What If Michael Never Moonwalked Again After Motown 25...

83magic

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What if it remained a once in a lifetime moment, instead of an expected tradition? Do you think it would still be regarded as his trademark? Would the impact of that night still sustain throughout his career, or would it falter and eventually share space with other signature steps, such as the spin? How would this affect future 'Billie Jean' performances? Would there be any?

Would love to know your thoughts! :)
 
lol...

Umm, nah i just cant think of an alternative Michael Jackson without moonwalks. just can't lol sorry
 
well Michael was a master of trademarks, he had many many many of them.. To imagine Michael not having the moonwalk though - that would just hard to imagine for me. I think it's fair to say that without the moonwalk and corresponding moves (glides) his impact on dance would not have made AS big of an impact.. Not that the quality would not have been there but if Michael did not introduce various street dances to the general public the time he did - he would have missed that huge opportunity.

Those moves were already being done, it was just a matter of time before it blew up.. I'm just glad Michael had the opportunity to introduce it on the scale he did..
 
i can't imagine that. But if he never moonwalked again, i'm sure he would have found another signature move or something.
 
Well he already had the spins and kicks..

I think it says something about him when he did a step that was already created, and was able to bring it to a wider audience, and become forever associated with it.

He did it again at the James Brown concert a couple of months later. Then of course, the 'Victory' tour after.

The Motown 25 show was televised. This meant that even if you weren't present in the audience, you could witness it over, and over again. It was like his short films in the sense that he was able to preserve a moment in time.
 
Or what if he hadn't done the moonwalk at all and instead did the Dancing Machine robot dance at that point? But I agree that he probably would have been known for some other cool move instead.
 
That's a good point. He had been doing the robot for 10 years prior. I'm not sure of the impact though. It seemed that a lot of people reconnected with Michael during 'Thriller', after abandoning the Jackson 5 after their peak. This might explain why many thought the single shiny glove was new at the time?

It's interesting that Michael did both the robot and moonwalk at the 30th anniversary. Yet the moonwalk got the biggest cheer..

 
Or what if he hadn't done the moonwalk at all and instead did the Dancing Machine robot dance at that point? But I agree that he probably would have been known for some other cool move instead.

If he didn't do the moonwalk, he would have never become the artist he did. Doing the moonwalk made Michael Jackson not just the most famous artist in the world but also the most famous person in the world. Everyone knew who Michael Jackson was. The moonwalk transcended him into absolute super-stardom. If he hadn't done the moonwalk, he would have had his few years of peak but overtime he would have become less commercially successful and eventually forgotten much like his contemporaries Whitney Houston & Prince. The fact that MJ is still very much relevant today eight years after his passing is very much down to the moonwalk. I say that Motown 25 performance was the most important event in his career.
 
This isn't about if Michael never Moonwalked, it's about the possibility of the Motown 25 being the first and last time he did it.

Michael's dance was more than street mixed with classic influences. He already developed a unique style of his own by 'Off The Wall'. Just look at the breakdown for the 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough' performance in the Spike Lee documentary.

I don't agree that Whitney and Prince faded away with time. They were always remembered as legends in their own right, regardless of whether they sustained commercial success.

The Moonwalk didn't define Michael's artistry. He had many other aspects such as his short films (which he pioneered) and song writing.

Michael didn't do the Moonwalk during the 'This Is It' rehearsals. Yet the dancers went wild. I wonder if the reaction would have been the same from the audience, had the concerts happened and he omitted it completely? He once said that the fans wanted him to do it in a specific place each time, but he wanted to change it up. I think he improved it each time. However, the first will always be more special because no one was expecting it, and because of the perfect way he set it up: the timing, the intricate wrist movement, both feet facing in the same direction, the big spin afterward.. I don't think any of that has been topped!
 
I disagree that his ever-lasting relevance is simply down to the moonwalk. Amongst other things Thriller alone would have done the job - and there's no moonwalk in that whole piece.
 
What if Thriller was never released ?

What if Michael had stayed black ?

What if he was still alive ?


You can re-do the world with "If" ;)
 
This was not intended to be a thread of regret or critique. I'm sorry if it came across that way.
 
Michael's Essence;4209948 said:
Michael didn't do the Moonwalk during the 'This Is It' rehearsals. Yet the dancers went wild. I wonder if the reaction would have been the same from the audience, had the concerts happened and he omitted it completely?

We do not know that for sure, given that tons of hours of footage from the ‘This Is It’ rehearsals still remain unreleased.

But, even in the ‘This Is It’ released footage, we can see him moonwalk a bit (not in ‘Billie Jean’, but in ‘Smooth Criminal’).

Also, I think that if the ‘This Is It’ shows had taken place (but with no moonwalk in ‘Billie Jean’), audience/fans would have felt somewhat disappointed & cheated by him.
 
I don't want to be annoying but... Michael DID the moonwalk in This Is It! not the greatest "Full" one but the second "moonwalk" he did actually go back a few steps with it.. so - moonwalk lol
 
Motown 60

I'm watching the Motown 60 special right now. So far, they showed a brief clip of The Jacksons on Motown 25 in a series of clips of several other performers on different Motown TV specials. Right after that Cedric The Entertainer did a skit as a radio DJ with Jermaine's Let's Get Serious playing in the background. Jennifer Lopez sang a medley of songs and at the intro the horns from Dancing Machine was played by the band, but J. Lo did not sing any of it though. That's everything Jackson related up to this point in the program.
 
Re: Motown 60

Ne-Yo just did a medley with I Like It (DeBarge), I'll Be There (Jackson 5), & All Night Long (Lionel Richie). Speaking of DeBarge, there's an upcoming biopic about Bobby DeBarge, who was in the band Switch. It's supposed to premiere on June 9, 2019 on the TV One channel. I wonder if any of the Jacksons are going to be characters in the movie. I guess Jermaine & Janet are the ones more directly linked to them. I think LaToya dated Bobby, so she might have a link as well.
 
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