HIStory
Proud Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2011
- Messages
- 6
- Points
- 0
^ I think fans care because that's what they saw from Michael: that commercial success was important to him. He was never an indie artist who said "eff commercial success". He did care about whether his record was Number One or not. A mentality that was installed in him since the Motown days, I think. (Mind you, a lot of artists who pose as "we do not care" do care eventually as well. See the Black Keys last year and how desperate they were to beat Xscape on Billboard to get that Nr 1. and they are supposedly an indie act, so that was funny. But I digress.) But the posthumus career of an artist is different than his career when he was alive and perhaps fans' priorities too should be different and yes, we should not accept everything and anything just for the sake of commercial success.
I am not sure that a concept like LNFSG (or Xscape) really does nothing for the perseverance of MJ's genuine career (ie. his old songs). We actually have proof that it does: in the simple fact that when Xscape was released there was a rise in the sales of Thriller and other old MJ albums as well. Of course, those albums always chart but when Xscape was released they did sell even more than usual. If Xscape had not been released last year Thriller too would have sold less. Fact.
I think I am somewhere in between. I do not want MJ's art to be watered down and butchered just for the sake of commercial success and just to appeal to the tastes of today's youth and made chart-compatible just to make it chart, but I also do not want the Estate to put MJ's art in this ivory tower where only his old fans are interested. But of course people should be made interested in the real MJ, not something that is just sold under his name but is not really him.
But for 99% of them that'll be just this one song that they love, and it'll never lead them to learn about Mozart's career or appreciate his art in depth.
I am not sure that a concept like LNFSG (or Xscape) really does nothing for the perseverance of MJ's genuine career (ie. his old songs). We actually have proof that it does: in the simple fact that when Xscape was released there was a rise in the sales of Thriller and other old MJ albums as well. Of course, those albums always chart but when Xscape was released they did sell even more than usual. If Xscape had not been released last year Thriller too would have sold less. Fact.
I think I am somewhere in between. I do not want MJ's art to be watered down and butchered just for the sake of commercial success and just to appeal to the tastes of today's youth and made chart-compatible just to make it chart, but I also do not want the Estate to put MJ's art in this ivory tower where only his old fans are interested. But of course people should be made interested in the real MJ, not something that is just sold under his name but is not really him.