Michael Jackson Appreciation Thread (or why I think he's the greatest artist of the 20th century)

I posted this on reddit, but I think it'll work here as well.

When you think of the greatest artists of the 21st century, the usual names come to mind: Bob Dylan, Elvis, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and of course, the Beatles. However, I would like to make a case for Michael Jackson as the greatest artist of the 20th century, in my (subjective) opinion.

Too often, music lovers write off Jackson as nothing more than a sophisticated song and dance man. In their minds he was a dynamic child prodigy who later went on to record two classic albums (Off the Wall and Thriller) and one mediocre album (Bad), before adopting a bizarre lifestyle of hyperbaric oxygen chambers, pet monkeys and child molestation. However, I would argue that this severely understates the sheer genius and impact of this man, who (in my opinion) is the definitive musical genius of the century. I will now make my case.

Jackson was the consummate artist; the summation of artistry and genius in popular music. He was a master vocalist, with a four octave range and a versatile voice. He created his own distinctive vocal style, filled with grunts and exclamations (hee-hee, ow, shamone). These quirky stylistic features resulted in any Jackson song becoming recognizable almost immediately. The sheer beauty and agility of Jackson's voice is often overlooked - he can deliver a beautiful ballad like 'Butterflies', which features a soaring falsetto and amazing timbre, and then go on to sing a song like 'Morphine', which features his characteristic biting and angry tone. Few artists in his field have such distinctive and flexible vocal capabilities. I have provided some examples below to show the depth of his abilities.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn-n_Y-ISkY

Jackson is also, in my opinion, one of the greatest songwriters of his time - up there with Lennon, McCartney, and Dylan. Critics are quick to praise the albums Jackson wrote with Quincy Jones - Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad - while writing off Jackson's mature works - Dangerous, HIStory, Blood on the Dance Floor and Invincible. They then chalk up the success of Jackson's first three records to Jones while citing the perceived mediocrity of his later works as evidence that Jones was the only reason Jackson was able to record his 'classic albums'. This is merely not true. Another commonly cited fallacy is that Jackson did not write the majority of his own hits. This is also not true. Jackson wrote the majority of his works that are now considered classics: Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough, Wanna Be Starting Something, Billie Jean, Beat It, Bad, Smooth Criminal, Dirty Diana, and The Way You Make Me Feel are just a few examples of songs penned by the artist himself. And in many cases, the demos recorded at his private home studio are nearly identical to the finished product, indicating that he was a fully capable and accomplished songwriter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEhkfCXOfe8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZeYw1bm53Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2IzJihXPEM

I believe that Jackson's later albums (Bad, Dangerous, HIStory and Blood on the Dance Floor) feature some of his most creative and groundbreaking work. Many critics complained that after the astronomical success of Thriller, Jackson began to value commercial achievements over artistic integrity. This is simply not the case. Dangerous, released in 1991, features amazing works that reveal a sadder and introspective Jackson. 'Give in to Me' is a rock ballad about a man who is suffering at the hands of a neglectful lover, while songs like 'Will You Be There' and 'Keep the Faith' are about needing support during rough times. 'Will You Be There' in particular is a breathtaking work, borrowing from both classical and gospel music. 'Stranger in Moscow' is a song from the HIStory album, and it's a haunting work detailing Jackson's loneliness during the child molestation allegations of 1993. 'They Don't Care About Us' is another song from the HIStory album that strikes back at police brutality and racism. The instrumental is minimalist and biting, and it features some of Jackson's greatest lyrics. 'Morphine' is a song from Blood on the Dance Floor. The subject matter is obvious (and tragic considering Jackson's fate), while the song musically borrows from the industrial rock of Nine Inch Nails. 'Who Is It' is another song from the Dangerous album, which is about an absentee lover. These songs are among Jackson's greatest and show a musician that evolved and honed his craft as he aged rather than one who abandoned artistic integrity for commercial interests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn-n_Y-ISkY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8xqRtgdYqw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ7qXHjxj_0

My last few paragraphs will look at Michael Jackson as a dancer. Fred Astaire called Jackson the 'greatest dancer of the 20th century' while Bob Fosse called him one of the greatest dancers he had ever seen. By the age of 25, Jackson had entered the pantheon of 20th century dancers, standing alongside many of his own idols.

Jackson's uniqueness as a performer stemmed from his ability to synthesize many disparate influences and styles of dance into his own unique brand. As a result, Jackson's style is instantly recognizable and often imitated. He did not invent the moonwalk, but his execution of it was unlike anyone had seen before. He turned the breakdancing move into something that looked gravity defying. Jackson's characteristic poses, with pointed toes, outstretched arms and fedoras all hark back to Fosse and Astaire, channeling their characteristic lightness and fluidity into an aggressive and extremely athletic form of dance. Jackson borrowed many of his characteristic glides and virtuosic footwork from James Brown, who he considered his greatest influence. As Jackson advanced in his career he incorporated more gliding, popping and locking, all borrowed from street dance. As a teenager, Jackson also learned how to tap dance from the Nicholas Brothers and often paid homage to Fred Astaire on the Jackson Variety Show. Jackson would also later pay homage to Astaire during his live show as well as in the music videos for Smooth Criminal, Scream and You Rock My World.

Clearly, Jackson's role as a dancer leaned more towards synthesizer rather than innovator. Yet his ability to combine many of these styles allowed him to become one of the greatest dancers of all time. He moved with fluidity and possessed a style that was completely his own, even if you are able to pick out his influences. Jackson not only borrowed from what came before him, he expanded on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsDJnAdMGyk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ7JislcKtI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9HMkoW9Ei4

I could go on for ages, but to me these points seriously point to Jackson as the greatest artist of his time, perhaps akin to a 20th century Mozart. He started as a child prodigy who came from an abusive home, who then later took the work ethic and drive that was beat into him from a young age and used it to become the leading artist of the 20th century. He was the consummate singer, songwriter, dancer and vocalist, who was second to none and virtually unchallenged by his peers. It's no wonder that the man was loved worldwide by people who differed in race, creed, age, etc.

Let's appreciate him! Michael Jackson has been a huge influence on my own music and life so I'd love to have a thread seriously talking about him and his artistry.

 

You don't have to make a case for Michael Jackson. (But awesome thread!) He's been considered one of the best to ever do it since the 80's. Don't forget his stunning performances leading J5 and the Jacksons.
At the pinnacle of his career he reached heights no other artist (then and now) would ever be able to reach. Thriller is the type of phenomenon that only happens once in a lifetime.
Not even the Beatles achieved that type of worldwide success.

One of my favorites.

 

Unless you were there, it's impossible to imagine how huge Michael Jackson was in his 'Thriller' to 'Bad' years especially. In his lifetime, every album he did was an event. Even in his later, troubled, less successful years.

No offence to Taylor Swift, but the sales of his albums in the 80's make her look like a busker on a street corner.

 

I would make the case that, while Michael Jackson was a great artist, it was the combination of Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones that turned him into arguably the greatest performer of the 20th century. What Michael did without Quincy was good, sometimes great, but what the two did together was simply phenomenal.

 

Excellent piece. Anyone that doesn't know by now what a genious he was won't be swayed by anything we have to say. To really "get" how huge he was, you almost had to be around, as someone else said, during the 80's. His songs always mean't something, and while his work may not have been quite as strong in his later years, which is common with all long term stars along the way, he still always wrote about things that were real and meaningful. In regards to everything else about him, that has nothing to do with his music and I can separate his private life from the music he gave us. I guess it helps that I am in the camp that believes his behavior with kids was consistent with his life in general, and that doesn't make him a pedophile. I think he made unwise choices in that regard, there should have been other adults in the room when he was with kids, but from everything I have read, he was just a big kid himself. So, I am free to appreciate his artistry and I believe we will see very few artists of his calibur in the future. It is a different world now...he was very fortunate to be around during that period of time, when someone with his creativity could thrive and make such a huge impact. And if you were lucky enough to be around during that time, you were very fortunate to be there with him. I bought all his music from day one, and I even enjoyed much of his final album Invincible (I don't count those shameful post albums "his albums" or part of his legitimate catalog.

The Earth Song is beyond amazing to me and I think better than anything he had done up to that point. That is an amazing thing to be able to say, though not everyone will certainly agree. My point being that there was so much brilliance up to the song I mentioned, and yet the song I mentioned was way past what many consider his peak as an artist. I totally agree with the semtiments of the poster. He wasn't selling as well towards the end, but he still created quality music. Whether one liked it or not is another matter.

 

a fine performer I guess, but as a "writer" or performer of music that would place him in the pantheon among those other artists the OP lists in his hypothetical post? not a remote chance. Forgive my stridency.

 

Quincy, like any good producer, brought discipline and an evenness to Michael's projects, imo. He tied the albums together. But it starts with good songs. Michael had them...Quincy took them to the stars. They were an amazing team.

 

Nice piece of writing right there - I happen to agree with many of your points.

As a performer, Michael was not from this planet, he was really something else.

 

Captain EO!

 

It was also Quincy who was a fan of Rod Temperton, and asked him to write songs for Off The Wall. A few of Temperton's songs are pivotal to Michael's adult solo career: "Rock With You", "Off The Wall" and "Thriller". Also, Quincy chose the musicians who were so vital to the sound of OTW, Thriller and Bad. Guys like Louis Johnson, David Williams, Greg Phillinganes, Michael Boddicker, Paulinho da Costa, N'dugu Chancler, John Robinson and the Toto guys, all of whom Quincy used frequently on his projects. And then you have Quincy's engineer Bruce Swedien, whose own work is crucial to Michael's sound. It's really difficult to talk about Michael's artistry and not acknowledge the level of talent he had in the studio with him. He was a truly brilliant artist, but you also can't underestimate the role of Quincy Jones particularly in finessing his talent, and supporting it with exceptional people.

 

Even if you don't like his songs, it would be difficult not to like Quincy's production. Anything I have heard with Quincy's name attached sounds amazing. Quincy must have loved getting songs from Michael that he could run with and turn into masterpieces....like George Martin and the Beatles...Elton and Gus Dudgeon. However, if the songs aren't good, a producer can really only put lipstick on a pig as they say. Plenty of producers are attached to albums that were huge bombs. Elton's later work with Gus wasn't very good because Elton's writing wasn't nearly as good, imo. But put the right songs with the right producer, and magic happens...with a little bit of hard work mixed in. Off the Wall through Bad are amazing. Without Quincy some of the magic left. I wish they would have continued together, but Michael did better than most when he took it over.

 

Nice post!

Quincy, rod, + mike was the team. As a songwriter he was very mediochre at best. Musically his works are empty shells. Without someone to polish them they are just cotton candy. No meat at all. He had no feeling whatsoever for chord driven songs as opposed to roddy.

As a singer i think he could've developed much further with the right producer. As a sharp dresser, i dont know?...

 

Yeah, I love OTW and Thriller, but I do think on Bad Q and Michael were somewhat lacking fresh ideas. It's well crafted and has that Quincy Jones sheen, but it wasn't 'ahead of the curve' at all, in sound and style. In 1987, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were defining the R&B/urban sound, and guys like Teddy Riley and Babyface/L.A. Reid were coming up. So as difficult as it must have been, I think Michael had to make the decision to find new producers (who had fresh ideas) for his next project (and the man he chose for Dangerous, Teddy Riley, was a brilliant producer too). That said, Riley didn't have Quincy's status, he wasn't Michael's mentor. He was just his producer, and I don't think he had the authority to tell Michael what to do/not do like Quincy did. So when Michael lost Quincy, he was free to do what he wanted... which was mostly great, but not always.

 

I think Michael learned so much from Quincy that he was able to apply much of what he'd learned to his later albums. The influence of Quincy Jones continued even after he was no longer producing Michael's albums. I agree, though, that the albums after Bad would have been much better had Quincy Jones been the producer of them, if for no other reason than Quincy was an excellent judge of material, and one of his greatest contributions to Michael's albums was in the area of song selection.

 

I don´t mind seeing Michael Jackson praised, as he was indeed a unique and very gifted composer, performer and dancer. I think it´s going a bit too far to compare him to Mozart, for instance. The word "genius" is one that I find hard to relate to, and still harder to apply it to Michael Jackson. But by all means, he had a very successful career, leaving behind a legacy that contains some songs that will live a long time. By now, some of the media hoopla has died down, and within the next ten years or so, the true artist that was Michael Jackson will probably come more into focus. I am not trying to attack his legacy, which is as strong as can be, probably. But what makes him so much better than Marvin Gaye, Jackie Wilson, Stevie Wonder etc? A talented man. no doubt, but there are many of them. Thankfully.

 

As an artist he was the total package! Together with Quincy he made three timeless albums that changed how I listen to music. The ones that followed was great recordings on their own, but as albums not as tight or well sequenced as the three with Quincy.

 

He deserves to be in the pantheon of incredibly popular artists whose work stand the test of time and remains highly influential on subsequent generations. There are plenty of great artists, but when it comes to the 20th century, the biggest and best- Sinatra, Elvis, Beatles, Jackson- will remain because they all had the goods to justify their tremendous popularity in the first place.

 

- He was a far better performer than all three.
- He was a worldwide megastar that had a much larger impact on Pop culture.
- He sold somewhere close to half a billion records.
- He broke down racial barriers and paved the way for many African Americans stars who came after him.
- He contributed the most to creating the prototype for what has been called Pop for the last 30 years plus.

Those are a few reasons why many would consider him better than the artists you listed.

 

O.K. I see you have lots of good points, and I can agree with some of them. You can´t argue with sales, and huge sales equals more influence. I agree with that point. The others, I concede. To a point. I am not so sure that I agree about him being the better performer. But that is , of course, down to specific taste. Stevie Wonder, in particular. I have never seen either of them live, so I can´t really judge, but I felt more energy from a filmed Stevie Wonder concert than I ever did from similar Michael Jackson. Again - this is down to personal taste. For me, those three - among others - will be above Michael Jackson. That´s me.

 

I'm 52 and he's definitely in my all time top 5.

 

The thing with this is, if you are looking at Jackson purely on the art he produced on its own, then yes, I can see why there are many others that could be considered as an equal - Gaye, Wilson, Wonder etc have all produced amazing music. But if you're looking at an all round package, then Jackson is only equaled by Elvis and the Beatles. The three broke down barriers that led to changes in human behaviour and understanding.

I don't doubt that other artists also broke barriers - Madonna for example being an icon for young women, allowing them to express themselves as women who enjoy sex and aren't aftaid to show that, Freddie Mercury being gay was possibly (my speculation) hard to take for some rock fans at the time, but he made it easier for other artists to be themselves later on when obvious they could gain acceptance. Why don't I consider these equals? Because the art they produced isn't up to the level of the others, for me. Both Madonna and Queen did some great music, but not at the level of Elvis (who I don't even like), the Beatles and MJ.

Jackson also had this aura, one which is usually reserved for someone in death, a legend that followed him. Anyone who remembers the 80s knows he was it. The centre of pop culture.

Good discussion this though.

 

I agree. If you actually think MJ was as good as a song writer as Lennon, McCartney, Dylan, etc, you're taking the same "milk" that did MJ in. QJ was the brains behind that outfit. MJ was a wonderful performer with a "god" complex who wrote a few good songs. Remember that picture of a huge MJ statue with the little people around it? MJ is the one who named himself the king of pop. As for a previous poster stating that "even the Beatles didn't achieve that amount of success"? Wasn't the world a much smaller place in the 80's whereby one could reach the masses more easily and quickly? Why isn't anyone talking about "Ben"?

 

See, it's possible and very easy to overstate one's legacy, but it's also very easy to understate it, and I think that you're doing Jackson a bit of a disservice with this post. I mean, one could also argue that George Martin was the brain behind the Beatles and that Lennon/McCartney just wrote "a few good songs", but that would be doing a disservice to the Beatles as well.

 

Excuse me, but they wrote more than a few. And they had much success after the split. Their influence did change the entertainment world and more. I would go as far to say that MTV had a bigger impact than MJ did and he was a receipient of that in terms of his career.

 

See this is a knee jerk response and you took what I said completely out of context. Jackson also wrote 'more than a few songs', yet you were perfectly fine with diminishing his songwriting catalog.

Jackson's influence had an enormous effect on the entertainment world, which is why he continues to be emulated by modern musicians. It's hard to understate Jackson's impact on the music industry, and I think rather than consider that possibility you'd rather write him off as nothing special, which is absurd.

And MTV was not more influential than Jackson. In fact, I would wager that he is one of the reasons for MTV's immense popularity and that he used it to his advantage. It was a mutually beneficial partnership.