Do you guys think that Michael would've ever made a concept album like Queen or Prince?,

[king_of_style]

As we all know, Michael always liked telling messages with his songs and albums, and he had many songs that told stories ("Who Is It", "Wanna Be Startin' Something", "Little Susie", "A Place With No Name", etc.) but he never really made an album that told one story in and of itself, like Queen or Prince did. His History album is the closest imho he ever got to making a concept album. He really liked telling stories in the short films he made, and I think that a concept album would've been the best of both worlds for him.

Why do you think he never made one, and do you think he ever would have had he lived longer or had things gone differently?

 

[Thriller_MJ]

Isn't HIStory a concept album? His-story? I always thought it was.

 

[king_of_style]

I mean it actually might be, although when I think of a concept album I think of Pink Floyd's The Wall or Prince's Love Symbol. I think HIStory is sort of in-between genres but I'm not sure

 

[Amaya]

I mean it actually might be, although when I think of a concept album I think of Pink Floyd's The Wall or Prince's Love Symbol. I think HIStory is sort of in-between genres but I'm not sure

Yeah The Wall seamlessly blends all the tracks together into one long, cohesive narrative to the point where you almost can't tell where one song ends and another starts (unless you're listening on a device that doesn't have gapless playback). The HIStory album had a narrative but it was kind of all over the place. If Michael had done an album in the same vein as The Wall that would have been pretty cool.

 

[AlwaysThere]

I think he would’ve made an absolutely phenomenal concept album, but I don’t know if he would’ve been willing to. He seemed to be more about singular narratives, not overarching threads.

 

[mj_frenzy]

As we all know, Michael always liked telling messages with his songs and albums, and he had many songs that told stories ("Who Is It", "Wanna Be Startin' Something", "Little Susie", "A Place With No Name", etc.) but he never really made an album that told one story in and of itself, like Queen or Prince did. His History album is the closest imho he ever got to making a concept album. He really liked telling stories in the short films he made, and I think that a concept album would've been the best of both worlds for him.

Why do you think he never made one, and do you think he ever would have had he lived longer or had things gone differently?

The reason is that Michael Jackson created his albums as a collection of potential hit singles with unrelated themes, rather than with an album central concept in his mind.

That was his philosophy from ‘Off The Wall’ (1979) onwards, and the emergence of music video television channels in the following decades (such as, MTV) that aired music videos of songs released as singles also played a role for him to continue with that philosophy.

Michael Jackson wanted big sales along with high chart positions, and he was aware that concept albums are much more difficult to sell, to gain high chart success, or to produce successful singles.

Even the albums that he was working on after the 2005 trial were not meant to be concept albums (for instance, the album that he worked on with will.i.am was going to be a collection of dance hits with unrelated themes).

 

[DuranDuran]

That was his philosophy from ‘Off The Wall’ (1979) onwards, and the emergence of music video television channels in the following decades (such as, MTV) that aired music videos of songs released as singles also played a role for him to continue with that philosophy.

I never realized that all of the Jackson 5/Jacksons records were concept albums and he decided to abandon that idea with Off The Wall.

 

[travis3000]

Michael did a concept album, its called Blood On The Dance Floor. The NY Times agrees with me (https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/20/arts/stars-adrift-further-out-further-in.html) Those first 5 songs were extremely unique. Basically the birth of modern day gothic pop (Is It Scary, Ghosts), MJ channeling Trent Reznor on the metal infused Morphine, fusing dance floor classics like the title track, as well as the soulful funk number Superfly Sister.

 

[dam2040]

Michael did a concept album, its called Blood On The Dance Floor. The NY Times agrees with me (https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/20/arts/stars-adrift-further-out-further-in.html) Those first 5 songs were extremely unique. Basically the birth of modern day gothic pop (Is It Scary, Ghosts), MJ channeling Trent Reznor on the metal infused Morphine, fusing dance floor classics like the title track, as well as the soulful funk number Superfly Sister.

Wow, this is a great review!! ''Mr. Jackson's pain is often the world's merriment'' how true!!

 

[mj_frenzy]

Moderators, please delete my above double post.

I never realized that all of the Jackson 5/Jacksons records were concept albums and he decided to abandon that idea with Off The Wall.

All of the Jackson 5/Jacksons albums were not concept albums either, but they are irrelevant in this regard because Michael Jackson was just a member of the band and he had not full, creative control.

That is why, I referred to his adult, solo albums because here he had full, creative control and he could decide by himself if he wanted to make them concept albums or not.

Michael did a concept album, its called Blood On The Dance Floor. The NY Times agrees with me (https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/20/arts/stars-adrift-further-out-further-in.html) Those first 5 songs were extremely unique. Basically the birth of modern day gothic pop (Is It Scary, Ghosts), MJ channeling Trent Reznor on the metal infused Morphine, fusing dance floor classics like the title track, as well as the soulful funk number Superfly Sister.

Despite what this article claims, ‘Blood On The Dance Floor’ is not a concept album.

For example, ‘Superfly Sister’ (thematically) is totally unrelated to the rest four, new songs of the album.

Also, this article has some mistakes, like this one:

“…Lyrics like ''every hot man is out takin' a chance'' point to Susie as a metaphor for AIDS…”

The ‘Blood On The Dance Floor’ song does not metaphorically refer to AIDS, and this was actually confirmed by Teddy Riley when he was asked about that (in a fanzine interview from back in the day).

 

[farlnd]

Michael had a great idea when he sampled Rod Sterling on Threatened and was inspired by one of the episodes to write The Lost Children. It would be pretty cool to hear a concept album inspired by the tv series. Imagine if Invincible was expanded upon using this concept.

 

[Wilmert]

No. Michael wasn't about that. He didn't operate that way

 

[NatureCriminal7896]

Maybe

 

[R1chard]

I think Destiny and History are about as close as you can get.

The reason is that Michael Jackson created his albums as a collection of potential hit singles with unrelated themes, rather than with an album central concept in his mind.

This. Although he sold a lot of albums, the real focus was on releasing something where you could pull out 6 or 7 hit singles. It's a different focus. There were too many people involved for MJ to do a concept album.

Early on, he was just a singer. And by the time he got to Invincible, every song had a different writer, a different producer and a different drummer. There was no chance.