Double Standards (updated)
Now this was a thread made on MJJCommunity in 2007 and it talks about how well MJ sold against current artists and how people wrongfully compare MJ's sales now with his in the 80's and 90's.
Now since this was made in 2007, some figures are a bit old. So I will update them here. And I will add more artists of today to compare by.
Also no one can comment on it anymore, so I figured I can make a new updated version for more current artists and sales to compare by and for new people to comment on now.
As we all know, MJ reached phenomenal heights in the 80s(110 million records) and 90's(123 million records), but I think he reached so far that people always compare him back to that era. This means that even though he continues to sell extremely well relative to other artists, some focus on that period so much that anything he does in more recent memory is labeled a disappointment. Case in point: Invincible. Invincible sold 10-12 million albums worldwide (2x Platinum in the US), but many have said that it did "badly." How badly did Invincible really do? Well, let's take a look at our new "King of Pop," Justin Timberlake. Justin's first album, Justified, sold 7 million worldwide(3.5 million in the U.S.) and the second, FS/LS, has sold 9 million albums (4 million in the U.S.),both of which is not all that outrageously bigger than what Invincible sold in the US. That means Justin has sold about 16 million albums in his solo career, which is contained entirely within this decade. How many albums has MJ sold so far this decade? Far more than 25 million, about 30 million albums sold this decade. So what I propose: instead of doing the silly thing of comparing MJ now (or anyone else) to the insane thing he was in the 80s and 90's, let's compare him to other artists. Some other prominent (or "hot") current artists and what they have sold worldwide(Now these are only album sales)....
Justin Timberlake - 16 million (about)
50 Cent - 27.8 million (about)
Beyonce - 20.55 million (somewhere around there)
Christina Aguilera - 25.76 million (about)
Chris Brown- 6 million(about)
Lil' Wayne- 8.55 million (about)
Fergie- 6.5 million (about)
Kanye West- 14.3 million (about)
Rihanna-7.8 million (about)
Jay-Z- 26.1 million (about)
In this decade, the only artists that I can think of that have outsold MJ are Norah Jones and Eminem (who has sold the most in this decade). I'm sure there are others, but the point is there are not that many! We're talking about a performer here who's had a solo career going back to the early 70s, And has been subjected to the most negative press in recent years than anyone could possibly imagine. and he is still crushing the charts globally. But the problem is people are thinking about days when he used to crush the charts even more, to a time when MJ made chart-crushing a hobby. So this was just my rant about an obvious double standard....take it or leave it....
For More info on MJ's sales, please refer to my article: http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=60068
Originally Posted by PieterM
...and to do that I need to be prepared for potential questions they may throw at me...
Yeah its very true when it comes to Michael Jackson then its all double standard.If anybody else sell even 2 million then that Artist is greatest.Though I don't pay more attention to these things anymore but yeah it bothers me sometimes.How you can ignore somebody's greatest achievements in music industry.And all these people doing this have bread by music industry only and if Michael Jackson is doing well then obviously music industry is also doing well.I think media should stop tryin to bring Michael Jackson down.But the problem is many people in music industry also ignore MJ and his achievements cuz if they don't then they would have come out to media and let whole world know how well Michael Jackson is still doing.
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