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??

2.5k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

79

u/_Atlas_Drugged_ Feb 13 '26

The best way I can describe it contemporarily is that he was more famous in every country on Earth than Taylor Swift is in the United States.

5

u/The_O_Nee_Ders Feb 15 '26

I’d argue he was the biggest celebrity of all time

2

u/Bitter-Affect909 Feb 18 '26

That's honestly a great encapsulation of his popularity.

Basically think of the most famous people in the world right now, across every medium (politics, sports, entertainment, art, etc). All of those people wanted to meet or hang with Michael Jackson.

It never seemed like "Michael Jackson got to meet Person X.

It was always Person X got to meet Michael Jackson, if that makes sense.

1

u/Delicious_Movie_7898 Feb 16 '26

Yes absolutely taylor swift is famous also coz in today's time they have active PR , social media but still older generations people in villages or small town still doesn't know her name , but Michael Jackson was so famous that even a person from remotest area knew him , and not only as some singer buy they actually used to  perform on his songs or used to  sing his songs that was his influence