Im with you on this one. I don't think OTW, Bad or Thriller are any less masterpieces just bc the later albums are a little more dark and political.
Those social themes are in his work with Quincy too-people just didn't realize it bc the music is so melodic and you can automatically sing along with it.
I agree with this and I think this is an interesting point. I do think MJ's work became more explicitly socially conscious and darker, but I think dismissing a lot of his earlier work as carefree is incorrect. Not that there is anything wrong with carefree tracks, but I think it is simply not accurate. Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that many people simply associate disco and funk with being carefree and upbeat?
-I mean, go back to 1978, That's What You Get For Being Polite. That song might sound mellow on the surface, but there's a lot of melancholy and yearning in that song. The same applies to Much Too Soon.
-In Things I Do For You, he addresses aspects of being used that you can find later, more explicitly, in a track like Money ("Always wanting something for nothing, especially what they don't deserve. Reaching in my pocket, I just got to stop it"). WBSS encompasses similar elements of being taken advantage of as well as paranoia, and of course has the uplifting anthemic ending (not unlike the message of a track like Keep The Faith).
-Can You Feel It and Another Part Of Me have a simlar harmonious message as a later track like Black or White.
-Beat It and Bad are both message songs.
-Billie Jean and Dirty Diana are thematically similar to Dangerous and Blood on the Dance Floor.
-Leave Me Alone, especially when taking the video into account, addresses the media circus around him, as he would revisit with tracks like Tabloid Junkie and Scream. Related to that, a song like The Price of Fame addresses the pressures Michael felt head on, as he would on several later tracks.
-Do You Know Where Your Children are is one of Michael's most overt very socially conscious track and was written in the mid 80s.
Another thing to remember is that some of the tracks we associate with the 90s in fact stem from earlier times. For instance, Earth Song was first demo'ed in 1988 and Little Susie was written in 1979.
Overall, I certainly do think that, as he grew older and his life changed, Michael explored new subjects in the 90s and also found new ways to express what he wanted to say. However, I think a lot of his earlier work addresses similar issues as he did later and that it is more the tone (angrier, darker, more direct) and style that changed rather than the underlying messages.