With Off the Wall, Michael Jackson set a milestone in the history of pop and at the age of only 20 he already demonstrated his top class as a musician and creative visionary. With this album he surpassed all existing sales records of African American musicians at that time and was able to set unprecedented records in airplay, chart performance and sales figures with his crossover of R&B and pop. For the Rolling Stone it was clear that Michael Jackson had invented "modern pop music as we know it" thanks to Off the Wall.