He was cancelled by the establishment. The sales make that VERY CLEAR. He became a threat to the powers that be when Thriller blew up and he became bigger than they anticipated. From BAD on, the sales sink like the Titanic. Dangerous was selling like hot buns! And then Evan C(hild) Handler comes on the scene. He never recovered from there, didn't stand a chance. Invincible was completely ignored, even by the fans.
Thriller: 70 million copies.
Bad: 35 million copies.
Dangerous: 32 million copies. This album would have outperformed Bad and maybe even Thriller if it wasn't for the fake ass allegations.
HIStory: a lousy 20 million copies. Even if you include Blood on the Dancefloor in the sales it's still only 26 million.
Invincible: a pathetic 8 million copies sold while it's one of his best albums.
Invincible didn't have the success of the Dangerous album because it, no let me correct myself: HE was boycotted. Michael had been under attack ever since the BAD album for being too rebellious. Because as iconic Thriller might be, it is not his best album and Dangerous should have topped it in an honest world.
But then again, we can tell he is still being shadow banned to this day, unless you believe the views on YouTube are even close to accurate. Thriller gets a billion views every Halloween, gimme a break...
This right here is something I cannot stand for. Comparing sales of Thriller to Invincible is utterly ST*pid. Do you have any idea how dire the situation of the music industry was in 2001 with digital piracy and all...?? YET MJ's Invincible SOLD MORE than all other major artists who released an album that year COMBINED - with no short films or promotion. Get that into rotation... I hope this puts to rest.... I hope this Finally puts to rest..... Invincible and Thriller, really are two different albums. The only thing both albums have in common is that they were released at a time where the music industry was at it's lowest and then MJ came to the rescue.
FYI Invincible is MJ's FASTEST selling album and his most expensive one to make. The opening number on the album titled "Unbreakable" is not a coincidence because at the end of the day, let's say in 100 years, Invincible will have sold 40 million while other (non-MJ) albums be forgotten, it is just bound to happen.
And like bruh.. You really gonna sit here and say the biggest selling double album in history, which is HIStory, got lousy sales.... I... Ok.
It is true MJ was haunted by... almost everyone, almost all the time and what did he do? He made some hit songs about it. So this establishment you are talking about, kinda played in his favor and made him even bigger an icon... This is just my world view. So yes, I remember a story saying MJ was distraught over Sony/Invincible, drinking alcohol in front of his kids and being wasted over the whole situation and crying out-loud "the company doesn't believe in me anymore". I can understand MJ completely, but we can't forget the fact that album was so expensive to make and MJ had 10 different producers working at the same time on it... It was more than Sony could have handled and perhaps they wanted more of MJ and less outer talents. MJ didn't go with that at all! Since it was his last studio album, His intention was to use his Power and Statue To EMPOWER the people in the business and take it a few steps further, to make an impact STILL and "sounds that the ear never heard before".,.... etc etc... -and it remains a fact that all the producers and people involved with invincible will tell you, that the technology and equipment used there for the first time has set the stage for the future of the industry.
I gotta say, it seems to me Invincible was made to be listened to on HIFI and that is to combat the digital piracy.... So anyone judging a track by it's youtube video is also to be considered insane. With that said, I do remember Taj saying MJ would often listen to tracks on a mini-recording thingy and stated that you can really tell if the music is good if you listen on sucha LoFi device and it still sounds good. So yeah, I am just throwing stuff here, Invincible style.
