Bad
by Michael Jackson
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Michael Jackson bestography
Bad is ranked 3rd best out of 25 albums by Michael Jackson on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Michael Jackson is Thriller which is ranked number 63 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 15,987.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Bad on YouTube
Bad track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Bad rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 6 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Squonk007 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 33/100 | 14 |
| 2026 | Rm12398 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 28/100 | 15 |
| 2026 | pjr428 | Top 25 Music Albums of 1987 | 5/25 | 4 |
| 2026 | Hyggevinyl | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 75/100 | 5 |
| 2026 | Hyggevinyl | Top 52 Music Albums of 1987 | 2/52 | 5 |
| 2026 | emiro | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 95/100 | 6 |
| 2026 | stanchoiaz | Top 53 Music Albums of the 1980s | 13/53 | 15 |
| 2026 | emiro | Top 35 Music Albums of the 1980s | 14/35 | 13 |
| 2026 | Olli | Top 100 Music Albums of 1987 | 27/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | jonny5244 | Top 26 Music Albums of 1987 | 5/26 | 4 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 617 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 4,220 | |||
Bad collection
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Bad ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 951 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 10/13/2026 19:24 | emiro | 170 | 86/100 |
| ! | 10/10/2026 18:36 | Artem | 872 | 77/100 |
| ! | 10/03/2026 18:06 | Siromynian | 1,789 | 74/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 4% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 76.4/100, a mean average of 74.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 76.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 18.4.
Bad favourites
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Bad forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 10/10/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5461): By steve397View latest topic →
Purplepash 09/08/2026 08:44 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) BestEverAlbums 04/01/2026 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movements - March 2026View latest topic →
View all forum mentions
Bad comments
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At times, I wonder if this is actually better than Thriller. Right now, I say it's not, but it still is much closer than it often gets credit for. Establishes him as one of the greats.
A monolithic pop funk record. Don't know if this is the best Michael Jackson record. But I would argue this is one of the best 80's records out there.
Quite a step down from the amazing Thriller. There are a few awesome songs on here ("Smooth Criminal" is one of Michael's finest songs), but there are unfortunately quite a bit of trash too ("Just Good Friends" is the worst of them). The album also has this kind of cold, harsh 80's production, that I'm not too big a fan of either.
joannajewsom 03/22/2018 22:15 | #211516 | TOP COMMENT
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Another Part of Me is his best song.
Bad inevitably failed to match Thriller both in terms of success and artistically.
There’s no artistic achievements like Beat It or Billie Jean and it’s not as consistant as Thriller.
However it still a fascinating record because it was almost impossible to follow an album like Thriller but MJ was still able to create great pop songs like Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Smooth Criminal, Dirty Diana, (the bonus Leave Me Alone) and of course Man In The Mirror.
The videos from the album are fantastic too.
Bad produced 5 number 1 singles and sold over 35 million copies, in fact it’s only a disappointment when we think of Thriller who set the bar too high.
But Bad stand the test of time and it’s a classic today, his singles are still played on radio all over the world and some music critics finally recognize it as one of the greatest of the 80s and of all time.
A classic of pop. 9.5/10
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