The Michael Effect
How a wildly popular biopic made Michael Jackson as big as today's top superstars
Take a gander at Spotify’s chart of the 200 most-streamed songs in the U.S.A. Alongside the latest hits from Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, and Ella Langley for the week ending June 25th, 2026 are numerous songs from Michael Jackson. Those songs cover five decades of Michael Jackson’s work, from the Jackson 5’s debut smash “I Want You Back”, to his largely forgotten “You Rock My World.”
On April 10th, there were no Michael Jackson songs on the Spotify 200.
You already know the reason is Michael, the hugely popular biopic depicting Michael Jackson’s life from the boy wonder of Gary, Indiana through the late 1980s, back before things got really weird. Michael has already become the highest grossing biography of a musician, surpassing 2019’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Three weeks after the film’s U.S. release, fans played Jackson’s songs almost 63 million times (and that’s just the songs reaching the Spotify 200.). Almost 9% of all streams on the Spotify 200 that peak week were for Jackson titles, For the entire month of April 2026, Michael Jackson was the second most-played artist on Spotify in the U.S. Only Noah Kahan and Drake, who both released new albums in April, eclipsed Jackson
Fans started streaming a wide variety of Jackson’s discography. Of course many are from Thriller (1982), as well as from Bad (1987) and Dangerous (1991). Fans also reached back to Off The Wal (1979) and the Jackson 5’s fist massive hit “I Want You Back” (1969). The song that might most surprise you is “Chicago,” a 1999 recording that remained unreleased until 2014. In total, 16 different songs have appeared on the Spotify 200 chart recently thanks to Michael.
At their peak, “Billie Jean” received over eight million plays a week, “Chicago” got over seven million weekly streams, while “Beat It” and “Human Nature” both got played over six million times each that week. That’s more streams for the biggest Michael Jackson titles than the big current hits from Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, and Olivia Dean received.
It’s not a given that a biopic will rejuvenate interest in a legend’s work enough to generate massive streaming of their hits. The 2020s saw biopics about Aretha Franklin (Respect), Whitney Houston (I Wanna Dance with Somebody), Elvis Presley (Elvis), and Amy Winehouse (Back to Black) and none of these artists saw any songs chart on the Spotify 200 as a result of their portrayals. Even A Complete Unknown, the highly popular film about Bob Dylan, failed to bring back his songs.
The only artist biopic from this decade that did so was 2024’s Bob Marley: One Love, which boosted Bob Marley & The Wailers’ “Could You Be Loved” onto the Spotify 200 for two weeks.
The only biopic comparable to Michael
The only biopic with a comparable impact on streaming is Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic of Freddie Mercury that was the biggest grossing musical biography until Michael. It pushed seven different Queen tracks onto the Spotify 200 in late 2018 and 2019.
At their peak in November 2018, however, the total weekly streams for those Queen songs were less than 15 million, a scant 2% of all streams in the Spotify 200 that week.
Queen’s streams received another boost when Bohemian Rhapsody swept the Oscars and remaining members of Queen along with Adam Lambert performed “We Will Rock You” / “We Are the Champions”. That boost ultimately kept the title track on the lower rungs of the Spotify 200 all the way until the 2019 holiday season.
How did Michael Jackson’s biopic spawn such strong streaming, when other icons from Whitney Houston to Bob Dylan didn’t?
1) An Artist with multi-generational appeal
Thriller made him an icon with Generation X, but Michael Jackson’s appeal spans four generations: Boomers embraced the Jackson 5 from the start, sending their first four hits to #1 on the Hot 100. Millennials and Generation Z have also embraced Jackson’s music as timeless.
Queen, the only other artist whose biopic generated significant streaming, also enjoys multi-generational appeal, but Michael has another advantage over Queen.
In contrast, I hate to bear the news, Boomers, but most Generation Xers think Bob Dylan is overrated. Millennials and Generation Z don’t even know why he’s a legend.
2) A long and deep library
From The Jackson 5’s 1969 chart debut to 1995’s HIStory, Michael Jackson was a consistent hitmaker for over a quarter of a century. He’s also scored 30 Top 10 hits and 13 #1 hits on the Hot 100 as a solo artist. That’s on top of the Jackson 5’s eight Top 10 and four #1 hits.
Jackson is also a holiday staple, with the Jackson 5’s “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” a part of the Christmas cannon and “Thriller” now a defining Halloween song.
In contrast, Queen was only crafting hits for less than a decade. Furthermore, their catalog lacks the depth of Jackson’s: Despite being a Classic Rock radio mainstay, Queen only reached the Hot 100’s Top 10 four times during Freddie Mercury’s lifetime. (”Bohemian Rhapsody” returned Queen to prominence and made them a Generation X favorite thanks to Wayne’s World in 1992.)
3) A culture primed for nostalgia
Between the lackluster state of current hit music and a culture seeking refuge from fearful times, the timing is perfect for people to latch on to a classic.
Mass appeal still matters
As soon as Napster made music on the internet a thing, pundits assured us the monoculture was dead: With infinite choices and endless personalization, no one would ever settle for the same choices as everyone else ever again. A quarter century later, Michael Jackson’s Spotify takeover demonstrates that appealing to a wide variety of passionate fans is still a winning formula, even when the goal is amassing streaming plays.
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Date sources for this article:
Spotify Charts (weeks of 11/1/2018 through 6/25/2026 for the USA): https://charts.spotify.com/charts/overview/us
The Billboard Hot 100: https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100
Wikipedia’s Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 singles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_top-ten_singles