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Thoughts about the future: Comparison with Jimi Hendrix's posthumous career

Jesta

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Since the new album came out, I have been looking extensively into other posthumous careers to see any similarities with the production of this album as well as to see what to expect for Michael's posthumous career. The prime example of this is Jimi Hendrix's unfortunately long posthumous career. For those who don't know, Jimi Hendrix was in the middle of planning his fourth studio album "First Rays of the New Rising Sun" when he sadly passed away. As a result of this planning, he had recorded stacks upon stacks of material, many of which was releasable. Over the next decades, there have been an abundance of new Jimi Hendrix albums, totaling his album count from 3 to 11 studio albums, with the last one thus far being released last year! Within his posthumous discography, there have been dubious and controversial decisions, such as overdubs employed and other things that strayed from Hendrix's artistic vision.

In 1997, a "concept" album was released, giving a close approximation of what would've been his fourth album before he died, with the name "First Rays of the New Rising Sun". I've written all of this because I think it might be interesting to compare the new album with the treatment that Hendrix's material has had. What can we expect from the next new album? Will the instrumentation stray too far from the original intent? Will overdubs be employed in order to "complete" the song? I really hope not, but if Jimi Hendrix's posthumous career is still going despite some controversial decisions made, then I'm sure Michael's one has a bright future to look to.

So... Yeah, this thread is to basically discuss what you want from Michael's next album and any future projects, and what your hopes are in the production of said albums. Personally, I want a concept album that faithfully tries to create the album MJ was working on before his passing, with a name that was chosen by him beforehand.
 
For the most part Hendrix' posthumous career was a mess, when Alan Douglas was at the helm. And even though he thought he was making wise business choices, the situation was much like Michael's now, Hendrix left songs, ranging from notes and such, to entirely completed songs, many of which were edited for a modern sound. And much like Michael, many of Hendrix' fans didn't feel the change was necessary. With that said, his artistic vision was being eliminated in the favor of mainstream success, until his family took over control of the music rights. I don't want to see that happen to Michael, as of now, I'm not really concerned with Michael having another hit record, he's done enough, I'd appreciate it if whatever they decide to do with the material for the next album, that they'd keep it true to form. Although, it's somewhat unlikely, for the time being.
 
Unfortunately, there will always be a disconnect between what I want and what Sony wants.

I would also like a concept album with incomplete demos. Just release them the way they were. No over production. No over polishing.

I'm very curious about the rumored classical album that Michael worked on.

I also want to hear the outtakes from OTW, Thriller, BAD, Dangerous, HIStory and Invincible sessions.

Now, back to reality, will an album of incomplete demos, classical compositions, outttakes appeal to the general public? I guess not.

Just no more "incomplete songs recently brought to completion by a team of aspired producers" please...
 
While I do like the new album, I do agree that it is comparable to how Alan Douglas treated Jimi Hendrix's music. That being said, would there be any people within the "MJ Circle" that would do something like Hendrix's family and release faithful albums, relatively untouched songs, if only polished a bit i.e. a song didn't end and just cutted out, so they'd add an ending?
 
Jesta said:
While I do like the new album, I do agree that it is comparable to how Alan Douglas treated Jimi Hendrix's music. That being said, would there be any people within the "MJ Circle" that would do something like Hendrix's family and release faithful albums, relatively untouched songs, if only polished a bit i.e. a song didn't end and just cutted out, so they'd add an ending?
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May be Michael's children one day? Who knows?
 
Actually, that's not a bad thought. Think about it, they wouldn't want to change their father's vision, apart from the aforementioned tweaking in terms of ending a song when it has no ending, they would probably know what songs their father treasured and they would completely prioritize his legacy above all else! It's a shame they're as young as they are, otherwise they could spearhead all future projects and controversy like the one this album has spurred would not happen!
 
Jesta said:
Actually, that's not a bad thought. Think about it, they wouldn't want to change their father's vision, apart from the aforementioned tweaking in terms of ending a song when it has no ending, they would probably know what songs their father treasured and they would completely prioritize his legacy above all else! It's a shame they're as young as they are, otherwise they could spearhead all future projects and controversy like the one this album has spurred would not happen!
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Michael's children are the only individuals in the world who love him unconditionally. I'm sure they put their father's legacy above all else.
 
I expect it to more resemble Elvis's posthumous career.

That being compilation on compilation e.g.

Greatest Hits v1, 2, 3, 4 etc
MJ Love Songs
The Complete Collection (every single on a 3 CD set)
The Ballads

I'd fully expect in 5 or 10 years a dance remix to hit #1 around the world and rejuvinate interest a la Elvis's 'A Little Less Conversation'.

I think we'll only get one more album of stuff we haven't heard and that should be it, otherwise we'll just get to scraping the bottom of the barrel.
 
Tony R said:
I expect it to more resemble Elvis's posthumous career.

That being compilation on compilation e.g.

Greatest Hits v1, 2, 3, 4 etc
MJ Love Songs
The Complete Collection (every single on a 3 CD set)
The Ballads

I'd fully expect in 5 or 10 years a dance remix to hit #1 around the world and rejuvinate interest a la Elvis's 'A Little Less Conversation'.

I think we'll only get one more album of stuff we haven't heard and that should be it, otherwise we'll just get to scraping the bottom of the barrel.
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I bet you anything they'll be dozens more unreleased albums to come.

I'm not too concerned about barrel scraping.... after all, there's a good reason why the estate allegedly paid millions to use three controversial and questionnable tracks on "Michael". It's the same reason why they dressed up an Akon song and tried to sell it as "Michael Jackson feat. Akon" and also why they included a remix of The Way You Love Me.

Do you really think Best of Joy or Another Day were chosen because they're amongst Michael's strongest unreleased material? That's highly doubtful. I'm sure on future releases they'll be a lot of unnecessary filler to wade through - just as there was on "Michael" - but I'm fairly confident there's a few more gems like Behind The Mask left in the vault.

They're going to spread out the good stuff over as many posthumous releases as possible, putting two or three killer cuts on each album (Behind The Mask and Hollywood Tonight being the big guns on "Michael"). After all, if you win the jackpot only a fool spends their entire fortune in the first few years.
 
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It's been anounced that there will be only 1 or 2 more completely new albums, and the rest will be compilations and remastered releases with maybe a couple of outtakes here and there (lile the upcoming "Off the Wall" release). Considering the rumors about hundreds of songs Michael left behind (and indeed, dozens were listed in '93 Mexico Deposition), I'm thinking the Estate is selecting the new material pretty carefuly. Judging by the already leaked songs, "DYKWYCA", "Blue Gangsta", snippet of "Place With No Name", the next album promises to be great. So, al in all, I'm not worried about MJ's posthumous career. I think it's in good hands.

That said, I personally would have liked to hear every last demo, even if it's only a Michael's "dunberberberlee" on a tape without music. :D
 
morinen said:
It's been anounced that there will be only 1 or 2 more completely new albums, and the rest will be compilations and remastered releases with maybe a couple of outtakes here and there (lile the upcoming "Off the Wall" release). Considering the rumors about hundreds of songs Michael left behind (and indeed, dozens were listed in '93 Mexico Deposition), I'm thinking the Estate is selecting the new material pretty carefuly. So, all in all, I'm not worried about MJ's posthumous career. I think it's in good hands.

That said, I personally would have liked to hear every last demo, even if it's only a Michael's "dunberberberlee" on a tape without music. :D
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Yes, because the choices they made for "Michael" were beyond reproach... :smilerolleyes:
 
It might be only me haha, but I love the Michael album.
Even the questionable tracks.

I know it wasn't completed 100% by Michael but they did their best to keep it close to something Michael would've wanted (or not) but atleast for the fans.

It might be me but I'm happy they are releasing unreleased songs and albums because I will always love new Michael Jackson songs.
Without them I wouldn't have heard Hollywood Tonight and Behind The Mask which are now 2 of my favorite songs from him. Not to even think about how good they would've been if Michael had finished them ^_^.

I'm not worried,
I just hope they won't make a duets album with today's popular artists.
 
MattyJam said:
Yes, because the choices they made for "Michael" were beyond reproach... :smilerolleyes:
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I personally think the choice was fine: if you mean Cascio tracks, "Breaking News" and "Moster" are my two favorites on the album, and "KYHU" is great too. ;) And the overall idea to release songs that Michael was working on in his last years is nice - I'm grateful for that. It wasn't the estate who started the scandal, and I don't think they could foresee it, so I don't blame them.
 
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