I can't pick his albums like that because they're special in different ways.
Off The Wall secured his place beyond his family band, gave him critical adoration, pushed disco and funk to new places and cemented Michael as an American icon in modern commercial music.
Thriller will always be what made him one of the musical trinity alongside Elvis and The Beatles. It's the record that had the most impact on his life, on music, on the industry and on popular culture.
Bad will be his hit-singles album, the record that gave him effortless success and showcased his abilities as the definitive touring artist of the decade.
Dangerous is his new-direction album, where he left the safety of Quincy behind and tried new genres and themes, and took risks he never dared to on his 1980s LPs. It's the era where he relished his highest stardom (Super bowl half-time show reinvention, Grammy Legend Award, Oprah interview, Black or White premiere), and ended with his unparalleled fall from grace.
HIStory is his best-written, most personal, and by far his most meaningful album. It contains more themes, genres and exploration than his previous albums combined. It's concurrently bizarre, angry, insane, scared, devastated and triumphant. It's Michael being the artist without the glitz he was the master of before the mid-1990s.
I can't pick his albums like that because they're special in different ways.
Off The Wall secured his place beyond his family band, gave him critical adoration, pushed disco and funk to new places and cemented Michael as an American icon in modern commercial music.
Thriller will always be what made him one of the musical trinity alongside Elvis and The Beatles. It's the record that had the most impact on his life, on music, on the industry and on popular culture.
Bad will be his hit-singles album, the record that gave him effortless success and showcased his abilities as the definitive touring artist of the decade.
Dangerous is his new-direction album, where he left the safety of Quincy behind and tried new genres and themes, and took risks he never dared to on his 1980s LPs. It's the era where he relished his highest stardom (Super bowl half-time show reinvention, Grammy Legend Award, Oprah interview, Black or White premiere), and ended with his unparalleled fall from grace.
HIStory is his best-written, most personal, and by far his most meaningful album. It contains more themes, genres and exploration than his previous albums combined. It's concurrently bizarre, angry, insane, scared, devastated and triumphant. It's Michael being the artist without the glitz he was the master of before the mid-1990s.
This analysis
The only thing I would add is that Bad probably put him up there in the music trinity instead of Thriller. It showed people he wasn't done after Thriller and it kind of cemented his status as the King Of Pop. Just like no one was topping Thriller, no one was topping Bad either.
I would really like that Dangerous 25 but I don't know about a new posthumous. I actually didn't like Xscape very much. Not only because of the remixes but they took the majority of them from musically his worst era, Invincible. Sorry but even as an MJ fan the only songs I use off of that album are Rock My World, Butterflies, Unbreakable, and Break Of Dawn.
I don't think we'll get a HIStory re-release though. I don't think it was big enough that enough people will feel nostaglic about it enough to buy it.
How can you not use Whatever Happens and Privacy?! They're gems! I like 2000 Watts too just because it showcases his lower register.
I don't think we'll get a HIStory re-release either but I just wish we could. If there were demos from that period that I haven't heard I can only imagine...
Let me repost an earlier base-post I feel is poignant:
Quote:
Originally posted by Rusty
Quote:
Although never charged with a crime, Jackson was subject to intense media scrutiny while the criminal investigation took place. Complaints about the coverage and media included using sensational headlines to draw in readers and viewers when the content itself did not support the headline, accepting stories of Jackson's alleged criminal activity in return for money, accepting leaked material from the police investigation in return for money paid, deliberately using pictures of Jackson's appearance at its worst, a lack of objectivity and using headlines that strongly implied Jackson's guilt.
Quote:
Jackson's health had deteriorated to the extent that he canceled the remainder of his Dangerous World Tour and went into rehabilitation. The Daily Mirror held a "Spot the Jacko" contest, offering readers a trip to Walt Disney World if they could correctly predict where the entertainer would appear next. A Daily Express headline read, "Drug Treatment Star Faces Life on the Run", while a News of the World headline accused Jackson of being a fugitive. These tabloids also falsely alleged that Jackson had traveled to Europe to have cosmetic surgery that would make him unrecognizable on his return. Geraldo Rivera set up a mock trial, with a jury made up of audience members, even though Jackson had not been charged with a crime.
On and on and on it came
Wish the rain would just let me
Sorry to bump this base with such a negative post, but sometimes I have to be reminded what Michael had to endure.
It's cute, but if you view the "co-writers and producers" credits... it's barely even a Michael record. He has so many leeching off of him by then the record became a bloated mess that his own label tried to use to bankrupt him.
How can you not use Whatever Happens and Privacy?! They're gems! I like 2000 Watts too just because it showcases his lower register.
I don't think we'll get a HIStory re-release either but I just wish we could. If there were demos from that period that I haven't heard I can only imagine...
Let me repost an earlier base-post I feel is poignant:
Let me go re listen because I honestly haven't heard them in a while but just to add I think the lack of imput he had in Invincible contributed to it being his worst along with his life being in a downward spiral. He only had 1 solo written song on it, and for the songs he co-wrote he had like 4 or 5 co-writers. He even had 2 solo writes on Off The Wall for crying out loud. Also the number of producers for that album was just over the top.
In the base post it makes me really sad when I see stuff like this. Not just because i'm a fan, but as a person. He was already incredibly sensitive but for anyone to be humiliated on that level is just wrong, cruel even. That's exactly why when I read any article, and they call him jacko, I immediatly click off. Disrespectful as hell.
It always surprises me the extent they went to with Michael. When they made fun of Elton John for being flamboyant and in the closet, or when they poked at Madonna for being overly-provocative with everything, or even when they hounded stars who had went through drug-fueled breakdowns like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, it was never as cruel.
Michael was no longer human to the press, he was an alien freak who could only ever be referred to as a punchline for the sake of sales. He was a mix of a monster and a criminal who was so terrible he warranted a trial-by-mob rule. It was like they were the self-appointed townspeople in a hunt for the witch to be burned at the stake, it didn't matter that what they did was illegal, unethical, and could very really have cost a person their freedom. They took away his credit as an artist and visionary, his dignity as a person and his life as he knew it. The moment his heart stopped beating they followed the play he wrote with perfection.
Shoot to kill
To blame him if you will
If he dies sympathize
Such false witnesses
Damn self righteousness
It always surprises me the extent they went to with Michael. When they made fun of Elton John for being flamboyant and in the closet, or when they poked at Madonna for being overly-provocative with everything, or even when they hounded stars who had went through drug-fueled breakdowns like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, it was never as cruel.
Michael was no longer human to the press, he was an alien freak who could only ever be referred to as a punchline for the sake of sales. He was a mix of a monster and a criminal who was so terrible he warranted a trial-by-mob rule. It was like they were the self-appointed townspeople in a hunt for the witch to be burned at the stake, it didn't matter that what they did was illegal, unethical, and could very really have cost a person their freedom. They took away his credit as an artist and visionary, his dignity as a person and his life as he knew it. The moment his heart stopped beating they followed the play he wrote with perfection.
Shoot to kill
To blame him if you will
If he dies sympathize
Such false witnesses
Damn self righteousness
All extremely true. But then again Michael was bigger than all of those people. I mean this guy was the biggest thing since The Beatles. He was the biggest thing in the world. It's like the old saying goes, the bigger than are they harder they fall.
I also think race had a lot to do with it. Realize how Elvis starting seeing Priscilla when she was 13, but do we ever here he being called a pedophile? John Lennon used to beat both his wife and his kid but is he called an abuser? Madonna wrote in her sex book about how she fantasizes about having sex with underage boys but is she labeled as a freak or child abuser? All of them are still praised to the high heavens yet, although not near as much as before he died, MJ still gets pedophile and freak jokes thrown at him, even after his death.
It all started after he bought The Beatles catalouge and it just escalated to dangerous heights from there.
^That's true, but it's not even so much the fact that he had further to fall, it's the force with which he was pushed.
I know it's not an MJ song, but I've always thought of him and what happened to him when I hear this song. The lyrics fit him perfectly:
The MJ song that actually makes me the saddest to hear and the lyrics fit him perfectly is Music And Me, from his pre-Off The Wall album that no one uses lol.
He was only a kid when it was released so of course he didn't write it but it's just so genuine and pure. Before all of the bullcrap there was just the music.
The MESS about Living With Michael Jackson is that I was probably supposed to think, "wow, what a freak." Instead I thought, "wow, this guy is actually kind of interesting."
And there were a slew of Michael Jackson-related television specials and reports following that documentary, including Michael Jackson's Home Movies ("I LOVE to tour"), and I watched them all. He just became more and more intriguing to me.
Finally he got arrested at the end of the year, and I officially opened the book on his music.
The MESS about Living With Michael Jackson is that I was probably supposed to think, "wow, what a freak." Instead I thought, "wow, this guy is actually kind of interesting."
And there were a slew of Michael Jackson-related television specials and reports following that documentary, including Michael Jackson's Home Movies ("I LOVE to tour"), and I watched them all. He just became more and more intriguing to me.
Finally he got arrested at the end of the year, and I officially opened the book on his music.
That line in MJ's Private Home Movies is such a kiiii!
I love LWMJ because it showed Neverland and Michael in a more... daily aspect than we'd ever seen before, ever. But some parts are hard to watch, especially the scene where he's in the red shirt at Neverland talking about his childhood and making music. He is so high he can barely string words together. In the Private Home Movies documentary he isn't much better. I remember Lisa Marie Presley gave an interview to Oprah after MJ died and she mentioned she saw part of one of those shows and was shocked at how out of it he sounded.
Any of you guys know if HIStory will ever be rereleased without the greatest hits cd? I want that Album but I already have a greatest hits Michael album in The Essential
That line in MJ's Private Home Movies is such a kiiii!
I love LWMJ because it showed Neverland and Michael in a more... daily aspect than we'd ever seen before, ever. But some parts are hard to watch, especially the scene where he's in the red shirt at Neverland talking about his childhood and making music. He is so high he can barely string words together. In the Private Home Movies documentary he isn't much better. I remember Lisa Marie Presley gave an interview to Oprah after MJ died and she mentioned she saw part of one of those shows and was shocked at how out of it he sounded.
I remember Lisa Marie once saying that Michael was so well-read and so erudite, and she asked him why he never showed that in interviews, why did he always play this shy, shrinking violet? I can't remember how he answered her unfortunately.
^I don't like listening to that song because it was used so heavily in Living With Michael Jackson.
I actually loved that doc (despite what it did) because it showed Neverland and Michael as I always imagined
To this day I have never watched that "documentary" in full. Of course I have seen parts of it but the entire thing from start to finish? Nope. And I have absolutely no desire to either.
The MESS about Living With Michael Jackson is that I was probably supposed to think, "wow, what a freak." Instead I thought, "wow, this guy is actually kind of interesting."
And there were a slew of Michael Jackson-related television specials and reports following that documentary, including Michael Jackson's Home Movies ("I LOVE to tour"), and I watched them all. He just became more and more intriguing to me.
Finally he got arrested at the end of the year, and I officially opened the book on his music.
It's funny because this documentary aired in France and the day after they did a poll and the majority of the people who watched had a positive image of him lol.
