaimed, or do albums even matter and all we need to worry about are singles released by artist.Each of these records are owned by different artist: Best selling album “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, most streamed album “÷ (Deluxe)” by Ed Sheeran (at least according to Spotify),most Critically acclaimed album “What Going on” by Marvin Gaye, most top billboard number one singles “The Beatles”. Although each record is quite impressive, it does still bring forward the question “Which records matters more or which truly bring an artist to that ultimate level of greatness.
The first record is that of Michael Jackson who on November 30,1982 released his magnum opus “Thriller”. During the time preceding the release of the album many radio stations and tv channels refused to play music by African American artist, due to the death of disco and people associating all African American music with the genre, due to this there were no recorded real hits on the billboards by African Americans for over two years. Then on that faithful day on November Michael Jackson released the beast that would become “Thriller”. The album’s initial success was not indicative of what it was going to become. It debuted at number 11,respectable, and the single released before the album,”The Girl is mine” with Sir Paul MCcartney released as a single due to the belief that it would better received with a white audience, was met with a mixed reaction. But something different happened with the other songs on the album, Jackson began utilizing music videos to help promote the songs and the album. The first video “Billie Jean” showcased Jackson’s superior dance skills, most other artist at the time weren’t really dancers, becoming a hit with all audiences. Then came the music video to “Beat it” not only showing Jackson’s amazing choreography but just how compelling and really grandiose a music video could be. Then finally came the John Landis’ directed “Thriller” video that cemented how amazing and even cinematic these videos could be. Not only was the album an overwhelming success it was even able to put MTV on the map, the channel would throughout the whole day play Michael Jackson’s music videos. Once MTV found success with Michael Jackson, videos by other black performers quickly appeared on the playlist. This development single-handedly forced pop radio to reintroduce black music into its mix. The album has sold between 66 and 100 million copies and was able to cement Michael Jackson as the King of Pop. With people still all over the world imitating Jackson dance moves, fashion sense, and eye for bigger and bigger music videos.
“Thriller was a both a commercial and critical success but it was not the most critically acclaimed title, that honor belongs to, at least according to Rolling Stone,”What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye released on May 21, 1971. The album being one of the first of its kind, being a concept album, where there was one overarching story/theme. The theme/story was a combination of everything that was going on in the world at the time told through the eyes of a Vietnam vet who had just come back home from the war. One of if not the main inspiration for Marvin was his brother,Frankie Gaye, in Vietnam who would write to Marvin telling him stories about what was happening in the war. Marvin being a Motown records artist was taught and expected to make more dance friendly and positive music but the album he wanted to create was the opposite. Gaye relished the visibility, but hr knew that the real triumph was the way he transformed vexing social problems into an imploring emotional appeal. The song started as a party but became something else, something much closer to a prayer. The album was revolutionary for its presentation, ability to tell a story, and experimentation with different musical techniques. The album ended up being Gaye’s most successful until his 1973 album “Lets Get It On” Although not the most successful album it has been included on the top ten list of several musical publication and as recent as 2020 was the top album Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time.
As we have seen in recent times people are no longer only listening to music on Vinyl, CD’s, or even on the radio most of the time. The brand new medium in which people are listening to music in our day and age is through streaming services. People can now listen to any song from any artist ever just by going on their phones, long gone are the days that people would have to buy individual singles, or record a song on the radio to listen to their favorite music. The most popular streaming service in the world currently is Spotify. Since buying albums is no longer the standard for knowing what is popular and trending with people this brings forward the fact that now to know what artist is the most popular we need to look at the streaming numbers. The most streamed album on Spotify Ed Sheeran’s “Division” released March 3, 2017. The pop album was the English singer’s third album to be released and after it was released it was an almost instant hit. Winning the singer the Grammys for Best Pop vocal album and best pop solo performance, for “Shape of You”. All 16 tracks from the deluxe edition of ÷ crashed into Spotify’s Global Top 50 streaming chart on 3 March, as well as the Top 50 in 12 international markets (Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and the UK). In the UK and Ireland, the 16 tracks claimed the entire Top 16 spaces. Sheeran continues to now be one of the best selling and most popular artist.
Then there yet is another factor that needs to be considered and that is the power of singles. Singles are songs that are released by themselves separate from an album, even though most of the time they do appear on the albums themselves. No group has had more success in having singles than English band the Beatles. They hold the records for most Billboard number one singles ever (20). The Beatles also hold the record for actually being the best selling music group/solo artist of all time. The group lead to the phenomena in America known as the British invasion in the 1960’s where the USA began to fall in love and import British music and culture. John,Paul,George, and Ringo influenced many musicians of all genres, and many artists followed their example and incorporated various aspects of Beatlemania into their music. The Band was willing to always change and experiment with their music with varying degrees of themes in their music creating one of the most celebrated writing partnership the world has even seen, considered the greatest by some between, Paul McCartney and Johne Lennon. The two were able to explore different themes that weren’t only about lov. For example there is “Help!” about the struggles that John was going through trying to handle his new celebrity status, “Hey Jude” about a boy trying to make the best of a bad situation and trying to make it better, and “Give peace a chance” which is about world peace in the world. The band continues to influence countless people around the world and inspire countless new generations of entertainers and people.
Here are several factors that should be considered when deciding what album or artist deserve the title of greatest album. But there may be several other reason and records that should be considered when choosing the greatest of all time such as:
- First Latin Artist to Top Billboard 200: Bad Bunny
- Longest reigning billboard top single Old Town Road( Lil Nas X featuring Bill Ray Cyrus)
- Best selling solo artist of all time: Elvis Presley
- Most Grammys won by one album: Supernatural by Santana, tied with How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb by U2
- Best Selling rap Album: The Eminem Show by Eminem
It is really up to one on an individual level to decide which factors matter more or don’t matter at all to make their decision.
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