Right now he is 2nd with his album "Thriller" right behind "The Eagles Greatest Hits Album" (29 Million units) for the best selling album of all time, short of 1 million. With his sudden death, I am pretty sure that he will surpass this landmark achievement of beating The Eagles. However If Thriller manages to sell 2 million extra, Michael Jackson will be the only person in history to have a 3x Diamond status album. However with the overall lack of sales with CD's, would he be able to reach an extra 2 Million in Physical CD sales?

For those that don't know, when an album that sells 10+ million (double disc albums count for 2), the RIAA Certifies the album as Diamond status. The First album to reach this achievement is "The Beatles - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band." However in most recent years, heavy hitters like Kanye West, Rihanna, Coldplay, Lil' Wayne, and Beyonce are only reaching under 3x Platinumn status.

What are the problems that not only "Thriller" is facing towards Album sales, but as the music industry as whole? One obvious culprit is of course internet distribution, piracy, and iTunes sales. However there are other theories I think are a major factor:

1. Music Diversity has become like cable. With the wider selection of music on the internet, it has evened out the playing field for most artist to get the same exposure as their more mainstream counterparts.

2. In the 90's and early 2000, Young kids that have that extra money were spending their extra disposable mony on CD's. However that trend has changed towards videogames.

3. Music has a see-saw battle either favoring the sale of Albums and Singles throughout history. Mo-Town days were more focused on selling the singles as they were pumped out more repeatedly. Then in the 60's and 70's LP vinyls were becoming more popular and albums were becoming more concept like Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon."

4. Now with internet distribution and the technology of making music on computers, artist can just upload thier completed song in a few minutes. This also coincides with the fact that it is alot quicker to download one song than to download a whole album. We have yet to have internet speeds to download albums under 10 minutes. Keep in mind that only 20 percent of Americans actually have Broadband Connection in the US Today.

Do you think the love of MJ can offset the current trend of digital consumption and peopel buying the physical media? Or does it even matter that Michael Jackson even meet trivial statistic achievement and his music itself is more important?

The Roots & Erykah Badu - I Wanna Be Where You Are (Michael Jackson Cover)

The Roots & Erykah Badu - Billie Jean

Michael Jackson was the best at what he did. His numbers don't lie, selling 211 million albums before he died. Michael Jackson's Legacy is the impitamy of what all artist want in their own career. What he did to obtain that was no easy task.

Michael Jackson's albums always changed and never repeated. Every single he put out was vastly different and told a story, whether it was "Billie Jean" is not his kid to telling gangs to stop fighting in "Beat It." Who would of thought that singing about zombies would be one of the biggest selling songs of all time?

Michael Jackson always made sure that he visually expressed himself. Music videos were individually treated with creative storytelling and variety that accompanied the song being played. Even with his performances, he included flawless choreography and signature moves like moonwalking. Even his clothing was a statement of his artistic creativity as he would wear red leather jackets, sequin single gloves, and even ripped white tees.

While many artist try to at least achieve a portion of his sucess in their career, why do many artists and music labels continue to do the Exact Opposite of what he did in his career?

It's obsurd that many artist refuse to change their musical styles and continue to pump out the same content as if they were working at a fast food place making Whoppers for their fans. The public is no different as they are quick to call artist "Sellouts" once their sound changes.

Music videos are becoming egotistic masturbation sessions to glorify that we now see today. I think the most horrible offender was Mariah Carey in her So-Called Tribute to loss ones "Bye-Bye" in which the video was her gloating that she is famous and married to Nick Cannon.

So why is that Michael Jackson showed us that innovation is the key, yet there are still a majority of artist still sticking to the same formula and being safe?

James Morrison - Man In The Mirror

Alicia Keys - Human Nature

Just Remember what he did:

Michael Jackson - PYT (Pretty Young Thing)

With the explosion of new sounding talent in music that comes in from Kid Cudi to Passion Pit (as some would dub as Blogoshere Music) I still get upset when certain people say "I can't wait until this Fad Music leaves so that normal music come back." This made me realize that a good portion of this country hates creativity and wants stagnant repetition.

Isn't the lack of creativity part of the problem that got us into this economy in the first place? A bunch of people (and I mean a good percentage of the population) were trying to make that quick money in swapping debt and loans in the financial market and now has fallen since it wasn't 100 percent guarentee. Now those same people (stock brokers, realtors, Corporate Shrills) are waiting for the jobs to be available to continue their same habits.

Even in Rap today, I hear thugadocious rappers still claiming they are keeping their music "Real" with the Murder Murder, Kill Kill, Bitches Hoes lyrics and cheap beats for bucks. Hip-Hop started as a rebellion of what was the mainstream then. Then Hip-Hop started to evolve to other genres based on East Coast, West Coast, and Dirrty South.

However how is it that when the business men got involved, they stop letting Hip-Hop evolve and focused and marketed the acts that rapped the murder murder kill kill, misogyny rhymes. Just like in the civil war era when Racist Whites (Note that I put "Racist" whites and not ALL white people) were being entertained by Black entertainers in the form of ministrel shows, we still continue to have people on the radio like Hurricane Cris rapping gibberish like "Ay Bay bay" that don't know that a "C" note is a musical Note.

And yet rappers continue the argument that they are making people like themselves when in actually they are making music for people like this:

It's this market that these Major labels are trying to sell because they have the more disposable money to spend on "Disposable Entertainment" such as Soulja Boy. This guy doesn't live anywhere near the hood as he only sees it through rap videos.

So why are we still scared to think different? This video explains how our education system is not allowing creative thought:

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

Onto the music:

Modest Mouse - Autumn Beds

5 O'Clock Shadowboxers - Weak Stomach

lupe fiasco - shining down ft. matthew santos

“The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is.” -Yoda Star Wars II:Attack of the Clones

In the current future true hope seems to be less and less common to come by. The hope that is widespread nowadays is often based mostly on deception. Take for instance why most of us went to college. To get ahead of the curve financially right? Well turns out that "curve" is laced with a healthy dose of debt also.

Isn't that strange how you in a sense are making just as much financially as those without degrees nowadays. Then there is this idea that you need to work,work, work so that you can spend, spend, spend. It's all to keep strengthening our economy right? Sounds normal, right?

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda -Star Wars IV: The Empire Strikes Back

Fear, Anger,Hate... three keys of post 2001 thinking. I remember people being angry at Bush, being angry at muslims, angry at anything really. Yet if you look today you can see that plain out hate has just begun to occupy most of our politics and pop culture. PTI is the most popular show on ESPN. All they do is hate on each others ideas all day. Perez Hilton became popular for hating on celebs. Then there is the ridiculous amount of hate for President Obama who has barely spent his first 100 days in Office yet is "The worse president ever". Or the current Charles Hamilton hatred on the net(Well hate on the net in general is strong)?

Why does this seem to be so easy to swallow? Because the Dark Side has now won. Sadly the Star Wars prequels tell a very similar story of our world today. Where the majority Hansel and Gretal there lives into the "Nice lady's" Candy house. Yet few are asking where did this candy house come from in the first place or why is this lady offering these goods to us. Meanwhile the resistance has a hard time finding out who is behind this all because the Jedi's are spread thin across the world. While the main culprit Senator Palpatine continues to throw off the side of good with deception. Like how the thousands of clones in media. How is it that we never saw this coming? Kind of similar to the creation of the Clone Army unknowingly to the Jedi.

"You must unlearn what you have learned." "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will..." Yoda

To be summed up. A lot of this American Way we have been fed is Capitalist propaganda. Do not embrace this fear. The swine flu will not kill u most likely, Y2k never happened, are borders have always been threatened not just from radical terrorist either. Yes it is hard to accept at first and hurts that you have been mislead. But the resistance will always keep fighting on. Are "New Hope" is always just around the corner.

May the force be with you

Justa

Onto The Music!

Fanfarlo - Finish Line

Little Dragon - After the Rain (Trackademicks Remix)

RIch Hil ft. Kid CuD - Girls Sounds Colors