The impact and influence thread.

Ms. BlueGangsta

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Michael's impact and influence on the music industry, and many other fields is unmatched by any other artist or entertainer.
The amount of entertainers, stars, and people today (even outside of the music industry) that cite MJ as their favorite artist, main inspiration, or the very reason they themselves decided to become entertainers is extremely high (which is to be expected, he is the
Emperor/King of music, and the greatest entertainer to ever live after all), so without further ado I'll tell you all the reason this thread was made.

The purpose of this thread is to name the celebrities (dead or alive, past or present, young or old,) that have cited Michael as their favorite entertainer, their inspiration, the reason they themselves decided to become what they are, or are simply MJ fans/ stans.
I'll start.:clap:


In no particular order.:)
Usher
Rihanna
Sammy Davis Jr.
Bruno Mars
Chris Brown
The Weeknd
Justin Timberlake
Missy Elliot
Brittany Spears
Justin Bieber
Beyonce
Zendaya Coleman
Prince
Madonna
Kobe Bryant
Kanye West
Jason Derulo
Pharrell Williams
Fred Astaire
Zayn Malik
Jussie Smollet

You all can take it from here because I'm sure I'm missing a lot of people.
 
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I've been waiting for a thread like this, It's long overdue. There's so many it hard to get them all down but many Indian Bollywood performers have cited MJ as an insipration:

Prabhu Deva
Farah Khan
Hrithik Roshan
Wilbur Sargunaraj
Mithun Chakraborty
Amitabh Bachchan
Remo D'Souza
AR Rahman
Govinda
Chiranjeevi
Bappi Lahiri
Sukhwinder Singh
Varun Dhawan
Javed Jaffrey
Hard Kaur

Several rock artist/bands have cited MJ as an influence:

The 1975
Green Day
Foo Fighters
Everything Everything
Alien Ant Farm
Darren Hayes
Dev Hynes
Insane Clown Posse
La Roux
Justice
Kimbra
Chris Martin
Muse
Paramore
Patrick Stump
Geoff Tate
Pete Wentz
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Scissor Sisters
Haim
Matthew Healy
John Mayer
Chris Cornell
Alex Kapranos
Friendly Fires
In This Moment
Aaron Bruno
Fefe Dobson
Maroon 5
Lenny Kravitz

The many dancers and choreographers:

Akram Khan
Misty Copeland
Carlos Acosta
Ashley Banjo
David Dalmo
Brian Friedman
Laurie Ann Gibson
Cris Judd
Jabbawockeez
Rino Nakasone
Travis Payne
Wade Robson
Alyson Stoner
Jennie Widegren
Fredrik Rydman
We Are Heroes

Hip Hop/rap:

Kanye West
50 Cent
Chuck D
P. Diddy
Cool & Dre
Lupe Fiasco
The Game
LL Cool J
Wyclef Jean
Ludacris
M.I.A.
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Far East Movement
Jay Z
Jean Grae
Mos Def
Snoop Dogg
MC Hammer
Trick Daddy
Estelle
MF Doom
J. Cole
Bow Wow
P.M. Dawn

Eveyone else:

Pia Mia
Adam Lambert
Aaron Kwok
Sean Kingston
Janet Jackson
Whitney Houston
Marques Houston
Keri Hilson
Ginuwine
Sean Garrett
Melanie Fiona
Zac Efron
Celine Dion
Destiny's Child
Jason Derulo
Sheryl Crow
David Cook
Ciara
The Band Perry
2Cellos
Aaliyah
Eva Alordiah
Marsha Ambrosius
Ashanti
Backstreet Boys
Tal
BoA
Bobby Brown
Austin Brown
Mariah Carey
David Choi
N'SYNC
R. Kelly
Mario
Ricky Martin
Lee Minwoo
Jun Jin
Janelle Monáe
Olly Murs
Mýa
Rino Nakasone
John Newman
Neyo
Omarion
Jay Park
Charice Pempengco
P-Square
Rain
Adam Rafferty
Michael Sarver
SMAP
Lee Taemin
Taeyang
Seo Taiji
Teyana Taylor
Ashley Tisdale
Tony! Toni! Toné!
Quadron
Will.i.am
Betty Who
Park Jin-young
Elle Varner
Zion.T
Craig David
Joe
Andrew Roachford
Jermaine Stewart
Terence Trent D'Arby
Tevin Campbell
Eros Ramazzotti
Timbaland
Strange Talk
Scritti Politti

You have to understand that MJ's influence is multi-layered and multi-faceted, it wasn't just singers/songwriters/musicians that were influenced. It was dancers too.
 
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Psychoniff;4137648 said:
I've been waiting for a thread like this, It's long overdue. There's so many it hard to get them all down but many Indian Bollywood performers have cited MJ as an insipration:

Prabhu Deva
Farah Khan
Hrithik Roshan
Wilbur Sargunaraj
Mithun Chakraborty
Amitabh Bachchan
Remo D'Souza
AR Rahman
Govinda
Chiranjeevi
Bappi Lahiri
Sukhwinder Singh
Varun Dhawan
Javed Jaffrey
Hard Kaur

Several rock artist/bands have cited MJ as an influence:

The 1975
Green Day
Foo Fighters
Everything Everything
Alien Ant Farm
Darren Hayes
Dev Hynes
Insane Clown Posse
La Roux
Justice
Kimbra
Chris Martin
Muse
Paramore
Patrick Stump
Geoff Tate
Pete Wentz
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Scissor Sisters
Haim
Matthew Healy
John Mayer
Chris Cornell
Alex Kapranos
Friendly Fires
In This Moment
Aaron Bruno
Fefe Dobson
Maroon 5
Lenny Kravitz

The many dancers and choreographers:

Akram Khan
Misty Copeland
Carlos Acosta
Ashley Banjo
David Dalmo
Brian Friedman
Laurie Ann Gibson
Cris Judd
Jabbawockeez
Rino Nakasone
Travis Payne
Wade Robson
Alyson Stoner
Jennie Widegren
Fredrik Rydman
We Are Heroes

Hip Hop/rap:

Kanye West
50 Cent
Chuck D
P. Diddy
Cool & Dre
Lupe Fiasco
The Game
LL Cool J
Wyclef Jean
Ludacris
M.I.A.
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Far East Movement
Jay Z
Jean Grae
Mos Def
Snoop Dogg
MC Hammer
Trick Daddy
Estelle
MF Doom
J. Cole
Bow Wow
P.M. Dawn

Eveyone else:
Pia Mia
Adam Lambert
Aaron Kwok
Sean Kingston
Janet Jackson
Whitney Houston
Marques Houston
Keri Hilson
Ginuwine
Sean Garrett
Melanie Fiona
Zac Efron
Celine Dion
Destiny's Child
Jason Derulo
Sheryl Crow
David Cook
Ciara
The Band Perry
2Cellos
Aaliyah
Eva Alordiah
Marsha Ambrosius
Ashanti
Backstreet Boys
Tal
BoA
Bobby Brown
Austin Brown
Mariah Carey
David Choi
N'SYNC
R. Kelly
Mario
Ricky Martin
Lee Minwoo
Jun Jin
Janelle Monáe
Olly Murs
Mýa
Rino Nakasone
John Newman
Neyo
Omarion
Jay Park
Charice Pempengco
P-Square
Rain
Adam Rafferty
Michael Sarver
SMAP
Lee Taemin
Taeyang
Seo Taiji
Teyana Taylor
Ashley Tisdale
Tony! Toni! Toné!
Quadron
Will.i.am
Betty Who
Park Jin-young
Elle Varner
Zion.T
Craig David
Joe
Andrew Roachford
Jermaine Stewart
Terence Trent D'Arby
Tevin Campbell
Eros Ramazzotti
Timbaland
Strange Talk
Scritti Politti

You have to understand that MJ's influence is multi-layered and multi-faceted, it wasn't just singers/songwriters/musicians that were influenced. It was dancers too.

Wow!
That's a lot of people. :)
 
[h=1]Michael Jackson Influenced Pearl Jam Too[/h] by Jessica Letkemann on <abbr title="2009-06-26">June 26, 2009</abbr>


Believe it or not, Michael Jackson, who the world is mourning after his sudden death yesterday, played a formative roll in both Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament&#8217;s music life.
&#8220;At an early age, I realized music was a very powerful thing,&#8221; Jeff told Bass Player in 1994. &#8220;I&#8217;d hear Michael Jackson singing [1972's] &#8220;Ben&#8221; and it would make me cry and I&#8217;d have to go hide.&#8221;


While nine-year-old Jeff was reacting to MJ&#8217;s first solo No. 1 in Montana, seven-year-old Eddie over near Chicago counted the Jackson Five as one of his favorite groups. Eddie told Circus in 1992 that singing along to 12-year-old Michael Jackson was some of the first singing he ever attempted. &#8220;We had moved north of Chicago,&#8221; Eddie said. &#8220;And my parents became the new foster parents for seven kids in this group home. they were mostly African-American kids and some Irish kids. Most of these kids were around 11, and they were all full on Motown. That&#8217;s when I got into Smokey Robinson, James Brown, Otis Redding and the Jackson Five. I started singing to Michael Jackson records.&#8221; In the same article, Eddie notes that his first album was Michael Jackson&#8217;s 1972 album &#8220;Got To Be There.&#8221;


As all PJ fans know, these two unlikely fans paid homage to Michael Jackson twenty years later in the 1993 Pearl Jam song, &#8220;Rats.&#8221; The song is dominated by Jeff&#8217;s bass-heavy groove and it swings into a massive key shift at the end so that Eddie can repeatedly sing the chorus of &#8220;Ben.&#8221;

http://www.twofeetthick.com/2009/06/26/michael-jackson-influenced-pearl-jam-too/


[video=youtube;SFXCEe3Aos8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFXCEe3Aos8[/video]
 
So I came across this video of a girl who learnt how to dance really good to dubstep just by watching YouTube and well, guess who provoked her into looking up said dances moves in the first place :p


(Relevant bit is near the start, but watch it all! She's really good, especially given the fact she's only been doing it for 7-8 months).
 
So I came across this video of a girl who learnt how to dance really good to dubstep just by watching YouTube and well, guess who provoked her into looking up said dances moves in the first place :p


(Relevant bit is near the start, but watch it all! She's really good, especially given the fact she's only been doing it for 7-8 months).

Michael has inspired SO many people, and wow she really is good, I can clearly see MJ's influence in her dance moves. :D
 
Bar Kays ~ Dirty Dancer

This song is by the funk band Bar-Kays. The chorus sounds a little like Grease by Frankie Valli as well. Dirty Dancer was released on the band's 1984 album called Dangerous. :cheeky:
 
What about Prince

He based the Time around the percussion sound of DSTYGE in the song cool.
Prince also was inspired by MJ's falsetto with his early tracks like I wanna be your lover and in many of his later concerts he would play MJ tracks like DSTYGE. I think they inspired each other. Lets Go Crazy was an attempt to capture the the Thriller magic.

Artists like TTD/Sananda Maitreya, Goldie, Maxwell and D'Angelo, along with the Roots and Janet Jackson always look up to both Prince and Michael Jackson as inspirations. Prince bought the funk and MJ the dance and pop. Both had incredible voices from growls down to falsetto and a warmth and diversity in vice no one could match.

Plus Both Prince and MJ were shouting out mad props to James Brown, Little Richard and Sly Stone all the time. Also Stevie Wonder and Al Green eature heavy as inspirations to both geniuses. Many younger geniuses like Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars, will quote Prince and Michael Jackson as equal inspirations. Seriously Michael and Prince fed off each other and the music produced from this constant lifting of the bar was just the greatest ever!:bow:
 
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Re: Bar Kays ~ Dirty Dancer

This song is by the funk band Bar-Kays. The chorus sounds a little like Grease by Frankie Valli as well. Dirty Dancer was released on the band's 1984 album called Dangerous. :cheeky:

Yes but the Borrow Kays stole everyone's style. Your Place or Mine sounds like When Doves Cry, Freakshow on the Dancefloor is a total Midnight star ripoff and Dirty Dancer off the Dangerous album was a total Billie Jean ripoff, then again the album was called Dangerous? and before 1991.
 
What about Prince

You know how after the first two choruses of When Doves Cry how Prince does a series of hee-hees? Do you think they were inspired by MJ? Of course Michael isn't the only person to make those sort of noises on record but I've just always wondered :)
 
What about Prince

He based the Time around the percussion sound of DSTYGE in the song cool.
Prince also was inspired by MJ's falsetto with his early tracks like I wanna be your lover and in many of his later concerts he would play MJ tracks like DSTYGE. I think they inspired each other. Lets Go Crazy was an attempt to capture the the Thriller magic.

Artists like TTD/Sananda Maitreya, Goldie, Maxwell and D'Angelo, along with the Roots and Janet Jackson always look up to both Prince and Michael Jackson as inspirations. Prince bought the funk and MJ the dance and pop. Both had incredible voices from growls down to falsetto and a warmth and diversity in vice no one could match.

Plus Both Prince and MJ were shouting out mad props to James Brown, Little Richard and Sly Stone all the time. Also Stevie Wonder and Al Green eature heavy as inspirations to both geniuses. Many younger geniuses like Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars, will quote Prince and Michael Jackson as equal inspirations. Seriously Michael and Prince fed off each other and the music produced from this constant lifting of the bar was just the greatest ever!:bow:

Okay.
I'll add Prince to the list then. :)
 
His influence on the entertainment industry is huge.. Goes far beyond where he gets credit. He really paved the way in so many ways. Yes music videos, dancing, music.. but it goes beyond that, think of what pop culture is now, and think how it was before Michael got on MTV..
 
How Michael Jackson Inspired A$AP Ferg's New Album
The "King of Pop" led the A$AP Mob rapper to work with ScHoolboy Q, Future, Skrillex and more.




A$AP Ferg, of Harlem rap group A$AP Mob, dropped his "Always Strive and Prosper" album earlier this year. It features tons of special guests, including Future, ScHoolboy Q, Skrillex, Rick Ross, Chuck D, Big Sean and Ty Dolla $ign. It's an all-star album, but that's not how the project started.
Before his performance at Lollapalooza, A$AP Ferg sat down with Red Bull TV host Sal Masekela to talk about the origins of "Always Strive and Prosper." Ferg said the album started out with no features. But then, after being inspired by Michael Jackson and Teddy Riley, he decided to remake the album and pack it full of special guests.
"I didn't have any features on my album &#8212; and I learned this from Michael Jackson and Teddy Riley," Ferg explained. "Teddy Riley was working on Michael Jackson's album, and they got through the whole album and Michael Jackson said, 'I love the album, now let's just remix it.' Because the remixes is always better than the original song, so that's what I did with my album."


"I was like, 'I love this album, it's a masterpiece, but how can I make it better?' The remix," said Ferg. "So that's when I remixed my whole album. I took a verse off and put ScHoolboy Q on. I took a verse off and put Missy Elliott on. Got Future on a joint. All the songs was done before I got features on there."
Watch the video above to hear Ferg tell the whole story, as well as talk about his experiences traveling the world to play festivals like Lollapalooza and Montreux Jazz.
 
Weird Al Yankovic. MJ allowing him to parody his songs, in the words of Al himself, 'jump-started my career'.
 
Young Thug aka Jeffrey Channels Michael Jackson On New album




Young Thug is getting ready to showcase himself in a new light (Michael Jackson) on his new album Jeffrey.

Thugger has also announced that he has changed his name to No, My Name is Jeffery maybe for a week or so to amp up album sales. Speaking with Travis Scott on his .wav radio shows on Apple Music&#8217;s ***** 1 on Friday, Young Thug opened up about his new album and taking on a mentality similar to that of the late king of pop Michael Jackson.

&#8220;This is personal&#8230; At the end of this album, everybody&#8217;s gonna be like, &#8216;Your name Jeffery.&#8217; There&#8217;s no Thuggish songs. There&#8217;s cool songs. I got a song on there called &#8216;Future Swag&#8217; but it&#8217;s still Jeffery,&#8221; the Atlanta rapper said.

But Young Thug says that he will more than likely be Jeffrey for just one whole week. &#8220;I&#8217;m Jeffery for one fu**ing week, if I don&#8217;t sell 100,000 copies,&#8221; he added.

As for why he decided to change his name to Jeffrey and drop the 7-track album, Thugger said that he wanted to get away from having a street image laced with beefs for a moment. &#8220;I just want to get off of the Slime Season sh*t because I never had a street mentality,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I always had a Michael Jackson mentality&#8230;The message is to go back to who I really am. I really am Jeffery. That&#8217;s really my swag.&#8221;


Travis Scott also revealed that he will be a guest feature on the album Jeffrey even though his verse is not yet recorded. &#8220;Let that be known, let that be stated that today, I am doing my verse tonight&#8230; Am on this album,&#8221; Scott said.

The album Jeffrey was original slated for release today August 19, but was delayed once again perhaps to accommodate Travis Scott. The project will be exclusively released on Apple Music and should be also available for download on iTunes.

Young Thug also has a new single out featuring Wyclef Jean title &#8220;Elton&#8221; that will be on the album.
 
James Bourne from the UK pop punk band Busted. He's a really big MJ fan. Some of the things he's said about MJ:

In an interview:

What made you want to become a musician?

Listening to Michael Jackson and watching Marty McFly rock out in Back to the Future.

What was the first thing you saw on stage that had a big impact on you?

Michael Jackson's Dangerous tour, when I was ten.

From a book about an audition.

James_Bourne_MJ.png


On Twitter:

'I gave Michael Jackson a hug. still remains the greatest moment of my life. Better than having number 1's or winning brit awards.'

When somebody, mistakenly, tried to make out he was only known for being a part of another band at one stage (when he co wrote most of the songs on that band's first album):

'No ones famous . Michael Jackson was famous . People are people . But you don't know that which is sad '


In a song the band did about going to the future, one line, tongue in cheek, goes 'Everybody bought our 7th album. It had outsold Michael Jackson.'

He also attended the premiere of the MJ documentary 'Life Of An Icon'.
 
Suleman Mirza from Signature who entered Britain's Got Talent. I so wanted them to win! They finished runners up. They did however win favourite BGT act ever!


Another from BGT, who won it one year, Diversity.

Their tribute to MJ at the Mobo Awards.


Another they did a few years later.

 
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The Weeknd released a new vid for a song called "I Feel It Coming" and based on the screenshots I've seen (I haven't bothered I watch the video) it's heavily MJ inspired.:)

The Weeknd actually used to get on my nerves and I didn't like him but not anymore.
Overtime I've come to the conclusion that he genuinely loves and respects Michael and isn't using him as a stepping stone for popularity (which I'm always a lil bit wary of when people are inspired by MJ).
I'm neutral when it comes to him now.:lol:
 
Yeah, sometimes he takes it a bit far though. I actually think The Weeknd is one of the better popstars of today (although lets face it, the bar is set pretty low). But his video for I Can't Feel My Face was pretty much Billie Jean Motown 25 without the moonwalk. I have no problem with people paying homage to MJ, or using him as inspiration. After all, MJ did the same with James Brown and Fred Astaire. But at least MJ took what they did to the next level. Everyone who seems to copy MJ just comes across as inferior in every way.
True.
I can't honestly disagree with anything you've said here. :)
 
It doesn't bother me to be honest, as long as they're openly giving credit where credit is due (which The Weeknd does).



If anything, it just goes to show how music hasn't evolved or moved on from MJ. He was the greatest and people will be imitating and copying him for years and years to come. It's a good thing, I think, although it does very little for me watching others try and replicate and mimic MJ, without bringing anything new to the table. But it goes to show how much impact he had and how many people he inspired, so in that regard, I have no complaints.
The bolded is how I feel too.
It's annoying AF when I see someone obviously biting off of MJ but saying someone else inspired them.
 
It's nice to see that the weekend is inspired by MJ but I don't know why but I just don't like the guy for some reason. I do like his girlfriend Selena Gomez.
 
CONTAGIOUS Little Eye reveals their main influence is Michael Jackson after blowing fans away on Facebook Live Friday
The Scottish band talked about their upcoming album and their love for the Isle of Wight festival

EXCLUSIVE
By Rachel Macpherson
18th March 2017, 2:07 pm




The band performed tracks Contagious and We Are Kings before revealing how they are influenced by other musicians.
img_0946.jpg

Little Eye blows fans with performance of tracks Contagious and We Are Kings



A four-piece band, Little Eye have been on the music scene since 2012 and are currently writing their second album.

The band admitted that comparing themselves to other bands was difficult but that their main influence was Michael Jackson.

Allan said: &#8220;It&#8217;s something we always struggle with because you&#8217;re having to put your band in a box, but my number one influence is Michael Jackson &#8211; which probably doesn&#8217;t show.&#8221;


The band have previously been compared to the likes of Twin Atlantic.

Lead singer Allan Sieczkowski said: &#8220;We get that a lot &#8211; but it&#8217;s not a bad thing. But ideally we would love people to come to a gig and make their mind up for themselves.&#8221;

The Scottish group also talked of their relationship with other musicians. Guitarist Euan Malloch had appeared on Facebook Live Friday last week with Let It Shine star Mark Angels.

Euan said: &#8220;It&#8217;s good that we play with other people because it influences the music and the albums we play. We play with such great musicians, week in week out, who aren&#8217;t in the charts &#8211; there&#8217;s so many around Glasgow who inspire us as players.&#8221;

Allan added: &#8220;Mark is such a lovely guy and we&#8217;ve known him for years &#8211; so it was so great to see him on that show and do so well.&#8221;
img_0941.jpg

The band revealed that they were influenced by all kinds of musicians

When talk turned to festivals, Little Eye talked of their first festival performance at the Isle of Wight.

Allan said: &#8220;We were invited to play there the year we released our album &#8211; a slot opened up on the main stage and we got asked if we wanted to do it. It&#8217;s the first festival we got invited to play &#8211; it has a special place in our hearts.

&#8220;We&#8217;ve been invited back every year to play it.&#8221;

He added: &#8220;To get an opportunity like that restores your faith in what your doing. We almost felt as if we shouldn&#8217;t be there.&#8221;

Fans flocked to the video online.

Suzanne Clarke said: &#8220;Sounding great guys &#8211; love this acoustic version of Contagious.&#8221;

While Scott Leslie said: &#8220;Just outstanding. Amazing band.&#8221;

Chris Judge added: &#8220;Awesome band.&#8221;


The band also thanked fans for their support.

They said: &#8220;Thank you so much for having us guys.&#8221;




Little Eye are set to perform at Rockathon Glasgow at the Hard Rock Cafe in May to raise money for the Glasgow Children&#8217;s Hospital Charity.
 
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