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Why did the Bad album promotion end in 1988 in the US?

Fuzball

Fuzball

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Why did Epic stop the promotion after the release of Smooth Criminal in the US, and thus Leave me Alone & Liberian Girl (and Speed Demon) weren't released in the States?
 
There were quite a lot of singles by that point.

Plus, those songs were all in Moonwalker. Might not have done so well if the film wasn't big.
 
'Leave Me Alone', 'Liberian Girl', and 'Speed Demon' were not released as singles in US apparently because the record company's marketing focus changed at the end of the BAD Tour.

Michael Jackson began to be marketed mostly as an international artist (meaning, the marketing focus shifted towards outside US).

This seems to explain also why the 'Moonwalker' film did not get a US theatrical release, although it was released theatrically in Europe and South America.
 
It is unusual given the continued success of the album, singles and tour worldwide. Perhaps they feared overexposure? There was plans for Decade to come out in mid 1990 initially wasn't there?

Maybe they wanted a year long break in the public before they were going to release a greatest hits?

Great question as always mate, it is weird how Michael was promoted post 1988 in the US
 
Isn't this weird ... Leave Me Alone won a Grammy in 1988 for 'Best Engineered Recording' AND another Grammy in 1990 for 'Best Short Form Music Video' (yes, there was two years in between those two Grammy awards for the same song!), yet the song was never released as a single in the US! (And it was only a bonus track on cd versions of the album).
 
I think that's when the record label decided to stop marketing MJ to the US and bet all their chips on the global market. And that went on for Dangerous and History. I mean, that's cool and great, but they kind of alienated him from the US a great deal.
 
applešŸŽ said:
I think that's when the record label decided to stop marketing MJ to the US and bet all their chips on the global market.
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It's just weird, music videos for all three songs were already shot and special mixes for LMA & LG were made, and yet they didn't try to cash in as much as possible.
 
Piek said:
Isn't this weird ... Leave Me Alone won a Grammy in 1988 for 'Best Engineered Recording' AND another Grammy in 1990 for 'Best Short Form Music Video' (yes, there was two years in between those two Grammy awards for the same song!), yet the song was never released as a single in the US! (And it was only a bonus track on cd versions of the album).
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I can't find any evidence of Leave Me Alone winning a Grammy in 1988 for best engineered recording. Where did you hear about this? The Grammy site only lists a nomination for the album Bad for best engineered album. There does not appear to be a best engineered recording category. I don't know how reliable the Grammy site is though, so if you have more information, it would be appeciated.

Even though Leave Me Alone wasn't released as a commercial single in the US, the music video was heavily played on MTV and was critically acclaimed. So the Grammy for best video makes sense. Also, around that time there was a promo single sent to radio stations and DJs with new mixes of the song to encourage radio play and spins in the dance clubs.

So there was a real marketing push behind the song, they just wanted to force you to buy the CD version of Bad in order to get the song.
 
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KING OF HISTORY said:
I can't find any evidence of Leave Me Alone winning a Grammy in 1988 for best engineered recording. Where did you hear about this? The Grammy site only lists a nomination for the album Bad for best engineered album. There does not appear to be a best engineered recording category. I don't know how reliable the Grammy site is though, so if you have more information, it would be appeciated.

Even though Leave Me Alone wasn't released as a commercial single in the US, the music video was heavily played on MTV and was critically acclaimed. So the Grammy for best video makes sense. Also, around that time there was a promo single sent to radio stations and DJs with new mixes of the song to encourage radio play and spins in the dance clubs.

So there was a real marketing push behind the song, they just wanted to force you to buy the CD version of Leave Me Alone in order to get the song.
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It was mentioned on Screenrant:

"Michael Jackson only won one of these awards, and it was Best Engineered Recording for Bad's eighth single and 11th track, 'Leave Me Alone', the last track on the album ... What's most surprising about 'Leave Me Alone's' win is that the song wasn't yet released in the United States at the time. As a result, the song was eligible for another Grammy two years later" (Joe Anthony Myrick, Screenrant)
 
KING OF HISTORY said:
I can't find any evidence of Leave Me Alone winning a Grammy in 1988 for best engineered recording. Where did you hear about this? The Grammy site only lists a nomination for the album Bad for best engineered album. There does not appear to be a best engineered recording category. I don't know how reliable the Grammy site is though, so if you have more information, it would be appeciated.

Even though Leave Me Alone wasn't released as a commercial single in the US, the music video was heavily played on MTV and was critically acclaimed. So the Grammy for best video makes sense. Also, around that time there was a promo single sent to radio stations and DJs with new mixes of the song to encourage radio play and spins in the dance clubs.

So there was a real marketing push behind the song, they just wanted to force you to buy the CD version of Leave Me Alone in order to get the song.
Click to expand...
mj_frenzy said:
It was mentioned on Screenrant:

"Michael Jackson only won one of these awards, and it was Best Engineered Recording for Bad's eighth single and 11th track, 'Leave Me Alone', the last track on the album ... What's most surprising about 'Leave Me Alone's' win is that the song wasn't yet released in the United States at the time. As a result, the song was eligible for another Grammy two years later" (Joe Anthony Myrick, Screenrant)
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Yeah I also don't see anything about winning an award in 1988 outside of Screen Rant.
 
Why would LMA be singled out for an award? That doesn't make sense, it was in the same sessions and with the same staff as all the other songs.

I don't usually check stuff like this, but it's simple enough to look up. I get the feeling it didn't happen.
 
KING OF HISTORY said:
I can't find any evidence of Leave Me Alone winning a Grammy in 1988 for best engineered recording. Where did you hear about this? The Grammy site only lists a nomination for the album Bad for best engineered album. There does not appear to be a best engineered recording category. I don't know how reliable the Grammy site is though, so if you have more information, it would be appeciated.
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Clearly a case where I should have checked my source... read it on Screen Rant, and for some reason I didn't doubt it... but no, there is no such thing as a Grammy for best engineered recording for a song. I am sorry... I wish it was true though!
 

The Bad album promotion never end in Japan.MJ loves Japan,​

 
KING OF HISTORY said:
I can't find any evidence of Leave Me Alone winning a Grammy in 1988 for best engineered recording. Where did you hear about this? The Grammy site only lists a nomination for the album Bad for best engineered album. There does not appear to be a best engineered recording category. I don't know how reliable the Grammy site is though, so if you have more information, it would be appeciated.
Click to expand...

"Bad" won at the 30th annual Grammy awards for best engineered recording non classical and "Leave me alone" at the 32 nd Grammy awards for best short form music video. I've taken screen shots of the grammy website


 
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Exactly. That screenshot shows it was the Bad album.

Nothing to do with the song Leave Me Alone.
 
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