World celebrates ‘Thriller’ 30th anniversary (VIDEO)
Michael Jackson holds several of the many awards he won at the 1984 Grammy Awards for “Thriller.”
Thirty years ago today, Michael Jackson made music history with the release of "Thriller."
The album — which produced the hits "Thriller," "Beat It," "Billie Jean," "Wanna Be Startin Something" and more — became and remains the best-selling album of all time, according to ABC News.
More from GlobalPost: Michael Jackson: Third anniversary of King of Pop's death (VIDEO)
Billboard's Steve Greenberg writes the album broke down racial barriers and changed the way Americans viewed music.
"What "Thriller" taught us was that the right star, with the right product and the right technological environment, always has the ability to move us and to unite us all," he wrote.
More from GlobalPost: Michael Jackson was drinking heavily, paranoid and anxious in final weeks
In an interview with CNN, Eddie Van Halen reminisced about his "Beat It" collaboration with Jackson, a favor he did for Quincy Jones while the rest of his Van Halen bandmates were out of town.
"It seems like yesterday, doesn't it," he told the network. "It would have been fun to work with him again."
Songwriter Siedah Garrett, who worked with Jackson on his next album "Bad," told NPR that "Thriller" was the first time she started looking at who wrote the songs — not just who sings them.
"It was like the only other record that I had this feeling about where I could drop the needle anywhere and listen to it from front to back over and over again was 'Off the Wall,'" she said.