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Worth a Second Listen: Special Michael Jackson Birthday Edition: “Invincible”
If you bought into the hype spewed by the mainstream press and Michael Jackson’s detractors, 2001’s “Invincible” was a flop of colossal proportions. Of course it was no “Thriller” or “Off The Wall”, but it stands as a fairly contemporary, often good, and occasionally awesome album from the King of Pop. Was it a sales bust? Considering only about 20 or so albums a year sell over 2 million copies (with only one so far […]
Friday Throwback – Stranger In Moscow
As Money Mike wrote earlier, Michael Jackson turns 50 today. That is all sorts of weird to me. How can MJ be 50? And how old does that make me? I won’t answer that question.
In celebration of MJ’s birthday, I decided to “throwback” to him. This is one of his strangest songs, but it’s also his most artistic and creative from his HIStory album. It’s always stood out for its feeling of loneliness and in […]
Here’s Something That’s Really Off The Wall: Michael Jackson Turns 50 Today
The cover of Michael Jackson's iconic 1982 album "Thriller"
I’ve spent many hours over the last several years typing article after article about not only Michael Jackson’s influence on me, but his influence on pop culture as a whole.
Despite the fact that he’s viewed (rightfully) as a egomaniacal, plastic surgery-addled, creepy train wreck these days, there’s no disputing that Michael was one of the largest (and the longest-running) pop phenomena in history (or HIStory). Sure, he himself was a product of a group of influences (Jackie Wilson and James Brown chief among them), but Jacko blazed (or at least helped to blaze) more trails than just about any contemporary artist. He certainly rewrote the rule book for black artists, breaking MTV’s embargo on R&B music (contrary to popular belief, MTV did play the occasional black rocker prior to “Billie Jean”) and rewriting just about every sales and chart record in existence. It should go without saying that a quick scan through today’s pop music scene reveals tons of artists, from Kanye West and Akon to Fall Out Boy and Rihanna to Usher, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown and Ne-Yo: all directly crib from the rule book that Michael wrote. There weren’t Elvis sightings all over the Billboard chart in 1980, 25 years after his debut. However if you look at a Billboard chart from earlier this year, 25 years after “Thriller” took over the world, you’ll see that not only was a re-jiggered version of the album itself nestled securely at the top of the charts (not to mention an album by his sister that danced up and down the charts simultaneously), but songs like West’s “Good Life” and Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop the Music” directly referenced songs from the album. Regardless of what you may think of the man himself, to have that much direct influence so long after entering the music scene is a feat in and of itself. Public image be damned, this man deserves his rightful place next to The Beatles, Dylan, Stevie and James Brown…and that’s seriously not hyperbole at all. While I’ll wave my flag all day for MJ as a musical icon, I’m not one of those creepy uber-fans who lashes out at the media for being “ignorant” (sorry-just had a flashback to “South Park”‘s brilliant skewering of him) or even thought for a second about camping out at the trial site. Hell, I don’t even think the man has a skin disease.
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