If this thread should be integrated in the leak discussion thread, please put it there - I just felt that this is a kind of extra topic.
When the songs leaked last week, I first felt "good" about it in the sense of finally hearing them/hearing something I didn't know before. I liked what I heard and I even had tears in my eyes hearing RWITY the first time. Now some days have passed and I feel different about it. To explain my shift, I would like to tell you about hearing OMC the first time. I grew up in German countryside and was a teenager when Number Ones came out. My mother drove to the store in the nearest city on release day of Number Ones - I was really thankful when she gave the CD to me in the evening. I took it and closed the door of my room, sat in front of my CD player, put it in and skipped directly to OMC. There were no disctractions. The strings started and I immediately fell in love with the song from the very first second. It was overwhelming. Because of my age, most new MJ songs came out when I was a child and I got to know them incidently. This was the first time I consciously enjoyed hearing a brand new MJ track. When Michael started singing, I was in heaven. I was completely blown away by his voice and his soul in the song. The muggles outside don't know OMC, but to me it will always be a special song, alone because of that intense moment. I learned that hearing a new MJ song the first time is something that happens only once. And this first magic is different to the magic I might feel listening to a song regularly later.
Now when the leaks came out, I took some time, put on headphones, tried to put all distractions aside, and listened. And I was also fascinated, but the feeling wasn't the same. I learned about the tracks from a fellow fan who sent me a YouTube link to one of the leaks and I couldn't focus myself on a perfectly mixed and finished song, but I kind of "consumed" the leaks. I like them, but I also felt "bad", because I assume leaks were a catastrophe to Michael. I assume, he always wanted us to get perfect quality. He wanted us to get a finished product of only the best of the best that he and everybody on his team put in. I think he wanted us to be blown away. I assume he wouldn't have wanted that we hear unfinished songs in low quality. Comparing my leak experience to my OMC experience, it was a complete different situation. I was disctracted by the comment sections, I was learning about the songs in the middle of the day, I didn't ceremonially buy them somewhere and made out time to sit down and do nothing else but listening and embracing the ecstasy of the first time hearing a new MJ song.
Please don't understand me in the sense of blaming someone of something. I am not to judge whether it was "right" or "wrong" leaking songs, I also am not talking about the estate here. I am completely dissatisfied with the estate's behavior towards us and its non-communication and non-intuition with us. But this is not my topic here. I am also not judging anyone's decision to hear or not to hear leaked music. It's just that I think I might rather stay with officially released music in future, because leaks are such an undignified way to introduce Michael's work to us. It would have been so much more magical to have an album or at least a single in hands and celebrating that. Which is why I hope the estate is going to overthink its strategy relating to protecting Michael's legacy so that in future this doesn't happen anymore. But I am not very hopeful that they will learn anything from this.
Anyone feeling that shift of emotions as well?
When the songs leaked last week, I first felt "good" about it in the sense of finally hearing them/hearing something I didn't know before. I liked what I heard and I even had tears in my eyes hearing RWITY the first time. Now some days have passed and I feel different about it. To explain my shift, I would like to tell you about hearing OMC the first time. I grew up in German countryside and was a teenager when Number Ones came out. My mother drove to the store in the nearest city on release day of Number Ones - I was really thankful when she gave the CD to me in the evening. I took it and closed the door of my room, sat in front of my CD player, put it in and skipped directly to OMC. There were no disctractions. The strings started and I immediately fell in love with the song from the very first second. It was overwhelming. Because of my age, most new MJ songs came out when I was a child and I got to know them incidently. This was the first time I consciously enjoyed hearing a brand new MJ track. When Michael started singing, I was in heaven. I was completely blown away by his voice and his soul in the song. The muggles outside don't know OMC, but to me it will always be a special song, alone because of that intense moment. I learned that hearing a new MJ song the first time is something that happens only once. And this first magic is different to the magic I might feel listening to a song regularly later.
Now when the leaks came out, I took some time, put on headphones, tried to put all distractions aside, and listened. And I was also fascinated, but the feeling wasn't the same. I learned about the tracks from a fellow fan who sent me a YouTube link to one of the leaks and I couldn't focus myself on a perfectly mixed and finished song, but I kind of "consumed" the leaks. I like them, but I also felt "bad", because I assume leaks were a catastrophe to Michael. I assume, he always wanted us to get perfect quality. He wanted us to get a finished product of only the best of the best that he and everybody on his team put in. I think he wanted us to be blown away. I assume he wouldn't have wanted that we hear unfinished songs in low quality. Comparing my leak experience to my OMC experience, it was a complete different situation. I was disctracted by the comment sections, I was learning about the songs in the middle of the day, I didn't ceremonially buy them somewhere and made out time to sit down and do nothing else but listening and embracing the ecstasy of the first time hearing a new MJ song.
Please don't understand me in the sense of blaming someone of something. I am not to judge whether it was "right" or "wrong" leaking songs, I also am not talking about the estate here. I am completely dissatisfied with the estate's behavior towards us and its non-communication and non-intuition with us. But this is not my topic here. I am also not judging anyone's decision to hear or not to hear leaked music. It's just that I think I might rather stay with officially released music in future, because leaks are such an undignified way to introduce Michael's work to us. It would have been so much more magical to have an album or at least a single in hands and celebrating that. Which is why I hope the estate is going to overthink its strategy relating to protecting Michael's legacy so that in future this doesn't happen anymore. But I am not very hopeful that they will learn anything from this.
Anyone feeling that shift of emotions as well?
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