When I first heard about the death of Michael Jackson, my first thought was that I would do my best to ignore the media feeding frenzy that would certainly (and did) ensue.
But being a professional musician, a lot of people kept asking me “What do you think”?
Full Disclosure: While I can respect Michael Jackson’s accomplishments in the entertainment business, I must admit that I am not a fan. I have never owned any of his music. I have enjoyed some his hits like Billie Jean, Black & White, and Smooth Criminal but none of those songs are on my ipod. (I do own and enjoy a number of Jackson 5 songs though).
I think that it’s interesting that prior to his death Michael Jackson was the butt of every one’s jokes.
He had become known less for his music than for the trainwreck that was his personal life made public.
And while allegations of child molestation where never proved in two court cases, I think it’s important to bear in mind that this was a man who in taped TV interviews, said that he felt that he could see nothing wrong with sharing a bed and sleeping with young children that where not his own. That this was a also a man who, dangled his own child over the balcony of a 4 or 5 story building as if it was a funny joke.
I think it’s important to bring this up, because now that he has rather unexpectedly passed on, a lot of the same people who called him a freak are now eulogizing him and raising him to sainthood.
If you doubt me, read some of the online comments made about him.
As for the music. I think that Michael Jackson recorded some very slickly produced and enjoyable pop. I am sure that his hits will be considered classic standards 20 years from now. And I while it is enjoyable I don’t think it was groundbreaking music….but this is just my opinion.
I think that his real real genius was in how he used the media of the time to promote himself.
The Jackson 5 had been popular, but when their day ended they where looked on as teen pop band
His album previous to Thriller “Off The Wall” had done well within it’s genre of R&B, but it didn’t make a global impact.
But with Thriller (The album that started his snowball of hype and glory). He did two distinctly different things. First he did some genre crossing collaborations with former Beatle Paul McCartney on “The Girl is Mine” and with Hard Rock Guitar Hero Eddie Van Halen on “Beat It” (A trick that he would repeat by teaming up with Slash on Black and White).
These two things began to open the door to his crossing musical
boundaries…but in the grand scheme of things, they only opened it a crack…..What really opened the door to world wide popularity was his use of the new video platform that was MTV. During MTV’s early days he filmed some of the most groundbreaking and cinematic music videos of the time. MTV actually played videos 24/7 back in the those days and Jackson was really the first to make cinematic videos, and for better or worse, they continue to influence the music industry to this day.
It was these videos and these collaborations that helped open him up to a wider audience and allowed him to cross boundaries at a time when music was still segregated by race but even more so by genres.
The first publication to call him the King of Pop was Rolling Stone Magazine. proclaiming him as the King of pop was a condition the magazine had to agree to in order for Jackson to grant the interview.
This was before the internet and before the current growing fragmentation of media that exists today. Media was a lot more concentrated back then so he was better able to build hype and allow it to snowball….and snowball it did. Michael knew how to use the media of the 80’s. He became a global star on the level of Elvis and the Beatles.
During the 20th century, he managed to maintain this level of popularity for a number of years, but he didn’t know how to use the media of the 21st century and this was apparent in his inability to recapture his former glory, when he tried to use the same marketing tricks, with his 2001 release “Invincible”.
What I am trying to say that if you took the Michael Jackson of the 80’s and put him in the digital modern world and had one all the same
things…He might have become popular, but I doubt he would have
snowballed into the the level of popularity that that era’s media allowed him to become.
I would be remiss if I did not bring up the after effects of that Michael Jackson’s considerable vocal and dancing prowess have had on the current state of pop music. It is obvious (even to someone like me who is not a fan) that he was an amazing singer, dancer and performer. Prior to Michael Jackson (and all those aforementioned videos) there where vocal pop groups like The Temptations or the Spinners that would have some choreography with their performance. But Michael brought it to a whole different level and set a standard within mainstream pop that is still being felt today.
……For this reason he is to a certain extent, unwittingly to blame for the current crop of phony pop stars who lip synch in concert, & use software like auto tune to correct their voices in the studio.
Let me elaborate: I am not saying that Michael Jackson has ever lip-synced in concert (there is certainly no reason to believe this)…..What I am saying is that he made dance a requirement for mainstream pop stars. Many of them could not keep up with the level of dance and vocals that he performed with.
Many of them could not maintain the level of dance required and still be able to sing, so many of them started lip syncing. Many of these same Mainstream media pop stars couldn’t sing at his level either, so they started using computer software like auto tune to current their vocal inadequacies in the recording studio. Now once again, I want to state that I am not saying that he is solely to blame for this. I am saying that he set a very high standard as a performer, and that to many record labels who wanted the next Michael Jackson and that too many so called artists who wanted this too where pretty much willing to do anything (even resort to fakery) in order to achieve it. This resulted in a proliferation of phony pop stars that exist in the mainstream.
It also sadly contributed to the current climate of live music performances where dancers on stage have become more important than the musicians actually playing the music.
There have been those who have tried to compare his death with that of John Lennon’s. I couldn’t disagree more. If there is any comparison it’s with the death of Elvis. They where both huge global stars who’s
unexpected where considered shocking….and I have a feeling that those comparisons will become more apparent when the autopsy report comes in a few weeks.
11 comments
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July 3, 2009 at 5:44 am
Jan Parrish
Michael was a sad and tortured soul. I saw the pain in his eyes in all the pictures. But did he go to heaven? Click here:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-9175-Denver-Charismatic-Christian-Examiner~y2009m7d2-Is-Michael-Jackson-in-Heaven
July 3, 2009 at 6:39 am
Rob Meurer
I couldn’t agree more. I am saddened mostly by the desperate pathos of his life, rather than the loss of any musical genius. He was a master entertainer, but as many of his songs that I liked, I loathed others. And his proclaiming HIMSELF the king of pop was so ridiculous and pathetic. From Thriller it was all downhill. Singing about how bad he was — please! Was there EVER a person less “bad”? I bear no animosity whatsoever, but I am not experiencing the passing of any true giant of music.
July 3, 2009 at 7:00 am
musicworthbuying
“Singing about how bad he was — please! Was there EVER a person less “bad”?
Good point Rob. I think that Bad was just another example of Micheal Jackson as the man/child play acting in front of the world.
I think that was part of his appeal to kids. He was like a child play acting in his videos and kids could relate to it.
I don’t feel like we lost a giant in music either.
But I think the world lost a giant of entertainment.
TJR
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July 3, 2009 at 7:47 am
Beth Scalet
(Let me begin by saying that TJR’s comments would have more impact if the article were not filled with incorrect grammar — i.e., “where” for “were.” “it’s” for “its”. Beware your spell checker!)
I agree with most of TJR’s comments. Jackson’s phenomenal success was very much a product of the confluence of factors like the birth of MTV and the readiness of the pop scene to take another step across the color line. (Don’t forget, “Thriller” was not going to be shown on MTV until parent company Sony threatened to pull all other content, including big names like Springsteen, if Jackson’s video wasn’t aired.) Then, the groundbreaking mini-movie format changed the very nature and direction of pop music videos.
But these things speak to skillful corporate manipulation of the media more than to Jackson’s considerable talents. Jackson’s lasting pop legacy is in his incredible abilities as an electrifying live performer. He was literally created by his father to be a wunderkind, and his age when he burst on to the scene with the Jackson 5 was every bit as much a fabrication and manipulation.
True, none of his success would have occurred if he hadn’t been able to DELIVER, to come up with those moves and exist inside those beats as if they were his own pulse.
That makes him a great, an electrifying performer. But his most memborable “songs” are the formula hits of the Jackson 5 era. We can all sing along to them. His own catalog has few catchy lyrics–parts of “Beat It,” “Billie Jean.” and “Thriller,” and the gawdawful treacle of “Ebony and Ivory.” (Great sentiment, terrible song.) Did hundreds of awful pop performers follow his lead, producing some truly forgettable pop music and videos? Definitely. But success always gives birth to copycats. (Oh my God — I just flashed on the very real possibility that we will now be deluged with a future full of Michael Jackson impersonators).
So what do we have? A very talented kid whose youth was stolen to create a monolithic one-man empire of glitz, with very little substantive musical value outside of rather ordinary songs expertly displayed. (Thank you, Quincy Jones and Berry Gordy.)
The fact that he couldn’t handle wouldn’t be able to handle success at a personal level was almost guaranteed from the beginning. The fact that he chased in others the childhood he only imagined was almost pathetically predictable. And the fact that we all started it when we, the audience, made our initial response to him — “Oh, look, isn’t he cute! He’s so little, and he sings and dances like a grown-up!” — perpetuates the very impulses we find so distasteful in his own perverse infatuations makes us all a part of this sick little fantasy. Neverland, indeed.
July 3, 2009 at 11:26 am
Cameron Mizell
What you’ve said is that, because he was so good, he actually raised the bar for pop music to the point that modern pop stars must use technology as a crutch to maintain his standard? His level of performance was so extraordinary that nobody in his field could keep up. Frankly, if you or I could ever achieve that distinction in anything we do, regardless of what our personal lives look like, I believe we’d be considered genius.
I disagree that he is to blame for the phoniness of others performance, rather that is entirely the fault of us, the public, who allow these acts to be paraded in front of us. There were points in MJ’s career where he shared the stage with younger generation stars and he made them look like kids trying to dance in the school yard. He was untouchable because he came from the era where you couldn’t fake it. Artists like this have a commanding presence when they perform, plain and simple. That has nothing to do with producers, studio tricks, or marketing tactics. You can’t fake that kind of talent.
I don’t have a problem with Thriller being his legacy. The album has sold over 100 million copies world wide. You say he failed to transition into the digital era, but what current artist could even achieve 100 million free downloads today? Is anybody making music that THAT MANY people even WANT to listen to, much less buy? Sure, there was a huge push by his label at the time, but the effort was no more than what any label did at the time for their major releases. This one just blew up. Why was that?
Also, I wonder, how is a self-proclaimed label such as King of Pop any different than our email signatures or words we use to tag our websites and social media profiles? We all proclaim to be something (or doing something) that’s special or noteworthy in hopes that our reputations are associated with a few words. Regardless of who said it, if Michael Jackson wasn’t (isn’t?) the King of Pop, who is?
Ultimately, I agree that the media spectacle over MJ’s death is unnecessary, yet the public tunes in to whatever drama the television throws their way. The true testament to Michael Jackson’s career (or that of any artist) is the professional company he kept. I have great respect for Quincy Jones and many other artists and producers that worked with MJ, and they all testify to his immense talent and incredible work ethic. Yes, his personal life was a tragedy, but we permit (or at least turn a blind eye) to similar or even more outrageous acts of indecency by people that are actually supposed to be moral leaders.
And as a side, Beth, “Ebony & Ivory” was Stevie Wonder & Paul McCartney. MJ wrote plenty of awful songs, but you’ll have to wait until one of those other guys passes away to use it as an example of how flawed they were as musicians.
July 3, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Patricia
Nice – Cameron! I love even keel and thoughtful insight, as you have displayed here.
Personally, I connect with the “spirit” of a person, and ultimately see people for the true giving that is accomplished. Giving from the heart. In this respect – MJ was a very generous soul, and his giving will be missed!
July 3, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Big Al
Michael & Paul put “The Girl Is Mine” on Thriller and “Say, Say, Say” on Paul’s “Pipes of Peace” album. In my opinion, TGIM is every bit as terrible as “Ebony & Ivory” is.
Beth’s comment about Michael impersonators is spot on. I hadn’t given that any thought but unfortunately, it is inevitable.
On another side thought, I am willing to bet that unless Britney Spears gets her act together, this same scenario WILL play out again…
July 3, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Cameron Mizell
Maybe the problem is Paul and not the other guys? I realize that ridiculous, and that’s kind of my point. Are bad songs forgivable if the person that wrote them is easier to relate to?
All points made here, and the original post itself are important perspectives on an artist that had a huge impact on our culture and the culture itself. I just believe it’s good to be critical of all points of views and figure out WHY we think the way we do. And it’s a valuable exercise for musicians themselves.
July 3, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Rob Meurer
I think what a lot of us are expressing is disappointment. Not in his death, but in his eventual output. We loved this talented guy, and we WANTED him to make incredible, vital music, and instead he gave us self-parody and even more plastic surgery. A great entertainer has passed, but, in this era of American Idol, who can tell the difference anymore between music and entertainment? Not the general public, that’s for sure.
July 3, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Beth Scalet
My bad on the “Ebony & Ivory” thing. I was thinking of McCartney’s collaborations and that particularly irritating one came to mind.
July 4, 2009 at 12:45 am
Anonymous
This is all very interesting…
“Off The Wall” was an amazing collaborative effort between MJ, and Quincy, but was criticized for not having global crossover appeal. “Thriller” was criticized for being slickly produced, but not being musically groundbreaking, eventhough Michael broadened his collaborative base, and brilliantly made use of the media to promote himself and his product to garner global crossover appeal, and commercial success. If I’ve learned nothing about this industry, I’ve learned that it is 1st and foremost, a business. Like every other business, we use whatever marketing and promotional tools that we have at our disposal to sell our product and achieve our goals. Any C.E.O. doing the same thing for his company’s product would be paid hansomely in bonuses for such innovation and success.
Like the writer of the original article, I too met Michael Jackson and his brothers in the seventies, in a clothing store in Flint, Michigan. The Jackson Five performed in our town later that night. Although our conversation was cursory at best, I am certain that he influenced my desire to become a musician. I cannot deny that I found some of Michael’s personal choices as an adult to be questionable, but that’s not what I reflect on when I think about the contributions made by this great artist to our industry. In fact, what Michael Jackson represents most to me is how limitless the possibilities are if we put in the work, and make the sacrifices. It cannot be debated that as a performer, MJ was phenomenal. He and MTV combined to make music visual in ways that still have not been matched. Yet looking back on his performances throughout his career, I am still amazed at what I am witnessing. His precision, timing, and vocal prowess have never been approached. He was the complete package. I’ve not seen another artist since who was more compelling to watch. IN fact, watching him makes me want to be a better musician.
Greatness is measured in many ways. Commercial success is almost always lauded. Critical success is usually tougher to achieve. Michael achieved both. Some things can’t be denied. He was a very bright light in a dark, cut throat industry. He was one of the few performers in history who could stop conversation when one of his performances graced your television screen. Critics will focus on Michael’s troubles, and will second guess his choices, and his motives and may judge him harshly. Fans will praise him for his music, his grace, his performances, and his generosity; but now that he’s gone, we have only the legacy of his work on which to reflect, and that legacy is by any measure, great.
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