Post a controversial music opinion

Yes hi Fishbone, Oingo Boingo and Devo are my favorite bands (I'm from Los Angeles)

^ these are all very good bands! (I'm not from Los Angeles)

Oingo Boingo was once upon a time my favorite band. One of my first real concerts was seeing them at a small theatre in Fresno. I have all their albums on cassette in a closet somewhere, but tbh I rarely listen to full albums by them. “Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me” is still a banger.

Back when I paid close attention to lyrics and still believed in the idea of "subversive" pop culture, so when I was like 13-15, Oingo Boingo felt super-subversive to me. I owned a bunch of their albums and a best-of from their early years.

Listen to Nothing To Fear really loud. It's aged very well and produced amazingly

I'm not a Boingo superfan or anything but I like 'em fine, or did when I used to bring a best of CD on road trips. "Who Do You Want To Be" is good adrenaline driving music imo.

hole > nirvana was a classic ilx opinion from back in the day

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

I am in the right place then lol

btw to all of my fellow peers who think LTT is >NEVERMIND/IN UTERO check out Rob Harvilla's "doll parts" episode of '60 songs that explain the 90's' :

https://www.theringer.com/2022/6/15/23168672/courtney-love-hole-doll-parts-live-through-this-podcast

Some great insights on why Courtney Love was in many ways more fit for the 'rockstar' moniker than Kurt Cobain.

Regarding Janet Jackson > Michael Jackson I'm aware it's a more personal (and I admit controversial) opinion but by the numbers I don't see how she's not at least at the same level as her brother:

The run from Control > Rhythm Nation 1814 > Janet. > Velvet Rope is in many ways more influential for the music I actually love than Off the Wall > Thriller > Bad. And despite that incredible 3 album run by Michael he really fell off in quality imho after Bad. Janet's quality falls off just slightly after Velvet Rope but she was still releasing the goods; "All For You", "Damita Jo", "Discipline" and "Unbreakable" still deliver some grade a cuts and some of the most successful singles in her career. The only "not great" album I can think about after Velvet Rope is "20 YO".

Ok maybe Discipline is a bit mid too.

Maybe a bit less controversial opinion would be Janet Jackson's singles > Michael Jackson's singles /// Janet Jackson's albums < Michael Jackson's albums

But then there's songs like Velvet Rope's "empty" or "my need" which are amongst my favorite cuts from her and they weren't singles.

Fuck it I stand by my initial controversial opinion that Janet > Michael

Michael Jackson was an artist of his time (early 70s to late 80s — a pretty long run) whose cultural relevance has almost entirely faded, more due to the rise of hip-hop than the allegations against him. But he doesn't mean shit to kids.

I mean I’d argue that Janet Jackson isn’t that hot with the kids nowadays either but fuck them kids.

Michael Jackson was an artist of his time (early 70s to late 80s — a pretty long run) whose cultural relevance has almost entirely faded, more due to the rise of hip-hop than the allegations against him. But he doesn't mean shit to kids.

― but also fuck you (unperson),

This is 100% untrue. My students know "Beat It," "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough," and a few of the other monster hits. He has NOT gone away.

However, Janet Jackson is completely lost to time.

Yeah i feel like MJ's relevance peaked relatively recently, he seems like an important archetype for different kinds of pop artists. Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, The Weeknd, etc. Even Ariana Grande in a sense.

My 8th grade history teacher used to treat us to selections from Velvet Rope in his piercing falsetto, even that didn't ruin it for me.

He said it was too mature an album for kids to like it, maybe he was onto something.

and MJ's all over terrestrial radio. I'm not suggesting the kids listen to radio, but he's waaaaaay more present than Janet Jackson.

I don’t think it’s controversial that Michael Jackson has more cultural relevance than Janet. It was true 30 years ago and it’s still true today. This is like comparing The Beatles vs The Beach Boys

MJ's trajectory might actually be closer to the BB's by every measure other than scale.

My controversial opinion, for this Taylor Swift era we are living in, is that Reputation is her second-best album. (I think I’ve said as much on here elsewhere in the past)

Janet Jackson is completely lost to time.

(Cries in Tito)

I saw Sister Double Happiness slotted between Hole and Nirvana and they were the best band of the night.

MJ still feels plenty relevant to me, moreso than pretty much any other of the megastars of that era. if nothing else it sure feels like Thriller is still the blueprint for a lot of big pop albums lately

https://i.imgur.com/MU26E0c.jpg

ContOp: Eternal - Breathe EP (esp the title song) >>>>>>> any Slowdive recording

I would certainly rather have seen Sister Double Happiness than Nirvana or Hole. Their major label album, Heart and Mind, was one of the most overlooked records of 1991.

janet > michael is a very easy argument to make except re: success, cultural legacy etc. but of course michael's legacy is a fair bit more mixed these days

janet's run from control to all for you is something pretty much no other major pop act (maybe only prince?) can compete with. she's still cited as an influence regularly enough, just it's rare for anyone to be obviously imitating her in the way that say, the weeknd or timberlake have with mj.

^ Missy, imo

That is, Missy can compete (and supersedes both of the Jacksons, imo!)

I was mostly keeping it in the family with the kurt/courtney michael/janet comparison.

There’s probably thousands of artists that saw massive success and cultural legacy with 3/4+ great album runs as good if not better than the jackson’s.

Sister Double Happiness are great and deserved platinum status

NOT CONTROVERSIAL

"were" great I guess

Also Prince’s 80’s run is perhaps the best album run of all time but that’s hardly controversial.

There’s probably thousands of artists that saw massive success and cultural legacy with 3/4+ great album runs as good if not better than the jackson’s.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, July 26, 2023 7:11 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thousands ? Now, that's controversial.

Neil Peart ruined Rush.

Rush ruined Neil Peart.

cool that we have a thread equivalent of the gig bathroom wall

Janet's Unbreakable is wonderful.

Just wanted to add that my 11-year old son is a Michael Jackson fan. So he still seems to have some currency with the youth.

cool that we have a thread equivalent of the gig bathroom wall

― imago, Wednesday, July 26, 2023 5:49 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Future posts must be submitted in the "[x artist] roolz [x artist] droolz" format

Thousands ? Now, that's controversial.

― Nabozo

Lol ok, if it’s strictly pop remove a zero: Hundreds. There must be at least 100 pop artists with 3 good albums in a run.

What is the parameter though? Is Missy pop or hip hop? What about the Beatles or the Beach Boys?

Michael Jackson is by far and away the most popular "heritage" act with my younger (18-25) dancers. I don't play anything of his stuff post-Thriller bcz REASONS, so his biggest 10 tracks are, in descending order: Billie Jean, Thriller, Don't Stop TYGE, I Want You Back, Blame It On The Boogie, Rock With You, Shake Your Body (DTTG), Wanna Be Startin Somethin, ABC, Off The Wall. (I've never played Beat It, although I probably should. And I've never played Can You Feel It, because I don't care for it much.)

You can't feel it?

lol

i feel like the janet > michael argument is harder to make if you factor in the classic jackson five singles

Sadly, the only Janet singles that work with my crowd are "Together Again" and the CJ Mackintosh remix of "The Best Things In Life Are Free". You'd have thought that at least "When I Think Of You" and "All For You" would have been fine, but nah.

i feel like the jam/lewis and new jack swing/riley type of production feels kind of archaic now