The Beauty & Power in Michael Jackson’s "Simple" Songs

[bluemoon7]

The Beauty & Power in Michael Jackson’s "Simple" Songs

I have been trapped for most of my life in this (predominantly white male) intellectual belief that songs like "Heal the world" especially, but also "Earth Song", and even the worldwide beloved "We are the World" are too simple, and too pleasing to the ear ... too popular to be "good music". Mostly white male music critics and guys of my Gen X made me believe that these songs are too cheesy, kitsch and shallow to be taken seriously, (and therefore also serve as evidence to the assumption that Michael Jackson is not to be taken seriously as an artist).

It has been only a few years that I have been questioning (shame inducing) criticism and intellectualism that merely comes from the head, from thoughts. As I am growing older, I am opening up to accepting my own vulnerability and emotions (I have always struggled with and being shamed for), basically to live more in my heart than off of my brain/thoughts.

As we know, Michael Jackson wrote his often donned "simple", heartfelt songs to elicit our vulnerability and compassion. He chose a musical language that tried to include as many people as possible. He knew that we have to open our hearts and listen to our fellow human beings to "make that change".

Let´s discuss how intellectualism can sometimes be a trap to opening our hearts. Do you feel the same? What are your experiences with this? Why is it that we as humans so often put our heads over our hearts in the first place?
And finally: Are Michael´s songs (see above) too simple to be good / to be art?

 

[jasmine.uddin]

I think we as a fan base are a traumatized fan base, and we have been shamed for being MJ fans for as long as we can remember. Shamed by the media, public personalities, the wider public, and even friends and family.

I think this is why some fans are so easily triggered when it comes to MJ issues. It's our trauma that is triggered and sometimes we appear to be traumatizing each other. There's an element of the abused learn to abuse.

How is this relevant to the title thread?
I think some of us look for validation outside of the fan world because of this, and align our views to suit more socially/intellectually acceptable opinions to be accepted as credible fans as opposed to crazed MJ fans. Peer pressure is not just something for teens, its a powerful force within society. The danger is when we do this without due thought, as then we lose our own credibility to ourselves. The same applies to the other end of the spectrum.


I find MJ is very versatile as an artist and has a huge range of styles/emotions he covers. Some I like, some I don't. I do find that HTW gets a lot of hate and I always thought it's a beautiful song with a beautiful melody and a beautiful message. I do find YAML hard to listen to, but I generally find songs with over the top adulation off putting. Maybe it's more about whether the listener resonates with the overall perspective of the song rather than the song itself? Maybe with songs like WATW, ES and HTW, helping save the planet is too hippy a perspective for these white male critics you reference to resonate with.

Edit- and yet Imagine by JL is not classed the same by these so called white male critics, I always felt if MJ had released that song it would be received as poorly as WATW/HTW/ES. Maybe there's an element of it's not what is said, but who is saying it. Clearly, no one took issue with JL hippy perspective on Imagine as it is considered canonical. To me these songs are all in the same vain, so I don't understand the discrepancy when it comes to MJ.

 

[bluemoon7]

I think we as a fan base are a traumatized fan base, and we have been shamed for being MJ fans for as long as we can remember. Shamed by the media, public personalities, the wider public, and even friends and family.

Wow, yes!

I think this is why some fans are so easily triggered when it comes to MJ issues. It's our trauma that is triggered and sometimes we appear to be traumatizing each other. There's an element of the abused learn to abuse.

How is this relevant to the title thread?
I think some of us look for validation outside of the fan world because of this, and align our views to suit more socially/intellectually acceptable opinions to be accepted as credible fans as opposed to crazed MJ fans. Peer pressure is not just something for teens, its a powerful force within society. The danger is when we do this without due thought, as then we lose our own credibility to ourselves. The same applies to the other end of the spectrum.

Yes, I do this :-(

Edit- and yet Imagine by JL is not classed the same by these so called white male critics, I always felt if MJ had released that song it would be received as poorly as WATW/HTW/ES. Maybe there's an element of it's not what is said, but who is saying it. Clearly, no one took issue with JL hippy perspective on Imagine as it is considered canonical. To me these songs are all in the same vain, so I don't understand the discrepancy when it comes to MJ.

love this input




Great post and thoughts!

 

[bluemoon7]

... a post from @zinniabooklover - transferred from: The topic of HSP

[...] Let´s discuss how intellectualism can sometimes be a trap to opening our hearts. Do you feel the same? What are your experiences with this? Why is it that we as humans so often put our heads over our hearts in the first place? And finally: Are Michael´s songs (see above) too simple to be good / to be art?

"Fabulous post. I particularly want to stand up for WATW - Michael gave that song a specific job to do and it worked brilliantly.

I will just add to your final question by re-posting a quote (about HTW) from Susan Fast's book on the Dangerous album ...

Susan Fast - 'Dangerous'. P.82:
´One of the reasons - perhaps the main one - that Heal The World is so easy to write off is because it's so laden with convention. There's a deep-rooted suspicion of convention in Western culture ... We think that conventions make for meaningless art ...´ "

 

[bluemoon7]

delete (double post)

 

[R1chard]

I have been trapped for most of my life in this (predominantly white male) intellectual belief that songs like "Heal the world" especially, but also "Earth Song", and even the worldwide beloved "We are the World" are too simple, and too pleasing to the ear ... too popular to be "good music".

Regarding these songs, I never liked We Are The World. Didn't used to like Heal the World, but I like it a bit more these days. I've always loved Earth Song, it's probably the best song of the 90s.

None of these opinions have anything to do with how simple or complicated the songs are. I never give that a second thought.

My favourite band is Nirvana, and all of their songs are extremely simple. And I guess they're seen as cool.

I don't have any time for "intellectual beliefs", white male or otherwise. I like the songs I like, regardless of what anybody else thinks, so I really can't relate to your situation.

 

[someplace_else]

As I am growing older, I am opening up to accepting my own vulnerability and emotions (I have always struggled with and being shamed for), basically to live more in my heart than off of my brain/thoughts.

Hard thing to do. This is also something I struggle with, mainly because there are things that happened some years ago that made kind of...numb, I guess.
Greetings to my ex... idiot . And also in our daily lifes it's important to function, not to feel.

As we know, Michael Jackson wrote his often donned "simple", heartfelt songs to elicit our vulnerability and compassion. He chose a musical language that tried to include as many people as possible. He knew that we have to open our hearts and listen to our fellow human beings to "make that change".

True. And he is so versatile in his music, so you can't say he is not to be taken seriously as an artist. I guess people who say that do not really listen to his music. I also feel like "King of Pop" is not a great designation for him, because pop-music in general is often seen as quite simple. Maybe just my pov. I guess that also influences people. And the media, but that's a different chapter.

Let´s discuss how intellectualism can sometimes be a trap to opening our hearts. Do you feel the same? What are your experiences with this? Why is it that we as humans so often put our heads over our hearts in the first place?
And finally: Are Michael´s songs (see above) too simple to be good / to be art?

The main function of art is to make people think, so complexity is not a criterion. White square on white background - greetings to my former art teacher

 

[squirrelinthetree]

Totally agree, thank you for bringing this up. It's great you are so aware of those inner struggles, I can clearly relate and I believe that awareness can greatly help you to unite your heart-head-hands-soul!
To me this focus on intellectualism, while treating everything emotional as "simple", is a culturally inherited thing. At least it feels less prominent in Latin America or Africa, as much as my limited experience there tells me. For how many people are emotions simple really?
When I went from my European home to the US as a teen and told people at home that I wanted to learn about another culture, adult family members told me the US didn't have a culture. For them culture was (taking music as the prime example) old classical music, although they were all listening to jazz, blues, rock etc. They didn't even acknowledge the music they liked as culture (until I insisted and they got tired of an obnoxious teenager)!
And yeah, I think mj is so misunderstood because of those cheesy songs. But they get their intended message across, not to our brains but to our hearts. I think in his book he mentioned about connecting the physical and emotional and spiritual through music.