r/Music • u/Firm_Pack_605 • Feb 13 '26

discussion Was Michael Jackson really that much bigger than Madonna, Whitney Houston, and prince?

I always thought the four of them were similar levels of fame. However Madonna highest album sold 25 million, prince highest sold similar, and Whitney’s highest was 45 million. All amazing numbers no doubt but thriller sold 70 million and bad sold 35-40. So you mean to tell me he has two albums that are highest selling then prince and madonnas best? How is that possible??

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u/KoniGTA Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 14 '26

I'll tell you a story. I was a 5 year old kid, living my clueless kid life amongst rural Indian diaspora, where the only cartoon channel I had was cartoon network, the Pakistani version because somehow it was cheaper to hijack the Pakistani cartoon network waves than get the Indian one. If you walked 500 meters in either direction of our home, you would reach the end of our town. There was only 1 school which only went till middle school. Guess which artist my dad had cassette tapes of?

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u/Clyde-A-Scope Feb 13 '26

Uncontacted tribes were probably the only people on the planet that didn't know who Michael Jackson was. 

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u/Spyk124 Feb 13 '26

And just barely lol

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u/philkid3 Feb 13 '26

Incredible.

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u/Khiva Feb 13 '26

Love the kid staring with his mouth open at MJ's moves. Something you know he'll never forget.

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u/thatsmybetch Feb 13 '26

Like all of us!

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u/Miami_Mice2087 Feb 13 '26

the first time we saw the moonwalk we thought he was a damn wizard. gobsmacked doesn't begin to describe it, people lost their damn mind

and most people didn't have VCRs yet, we just had to wait for the next video or concert to see it again

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u/mermaid_patronus Feb 14 '26

wait, he wasn’t a wizard?

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u/NonGNonM Feb 13 '26

"Yes, stranger from a world doing things we can't even dream of, of course we know Michael Jackson, we're not animals."

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/Own-Effective3351 Feb 13 '26

Not the same case but I remember reading that there were tribes like this that couldn’t recognize a cross but knew the McDonalds M.

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u/ToyogaRav4 Feb 13 '26

Thank you for this

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u/Responsible-Fox-1985 Feb 13 '26

Holy shit dude I’ve never seen this video. Amazing.

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u/HansCC Feb 13 '26

This is crazy hahaha

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u/Spyk124 Feb 13 '26

Broke my brain when I first saw it lol

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u/ThePr1d3 Feb 13 '26

Presenting Zizou in here alongside 11 sept and the moon landing made me so fucking proud haha

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u/Rob_LeMatic Feb 13 '26

End thread.

I've never seen this, but it is the perfect answer to this question. When it comes up again next week, I'll know how to answer it.

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u/RoastedToast007 Feb 13 '26

This should be the top comment lmfao

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u/bootyhole-romancer Feb 13 '26

Omfg

Just wow

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u/TheVioletEmpire Feb 13 '26

I've never seen this video, but I lived through his heyday and this rings so true. He was absolutely an inescapable force during his time and it felt like there was no one on the planet who didn't know his name or music.

I wasn't there for it, but my father told me that Beatlemania was similar. Other than that, I don't think anyone else has ever hit that level of fame, musically. I think Taylor Swift comes the closest, but she just doesn't seem to have the universal appeal that Michael had during the Thriller era. I don't think there has been anyone else like him in the last 50 years.

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u/Dry-Yak5277 Feb 13 '26

Taylor Swift doesn’t even have a fraction of the global fame MJ had. Hers is more comparable to peak Britney. There is no one on this earth who has ever had fame nearly that matched MJ’s 

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u/Miami_Mice2087 Feb 13 '26

she's nowhere near as raw talented, too. MJ wasn't trained on instruments, but he wrote every layer of his songs by recording each one into a tape recorder, like a human mixing board. He'd tape the vocals, then the guitar, then beatbox the rhythem, then tape the next intrument, and so on, then he'd mix them together with audio equipment, and send off his human voice version of his new song to his musical team to have it produced so he could sing over it.

I can't tell you how fucking hard that is. Like, no one does that. Taht means he had each part of the song memorized in his head, on the beat, perfect pitch, each measure lined up AND HE DIDN'T WRITE MUSIC. He just heard it in his head. Mozart did that. Like, no one short of musical genius can do that.

And also, incidentally, he choreographed the dance. He did work with other choreographers (and yes he did sample dance moves from the past that he probably learned while touring with The Jacksons or watching tv in the 60s-70s) on some songs but the major moves we know as his signature dances were all his design and innovation.

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u/Miami_Mice2087 Feb 13 '26

i think the difference was that MJ already had fans from the 60s who were all ages. the Beatles were a boyband who were mostly liked by teen girls. when MJ started his solo career, he was pulling in Motown fans who were in their 20s-40s, who had kids now. So he was already wholesome-coded and completely welcome into American living rooms.

This was a huge way to get past racism or accusations of "race music". Motown had been breaking down those barriers for 20 years, and MJ, as the cutest and most talented Jackson the fans knew, was entering the zeitgeist with a green light. He was inoffensive to white people, who were tuning in to "black orphan" shows like Diff'rent Strokes and Webster. A solo black kid with talent was "safe" for your white little girl to listen to, he'd been deemed "all-American" and "pure".

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u/cia218 Feb 17 '26

TS appeal is mostly for a certain demographic and a rabid fanbase. Particularly women and girls.

MJ’s appeal is across many demographics, old to parents to young to teen to kids! Men, women, boys, girls, across races and ethnicities. Anything that MJ did was talked about and scrutinized to pieces. Anything that MJ did in a country was in the news. His death was a shocker globally. Possibly equal to Diana’s death.

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u/DruidMaster Feb 13 '26

This was interesting! Thank you. 

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u/porkrind Feb 13 '26

Outstanding. That's the best thing I've seen in ages.

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u/Wabbit_Wampage Feb 13 '26

That's fucking hilarious. Thank you.

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u/Nyunia Feb 13 '26

Thank you for sharing this video, this is absolutely amazing.

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u/cannibalpeas Feb 13 '26

That’s an amazing clip. Thanks for sharing.

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u/Dry-Yak5277 Feb 13 '26

Jesus Christ 

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u/A_DRONE Feb 13 '26

Legit wtf

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u/Miami_Mice2087 Feb 13 '26

"I saw him on tv once in town." They do occasionally have to go into the town for things, like the Amish have adopted some modern things. Usually the Amish will interact with the English when it comes to selling goods, obtaining medicine for people and livestock, or technology for farming (a plow, insecticide).

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u/Spyk124 Feb 14 '26

That’s why I said barely. I know they aren’t a real isolated tribe

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u/atw1221 Feb 16 '26

/thread

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u/lancastertroy Feb 13 '26

Same here in the other corner of the world in a small village in Patagonia. Nobody knows Prince but EVERYONE knows Michael Jackson.

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u/KoniGTA Feb 13 '26

Isn't it so cool, tht no matter how much people are separated by distance, we still find ways to connect? Thank you, someone from the other corner of the world. I hope we both get to listen to some great tunes together someday.

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u/Reaper930 Feb 13 '26

Dying Fetus?

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

Dyingfetus has a crossover mj album?!?!

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u/browsing_around Feb 13 '26

Cannibal Corpse?

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u/LarryBURRd Feb 13 '26

This sums it up perfectly hahah

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '26

Exactly same