Michael was lowkey a pioneer of dubstep.

After hearing this amazing song for the first time before the release of the album, I was amazed. Heartbreaker is a true Michael Jackson track at his finest. I seriously hoped that the whole album would sound this futuristic. Unfortunately it wasn't.
 
I don't think this is dubstep at all. Invincible sounds very much like it came out in 2001.
 
After hearing this amazing song for the first time before the release of the album, I was amazed. Heartbreaker is a true Michael Jackson track at his finest.
I really like the song too.:D
Michael a pioneer? no way! ;)
IKR!
Who would have thought!;):lol:

Really tho, it's a great dubstep dance song that was definitely ahead of its time.:yes:
Here's a video of some dancers doing choreo to it.
The video is from just last year.:D

There's more recent videos of people dancing to it too.
I'll post them a bit later.:yes:
 
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In fact ‘Heartbreaker’ is dubstep.

It unintentionally became in the end dubstep, while MJ & Rodney Jerkins were experimenting on new things back then.

If you go back to even year 2001 when I worked on a project with Michael Jackson called ‘Invincible’ and there was a song we did on that project called ‘Heartbreaker’ and we were doing dubstep back then. And we ain’t even known what we were doing. If you listen to it now you’ll go ‘Wow!’ that’s dubstep. We were just trying things, not even knowing” (Rodney Jerkins)

I must confess that ‘Heartbreaker’ came a shock to me when I listened to it for the very first time.

I still consider it one of the album’s proudest moments.
 
Should've been a single (as a number of Invincible tracks... Threatened, Speechless, Unbreakable, Whatever Happens...)
 
I wish Invincible had more uptempo songs on it. I love a good ballad, but I thought Invincible had way too many ballads. 9 songs on the album were ballads, and that was overkill for me.
 
Tracks like YAML & TLC, as much as I admire MJ for including them, was fodder for the critics to tear into the album. But the good thing about them (and Speechless) was that at least they felt like MJ tracks so was comforting to hear.
 
@smoothgangsta

Wrong!

Not for the first, or last time, I would bet my house.

I know it can be grim up there in Glasgow but good god, do you have to drag everything down at the first opportunity? Do you even know what dubstep is?
 
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Should've been a single (as a number of Invincible tracks... Threatened, Speechless, Unbreakable, Whatever Happens...)

Agreed.

It's a travesty, when you here some of the rubbish that was released at the time from other 'artists'.
 
Among the better tracks on the album imo. It does indeed contain some elements that resemble dubstep.

The harmonies during the bridge are fantastic.
 
I've always felt that Heartbreaker is one of MJ's best songs post 80s and certainly one of the best from Invincible. Way better than overrated tracks such as YRMW and Unbreakable. I could imagine MJ totally killing it with a sick choreography on stage but unfortunately that never happened.
 
@smoothgangsta

Wrong!

Not for the first, or last time, I would bet my house.

I know it can be grim up there in Glasgow but good god, do you have to drag everything down at the first opportunity? Do you even know what dubstep is?

Do I really need to say when something is my opinion every time I comment on this bloody forum? Fine, IMO invincible sounds very dated, it sounds like something from 2001 trying to be futuristic, it doesn't work. I'm talking generally, obviously. There are some tracks I like but when talking about the album in general that's how I feel. I don't drag stuff down at every opportunity, when I have something positive to say I say it, I'm not just gonna start commenting the opposite of how I feel just to please you. Although I know you like arguing and talking down to people who disagree with you, so go right ahead.
 
There was a massive trend in the early 2000's with trying to make everything look and sound futuristic. It's funny to look back on now
 
there is a lot to say about Invincible.. much of it has been said over and over again in various threads here over the years.. regarding it's success of course it did not measure up to what Michael wanted but it did well. especially considering (all that we've mentioned over the years.. lack of promotion, sony vs MJ wars.. list goes on).. The album quality will come down to opinion and taste.. The late 90's- early 00's was a very niche market in music.. Invincible did not fit that mold at all and sadly when you take chances like that there's a possibility of it being overlooked. I think we can all agree that the melodies were there (though of course that's an opinion for the most part) it's the matter of the digital (futuristic sound) people are talking about..
 
mj_frenzy;4193450 said:
In fact ‘Heartbreaker’ is dubstep.

It unintentionally became in the end dubstep, while MJ & Rodney Jerkins were experimenting on new things back then.

If you go back to even year 2001 when I worked on a project with Michael Jackson called ‘Invincible’ and there was a song we did on that project called ‘Heartbreaker’ and we were doing dubstep back then. And we ain’t even known what we were doing. If you listen to it now you’ll go ‘Wow!’ that’s dubstep. We were just trying things, not even knowing” (Rodney Jerkins)

I must confess that ‘Heartbreaker’ came a shock to me when I listened to it for the very first time.

I still consider it one of the album’s proudest moments.

I had no idea that Rodney said that.:)
I knew it was dubstep either way tho.:yes:
 
Though I agree with socav and he was a pioneer of sounds
I say No 😂 to this lol
Don't think he'd like EDM too much haha
*looks around for skrill* 😂?
 
I don't think Michael was 'lowkey' about pioneering anything.. He just pioneered!!

When it comes to Michael, we all know he did the same with dancing as he did with music.. he searched all over to see what was out there, dubstep started in the 90's in the UK and did not migrate to the US yet.. He took something that was building and not yet wide known (as he did with dance), make it his own and rocked it to the best of his ability.. bringing something cool that was not wide spread to the world stage..
 
Phenomenal classic! I look forward to more being done with it in the future! The other ballads were "Threatened', "Privacy," and "2000 Watts". Just kidding.
 
This is news to me!! Not the mention of MJ being a pioneer of course, but Heartbreaker being a dubstep song! The 'Invincible' album as a whole is slept on heavily!!
 
Please...
Besides amateurish remixes on YouTube, there is nothing Dubstep in any of Michaels songs.

Heartbreaker has more of the typical Timbaland production style of that time (which was inspired by all sorts of underground style flavours like Garage, 2Step etc). I always liked Heartbreaker for that, but it wasn't pioneering anything.

In fact Michaels music styles as a whole never pioneered anything. He didn't invent the Motown Sound, Disco, Rock, Pop, Soul, R'n'B... he just made damn great songs in many different styles. Some songs maybe brought certains things to a bigger audience (like New Jack Swing), but especially after Dangerous, he was always way behind music production trends. Might be harder to see that though for people who always only followed the mainstream charts (which usually is the dead end of innovation).
 
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In fact ‘Heartbreaker’ is dubstep.

It unintentionally became in the end dubstep, while MJ & Rodney Jerkins were experimenting on new things back then.

“If you go back to even year 2001 when I worked on a project with Michael Jackson called ‘Invincible’ and there was a song we did on that project called ‘Heartbreaker’ and we were doing dubstep back then. And we ain’t even known what we were doing. If you listen to it now you’ll go ‘Wow!’ that’s dubstep. We were just trying things, not even knowing” (Rodney Jerkins)

Interesting quote... where/when did Rodney say that? Love to see the whole interview!
 
Interesting quote... where/when did Rodney say that? Love to see the whole interview!

Rodney Jerkins said that in the 114th episode of Pensado's Place (2013).

This is the only Michael Jackson related quote from that whole interview.
 
Rodney Jerkins said that in the 114th episode of Pensado's Place (2013).

This is the only Michael Jackson related quote from that whole interview.

Thanks for sharing! I found the episode:
(the quote about Heartbreaker being dubstep, is at 30:57)

[video=youtube;jNIfn2_g-JU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNIfn2_g-JU[/video]
 
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Do I really need to say when something is my opinion every time I comment on this bloody forum? Fine, IMO invincible sounds very dated, it sounds like something from 2001 trying to be futuristic, it doesn't work. I'm talking generally, obviously. There are some tracks I like but when talking about the album in general that's how I feel. I don't drag stuff down at every opportunity, when I have something positive to say I say it, I'm not just gonna start commenting the opposite of how I feel just to please you. Although I know you like arguing and talking down to people who disagree with you, so go right ahead.

You're right: Invincible sounds very much of its time. Also, if there is anything innovative about the production, credit should go first and foremost to the Darkchild team, not to MJ himself, who was very much hands-off throughout the whole project.
 
Please...
Besides amateurish remixes on YouTube, there is nothing Dubstep in any of Michaels songs.

Heartbreaker has more of the typical Timbaland production style of that time (which was inspired by all sorts of underground style flavours like Garage, 2Step etc). I always liked Heartbreaker for that, but it wasn't pioneering anything.

In fact Michaels music styles as a whole never pioneered anything. He didn't invent the Motown Sound, Disco, Rock, Pop, Soul, R'n'B... he just made damn great songs in many different styles. Some songs maybe brought certains things to a bigger audience (like New Jack Swing), but especially after Dangerous, he was always way behind music production trends. Might be harder to see that though for people who always only followed the mainstream charts (which usually is the dead end of innovation).

You're right: production-wise, MJ wasn't an innovator. He always went with the sound that was popular at the time. You don't sell 20 millions copies of a given record and get ten singles in the top ten by going against the trends in popular music.
 
I really like the song too.:D

IKR!
Who would have thought!;):lol:

Really tho, it's a great dubstep dance song that was definitely ahead of its time.:yes:
Here's a video of some dancers doing choreo to it.
The video is from just last year.:D

There's more recent videos of people dancing to it too.
I'll post them a bit later.:yes:
Really nice piece of choreography here to 'Heartbreaker'.
 
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