Michael Jackson: Classic or Dud?

HIStory and Dangerous are ridiculously underrated. Sure, they're a big departure from Off The Wall and Thriller, but they sounded distinctive and considerably more courageous than a lot of other pop pap out at the time. Forget Black Or White or the execrable Childhood, listen to Jam, She Drives Me Wild, In The Closet, Who Is It, Scream, They Don't Care About Us, Money, Tabloid Junkie, 2Bad, HIStory, even the remix album had high-calibre tracks like Morphine and Ghosts, and none of these sounded remotely like anything else on pop radio at the time. I happen to think they sounded mighty funky.

The most recent album is a total dud though, mostly because (apart from 2000 Watts) it's full of songs that sound like they really really care about being hits, and really really want to sound like all the other songs that have been hits recently. For the first time ever it is Michael Jackson trying desperately to sound like something other than himself, and it fails miserably.

Almost everything else is CLASSIC, CLASSIC, CLASSIC.

Even Off The Wall and Thriller are just PRETTY GOOD despite getting the collective nod from most sides as being the over-exposed weirdo's golden era.

But he's a hands-down classic for his legacy as a freakshow media juggernaut alone, ongoing as it is into it's fourth goddam decade!

Whoever saw such a public spectacle than this ageing, trans-racial, trans-gendered, trans-humanist effigy - shyly, yet boldly parading himself through the media hoisted upon his own shoulders?!?

IMO it was what you call "watering down" that made it better than other R&B.

hey! ageism! and not true for everyone.. alex in nyc is a lot older than that! (yeah?)

And Geir, I don't quite understand your question.

If it's the former, then I don't have much of a view either way, it's not great, but in the spectrum of bad lyrics I think it's insignificant.

If it's the latter, I strongly disagree. I never saw ANYTHING remotely offensive or anti-Semetic about that line - surely it's crystal clear (though it didn't seem to be to the world media) to any person who, er, can read, that it was basically saying "yeah, do whatever the hell you want to me, kick me, call me a kike, I remain unbowed"? The whole controversy was absurd. The fact that he eventually changed the lines (to something stupid like "do me, sue me, kick me, strike me") is even more absurd. He should have stuck to his guns.

I just turned 36. Michael Jackson is, was, and invariably always will be a deplorably overrated side-show freak. Shun him.

via NewsNow this was on the news wire:

The Essential Michael Jackson To Be Released
http://www.undercover.com.au/news/2005/jun05/20050630_michaeljackson.html

Sony-BMG will release the 2CD Michael Jackson compilation, 'The Essential Michael Jackson' on July 15.

Stay tuned...

(almost)

Using the term "Jew" (a noun, an ethnic identifier - NOT A VERB) to connote a negative, stereotyped behavior is totally anti-semitic. gimme a fucking break.

Just bugs me.

It's on-the-nose.

Um, the Stones? McCartney? Robert Plant? Ozzy? (I know, I shouldn't take the bait...)

But let's be honest, he's funkier than those dudes.

in the genitals?

However, he isn't even one hundredth of the Godlike creature that his fanatical fans have turned him into.

Uh, a fan of Michael Jackson's music!

I stand by every word of it.

Lowkey have been loving that since it came out

that song was getting played constantly when it was "finished" and it was always a joy to hear. I think they did a great job making it sound both modern and like one of those later Jacksons hits

rest of the album was kinda weird though, pretty 'good' in a sense but there's definitely something going on with the vocals that's a bit creepy

The breakdown with the "Working Day & Night" percussion gets me in the gut every time

i'm pretty impressed with this so far (only up to "place with no name" which is great)

pretty 'good' in a sense but there's definitely something going on with the vocals that's a bit creepy

not picking up on this, you thinking too much autotune?

I wish I could wipe JT's glassy-eyed smirk from the video, but it's a jam

Ditto; it's an extremely well edited video aside from including JT

I wish I could wipe JT's glassy-eyed smirk from the video, but it's a jam

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, February 14, 2023 9:26 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglinkI wish I could wipe JT's glassy-eyed smirk from the video, but it's a jam

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, February 14, 2023 9:26 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

on the plus side, when i was just listening to it i honestly couldn't tell he was on the song

not picking up on this, you thinking too much autotune?

it's not all the tracks but there are a few that feel so cut and paste where you can tell it was assembled from a bunch of different takes, which I think is kind of odd given his vocal approach. clearly they wanted all those MJ signature vocal tics but they all sound like they're pulled from different recordings, so it has a real stuttered flow to it. and yeah the autotune is a bit much in spots, like "Slave to the Rhythm" right now kinda sounds like an AI bot during the verses. admittedly this is just kind of how pop music is made nowadays, so maybe it's just knowing MJ was dead when it came out really that makes the necromancy apparent. it's actually a bit uncomfortable knowing it's probably better than an album he would've made while he was still alive.

ah gotcha

what went wrong after 1995? were the accusations proved on trial? who were mj enemies?

wonder who transcribed the lyrics to billie jean home demo

https://i.imgur.com/0FO8ae5.png

is there anywhere you can hear him directing his siblings singing the choir to billie jean as he's writing it? or is that just a story I read somewhere

on another note can't believe "Chicago" is one of his most popular songs now? maybe a tiktok thing

I happened upon Nelson George's Thriller: 40 the other night: while I certainly think a close examination of how the music is made, the context in which it occurred, should be the paramount rationale, I was struck that no mention was made of the fact that even then Jackson's megalomania was ascending; his obsession with being the biggest and the best deserves to be interrogated, in light of History in 1995, where his fixation on his near deification becomes particularly demented. You don't have to talk about his paedophilia or his efforts to erase his physical connection to his heritage to acknowledge that he was deeply disturbed.

the story that sticks out is after Thriller sets a record by selling something like 80 million copies, he tells everyone he wants Bad to sell 160 million. which apparently he was serious about! its like if the night after Wilt scored 100 points he went out and said "I'm gonna score 200 in the next one"