Electro;4274575 said:
Let me buy you an "I think"...
I'm not arguing against your trendsett
ler point, but I think it was even worse.
Sounding current and beyond might have been the approach and philosophy in his mind, but ultimately he was way behind trends with his last albums. There was absolutely nothing current about the HIStory album at the time. Apart from the songs with an otherworldly timeless feel (like Earth Song, TDCAU), the songs that did follow formulas (This Time Around, the Hiphop beat sections in the song HIStory etc) sounded years dated at release.
The fresh exciting sound of the time (1994~1995) was Timbalands production style, which, by the time Michael finally adapted to it ("Heartbreaker" with Rodney), had been copied by the whole music industry a thousand times before. Invincible again overall sounded dated as hell on release.
But ‘Heartbreaker’ is dubstep, which has nothing to do with Timbaland’s music.
wendijane;4274577 said:
And guys just sayingif he did do more music like he used to right , how would that have been promoted? Through a tweet?..you've got to be kidding me. Through a story on his Instagram going live? Nah. No way. the magic had to end.
You don't think it's awkward/surreal /funny when mj tweets?
We were only allowed a limited contact with Michael Jackson.
Fan letters.
Fan clubs.
Fanmania.
Rare appearances.
Now all of this, the concept of it, is obsolete!
And what he said in interviews, about no one understands me... Or, to quote him,
"I sit in my room at home and sometimes cry. It’s so hard to make friends. Sometimes I walk around the neighborhood at night just hoping to find someone to talk to…but, I just end up coming home."
~"My fans truly are a part of me. We share something that most people never experience"
Being a mj fan was more than being a fan of someone's... Anyone's!..
The magic. The thrill of the magic. Someone spectacular. Someone resilient. Larger than life.. The hype. That was the whole point of it. And no, we couldn't relate So it doesn't make sense if he was now out there on the Internet being one of your Facebook (or equivalent) "friends " or "follows YOU".
I don't know how he'd have promoted his art without it being.. Not *Michaelmagical * if that make sense?
Sorry, time made it so. The electronic age made it so.Internetkilled the video star. I'm sorry...
Mind you, any more short films would have killed you tube!
I would loved to think, he'd have gone through that platform, and somehow retaliated with the current Internet situation.? and maybe pursued some kind of ground breaking something there... But then, you tube would have been too mediocre for him?..it goes around in circles to the point where nope I just can't see it.
Michael Jackson would have chronicled/promoted his new music also through social networking platforms (Instagram, Twitter, etc) these days.
He would have done that even through YouTube, by posting video/audio teasers from his new, upcoming music.
It is a route that he had to take like many other very successful artists, and that way of promotion does not necessarily end the magic.
Madonna’s magic did not end because she chronicles and promotes her new music through her personal social networking accounts.
Besides, Michael Jackson in his final years was becoming fascinated by the Internet technology in terms of the direct communication between an artist and the fans.
And Michael Jackson also knew that this modern way of promoting his new music was a very effective way in order to create younger fans who are most of them obsessed with the use of Internet in general.
SmoothCriminal1995;4274593 said:
I understand and respect your opinion, don't get me wrong. I see your point, especially on Invincible (I think Mike listened to too many people on that record and lost a sense of his own artistry) but I will counter your point with Dangerous. I think that album was way ahead of it's time. When you listen to the sound of that record, it takes everything in music (especially New Jack Swing) that was familiar during the last 3 or so years and refines it, and gives it that Michael magic touch. Songs like In The Closet or Remember The Time, if done by anybody of that era, would have stayed rooted in that era but the level layering, the masterful hooks and the edge those songs had transcend the era.
The best way to do that is, listen to other albums of that era by anyone and then listen to Dangerous, it still stands up today. The Michael and Teddy tracks are out of this world. I would also say you can do that with, Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad. The only album to me that sounds as comtempary as Bad, is Kick by Inxs which was also released in 1987, but there isn't a song on Kick as much as I love it, that has a sonic soundscape like Liberian Girl or a track that is as cutting edge as Smooth Criminal. Although I will say parts of Bad haven't aged as well
The main problem with the ‘Dangerous’ album is that the majority of its new jack swing songs have stayed rooted in that era.
These two songs (‘In The Closet’, ‘Remember The Time’) may sound like going a step further from that genre, but that is mainly because Michael Jackson and Teddy Riley decided to add a more pop sound to them next to the angular new jack swing beats of these two songs.
Even ‘Jam’ dated a lot, which explains why they used in 2009 for that song a slightly different instrumentation (with real instruments) in order to make the song sound fresher for the ‘This Is It’ shows.
The ‘Blood On The Dance Floor’ song (new jack swing, as well) is another example: when that song was released in 1997 just some years after the ‘Dangerous’ album, many people but also fans heavily criticized the song’s sound for being very dated at the time of its release.
That was also the reason why Michael Jackson and his team used again a slightly different, fresher instrumentation for the HIStory Tour performances of that song in 1997.