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Thoughts on "Threatened" [MERGED]

Re: Threatened doesn't get the credit it deserves.

"Threatened" is great! Sure, the lyricism is standard pseudo-gothic-slash-braggadocio, but the production is insane (which I could honestly say for most of the Rodney Jerkins songs) and the Rod Serling "rap" is one of the most unique and creative things Michael has ever done.

If not for "Unbreakable," it would be a PHENOMENAL album opener.

- the opening narration ("Tonight's story [...] calls for a different kind of introduction")
- the sudden explosion from eerie voice-over into driving groove
- the ending lyrics ("What you have just witnessed could be the end of a particularly terrifying nightmare. It isn't... it's the beginning...")
 
Re: Threatened doesn't get the credit it deserves.

I know Michael wanted to do a short film for Threatened and I would have loved to have seen that
 
There were also segments from ‘The Bard’ episode that were used for the ‘Threatened’ song.

‘The Bard’ was the Episode 18 (Season 4) of ‘The Twilight Zone’ TV series.

The ‘Xscape’ song would have been generally a much better choice as a closing track on the ‘Invincible’ album (instead of ‘Threatened’).

‘Threatened’ is so over-produced, so over-processed, lyrically rehashed, it has also that typical generic Rodney Jerkins’ sound that the audience was already familiar with when the song came out in 2001, and additionally Michael Jackson’s vocals on the song sound strained and unnatural.
 
Re: Threatened doesn't get the credit it deserves.

I really like the song but it's kinda ruined by the clunky robotic sound that a lot of invincible suffers from.
 
Re: Threatened doesn't get the credit it deserves.

I admit mostly ignoring the song until I heard the intro performed live in This Is It, which made me rediscover it and I love it ever since. But I agree that the album version suffers a bit from overproduction to some extent (an overused word concerning Invincible, I know, but still). An orchestration including real instruments (for the lack of a better expression) as well would definitely improve the song (as proved in TII).

ChrisC said:
I also think it suffers because the lyrical subject matter is somewhat familiar at best, and predictable at worst.
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I honestly wonder sometimes why there isn't a similar criticism towards the Off The Wall album, which wasn't exactly a lyrical masterpiece either. :)
 
Re: Threatened doesn't get the credit it deserves.

ozemouze said:
I admit mostly ignoring the song until I heard the intro performed live in This Is It, which made me rediscover it and I love it ever since. But I agree that the album version suffers a bit from overproduction to some extent (an overused word concerning Invincible, I know, but still). An orchestration including real instruments (for the lack of a better expression) as well would definitely improve the song (as proved in TII).



I honestly wonder sometimes why there isn't a similar criticism towards the Off The Wall album, which wasn't exactly a lyrical masterpiece either. :)
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I did consider that when I made that post but I guess because songs about love are the standard really. It's the language of song. Lyrical subject matter that steps out of that is fairly unusual, and when it's revisited - particularly when someone's career is like 'the house that Thriller built' - it's going to draw that kind of critique I think.
 
Re: Threatened Appreciation Thread [MERGED]

I am glad that Michael decided to include a section of Threatened during Thriller for This Is It. That is honestly one of my favourite parts of the movie.
 
Re: Threatened Appreciation Thread [MERGED]

Nite Line said:
I am glad that Michael decided to include a section of Threatened during Thriller for This Is It. That is honestly one of my favourite parts of the movie.
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Definitely agree. I would really like to have the full song in that dope version!
 
Yeah... I especially like this cool dance move Michael does during it :)... anybody has a gif of it?

I'm curious, was this "Threatened" interlude ever used before in some TV appearance etc., or was it really brand new for "This is it"?
 
Re: Threatened doesn't get the credit it deserves.

SmoothGangsta said:
I really like the song but it's kinda ruined by the clunky robotic sound that a lot of invincible suffers from.
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I love the robotic sound of invincible, definitely a product of the time, in my opinion.
 
analogue;4292697 said:
I love how Michael took different audio clips of Rod Serling speaking from the Twilight Zone and edited them together to make it into a rap. Threatened really doesn't get the credit it truly deserves.
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Having worked with some of the biggest names in pop and R&B, Jerkins thinks back to his experience with Michael Jackson on the “Invincible” album in 2000 and 2001 as a key moment in his own career in music. “He challenged me to dig deeper,” Jerkins reflects. “Michael [would say], ‘Go to the junkyard and hit on things and make sounds.’ There were a lot of 3 and 4 a.m. phone calls. ‘I need you to go to the studio for me.’ I’d be super tired. I would play songs over the phone and he’d say, ‘I need you to pan the hi-hats differently.’ Genius. How did he hear that over the phone?”

Jackson had a way of testing those who worked with him. Jerkins explains: “We were finishing the album and Michael wanted a song that could come out at Halloween. He had ‘Thriller,’ he had ‘Ghost’ — he always wanted spooky songs. He loved the track for the song ‘Threatened,’ only he said, ‘It’s missing Rod Sterling. I need Rod Sterling to rap on this.’ At first I’m thinking, ‘Is there some new rapper called Rod Sterling that I don’t know about?’ I said, ‘Elaborate, Michael.’ He said, ‘You know Rod Sterling from “The Twilight Zone.”‘ Five days later he says ‘Did you get Rod Sterling to rap on it yet?’ I said, ‘Michael, Rod Sterling is dead.’ He said, ‘Yeah but I still need him to rap on it.'”

Jerkins obtained VHS copies of every ‘Twilight Zone’ episode, deconstructed Rod Sterling’s voiceovers and built, with the help of a rapper, an eight-bar rap using the vocal snippets.

Jerkins continues: “Michael comes back in the studio and again, he says, ‘Did you ever get Rod Sterling to rap?’ I said ‘As a matter of fact I did.’ He looked at me as if to say, ‘You’re lying. There’s no way. I was just playing around with you!’ I pressed play and the joy that came on his face. It looked like he wanted to cry. He was so amazed that we got that done and that I took on that challenge and he loved it. It was sad it never came out [as a single] as he had big plans for that song.”

https://variety.com/2020/music/news...tracee-ellis-ross-michael-jackson-1234615892/
 
Re: Threatened doesn't get the credit it deserves.

JamesM said:
I love the robotic sound of invincible, definitely a product of the time, in my opinion.
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Yeah. If I put that in comparison to the mixes of the (original!) producers on the "Xscape" album, I think "Invincible" was an absolute masterpiece.
 
@Fuzball, thank you... that's really such a neat story (Threatened / Jerkins / Sterling / Michael).
 
Re: Threatened doesn't get the credit it deserves.

JamesM said:
I love the robotic sound of invincible, definitely a product of the time, in my opinion.
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I like it too, it works beautifully with e.g. Heartbreaker, but when it's overdone it becomes flat and dull instead of interesting. That's what happened with Threatened IMO, and combining the robotic sound with real instruments definitely improves the song, makes it more effective, moreover, come to alive (at least for me).
 
I dislike the song, another typical MJ moment of trying to recreate an old classic (thriller).
 
I still think of the Song, the production and vocal effects as a blueprint to many of Lady Gagas songs.

I also like that MJ picked up this horror theme multiple times over his career. Although its okay there wasn‘t another horror short film. Thriller and Ghosts are absolutely perfect and enough IMO
 
You never know, maybe he would have come up with a completely different approach for the film. I would have loved to see it. :)
 
JichaelMackson said:
I dislike the song, another typical MJ moment of trying to recreate an old classic (thriller).
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In all honestly this song has absolutely nothing to do with thriller, maybe except for the rap part. The composition, themes, vocal performance, song structure, arrangement all is completely different than Thriller. I never understood this argument to be honest.
 
Is it known how many singles in total were scheduled to be released off the album hadn't the album promotion abruptly ended?
 
Fuzball said:
Is it known how many singles in total were scheduled to be released off the album hadn't the album promotion abruptly ended?
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At least 7-8 singles, if we are to go by the number of singles issued from his previous albums.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
In all honestly this song has absolutely nothing to do with thriller, maybe except for the rap part. The composition, themes, vocal performance, song structure, arrangement all is completely different than Thriller. I never understood this argument to be honest.
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I agree, the fact that both can be connected to horrors doesn't make them necessarily similar in other ways. E.g. Thriller and Ghosts couldn't be more different, despite the fact that both lyrics and videos include supernatural beings. And while Thriller is a brilliant, fun and better written song, I think Threathened is actually more interesting. Plus Thriller is more like a teasing type of love song with some fancy horror elements, so in that sense is closer to TWYMMF lyrically. :D

BTW, I don't think this kind of fundamental criticism about recurring topics makes much sense in itself anyway, it's very natural for artists to revisit the same themes. Now the quality of the result, of course, can be evaluated, but the phenomenon itself is just neutral.
 
The Ghosts/Is it scary lyrics and video are brilliantly conceived dig at the press threatened does the same but it's not brilliant anymore because it was done before and much better. It borrows the rap part from thriller and lyrically he already covered the theme on is it scary. It's a redundant track imo
 
Sure, Ghosts and Is It Scary are better (more serious songs to begin with). I guess what I don't get is why can't songs get evaluated on their own merits, instead of comparing them to others. Similar themes aren't enough reason, otherwise love songs would be forbidden by now :D (I can't stand YANA, but because I find it boring and banal both lyrically/musically, not because the theme is done for the millionth time), and saying it's "borrowing" to use rap part in songs more than once seems a bit forced. It's like trying to criticise the song for different reasons or more harshly than it deserves. I guess it wouldn't make Threatened better for you if it was the same song, only done for the first time (I certainly wouldn't love YANA any better even if it was the first love song in history). ;)

Slightly off topic, but I don't expect only masterpieces from MJ (or anyone else). Not because I'm lenient with him, but because I love "just fun" stuff too. I would be offended if Nite Line ended up on Thriller :D, but I'm glad it's still available as sometimes what I need is just lighthearted fun. I actually enjoy most of the outtake songs a lot, even if they aren't on par with the album material. MJ should have followed the strategy of releasing a "just for fun" album after every project.
 
A love song is a love song, it's for the ages, it's universal. You can write all kinds of songs about love. But a horror song is rare and then writing lyrics for it where the writer/singer is the ghoul dissing the press can only be done once. It's a one of idea. Every time you do it again, you're just repeating yourself. I have the same feelings with songs like we are the world, heal the world, people of the world etc. It's just the same song with different words and melody. MJ has written so many songs about being unfairly treated by the press, imo it got tiring and lazy. He was always angry in those songs it's an emotion that's not going to win many people over, unlike love songs or dance songs which instantly make people happy.
 
well, I heard the clean acapella and I´ve always loved those vocals… for me it is one of 3 top songs on invinicble :)
 
JichaelMackson said:
A love song is a love song, it's for the ages, it's universal. You can write all kinds of songs about love. But a horror song is rare and then writing lyrics for it where the writer/singer is the ghoul dissing the press can only be done once.
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But that's not really an argument, just a claim, why should it be accepted? That's what I question. MJ had every right to be upset about the way he was treated, why shouldn't he write about that? Plus it seems unfair to critizise songs differently based on other conditions than just their qualities.

Maybe I'm not romantic enough :D, but I question the "love as the ultimate universal topic" assumption as well. Most people aren't constantly deeply in love, but experience other sentiments as feeling depressed, happy without romantic connotations, tired, strange, they can find themselves in situations/circles where they feel outcast or unappreciated etc., and overall there are many interesting themes concerning people beside romantic love.
 
JichaelMackson said:
A love song is a love song, it's for the ages, it's universal. You can write all kinds of songs about love. But a horror song is rare and then writing lyrics for it where the writer/singer is the ghoul dissing the press can only be done once. It's a one of idea. Every time you do it again, you're just repeating yourself.
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There are more layers in those songs, and those messages are just as universal as those of a love song.
 
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