The importance of Michael Jackson s Off the Wall cannot be overstated. Recorded when he was just 20 years old, the album heralded Michael s stunning emancipation as a singular musical force and creative visionary. It smashed the ceiling on record sales for black artists, ushering in an exciting new era of R&B-to-pop crossover airplay, chart, marketing and sales trends not seen before in modern pop music. It s the record that invented modern pop as we know it, wrote Rolling Stone. For fellow black artists of the day, Michael served as an illuminating inspiration.
Written by Michael Jackson, the first single from Off The Wall, Don t Stop Til You Get Enough , was Michael s first Grammy and first single to hit #1 in the U.S. and internationally as a solo artist. With the singles Rock With You , Off the Wall and She s Out of My Life Jackson became the first solo artist in history to have four singles from the same album peak inside the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. The album was an enormous commercial success; as of 2014 it is certified eight times platinum in the United States and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.