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The aesthetics of MJ’s albums

Tony R

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Been thinking about this for a while. Like his music, films & dance, the covers of Michael’s albums best known are pretty iconic. But it’s not just the covers for me. As someone who grew up with the albums on vinyl & CD the aesthetics of the inside, the song lyrics & the back cover etc., really matter.

OFF THE WALL
I love this cover, although at this stage I’m still not sure what the original cover was without Googling it. I’m sure at first it was just the feet? But everything I see now is the face. Either way, I love both. The face version, if just MJ at his most carefree & happiest. The child star becoming a man. Everything he’s learned from Quincy & his time at Studio 54 coming into fruition. The confidence, the realisation that he can do this alone – you can see that in his smile.

At this stage the back cover/booklet was pretty standard & low-key, and I love the chalk graffiti font used the cover.

THRILLER
Possibly the most iconic cover of all time, except for maybe Bad. Michael seems more sombre on the cover, maybe reflecting his transition into fully fledged solo star & adulthood and all the pressure this brings. This is also reflected in the lyrics of his written songs on the album (WBSS, BJ).

This time the booklet is more in depth, we have some gorgeous artwork couresy of MJ himself, with caricatures of Thriller and The Girl Is Mine. We have the lyrics, the before they were editedversions with a longer Billie Jean and the full Lady In My Life.

The font on Thriller is iconic with the signature style name that is often used today. Plus special mention to ‘Billy’ Jean being spelt wrong on the CD & inside cover!

BAD
I love Bad, it seems plain in many respects, and it is, but it works. I like it because most everything else is OTT. On the back of the end of the Thriller campaign, which was, lest we forget, the Thriller short film I love that Bad started so low key with IJCSLY, everything Thriller wasn’t – a ballad with no video. And then you pick up the album, a relatively straightforward cover, only shocking due to a more S&M style outfit and a changed appearance. A small back cover photo & a middle photoshoot that was obviously done in a hurry (after the veil pics were ditched for being too Prince like). I loved the original back cover though as it said the length after each song (I always like that!)

The lyrics in the booklet are printed in a simple form, but I’ve always loved them as they even detail every Hoo, Aaow & hee-hee. Something I’ve done myself over the years when writing MJ lyrics.

Also, the cover is notable for being the last album to fully feature his photo.

DANGEROUS
Well, what haven’t we said about this over the years. The cover sums up the album: dark, mysterious, full of hidden layers, riddled with paranoia, frustration but most of all brilliant.

But the cover has its own thread on here so I’ll concentrate on the inside/back. The inside is beautiful. The way those lyrics are displayed. Such thought has gone into this. The black on gold writing. The gorgeous font. The shape they make up (how clever is the woman shape on Dangerous. The way the pieces of artwork from the cover are used for each song. Even the way the tracklisting is written on the back.

The vinyl cover is to behold & even on CD it works. Those who have only experienced Dangerous on MP3 are missing out big time.

Oh & the CD itself? Glorious & the first time I recall having something that was not standard silver & boring. This was black (or gold if you have the pop up special edition) with those eyes and the tracklisting etched in beautifully.
It’s quite simply fitting for the best album of all time.

HIStory
I spent years hating the HIStory cover, and the fact that the first thing that happened when I opened the CD case was a merchandise booklet falling out. I’ve sorta made my peace with it over the years (you’ll be pleased to know), but it was MJ at his most pompous I thought.

I do love the back cover through, I liked the storm cloud affect that was also used on the Scream cover, and the way the song titles were arranged & aligned.
The inside is also lovely, with some career spanning photos & like Thriller some great artwork by MJ (notably Childhood), but I was frustrated by not all the new songs having lyrics printed. Especially when it came to Tabloid Junkie as you had no chance of understanding them.

Could the booklet have used less plaudits & compliments by his peers? And ideally a discography rather than list of awards? Probably, but I get that a lot of HIStory was about PR.

The gold CDs were a nice touch with the statue on them.

BOTDF
Simply put - never liked the cover. But I like the chessboard artwork that’s reflected on the back. And the HIStory era photos inside. If I remember rightly we also got a few lyrics from HIStory that weren’t in the original release (SIM & History). Again a nice looking CD also.

INVINCIBLE
Well, I imagine you may think I’ll be against this one, but I liked it. Similar to how different Dangerous was to Bad, this is the same. From the self-important & grandiose HIStory, Invincible is beautiful in its simplicity. I would have liked a proper photo, but I get why not. The insides are just unassuming & almost artless. Just a nice font & simple photoshoot. Almost reinventing himself. I liked that.

Oh well, that's me procrastinating doing some actual work for an hour...any thoughts?
 
I like the LP's the most. - The cases the LP's are in - with lyrics etc. is nice.

My favorite album cover is no doubt Dangerous - miles ahead of no.2...

Nr. 2 would be Thriller --> BAD --> Michael --> OTW --> HIStory - BOTDF --> Xscape --> Invincible
 
This is a very interesting topic that actually crossed my mind not too long ago. I ended up researching all of the album covers and artwork that were created for MJ's 7 solo albums and compiled that information together with some of my original writing to create seven pdf articles. I'd love to share it, but I'm not quite sure what the best way would be to maintain the proper formatting. Should I post it as an image?
 
This is the article I put together on the 'Off the Wall' album cover. If you like it, I wouldn't mind posting the other articles as well. I'd like to stress that any interviews that appear were taken from other sources and in some cases translated by myself from non-English sources. If anyone can help me with proper citation that would be great. Thanks :)!











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Good topic!

I love OTW, Thriller and Bad - all just for their simplicity but I think all are so iconic (especially Thriller). I definitely like some of the later ones too, but the first 3 are just so typical in terms of an Album cover I feel. You can see them and you instantly know what they are.

(It saddens me that kids today barely know what it's like to have an album or CD cover - complete with lyrics....The whole listening to an album from start to finish and having memorised what track number each song is just doesn't get through on iTunes or any type of streaming device the same way).
 
These are great Moejack. Look forward to reading in more detail when I get chance.
 
Tony R said:
These are great Moejack. Look forward to reading in more detail when I get chance.
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Thanks :)! The whole project started with my fascination with the 'Dangerous' album cover (which is also my longest article). Then I started researching any information I can find on Michael's other album covers and compiling them together along with my own research. Took quite some time but I'm proud of the end result.
 
Bad is like a negative of Thriller.

Thriller black background and white outfit.

Bad, white background and black outfit.

Pure perfection.
 
Moejack, that first paragraph on the Thriller article, is that a quote from Rod Temperton?

And the last bit on OTW, being picky, MJ wrote one of the singles, not three!

Great work though and brilliant alternative photos.
 
Tony R said:
Moejack, that first paragraph on the Thriller article, is that a quote from Rod Temperton?

And the last bit on OTW, being picky, MJ wrote one of the singles, not three!

Great work though and brilliant alternative photos.
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Thanks :)! Yea, that's a quote from Rod Temperton on coming up with the album title. As for 'Off the Wall,' Michael did in fact write 3 songs on that album: 'Don't stop 'till you Get Enough,' Workin' Day and Night,'' and 'Get on the Floor.'

P.S. Ah, I see what you mean. He wrote one of the 4 released singles. Good catch :)!


Rockin R said:
Bad is like a negative of Thriller.

Thriller black background and white outfit.

Bad, white background and black outfit.

Pure perfection.
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It is very interesting indeed. I remember writing a term paper in college on the evolution of Michael's image through his album covers. 'Off the Wall' had mostly a dark color palette with Michael's dark complexion, the black tux, the brown brick wall. Then, like you mentioned, on 'Thriller' his complexion was lighter against a white suite and a black background. 'Bad' followed with an even lighter complexion but this time with a black outfit and white background. Then with 'Dangerous' he became a painting, 'HIStory' he was a statue, and finally 'Invincible' he was a digital reflection of himself. It was fascinating to see how he was sort've evolving into an almost mythic-like persona.
 
It is very interesting indeed. I remember writing a term paper in college on the evolution of Michael's image through his album covers. 'Off the Wall' had mostly a dark color palette with Michael's dark complexion, the black tux, the brown brick wall. Then, like you mentioned, on 'Thriller' his complexion was lighter against a white suite and a black background. 'Bad' followed with an even lighter complexion but this time with a black outfit and white background. Then with 'Dangerous' he became a painting, 'HIStory' he was a statue, and finally 'Invincible' he was a digital reflection of himself. It was fascinating to see how he was sort've evolving into an almost mythic

This is a genius thesis!! It really had me thinking

I will have a proper think and probably reply to this soon. Another great thread Tony, you're right the lyrics in Bad are so satisfying as a fan with all the adlibs.
 









And that concludes my series on the art of Michael's seven album covers. I hope it can stimulate a nice discussion about the meanings and imagery behind the visuals and the artwork! Also, any feedback, comments, or corrections are more than welcome :)!
 
Thank you so much :)!! It was a labor of love! The 'Dangerous' piece in particular is near and dear to my heart as I've always been fascinated by the album cover and all of its clever nods to art history and pop culture.
 
MoeJack said:
Thank you so much :)!! It was a labor of love! The 'Dangerous' piece in particular is near and dear to my heart as I've always been fascinated by the album cover and all of its clever nods to art history and pop culture.
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I'm only half way through Off the Wall and it's going to take me a while to get through all the covers but I just had to stop and quickly respond to give you a HUGE thank you MoeJack!! I'm surprised you hadn't shared these earlier, this is simply fantastic! Excellent work :clapping:

I just love learning so much about the thoughts and processes behind these iconic artworks, especially as we get towards the complicated and detailed pieces from the 90s onwards. Can't wait to see what you've written about BOTDF!
 
MattyJam said:
Bravo to MoeJack for these fantastic posts! :clapping:
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HIStoric said:
I'm only half way through Off the Wall and it's going to take me a while to get through all the covers but I just had to stop and quickly respond to give you a HUGE thank you MoeJack!! I'm surprised you hadn't shared these earlier, this is simply fantastic! Excellent work :clapping:

I just love learning so much about the thoughts and processes behind these iconic artworks, especially as we get towards the complicated and detailed pieces from the 90s onwards. Can't wait to see what you've written about BOTDF!
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Echoed. Really glad I created this thread that got MoeJack to do this :)
 
Thanks to the OP, some geezer named TonyR?? And a massive thanks to MoeJack. I've not read these brilliant looking pieces yet but they look great. I'm back again from the brink of extinction!
 
aazzaabb said:
Thanks to the OP, some geezer named TonyR?? And a massive thanks to MoeJack. I've not read these brilliant looking pieces yet but they look great. I'm back again from the brink of extinction!
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He's back kids!

This thread is bringing people together. I feel warm.
 
The Dangerous album cover is easily the most artistic and interesting design of all of Michael's albums. There is a lot of symbolism as well. Like you said, the cover is basically a pictorial summary of the album's main themes. It's just gorgeous. BOTDF is second IMO and then HIStory.
The rest are very simple, yet still iconic.
 
@Moejack-your Off the Wall piece was fascinating. I knew a little of that, but there was way more to the backstory.
Can't wait to get to a proper computer and read the rest.
 
That Dangerous article is amazing Moejack. I loved the little things like the MJ on Dog kings foot and Mike wanting the half black, white bust.

I'd kill for the original artwork!

Can't believe it was all hand painted, I'd presumed some computer involvement.

Thanks again.
 
The 'Dangerous' album cover is certainly full of detail and intricate references. I'd argue with a few of the 'animal' identifications, if I was being 'picky' :)

I'll add photos below, but I believe in the animal group the 'bee' is a wasp, the 'baboon' is a mandrill, and the 'bison' is a buffalo! (The matching photo is on the left, each time)

http://[URL=https://imageshack.com/i/pmb4srqtj][/URL]

http://[URL=https://imageshack.com/i/pohi7Y45j][/URL]

http://[URL=https://imageshack.com/i/pnLCvaCwj][/URL]


In the 'Queen Elizabeth' picture, the'golden ball' is called an 'orb', and represents (with the cross above it), God's divine dominion over the world.
The 'bird head' of the queen doesn't look like a kingfisher to me. More like a type of bee eater. I'm guessing that the type of bird might not be important, but since Ryden paints everything so accurately, maybe an ornithologist among us can identify the exact bird?

http://[URL=https://imageshack.com/i/poBImbSpj][/URL]

Thank you for putting all these descriptions together; it is great to have them all in one place :)
 
myosotis said:
The 'Dangerous' album cover is certainly full of detail and intricate references. I'd argue with a few of the 'animal' identifications, if I was being 'picky' :)

I'll add photos below, but I believe in the animal group the 'bee' is a wasp, the 'baboon' is a mandrill, and the 'bison' is a buffalo! (The matching photo is on the left, each time)

In the 'Queen Elizabeth' picture, the'golden ball' is called an 'orb', and represents (with the cross above it), God's divine dominion over the world.
The 'bird head' of the queen doesn't look like a kingfisher to me. More like a type of bee eater. I'm guessing that the type of bird might not be important, but since Ryden paints everything so accurately, maybe an ornithologist among us can identify the exact bird?
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Great observations :)! I agree, the wasp, mandrill, and buffalo definitely seem to be the animals depicted. I'll adjust them in the article. As for the bird, honestly I'm not quite sure. The Kingfisher was the only name I found mentioned online with regard to what it may be, but there may certainly be a better fit. Hopefully someone can enlighten us!
 
Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it :)! As an aside, I was also wondering about any particular works that inspired Michael's short films. I've only found four:

1. "An American Werewolf in London" (1981) - Thriller short film
2. "The Band Wagon" (1953) - Billie Jean short film, Dangerous song and live performance
3. "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) - Black or White epilogue
4. "Daybreak" (Maxfield Parrish, 1922) - You Are Not Alone short film


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