SmoothGangsta
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He got some cheers out of this german crowd who had at that time probably never heard of Michael Jackson.The Jacksons perform on Musikladen
3m 23s
Wait, what? J5 were not big in Germany? The Jacksons were not well known in Germany? Why would the crowd not know who Michael was. I know he wasn't 'Michael Jackson' yet but they would know who he was. Wouldn't they?He got some cheers out of this german crowd who had at that time probably never heard of Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson live vocals
Wait, what? J5 were not big in Germany? The Jacksons were not well known in Germany? Why would the crowd not know who Michael was. I know he wasn't 'Michael Jackson' yet but they would know who he was. Wouldn't they?
I'm confused.
@bluemoon7 - can you shed some light on this? It's not even 10am and I'm already having a gonzo day but f&m has really confused me. Were J5 only big in the UK and not in mainland Europe?
I'm missing something!
As far as I am aware they never scored a hit in germany as the Jackson 5. Their exposure seemed limited to Australia, New Zeeland, UK, Holland and Belgium. I don’t even think Motown tried to get them on the charts in non English speaking countries.
The Jacksons perform on Musikladen
3m 23s
As far as I am aware they never scored a hit in germany as the Jackson 5. Their exposure seemed limited to Australia, New Zeeland, UK, Holland and Belgium. I don’t even think Motown tried to get them on the charts in non English speaking countries.
This all makes sense. Apologies! Maybe I was being too UK-centric, lol.I am not sure, actually. But the fact that I only learned about J5 and The Jacksons in the 80s - AFTER I discovered Michael, speaks for the fact that they weren´t known in Germany very well. I remember that, besides Michael, Jermaine and Pia Zadora had a huge hit in the eighties over here in Germany.
When the BAD album hit, I was 13 / 14 years old, and instantly became a Michael Jackson fan. I knew about Billie Jean and Beat It, but only discovered OFF THE WALL and Michaels whole backstory when I actively looked at Michael´s earlier career. [...]
This is kinda cool.[...] I have always wondered, but I think BAD was much bigger in Germany than THRILLER at the time. Michael definitely exploded with BAD over here. It was massive!
Yeah, it was a bit ... I'm not sure what to say!They had to suffer German clapping ( German song clapping rule: every beat in a bar gets a clap, no matter how fast or slow the song, no matter if song has on beat or off beat pattern )
That's how it sounds to me.I think only Michael’s mic is on. Jackie only when he gets to sing a line but the overall chorus and background vocals seem to come from the record.
I am fairly certain Motown did not see any value in trying to break the German, French, Spanish and Italian markets so the Jackson 5 had no exposure there. It costs a lot of money to break a foreign market especially back in the “old world”. Eastern Europe with the Iron Curtain and all was almost impossible to break for other reasons.That's how it sounds to me.
I'm still intrigued by all of this. Just found this little piece:
German Motown
Nowadays, it’s taken for granted that American music will be produced in English and worldwide marketed in the same language. However, that wasn’t always the case. In the mid-1960s, Berry Gordy - the...soulmusicsongs.com
@bluemoon7 - FYI
They did try in the mid-sixties, it seems. I found a little bit about them releasing stuff in Italy, Germany and France in the mid-sixties. They were going to try Spain, too, apparently but I couldn't find anything solid about that.I am fairly certain Motown did not see any value in trying to break the German, French, Spanish and Italian markets so the Jackson 5 had no exposure there. It costs a lot of money to break a foreign market especially back in the “old world”. Eastern Europe with the Iron Curtain and all was almost impossible to break for other reasons.
Very true. Big chunks of Europe were much more resistant to 'cultural imperialism' from America than the UK was. We just caved in.They could have had limited success like young Michael scored a massive hit with Ben in Belgium and Holland (these countries were under huge influence from America after the war) but he was very much a one hit wonder in some European regions until Thriller came along.
Even the likes of Elvis didn’t score truckloads of nr 1 hits in Italy or Germany. Different eras really, the world was a lot bigger figuratively.