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Did anybody else get tired of MJ's "anti-tabloid" songs?

BadTour87

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I mean on literally every album since Bad there has been at least one song attacking tabloids or his haters. Now I wanna make it clear I adore MJ, but these constant "F U TABLOIDS" tracks get repetitive and irritating.

Let's look at some of them:

BAD (1987)
1. Leave Me Alone

DANGEROUS (1991)
2. Why You Wanna Trip On Me

HISTORY (1995)
3. Scream
4. This Time Around
5. D.S. (kind of)
6. Money
7. Tabloid Junkie

I love all of these songs, I think they're great. But it just gets to the point where you are saying to yourself "Yes, Michael. We get it. You were misunderstood and tabloids made rumours about you. We get the message, already", especially by the end of HIStory.

And then when you think he's finished he comes back with more on Invincible!

INVINCIBLE (2001)
8. Unbreakable
9. Privacy
10. Threatened

I love these too, by the way. But like I said, we get the message.

And this isn't counting the countless more that he recorded/wrote but didn't release. There may even be more released ones that I missed out!
 
Michael was the most publicly persecuted celebrity since Elvis; the only way he knew how to combat the oppression was through his music. His biggest character flaw was simply trusting people too much, repeatedly placing himself in similar situations. Of course, the press were merciless, knowing it would only be so long before Michael tried to refute their claims, opening himself to even more ridicule. It was a vicious cycle, that continues even now because the tabloids never care about anyone but themselves.
 
No! In my opinion he should have made more anti tabloid songs. On top of that, he should have released some songs, just to piss them off :)
 
Nope! Those are my jams. Especially Unbreakable. I mean, he sang what he felt ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
The only song I really love in this list is "Leave Me Alone" and I could listen to it any time, any place, all day and night long. But I don't think of it as an anti-tabloid song, even though the short film was.
Scream seemed more about injustice in the world, Money is people that went behind his back, DS is about Tom Sneddon, not the tabloid press.

Privacy, Why you Want to Trip on Me, and Tabloid Junkie are really the only anti-tabloid songs in my opinion. And he was definitely entitled-I haven't ever seen anybody before or after, that got it at that level-and so unjustified.
 
No not at all.
The media constantly trashed MJ, and years after his death it hasn't stopped, so if you ask me Michael actually held back a lot.
The media was on a mission to ruin Michael.
I honestly can't think of another celebrity/entertainer that had to deal with even HALF the mess that Michael did, but as hard as they tried/try to tarnish Michael's legacy he's still the King of Pop and THE standard for entertainers.
 
Not at all. Obviously they didn't get the message. Maybe if they did, then he would have stopped. It was still an important subject to call attention to, and he felt strongly about, probably not just for his sake, and I don't think it could ever be repeated enough.
 
About half of the songs in this list are not even tabloid songs.
 
I never gotten tired of them. Tabloid Junkie, Leave Me Alone, and D.S. are my most favorite. Especially the song D.S. I can't tell you how many times I had listen to D.S. as I did my little art work of Tom Sneddon in prison. Back when those trials was going on. It had to be done since I was so extremely angry at what he was doing to my Michael again. A nightmare I was forced to relive again because of him. Michael should have definitely did more of those songs. They were the greatest.
 
Catharsis -

the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.

psychotherapy that encourages or permits the discharge of pent-up, socially unacceptable affects.
discharge of pent-up emotions so as to result in the alleviation of symptoms or the permanent relief of the condition.

It was probably more about a catharsis for Michael and it only got worse by 2005!
 
No
Just because you read it in a magazine
Or see it on the TV screen
Don't make it factual
Though everybody wants to read all about it
Just because you read it in a magazine
Or see it on the TV screen
Don't make it factual
Click to expand...

Now there’s a lesson to learn, stories are twisted and turned
Click to expand...

I know they are antitabloid songs but here I can think about other things too.
It´s not always the truth in the news and documentaries, maybe you only hear one side of the problem
You can learn to be a critical source.
 
BadTour87 said:
I mean on literally every album since Bad there has been at least one song attacking tabloids or his haters. Now I wanna make it clear I adore MJ, but these constant "F U TABLOIDS" tracks get repetitive and irritating.

Let's look at some of them:

BAD (1987)
1. Leave Me Alone

DANGEROUS (1991)
2. Why You Wanna Trip On Me

HISTORY (1995)
3. Scream
4. This Time Around
5. D.S. (kind of)
6. Money
7. Tabloid Junkie

I love all of these songs, I think they're great. But it just gets to the point where you are saying to yourself "Yes, Michael. We get it. You were misunderstood and tabloids made rumours about you. We get the message, already", especially by the end of HIStory.

And then when you think he's finished he comes back with more on Invincible!

INVINCIBLE (2001)
8. Unbreakable
9. Privacy
10. Threatened

I love these too, by the way. But like I said, we get the message.

And this isn't counting the countless more that he recorded/wrote but didn't release. There may even be more released ones that I missed out!
Click to expand...

Most of the songs you listed are NOT even anti-tabloid songs. I think you should pay more attention to the lyrics.

Leave Me Alone as a song is not an anti-tabloid song. It is only the video that is anti-tabloid.
Why You Wanna Trip On Me can be characterized as anti-tabloid, but it wasn't even written by MJ.
The only song that is anti-tabloid on HIStory is Tabloid Junkie.
And Privacy is the only other on Invincible.

That's all.

By Privacy it was a bit too much, I agree (and it is not a great song IMO), but each of the other anti-tabloid songs have their place and good reason to be in MJ's catalog IMO. Tabloid Junkie was written in a time when the subject was more relevant than ever and just HAD to be addressed - and that in a less light-hearted way than in the Leave Me Alone video. It were darker times and a darker relationship already with the media. And like I said Leave Me Alone isn't really anti-tabloid as a song.
 
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respect77;4151066 said:
Leave Me Alone as a song is not an anti-tabloid song. It is only the video that is anti-tabloid.
Click to expand...

Ehh, the lyrics could be interpreted about his relationship with the media tbh. If you take it at face value without context, it could be just about your typical relationship. Taking it into context with what MJ was beginning to experience at that time, I definitely wouldn't put it beyond MJ to make the song have more than one interpretation.

Copy and pasting from an older thread I wrote in:

I don't care what you talking
'Bout baby
I don't care what you say [He doesn't give a damn what the tabloids are saying about him]
Don't you come walking
Begging back mama
I don't care anyway [They always come back to him and ask him for interviews, exclusives anyway. MJ rarely gave interviews]
Time after time i gave you all of my money [While Michael isn't exactly giving them money literally so to speak, he is making them a lot of money]
No excuses to make
Ain’t no mountain that i
Can't climb baby
All is going my way [Regardless, everything is still going his way and he's making milestones in the music industry]

[Verse 2]
There was a time I used to
Say girl I need you
But who is sorry now
You really hurt, you used to
Take and deceive me
Now who is sorry now
You got a way of making me
Feel so sorry I found out right away
Don't you come walking
Begging I aren’t loving you
Don't you get in my way

For the second verse above, I see it in the way that, before Thriller, Michael did need the media to help promote his music. We all know the story of Rolling Stone rejecting him in '79-'80 or whatever and there's no doubt more stories similar to that (like MTV). They used to really hurt him by not treating him with the same amount of respect as other big artists, as well as by making up false rumours about him. But they're sorry now because they need MJ to sell covers and probably used all sorts of methods to persuade him to come do interviews/photo shoots for them. And this is 1980s Michael Jackson, the juggernaut who didn't need to give exclusive info to the media to sell records, so he is now in the position of power to tell them to not get in his way.
 
I think I was being a bit too specific with the tabloid thing, I was more meaning just songs about people lying to him and about him in general.

And like I said, I love all these songs. I don't hate them.
 
HIStoric said:
Ehh, the lyrics could be interpreted about his relationship with the media tbh.
Click to expand...

Yes it could be interpreted as an anti-tabloid song (especially when you have the video in mind as we all inevitably do), but without knowing the video, just at face value I don't think many people would actually think of it as anti-tabloid song.

BadTour87 said:
I think I was being a bit too specific with the tabloid thing, I was more meaning just songs about people lying to him and about him in general.
Click to expand...

HIStory can be considered as a concept album, as an album that is in answer of the allegations, so of course you are going to have a lot of personal songs which deal with those topics. Those things are what happened in his life at the time.

Plus all artists have recurring, pet topics. Nothing wrong with that. Some artists build a whole career just singing about sex and romance all the time, but that is not boring? MJ having 3-4 anti-tabloid songs is?
 
No, because the kind of hate and ridicule that was heaped on Michael was unprecedented and music was one of the few ways in which he could express and defend himself. Did you really expect him to go through all of that and not put it into his music? I like his darker and more personal songs, they give an insight into his mind and make it easier to connect with him. I can only imagine the anger, frustration and hurt Michael must have felt at that time.

If it were any other artist, I'd probably agree with you but Michael had a right to complain as much as he wanted imo. Besides, apart from Privacy, they were damn good songs too.
 
respect77 said:
Yes it could be interpreted as an anti-tabloid song (especially when you have the video in mind as we all inevitably do), but without knowing the video, just at face value I don't think many people would actually think of it as anti-tabloid song.
Click to expand...

Sure, but once again that's at face value without context. When it comes to artistic works, context from the author's point of view is often pretty important.

I'm sure you're aware of the many contexts that were present at the time of the songs writing, not the music video's creation; notably the tabloid rumours about the oxygen tank/elephant man, the many publications who refused to have him on their front covers just a few years earlier but were now clamouring to have him appear.

Once you're aware of the context from Michael's point of view, then yeah the song and it's lyrics takes on new meaning. Given it's a perfectly valid interpretation as well (and of course I don't think you have to single down to one interpretation, it's about a relationship too) and that context is important when it comes to artistic works, I think it's fair to consider it an anti-tabloid song or at least media-related for Michael.
 
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It's not repetitive, it's actually a very original subject when you consider how many love songs are made each year by every artist. Should he have made less anti-tabloids songs and more love songs? Which subject do you think he should have explored more instead of anti-tabloids?
 
I don't think he was making them to "say" something to us. Art is self-expression in the first place, a musician creates songs about what's on his mind and what's bothering him. Michael was haunted by media, authorities and society for most of his adult career, so naturally he let out his reaction to that in his art continuously throughout that period. As noted above, it was more of a catharsis for him than a message to us.

As far as the result goes, I think if the song is good musically, the subject of the lyrics is secondary.
 
I'd say that Wanna be startin' somethin' is about the tabloids too ...
 
respect77 said:
Yes it could be interpreted as an anti-tabloid song (especially when you have the video in mind as we all inevitably do), but without knowing the video, just at face value I don't think many people would actually think of it as anti-tabloid song.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the point is that it is not necessarily a tabloid song and that people can relate to it any way they want to. Clearly MJ worked on different layers and many of his songs can be interpreted in more than one way.

The way you're going to label these songs is not just an issue of semantics but also a problem of missing the point of some of them.
 
I love them! considering there are only 10 or so songs considering what he's gone through and how long his career was. I wish we had some more!
 
Pink Diamond Princess said:
No not at all.
The media constantly trashed MJ, and years after his death it hasn't stopped, so if you ask me Michael actually held back a lot.
The media was on a mission to ruin Michael.
I honestly can't think of another celebrity/entertainer that had to deal with even HALF the mess that Michael did, but as hard as they tried/try to tarnish Michael's legacy he's still the King of Pop and THE standard for entertainers.
Click to expand...

Well said, I completely agree.
 
The short answer would be NO...

MJ was such a great artist - his songs actually had a meaning and often also a message.

Sooo many songs are about love, girls, drugs, sex etc. etc. - it's not very imaginative. Some of MJ's songs was very serious and I love those songs.
 
Not at all for a plethora of reasons.

1. It showed he was conscious of the rubbish being printed
2. They were very catchy (esp. Leave me alone and Tabloid Junkie)
3. I even quote them at idiots on other forums (My stamp collecting ones) who believe all the lies about Prince being a recreational drug user with AIDS. I quoted, "Just because you read it in a magazine or see it on a tv screen, does not make it factual, actual" and "Youre a parasite in black and white with the words you choose"
 
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