(Article) ‘Scream’ shows that the Michael Jackson Estate needs to raise the bar

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"Innovative and magical – two criteria Michael Jackson often used when setting the bar for his creative work. Two words that still apply to his music, dance and cinematographic legacy, even though his legendary Thriller album is now 35 years old. Since his death, the Michael Jackson Estate has tried to keep Jackson’s legacy alive. But as their latest album Scream shows, they need to raise the bar.

September 29 has been set as the official date on which a third posthumous Michael Jackson album will be released. Scream is a compilation album containing 13 existing tracks and one bonus mash-up. All songs centre around the theme of fear – or Halloween, as it’s that time of year – including two oldies by the Jacksons and even Rockwell’s ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’, a song from the early eighties for which Jackson delivered the backing vocals.

Obviously, anything carrying the name of Jackson will sell, but the question is if it should. Regretfully, Scream doesn’t offer anything innovative or magical, even though the artwork for the album, made by UK illustrator Matt Taylor, is appealing. Scream is, in fact, superfluous. Those who use Spotify or any other music streaming app, can access the music without buying the album. All it takes is to rearrange existing Jackson playlists. Add to this the new bonus mash-up that is already available through YouTube, et voilà.

Compilation albums are, of course, a regular feature of any music icon’s legacy. But rehashing old songs when there is plenty of unreleased material left in Jackson’s music vault, doesn’t go down well with Jackson’s fan community. No wonder they accuse the Estate of using Jackson’s legacy as a cash cow. Instead of releasing material from the vault, fans are being served an old sandwich and a bonus side salad that nobody has asked for.

Not all of the Estate’s projects fail Jackson’s creative criteria, though. The two Cirque du Soleil shows, Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour (2011) and Michael Jackson: ONE (2013) have become highly successful. ONE, in particular, is a worthy tribute to Jackson’s creativity. The Vegas show honours the man and his music, while adding the spectacular artistry of the Cirque troupe.

Another project that Jackson’s fans have appreciated is the anniversary album BAD25 (2012), which includes remixes and demos of songs that failed to make it to the original album. The anniversary edition was accompanied by a quality documentary directed by Spike Lee. Here was something new to be learned from people who had actually worked with Jackson in the past.

More recently, the Estate participated in the Venice International Film Festival with Thriller 3D. This project offers a restored and enhanced version of Jackson’s legendary music video in 3D, thus having the potential to become highly successful. So far, however, Venice and Toronto are the only two cities where the film has been screened. No plans have yet been announced for further screenings or a commercial release of Jackson’s zombie and ghoul dance in 3D.

Other Estate projects, however, received a less positive response. The music documentary This Is It (2009), for example, showed what fans could have expected if Jackson had performed his concerts in the O2 Arena in London. The footage, which shows a painfully thin Jackson during rehearsals, was meant for Jackson’s personal archive. It’s unlikely that the King of Pop, ever the perfectionist, would have granted permission for the footage to be released.

Another project that was criticised, was Jackson’s first posthumous album Michael (2010). Upon release, Jackson’s relatives and fans claimed that the vocals of three of the album’s previously unreleased songs, known as the Cascio tracks, were not Jackson’s. Although the Estate backed Sony Music who insisted that all tracks were the real deal, the album became tainted. One Jackson fan even took the case to court; a verdict has yet to be given.

Xscape (2014), Jackson’s second posthumous album of previously unreleased tracks, received milder criticism, although many fans had lingering doubts about the Cascio controversy. Xscape offered something for all ages – original tracks as well as newly mixed and modernized songs – but lacked Jackson’s finishing touch. What didn’t help either was that hardly any of the producers Jackson worked with in the past were involved in this project.

A venture related to Xscape, was the Michael Jackson hologram at the Billboard Music Awards in 2014. This project was frowned upon by many, and for good reason. Not only did the hologram subtly fail to move and look like Jackson, but the idea also lacked an ethical framework. Who, after all, has the right to resurrect Jackson as a slave to the almighty dollar of the music industry? The animated sitcom South Park scrutinised the idea behind this project in two episodes called ‘#REHASH’ and ‘#HappyHolograms’.

What becomes clear from these examples is that Jackson’s Estate continues its rocky road of legacy management by trial and error. Some projects work out fine or even great, while others fail for a variety of reasons. Although such failures may not always result in lower sales – as said before, Jackson’s name will sell just about anything – they do cause damage to the credibility and quality of Jackson’s music legacy.

For this reason the Estate needs to raise the bar. It needs to design projects that abide by Jackson’s creative standards. Whether these projects aim at a new and younger audience or serve Jackson’s longtime fanbase, or both, is a matter of choice. In any case, there are plenty of creative ideas left to explore. Jackson’s longtime fans, for example, have voiced an interest in Dangerous 25, an anniversary album they had hoped to see in November 2016. As this date has passed, Dangerous 30 could be another option.

Other ideas include digitally remastered versions of Jackson’s music albums, short films and concerts. Full HD or 4K quality and Dolby surround sound are, after all, today’s standard. Unreleased material from Jackson’s music vault is highly in demand as well. Although Jackson probably wouldn’t favour the release of any rough demos, he is known to have finished more tracks than his albums could contain. There must be plenty of material worth exploring.

Communication-wise, the Estate also needs to shape up. Jackson’s official Facebook account lacks a sense of community spirit, and his Twitter account has tweeted mistakes more than once. On top of that, Jackson’s newsletter lacks both frequency and content, and seems to function solely as an advertisement for the Estate’s web shop. Sometimes it doesn’t even do that. The July 2017 edition contained only one topic: the ever-so-hackneyed online quiz.

Of course it’s easy to criticise from the sideline. Most of us know nothing or very little about the perks and pitfalls of running an Estate the size and complexity of Michael Jackson’s legacy. There is always something to be said for or against the work and ambitions of those involved, especially when the subject in question is Michael Jackson. Nevertheless, certain issues need to be addressed if the Estate wishes to measure up to Jackson’s iconic standard.

In this respect, the social media responses to the release of Scream leave little room for doubt. Jackson’s fans are disappointed. Another compilation album in addition to countless ‘best of’ albums that are already out there, seems a poor choice. Jackson’s Estate could and should do better. All it takes is a more creative mindset and better listening skills. Then albums such as Scream will become a thing of the past, easily created and, hopefully, easily forgotten." - Annemarie Latour

Link to the original article...
 
AO98;4209285 said:
Compilation albums are, of course, a regular feature of any music icon’s legacy. But rehashing old songs when there is plenty of unreleased material left in Jackson’s music vault, doesn’t go down well with Jackson’s fan community. No wonder they accuse the Estate of using Jackson’s legacy as a cash cow. Instead of releasing material from the vault, fans are being served an old sandwich and a bonus side salad that nobody has asked for.
Because it's obviously not aimed at fans. How do people struggle to realise this haha

AO98;4209285 said:
So far, however, Venice and Toronto are the only two cities where the film has been screened.
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The most spread footage online of Thriller 3D is from Sydney showings lmao.

AO98;4209285 said:
Xscape (2014), Jackson’s second posthumous album of previously unreleased tracks, received milder criticism, although many fans had lingering doubts about the Cascio controversy. Xscape offered something for all ages – original tracks as well as newly mixed and modernized songs – but lacked Jackson’s finishing touch. What didn’t help either was that hardly any of the producers Jackson worked with in the past were involved in this project.
See, normally I'd agree on the past working relationships thing for most musicians... but oddly the work by the new producers on Xscape was generally much superior to the production on Michael anyway, which was done by people who actually worked with MJ (though I've been pretty vocal about my disdain for Michael's production hah. The production on Xscape done by Rodney Jerkins - who did work with MJ - was great though so hey, maybe it was just the sound for the Michael album haha).

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Generally with the Estate I'm pretty neutral-positive. They've definitely had some f-up, but generally I like that they're actually quite active for a musicians estate and are trying different things, that they're not in a rush to release everything. By this point, Tupac's Estate were verrrry much barrel scraping to the point where Tupac had put out more music posthumously than while alive.
 
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That article is not very factual...

This Is It was a great release and liked by most fans. - Sure the footage was never meant to be released. But I am very happy they did - now the actual show never happend...

Xscape was a great release. BAD25 was near perfect - DVD could/should have been better quality. But first live album and nice demos!

Actually - only the 3 Cascio songs have been a huge failure/mistake... - BUT as I see it that is NOT the Estates fault... - SONY and The Estate was tricked by Cascio. No doubt they believed the songs to be MJ - and really - most people would think so if a personal friend of MJ came and gave them the songs.

Only fans analysing the songs and overanalysing etc. would notice the difference... - Many fans believed/believes it's MJ... so how could two lawyers know it wasn't...

After all the negativity and fan frustration - I would have liked them to re-release Michael without the Cascio songs.. - but then again... that would be the same as agreeing it was not MJ... Hard decision for them to make...
 
Are we supposed to know, and care, who this person is?

'This is it' is the biggest selling music related video of all time. Big article FAIL.

Also, The Estate has the right - no the obligation - to attract new fans, not just to pander to the ever decreasing, ever critical, vocals minority.
 
I'm sick of this-she needs to say SOME of Jackson's fans are disappointed. Not all of us were salivating at the thought of Dangerous 25. I, for one, may not buy everything, but I do appreciate everything they've tried and done.
 
After all the negativity and fan frustration - I would have liked them to re-release Michael without the Cascio songs.. - but then again... that would be the same as agreeing it was not MJ... Hard decision for them to make...

Lol, I feel like they already did that by not including "Monster" in Scream
 
That article is not very factual...

This Is It was a great release and liked by most fans. - Sure the footage was never meant to be released. But I am very happy they did - now the actual show never happend...

Xscape was a great release. BAD25 was near perfect - DVD could/should have been better quality. But first live album and nice demos!

Actually - only the 3 Cascio songs have been a huge failure/mistake... - BUT as I see it that is NOT the Estates fault... - SONY and The Estate was tricked by Cascio. No doubt they believed the songs to be MJ - and really - most people would think so if a personal friend of MJ came and gave them the songs.

Only fans analysing the songs and overanalysing etc. would notice the difference... - Many fans believed/believes it's MJ... so how could two lawyers know it wasn't...

After all the negativity and fan frustration - I would have liked them to re-release Michael without the Cascio songs.. - but then again... that would be the same as agreeing it was not MJ... Hard decision for them to make...

100% disagree. Anyone who knows Michael Jackson and his voice could tell that wasn't Michael singing. They are just as much to blame as the Cascio's.
 
100% disagree. Anyone who knows Michael Jackson and his voice could tell that wasn't Michael singing. They are just as much to blame as the Cascio's.

If that was the case, you wouldn't have a bunch of fans disagreeing with us about it not being Michael. Honestly if you told someone "His voice has just been heavily processed because they're demo vocals", then anyone who's not overly familiar with music producing would likely believe you.

One of the producers around it's release said it was MJ's voice, just heavily processed with a process called melodyne (or something) and that was enough for me to believe it. It took for someone to explain how it works and why it wouldn't affect Michael's voice to that degree for me to finally believe that these weren't actually Michael's vocals.

It wouldn't surprise me if Branca or McCain believed that sort of story too (plus nevermind he was a longtime friend of Michael's, who Michael still trusted after the trials so that would've counted for something. Nevermind finding a lot of material from this time was a pretty rare thing in itself so the Estate would've been keen to have their hands on it).
 
I don't understand why they didn't include the song "Is it scary"
 
I don't understand why they didn't include the song "Is it scary"

They wanted it to be dance orientated. Outside of the chorus, Is It Scary isn't as great of a dance song as his other songs on there.
 
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