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Has it become an anomaly to enjoy Michael Jackson's music?

PurpleThriller

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(For the ones that are going to mention it:this was not posted out of boredom,but rather out of sheer curiosity and even concern, I might add)
How tarnished would you say that Michael's legacy really is? How many of us (MJ fans) would you estimate that are left,worldwide? Has it become unusual to listen to Michael Jackson and even consider yourself as a fan of his music? Has he been indeed ''cancelled'' and have I just missed it? Is he and his music slowly getting completely forgotten,or is it just my paranoia acting up? Why do I notice intense waves of pure negativity,whenever anything related to him is mentioned anywhere on social media,for most of the part? What is happening? (or am I just late to the party?)
 
It appears that Michael Jackson's music has not been cancelled.

For example, it is written that he was the highest-earning dead entertainer in the world from 2013 to 2020 (despite the fact that 'Leaving Neverland' was released in 2019).

Also, his streaming music continues to generate a lot of income for his Estate.

Note that 'Leaving Neverland' conveniently came out after the singer's death, and dead people cannot defend themselves.

Of course, there are also many people and even fans who believe the child sexual abuse accusations against him (1993/2003/2019), but they continue to enjoy his music because they separate his music from his personal life/troubles.
 
PurpleThriller said:
How tarnished would you say that Michael's legacy really is?
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I won't lie, the allegations did leave a stain on his legacy. If it wasn't for the allegations he'd be considered the biggest superstar to have ever lived without a doubt.
PurpleThriller said:
Has he been indeed ''cancelled'' and have I just missed it? Is he and his music slowly getting completely forgotten,or is it just my paranoia acting up?
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Nope, the success of T40 and the musical are proof that he hasn't been cancelled. His stream numbers are also growing constantly.
PurpleThriller said:
How many of us (MJ fans) would you estimate that are left,worldwide? Has it become unusual to listen to Michael Jackson and even consider yourself as a fan of his music?
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There's still a LOT of fans worldwide, there are a considerable amount of people who believe the allegations but the amount of people who don't believe it or just don't care about it outnumbers those that do.
 
In my opinion, the attempt to cancel his music has failed. This is evident in the charts, the success of MJ musical, and because I meet new young fans of his work. And that's despite all the negative harassment. M.J. was right great music doesn't die.
Personally, I now see rare mentions of accusations in places where non-fans discuss him. And there's bound to be someone writing a rebuttal.
There are public people who are openly speaking out in support of him, doing tribute and covers now.
For example, I was amazed by the video on the 'Rock Alive' blog about Michael in Russia. The video has 1 million views, the Queen by comparison has 1,6 million. The video about the Beatles has less than a million. I think Michael's numbers are good for the audience, the rock fans. And the comments are mostly positive.
 
i dont think this is really the case...mj is still breaking records, i mean even like 2 or 3 music videos are about to hit one billion views, its clear people still listen to him, besides i keep seeing ppl online and even my friends listen to him from time to time, even some of the less known songs sometimes, a lot of them believe hes innocent as well
 
hope said:
In my opinion, the attempt to cancel his music has failed. This is evident in the charts, the success of MJ musical, and because I meet new young fans of his work. And that's despite all the negative harassment. M.J. was right great music doesn't die.
Personally, I now see rare mentions of accusations in places where non-fans discuss him. And there's bound to be someone writing a rebuttal.
There are public people who are openly speaking out in support of him, doing tribute and covers now.
For example, I was amazed by the video on the 'Rock Alive' blog about Michael in Russia. The video has 1 million views, the Queen by comparison has 1,6 million. The video about the Beatles has less than a million. I think Michael's numbers are good for the audience, the rock fans. And the comments are mostly positive.
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i dont think u can really cancel michael jackson..hes such an influential figure to the world that its kinda hard to do that
 
Salami said:
It’s peaks and troughs with him [...]
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Agreed. Someone has recently published a book about whether it's possible to separate an artist from their art if they have a 'difficult' story. Idk if Michael is in the book but he's been mentioned in the reviews and not in a good way. So I think there will always be some low moments.

Salami said:
But his music is too big to cancel, it’s just too present.
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Exactly so. His streaming figures are good.
 
zinniabooklover said:
Agreed. Someone has recently published a book about whether it's possible to separate an artist from their art if they have a 'difficult' story. Idk if Michael is in the book but he's been mentioned in the reviews and not in a good way. So I think there will always be some low moments.


Exactly so. His streaming figures are good.
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This is why Thriller 40 is so important because it always needs to be brought back to the music.
 
love1sfatal said:
and even my friends listen to him from time to time, even some of the less known songs sometimes, a lot of them believe hes innocent as well
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Oh, yeah. My sister surprised me the other day. When asked, "What are you listening to right now? " she said Jackson and even sent me Can't Stop Loving You in French and wondered if I knew there was oneone😀
 
love1sfatal said:
i dont think this is really the case...mj is still breaking records, i mean even like 2 or 3 music videos are about to hit one billion views, its clear people still listen to him, besides i keep seeing ppl online and even my friends listen to him from time to time, even some of the less known songs sometimes, a lot of them believe hes innocent as well
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i think m would be quite moved emotionally if he could read this. nice post
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/630222541617322629/
 
PurpleThriller said:
Thank you,this brings some relief.
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Seriously, mate, the story over on the Chart Watch thread is consistently upbeat. Don't wanna turn this into Chart Watch 2.0 but his streaming figures seem to be consistently good.

Chicago did well last year and it's still hanging in there. :)

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1663124353943326725

PurpleThriller said:
Maybe a bit unrelated,but how well did the Thriller 40 album do?
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Can't remember, tbh. IIRC, the figures kept getting tangled up with all the various editions of Thriller.
 
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The irony is as much as the music is enjoyed, the media keeps ringing ominous gongs. They simply use him as a scapegoat. I was just looking at a Liz Taylor book. They kept trying to make Michael out to be as weird and doomed as could be, while also having to accept that Liz loved and adored him, as a mother. And that's the way it will be unless we completely uproot the American journalism/literature market.
 
Mister_Jay_Tee said:
The irony is as much as the music is enjoyed, the media keeps ringing ominous gongs. They simply use him as a scapegoat. I was just looking at a Liz Taylor book. They kept trying to make Michael out to be as weird and doomed as could be, while also having to accept that Liz loved and adored him, as a mother. And that's the way it will be unless we completely uproot the American journalism/literature market.
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Agreed. I do see negative stuff. Sporadic and fairly low-key most of the time but disheartening, nonetheless. But there is a much happier side to the story. I think he's doing OK.
 
I just want the day to come where the media doesn’t say “the troubled star” or have a “the ups and downs of Michael Jackson” in everything thats published. Realistically I want print media to disappear but that won’t happen for a while.

I do think there’s a lot of goodwill there, the highest there has been since he died which was just crazy levels of adoration. I was worried Leaving Neverland had finished him off for good once it aired but he’s bounced back massively.

Sorry for so many posts but I just got done listening to that Think Twice podcast and the lengths they go to to try and get him cancelled…it’s not happening guys.
 
Salami said:
I just want the day to come where the media doesn’t say “the troubled star” or have a “the ups and downs of Michael Jackson” in everything thats published.
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I see that stuff consistently and it drives me nuts. The 'p' word still gets used, unfortunately. With great certainty, I have to say. :(

Salami said:
Realistically I want print media to disappear but that won’t happen for a while.
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I'm very old-school. I really love my print media! Don't wanna lose it. Besides, it's not just print media, is it? There's that Think Twice podcast. :mad:

Salami said:
I do think there’s a lot of goodwill there, the highest there has been since he died which was just crazy levels of adoration. I was worried Leaving Neverland had finished him off for good once it aired but he’s bounced back massively.
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I'm quite the pessimist and I'm not sure he'll ever completely shake off LN. I hope so but I'm not confident. But he has managed a fabulous turn-around and I'm so happy about that.

Salami said:
Sorry for so many posts but I just got done listening to that Think Twice podcast and the lengths they go to to try and get him cancelled…it’s not happening guys.
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Haven't listened to Think Twice so I'm not going to comment but I have seen some wonderfully intelligent challenges to the podcast on Twitter.
 
In my opinion he is sort of not discussed anymore despite still selling and streaming well. He is on the radio but there is no praise any more and more strikingly there are also no jokes anymore about his appearance or behavior with children. Since 2019 it all got real it seems, I know some radio programmers who've gotten complaints by listeners who don't agree with the fact he is still getting airplay. In the past it seems the jokes kept coming because nobody truly believed the accusations, Leaving Neverland seems to have changed many peoples view on the matter.

I think he is closer to being cancelled than being put on a pedestal again. It will only take one more scandal for the pendulum to swing in the cancel MJ direction.

The biopic will give us a clear answer and view of how the general audience, media and other celebrities feel about Michael nowadays.

EDIT: autocorrect turned cancel into cancer so I changed it lol
 
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filmandmusic said:
In my opinion he is sort of not discussed anymore despite still selling and streaming well. He is on the radio but there is no praise any more and more strikingly there are also no jokes anymore about his appearance or behavior with children. Since 2019 it all got real it seems, I know some radio programmers who've gotten complaints by listeners who don't agree with the fact he is still getting airplay. In the past it seems the jokes kept coming because nobody truly believed the accusations, Leaving Neverland seems to have changed many peoples view on the matter.

I think he is closer to being cancelled than being put on a pedestal again. It will only take one more scandal for the pendulum to swing in the cancer MJ direction.

The biopic will give us a clear answer and view of how the general audience, media and other celebrities feel about Michael nowadays.
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I’m not sure I agree. People have been totally cancelled for a lot less (if anyone is in the UK look at how big this Philip Schofield story is right now). People have to actively want to cancel you for you to be cancelled. Throw on Beat It or Billie Jean, everyone is dancing. I have a lot of friends who would consider themselves #MeToo and “believe all victims” but none of them would refuse to listen to his music.

To be honest at least here, Leaving Neverland didn’t really make a dent. Martin Bashir is the one that sticks, and he’s been cancelled himself now anyway.
 
Salami said:
I’m not sure I agree. People have been totally cancelled for a lot less (if anyone is in the UK look at how big this Philip Schofield story is right now). People have to actively want to cancel you for you to be cancelled. Throw on Beat It or Billie Jean, everyone is dancing. I have a lot of friends who would consider themselves #MeToo and “believe all victims” but none of them would refuse to listen to his music.

To be honest at least here, Leaving Neverland didn’t really make a dent. Martin Bashir is the one that sticks, and he’s been cancelled himself now anyway.
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I really don't have much exposure to young(er) people anymore so I really don't know how reactions are when he is played in bars or clubs or how he is talked about among friends.
Post 2009 the reaction to anything MJ was just different, much more joyous and fair.
 
I haven't been able to gauge how Leaving Neverland impacted his legacy. On an anecdotal end, the nature of my job has me working with a spending a fair amount of time around Gen-Z, and the general sentiment towards his guilt/innocence is mixed. He doesn't have the fixed reputation of R. Kelly or Bill Cosby, but there's no real overarching stance or opinion. My coworker's mom saw the doc for the first time earlier this year, so there is some concern to be had regarding its staying power.

But objectively, MJ is still an absolute behemoth. The musical is a staggering success (it recouped its initial investment in just over a year, which is nothing short of phenomenal for a Broadway show of that level), his streaming numbers are excellent, and the amount of love Gen-Z shows him on TikTok is heartwarming. (There have been trends around "Chicago" and "You Rock My World" in the last year; in both cases, videos got hundreds of thousands of likes, and negativity was few and far between.) Celebrities are also consistently showing love.

There are ups and downs. He is far from canceled, but Leaving Neverland put a sharp stop to the progress he'd made from 2009 to 2018, and he's only just beginning to emerge from the confines of being a taboo subject. How will future generations view him? That's impossible to judge. For the time being, though, he's fine. Not as good as he could/should be, but he's fine.
 
AlwaysThere said:
I haven't been able to gauge how Leaving Neverland impacted his legacy. On an anecdotal end, the nature of my job has me working with a spending a fair amount of time around Gen-Z, and the general sentiment towards his guilt/innocence is mixed. He doesn't have the fixed reputation of R. Kelly or Bill Cosby, but there's no real overarching stance or opinion. My coworker's mom saw the doc for the first time earlier this year, so there is some concern to be had regarding its staying power.

But objectively, MJ is still an absolute behemoth. The musical is a staggering success (it recouped its initial investment in just over a year, which is nothing short of phenomenal for a Broadway show of that level), his streaming numbers are excellent, and the amount of love Gen-Z shows him on TikTok is heartwarming. (There have been trends around "Chicago" and "You Rock My World" in the last year; in both cases, videos got hundreds of thousands of likes, and negativity was few and far between.) Celebrities are also consistently showing love.

There are ups and downs. He is far from canceled, but Leaving Neverland put a sharp stop to the progress he'd made from 2009 to 2018, and he's only just beginning to emerge from the confines of being a taboo subject. How will future generations view him? That's impossible to judge. For the time being, though, he's fine. Not as good as he could/should be, but he's fine.
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Yes, I think until Leaving Neverland there was a lot more public love for MJ, I think the love is still there generally but it is much more restricted because of these recent developments. Like I said, the people who know, know and that's not gonna change. It's a shame that the love is not as apparent any more, but like you said majority of people still love his music and even a radio ban shortly after LN didn't last.

It is concerning that this documentary is allowed to still be accessed unchallenged. Although the majority of my friends watched part one and didn't believe them, thought it was bad acting etc. (they are not hardcore MJ fans, I'm aware this is my own experience, though).
 
SmoothGangsta said:
Yes, I think until Leaving Neverland there was a lot more public love for MJ, I think the love is still there generally but it is much more restricted because of these recent developments. Like I said, the people who know, know and that's not gonna change. It's a shame that the love is not as apparent any more, but like you said majority of people still love his music and even a radio ban shortly after LN didn't last.

It is concerning that this documentary is allowed to still be accessed unchallenged. Although the majority of my friends watched part one and didn't believe them, thought it was bad acting etc. (they are not hardcore MJ fans, I'm aware this is my own experience, though).
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Leaving Neverland was exposed to 150 countries, just like the 2005 trial, Nothing will change, cancelling the biggest name of all time is virtually impossible. You can google "most remote part of europe" and "most remote part of Africa", and "most remote part of the Middle East" and every single one of those locations have recently held a tribute event for MJ. Everyone on the planet knows who he is, even if 30% of those people don't like him he's still bigger than anything else on earth.
 
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