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There are 4 types of MJ fans, do you agree?

filmandmusic

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-The first group is the old school group who love young Michael and his brothers, the 70s era fans. This group is getting smaller and smaller and they are less vocal.
-The second group is the Destiny/Triumph/off the wall/thriller era MJ. These are fans in their 30s and older and enjoy the more realistic, happy go lucky MJ with clean singing and smooth rhythmic disco dancing.
-The third group is the youngest group, the ones who grew up with angry Michael with raw singing almost scatting his vocals, hard beats and complicated dance routines. The era of over the top marketing, larger than life image, military image, show and style over melody and vocals. It is this era that has survived the best and it is the most recognizable era of MJ due to for example dozens of leaked concerts of this era.
-The fourth group are the all rounders, who love every era, I'm part of this group.

Now I guess the largest group is the 4th one but I have noticed through my interaction on here that most of the younger fans really don't care about the Motown era (my thread about live at the Forum barely gets attention) and there is also a large substantial base of fans who think thriller and off the wall are overrated. It is also noticeable on the attention the bad/dangerous and HIStory tours get over for example the destiny/triumph and victory tours.

So these are just some observations, this is no critique.

Even though I'm part of the 4th group if I had to rank my fave era's it would look like this:
Nr 1 is the post Motown era up till the victory tour, roughly 1976-1984
Nr 2 The Motown era
Nr 3 the post thriller era, ranging from bad to HIStory
Nr 4 the forgotten era of invincible and many other projects who never saw the light of day. There was big promise in here but unfortunately nothing much happened but I am sure Michael was building towards a final epic pop album, a big comeback let's say. Alas it wasn't to be.
 
Good assessment.
I definitely belong to the 3rd group. I love Michael Jackson the performer and the dancer way more than Michael Jackson the singer. Infact before my newly discovered obsession for Michael, I had not even heard of Motown and Off the Wall, and even now I don't care much about them. For me Michael Jackson started with Thriller and really came to life with Bad and Dangerous. I became a fan and was blown away only after watching the live concert videos. They have the energy, the dancing, the showmanship, sexiness and cuteness, the perfection, all in one! I don't know if I will ever develop the same love for his older work.
 
I'm in none of those, as I love Michael's solo adult career

So everything before 1979 I just don't care much about it (or at least not nearly as much as the rest)
 
I'd definitely place myself in the fourth group.

I always loved the hit singles and short films growing up, and being a massive horror/fantasy/sci-fi fan, Thriller quickly became my favourite music video. I was too young to fully understand what was going on around the time of the trial, but I remember that my parents and grandparents were very much of the view that he was an innocent man... which always instinctively came across in interviews and was only confirmed by the extensive research I conducted into all of the allegations before even deciding to explore his discography.

I didn't really become a hardcore fan until I was 18, when I basically discovered all of the albums in no particular order around the same time, meaning that I've never had any preconceived notions that he should have stuck to any one particular style of music. In terms of sheer consistency, the Quincy era is hard to beat, but at least half of my top 10 songs were released from 1991-2014. The pre-Destiny era is of less interest to me than what came after, but I still love it, and there isn't a single album MJ was involved with that I don't enjoy to some extent.
 
Lord Szechenyi said:
I'm in none of those, as I love Michael's solo adult career

So everything before 1979 I just don't care much about it (or at least not nearly as much as the rest)
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I actually forgot to include a group for fans of Michael's adult career only!
 
Lord Szechenyi said:
I'm in none of those, as I love Michael's solo adult career

So everything before 1979 I just don't care much about it (or at least not nearly as much as the rest)
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Isn't that same as group 3 ?
 
Got it. Though I think from Thriller itself, there is a shift into what filmandmusic describes as - angry Michael, raw singing. Songs Thriller, Beat It, WBSS - they are very different from Off the Wall collection, and are closer to Bad collection.
 
I'm in group 5. :D I'm not one of those who only likes Mike's music. I like the 2300 Jackson Street & Victory albums. I also have Jermaine's solo albums. I have Janet's & Rebbie's albums too and some of the other Jacksons. I couldn't really get into LaToya though. I have her 1st album and one of her 12" singles. Tito's blues albums are pretty good.
 
@DuranDuran

I actually find Victory the best Jacksons album and Maria (on 2300 Jacksons st) is one of their finest tunes.
Have you heard the Marlon and Jackie albums? I haven’t, curious though!
 
filmandmusic said:
@DuranDuran

I actually find Victory the best Jacksons album and Maria (on 2300 Jacksons st) is one of their finest tunes.
Have you heard the Marlon and Jackie albums? I haven’t, curious though!
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I have Marlon's album and the remix single for Don't Go, it's alright. Jackie's albums are hard to find, especially the one on Motown. It's on Youtube though. The drum break on one of the songs on the 1973 album (Is It Him Or Me) was sampled a lot on rap songs. I have the Stay single from the 1989 album, but I've never heard the album.
 
Group three, easily. The majority of MJ’s pre-1979 material is entirely disposable to me. (And honestly, I’m not even that fussed towards Off the Wall. It’s my least favorite MJ album, so throw that in the bin as well.)
 
Ngl, I started out in group three as that's the era I grew up with, but as I got older I really came to appreciate all of the other eras too, so now I consider myself more of an all-rounder :cool:
 
In my first years of being a fan, I would probably think to myself that I was in group 4, when objectively I probably wasn’t because I wasn’t really paying attention to the Motown/Jacksons stuff. But now I’d say I’m actually group 4 because since then, I’ve listened to every Jacksons album and I’m making my way through the J5/Solo Motown stuff as of now.

At the end of the day, Michael is Michael, regardless of the era or the phase of his voice. His career spans 45 years and I personally think as a fan, I should take every bit of it into consideration. Off the Wall onwards is just as great but I’ve burned those songs out so much that it’s nice to discover new stuff.
 
Hudson112 said:
In my first years of being a fan, I would probably think to myself that I was in group 4, when objectively I probably wasn’t because I wasn’t really paying attention to the Motown/Jacksons stuff. But now I’d say I’m actually group 4 because since then, I’ve listened to every Jacksons album and I’m making my way through the J5/Solo Motown stuff as of now.

At the end of the day, Michael is Michael, regardless of the era or the phase of his voice. His career spans 45 years and I personally think as a fan, I should take every bit of it into consideration. Off the Wall onwards is just as great but I’ve burned those songs out so much that it’s nice to discover new stuff.
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That's exactly what it's all about, and what every fan should do
 
While I might agree with that for ordinary artists, but Michael's long career covered so many different forms of music. I love the angry Beat it / Bad Michael, and romantic slow IJCSLU Michael, I don't know if I would ever love the Off The Wall disco Michael because I am not into disco at all. I won't change the channel if it played on radio, after all it's still Michael, but I probably won't go out and buy the CD.
 
I'm not really sure about that but there may be fans who like him for the dance and don't care that much about music. But those could be a subset of your category 3? Some who are fans of his humanitarian works and messages and don't care that much about music?

I also know some girls who claim to be fans because they like "when he was cute in the videos" and are clueless when you talk about discography, releases, things that were not in video... So I guess those are the category of fans who considered him as sex symbol :)
 
Maxym said:
I'm not really sure about that but there may be fans who like him for the dance and don't care that much about music. But those could be a subset of your category 3? Some who are fans of his humanitarian works and messages and don't care that much about music?

I also know some girls who claim to be fans because they like "when he was cute in the videos" and are clueless when you talk about discography, releases, things that were not in video... So I guess those are the category of fans who considered him as sex symbol :)
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You can categorize his fans in groups but that depends on the criterion you use each time.

For instance, if you use the criterion of the child sexual abuse allegations against him, then there are four groups of his fans:

Fans who do not believe the allegations and they keep listening to his music.

Fans who believe the allegations (or they have serious doubts about his innocence) but they keep listening to his music.

Fans who believe the allegations (or they have serious doubts about his innocence) and thus they stopped listening to his music (technically, these can no longer be considered his fans).

Fans who do not care about the allegations and they keep listening to his music.
 
Yes, but I was still talking about "reasons why they like him" ... as I understood the initial post as a "classification of fans according to what period they like Michael for"... So I saw my suggestions as an extension to this initial classification... But maybe I extrapolated some part of it.
 
'thriller' is my favourite - 1983 to be precise. this would put me in group 2. however, i don't think it should be lumped in with 'off the wall', 'destiny', and 'triumph'. i think it's solely due to the proximity of these releases that they are. though i really did enjoy reading your description of that era :)
 
@83magic this is an interesting response, so is there nothing you like post thriller? From what I make of your post you don’t even seem to like Off the wall?
 
filmandmusic said:
@83magic this is an interesting response, so is there nothing you like post thriller? From what I make of your post you don’t even seem to like Off the wall?
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i tend to prefer singles to albums. i like the ones from 'off the wall', and obviously the seven from 'thriller'. i also enjoy some of michael's solo work from motown, and with his brothers (both motown and epic). there was a lot of great stuff that came before 'thriller', be it music, performances, videos etc. however, 'thriller' is the ultimate peak for me.

for all the reasons you stated in your original post; the smooth clear vocals - that he was able to achieve whether he was trying to convey urgency, joy, frustration, or pain. the timeless production that perfectly blended live instruments with synths to create fluid grooves that you could dance to. the interesting subject matters of 'wanna be startin' somethin', 'thriller', 'beat it', 'billie jean', and 'human nature'. i would even include 'the girl is mine' to an extent. the balance between light and dark. hard and soft. nothing was overwhelming the other.

the way that he pioneered the music video to create short films with a narrative to follow and dancing🤩. he used inspiration from his elders and then current street dancers, blended it up and put himself on top to create something unique. he was smooth and dynamic at the same time🤩.

it was all uncharted territory. there were no tropes at that point. everything was new and fresh (and still is).

most importantly, it was his honest and positive message that continues to resonate with me; he told us to think twice and not to be macho men. he wasn't like other guys. he was a lover not a fighter.

all of this changed after.. there may be a small handful of things i enjoy after, but it's all tainted in some way or another :(
 
I was born in 78, remember hearing Michael on radio in the early 80s, Loved the Bad album, but when Dangerous came out.....I was a fan for life. I would say my fandom of Michael started when I was born, just a year before his adult solo career got going. I like the J5 stuff, but not as much as the adult solo stuff.
 
@83magic I think there must be a lot more fans like you but they are not part of any fora as they are from another generation. Interestingly there are also so many fans that are mostly only interested in his raspy vocal style, they feel less affinity with the clean image Michael wanted to portray back then (OTW/thriller era). I remember quotes of mothers who were relieved that their sons and daughters were MJ fans as there was no controversy involved.
It is a testament to MJ's genius that he was able to get a new image while keeping the same success. He reinvented himself no less than 3 times and each time the fan base grew bigger and bigger. I think before he died he was busy with different stuff and ready to reinvent himself a 4th time.

With each reinvention though I am sure he also lost a bit of fans each change comes with a cost. Personally I tend to play his music of the late 70s early 80s the most, I also think it is his most genius music but then there are periods where I am more into the J5(like now) or later era music. In case of the J5 I am mostly into the live music. They were so good live, MJ's solo tours have nothing on those 70s shows imo.
 
I'm definitely all rounder, I own physical discs from off the wall to invincible including the ultimate collection, and the posthumous ones but I really enjoy almost anything by him which makes it very difficult to pick favorites, but if you mention a song off the main albums I can tell you which one and probably also what number it was XD I don't own a lot of j5 or pre off the wall stuff, but I have a lot of downloaded from youtube mp3s that are from that time because if I hear something it's almost a given that I love it, haha.
 
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