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Do you like Michael's chosen album titles?

filmandmusic

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I really dig the off the wall title. It has a ring to it and promises something special and cool

Thriller likewise. It sounds mysterious and catchy.

Bad hmm not so much. I kind of like Another part of me better but then people would have had different expectations for the album, a more personal album.

Dangerous, not too old of this title either. I think Black or White sounds more intriguing, more socially relevant and interesting. Especially so since his skin color completely changed around this time.

HIStory. It's a fun word play but also a bit self centered imo. My chosen title would have been tabloid junkie which would have been in your face with all the media trouble he had

Invincible, this is just a shit title imo. Michael just wasn't thinking straight imo. What other title I'd suggest? Maybe Break of Dawn to suggest a new era, leave all the past shit behind?
 
I agree with the 'Bad' as a title not being the best choice, though I did like appearance change that accompanied it. He wanted to get a more tough image.

I actually like all the other ones. Dangerous just sounds cool, HIStory fits due to it being more personal and including songs that tell his side of the story of his controversies. Invincible is a badass title tbh as the biggest artist ever dispite all the shit he already went through, though I feel like the album could have been better then it was.
 
I've been thinking about this sometimes. I think it all fits except HIStory (for album title consistency) but its ok coz of the theme and its his more personal album.... But yeah an even badder title for "Bad" might suffice tho its my personal fave hehe. BOTDF sounds cool as well.
 
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I hate the Invincible title and not the biggest fan of History either.

Bad is quite a basic word but the the font is so iconic along with that whole era so I think it's one of his best.

Off The Wall is probably the coolest title but the album itself is the least flashy, quite a humble Mike before the madness of Thriller and beyond.
 
I like that some of the album titles were short & catchy. however, i felt that they became unnecessarily grandiose, predictable and shallow with time. some of them had a negative connotation to them, which seemed to mirror the trajectory of his expression, career, and life..

I think that the original title of the ‘thriller’ album ‘starlight’ sounds magical and interesting as a visual concept. the final choice was perfect though.

I also like ‘music and me’ and ‘going places (if we’re including jacksons albums)’.
 
I think all the album titles chosen for the albums were perfect. Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, HIStory, Invincible. It couldn't have been named any better especially with all the other alternate titles. I like how they followed the tradition up with Xscape later on, that was a good title.
 
i honestly think they all fit pretty well! but some of the songs dont fit, like mitm in bad, or tgim for thriller. they are all cool though and i respect his decisions!
 
Off the Wall - Meh, forgettable. It's actually my favorite MJ record, but the title never did much for me.
Thriller - Perfect.
Bad - Euh... It's definitely a choice. I don't think it's ever good to call your own stuff 'bad'. I understand the vibe and concept he was going for, but the bad era was always very awkward to me. He was never a 'bad boy'. Michael was always cool, but in a refined, elegant way. No amount of crotch-grabbing or leather jackets would make him look nonconforming. He didn't grow up on the streets, he doesn't know what being in a gang or ghetto is like and it shows. Whenever I see footage of him out of stage, he looks like a well-behaved, docile, well-meaning little lamb. No father would ever refuse for Bad Jackson to date his daughter, and that's saying something.
Dangerous - Beautiful word, to the point. Bad done right.
HIStory - Iconic. Not an album I revisit a lot, but I think the title is great.
Invincible - I swear that for the longest time, before I decided to explore his discography, I used to think his last album was called Invisible. I was aware that it kind of flopped according Michael Jackson's standards because of what happened with Sony. It's great, although it didn't age well.

The titles' quality reflect Michael's talent as a writer and lyricist. I don't think he was as gifted with words as he was with melodies and performing, or he simply did not care about lyrics. This reminds of a Mark Twain quote, "“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

Please don't murder me, just my opinion.
 
SilverFiner said:
He didn't grow up on the streets, he doesn't know what being in a gang or ghetto is like and it shows. Whenever I see footage of him out of stage, he looks like a well-behaved, docile, well-meaning little lamb. No father would ever refuse for Bad Jackson to date his daughter, and that's saying something.
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i agree, but he lived in a bad neighborhood when he was little, although he obviously didnt reflect any of that behavior
 
SilverFiner said:
Off the Wall - Meh, forgettable. It's actually my favorite MJ record, but the title never did much for me.
Thriller - Perfect.
Bad - Euh... It's definitely a choice. I don't think it's ever good to call your own stuff 'bad'. I understand the vibe and concept he was going for, but the bad era was always very awkward to me. He was never a 'bad boy'. Michael was always cool, but in a refined, elegant way. No amount of crotch-grabbing or leather jackets would make him look nonconforming. He didn't grow up on the streets, he doesn't know what being in a gang or ghetto is like and it shows. Whenever I see footage of him out of stage, he looks like a well-behaved, docile, well-meaning little lamb. No father would ever refuse for Bad Jackson to date his daughter, and that's saying something.
Dangerous - Beautiful word, to the point. Bad done right.
HIStory - Iconic. Not an album I revisit a lot, but I think the title is great.
Invincible - I swear that for the longest time, before I decided to explore his discography, I used to think his last album was called Invisible. I was aware that it kind of flopped according Michael Jackson's standards because of what happened with Sony. It's great, although it didn't age well.

The titles' quality reflect Michael's talent as a writer and lyricist. I don't think he was as gifted with words as he was with melodies and performing, or he simply did not care about lyrics. This reminds of a Mark Twain quote, "“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

Please don't murder me, just my opinion.
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i think a lot of his songs have beautiful word choices and meanings, like heal the world and watw. although watw was cowritten, i think he wrote most of it
 
Got to Be There - not too bad. I wasn't alive at the time so I can't say what it felt like compared to other albums
Ben - probably the strangest one if all
Music & Me - really like this one
Forever, Michael - this one is average
Off the Wall - reasonable. I guess disco-y
Thriller - pretty good. Maybe could have been better
Bad - great. Fits the feeling of the time
Dangerous - as above. Plus he was getting on a bit of a theme with the names
HIStory. Agree, its self centered
Invincible - Agreed, garbage.
 
1958MJJmoonwalker7 said:
i agree, but he lived in a bad neighborhood when he was little, although he obviously didnt reflect any of that behavior
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I think he mentioned that his father overworked them so much that he and his brother didn't have the opportunity to mingle with the wrong people in their neighborhood. However, I believe his exceptional character can be attributed to his mother; she seems like a sweet and kind mother who raised him well.

That being said, I believe Michael is naturally kind and ambitious. If he hadn't been thrown into music and fame at a young age, I think he would have been a straight-A student who could have been accepted into an Ivy League school and become a reputable lawyer or doctor.
 
SilverFiner said:
I think he mentioned that his father overworked them so much that he and his brother didn't have the opportunity to mingle with the wrong people in their neighborhood. However, I believe his exceptional character can be attributed to his mother; she seems like a sweet and kind mother who raised him well.

That being said, I believe Michael is naturally kind and ambitious. If he hadn't been thrown into music and fame at a young age, I think he would have been a straight-A student who could have been accepted into an Ivy League school and become a reputable lawyer or doctor.
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yeah i completely agree with what you are saying. im just saying that he didnt grow up in the perfect neighborhood, even if he didnt interact with the people who lived there.
 
Keep in mind that the album title is named after the song that musically sets the tone for that album.

So, for example, 'Black Or White' (which is a rock song) would have been unsuitable as the album title of the 'Dangerous' album considering that this album has only 2 rock songs.

Also, Michael Jackson used to be playful in his album titles.

For example, 'Dangerous' does not refer to him, but to a girl, and the same goes for 'Invincible' which does not refer to him, but again to a girl.
83magic said:
I like that some of the album titles were short & catchy. however, i felt that they became unnecessarily grandiose, predictable and shallow with time. some of them had a negative connotation to them, which seemed to mirror the trajectory of his expression, career, and life..

I think that the original title of the ‘thriller’ album ‘starlight’ sounds magical and interesting as a visual concept. the final choice was perfect though.

I also like ‘music and me’ and ‘going places (if we’re including jacksons albums)’.
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Especially with regard to the child sexual abuse accusations against him, when many people began to say/write that he is bad, he is dangerous, and so on.
 
They're all perfect and they flow together perfectly like a film saga. The one word flow is genius.

Invincible is still a better title to me than Unbreakable fyi. It has the same meaning when you get down to it, but it just feels more incandescent.

I would love to know whatever the title of the follow up was gonna be though. Maybe, they'd go back to a 3 word title like with Off The Wall. I could maybe accept that.

The only bad title in the whole profession is one he did not come up with: Michael.
 
25 Album Titles That Were Just Begging for Bad Reviews
These artists risked making life way too easy for music critics.

Michael Jackson, 'Bad' (1987) Trying to follow up the biggest-selling album in history is already a tall order. You have to wonder if Michael Jackson could have made things a little easier on himself if he didn't name his first post-Thriller album Bad. Luckily, the record was too good for any serious critical thrashing. Although Bad didn't include any songs that matched the supernatural highs of "Billie Jean" or "Beat It," it was more consistent overall than Thriller and earned Jackson five more No. 1 singles.
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ultimateclassicrock.com

25 Album Titles That Were Just Begging for Bad Reviews

A list of album titles that would have made it very easy for music critics to write bad reviews.
ultimateclassicrock.com ultimateclassicrock.com
 
filmandmusic said:
Thriller likewise. It sounds mysterious and catchy.
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I'm just used to the titles. I think that one-word titles are somewhat "efficient".
I also like Destiny-Triumph-Victory as album titles... though I never understood where "Triumph" comes from.

Though regarding Thriller... As I just said I'm used to it, but in the vocabulary/region I grew up in, a "thriller" is a kind of police movie (I'm not sure the details, I don't watch such movies and I don't watch many movies in general) and I often wonder why a song about horror movies ended up being named "Thriller"...
Though, maybe it's just cultural/era difference in the use of the word and I'm used to that word, in MJ's vocabulary, being related to horror movies... And at some point I stopped asking myself questions about it... But I never had a final explanation on this topic.
 
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I thought they were pretty cool. I like how every title after Off the Wall was basically one word. MJ had to have been the first person to popularize using "Bad" to mean "good" lol. Technically the full title to History was History: Past, Present, and Future, Book I, but History was still the main title; the rest was merely a subtitle.

Also, I think it's interesting that Off the Wall was originally going to be titled "Girlfriend", iirc. Thank god it wasn't lol, but it seems "single word titles" were on MJ's mind even before Thriller. I know MJ wanted to name Bad "Smooth Criminal" at one point, but Quincy talked him out of it. So it seems MJ didn't treat single word titles as an absolute rule until Dangerous.
 
I wish the title track of Invincible was about MJ. I would have preferred either switch the words in the songs Unbreakable and Invincible, or title the album Unbreakable. Having a strong title of an album represent the man, especially after being counted out would have hit a little stronger in my opinion.
 
I think the album titles were well chosen throughout, but I'm not sure whether Unbreakable wouldn't have been better than Invincible because the song is more personal. They're both cool, though.
 
Fuzball said:
This, and the original cover art that was objected by CBS/Epic would have been a better choice.
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The original cover with MJ's face in the veil wouldn't suit an album called "Smooth Criminal" at all lol. A photo from "Smooth Criminal"'s video shoot would have been better if that had to be the title.
 
Hot_Street said:
I think the album titles were well chosen throughout, but I'm not sure whether Unbreakable wouldn't have been better than Invincible because the song is more personal. They're both cool, though.
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I think the reason Invincible wasn't named "Unbreakable" was to avoid confusion with the 2000 Samuel L. Jackson film Unbreakable.

A part of me thinks they should have renamed the song "Untouchable" and named the album that instead. "Invincible" is a pretty weak song, and too underwhelming for the title track.
 
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