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Why is Michael's early work being so terribly underminded

Datsymay

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Many of MJ's early work are classics. MJ WAS a superstar before he did Thriller. The Jacksons broke attendace recoreds and billboards records. They were litterally bigger than the beatles. Now while all members of the beatles are hailed as heros, MJ's earlier work which includes solo albums are being brushed aside and he is being treated as if he hadn't done anything until Thriller.
Many of his contemporaries grew up with MJ's earlier work and were influenced by him. This includes Madonna and Prince. There are major stars who owe there influence to MJ and J5, so why is his earlier work being written out of the history books as if they never happened.

I went to a school to watch a class assembly about a year ago and the children did the history pf pop music. They showed Elvis, Madonna, spice girls and Beatles of course,. They did not mention Michael Jackson at all, but the phenomenon that was the J5 was not even mentioned at all. Shock, horror, esp when the majority of these children were from the black community too.
I don't believe in conspiracy theory, but could there be an attempt to erase MJ's earlier work from the music history book, the same way that Mary Secole's was removed from history>^_^ Just asking.
 
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Agree, Im not sure if its a conspiracy but I definately feel sad that the JACKSONS music is never mentioned..

I mean they start with the 1st 4 number 1's by the Jackson 5 then jump to Off the wall...

Also Destiny, Triump, etc were during the off the wall & Thriller era but is not usually mentioned..
 
Peter_Pan said:
Agree, Im not sure if its a conspiracy but I definately feel sad that the JACKSONS music is never mentioned..

I mean they start with the 1st 4 number 1's by the Jackson 5 then jump to Off the wall...

Also Destiny, Triump, etc were during the off the wall & Thriller era but is not usually mentioned..
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Yes, there are some great classics from this era. The j5/Jacksons were the Known as the Voice of Young America. There were trend and fashion setters, Everything they did, everyone else followed and they had more universal appeal than the Beatles or the rolling stones. This is a big chunk of MJ's legacy that is being airbrushed out of history. I saw a J5 tribute band on youtube and saw how importand and legendary MJ's earlier work was, this should not be ignored, it helped catapolted MJ into orbit.Thriller didn't just happen by itself.:)
 
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Datsymay said:
I went to a school to watch a class assemblyabout a year ago and the children did the history pf pop music. They showed Elvis, Madonna, spice girls and Beatles of course,. They did not mention Michael Jackson at all, but the phenomenon that was the J5 was not even mentioned at all. Shock, horror, esp when the majority of these choldren were fron the black community too.
I don't believe in conspracy theory, but could there be an attempt to erase MJ's earlier work from the music history book, the same way that Mary Secombe was removed from history>^_^ Just asking.
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Uh, do you know if the children organized this presentation, or just presented it? If they made it, then I think the conspiracy is trying to cover up how unforgivably stupid teenagers are. The Spice Girls in an assembly about pop music and no Michael Jackson. **** that.
 
Grand Master S said:
Uh, do you know if the children organized this presentation, or just presented it? If they made it, then I think the conspiracy is trying to cover up how unforgivably stupid teenagers are. The Spice Girls in an assembly about pop music and no Michael Jackson. **** that.
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The children were 11 year-olds and they worked with the teacher in arranging the assembly. I was deeply saddened by what I saw.:)
 
Ugh. And you know the teacher probably thought of Michael Jackson too, but then thought "nah."
 
Grand Master S said:
Ugh. And you know the teacher probably thought of Michael Jackson too, but then thought "nah."
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Yes, it wasn't too long after the trial, but to leave the J5 out totally, that was every bit as popular as MJ was solo, was extra ordinary. A whole culture was built up around J5. they were truly international and evey boy wanted to be like one of them anf every girl wanted to marry them. How could such a cultural influence be ignored. They brought the afro hair style to the public. The the robot dancing, so much things, How could they have been forgotten when lesser groups were remembered.:)
 
yeah...teachers would do that with Mike especially if it's a group of younger elementary school children. even in high school we were asked to do this art project on a famous artist. I decided to do a tryptic on Michael. It was this huge thing and i was insanely proud of it and in my heart i knew it was the best of them all because i put my all into it. They displayed everyones BUT mine because it was "too big." total bullcrap because there were others displayed that were almost as big as mine. She didn't display it because it was too controversial especially for a school setting..UGH.

I think it's ridiculous that Mike's early work is not acknowledged as much. The Jackson 5 are a huge part of pop culture history. They were the original boy band...with actual young boys who can play instruments lol
 
mj4life said:
yeah...teachers would do that with Mike especially if it's a group of younger elementary school children. even in high school we were asked to do this art project on a famous artist. I decided to do a tryptic on Michael. It was this huge thing and i was insanely proud of it and in my heart i knew it was the best of them all because i put my all into it. They displayed everyones BUT mine because it was "too big." total bullcrap because there were others displayed that were almost as big as mine. She didn't display it because it was too controversial especially for a school setting..UGH.

I think it's ridiculous that Mike's early work is not acknowledged as much. The Jackson 5 are a huge part of pop culture history. They were the original boy band...with actual young boys who can play instruments lol
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That is it. They were the youngest successful boy bands who were actually a band and they competed with adults and were really successful. They should have been hailed as the real inspiration for young people cause that is what they were.
As for the schoool incedent, it all depends on how the teacher handlers it. I have been a school teacher for many years and I have been travelling to different schools during the trial andd the negative ress. I always use the occasion to bring up Michael Jackson. I would use hois music for dance, or for relaxation at the end of the day.
I would talk about press intrusion and lies the media make up so that I could mention MJ, I played Maria to the class because a shy little girl was called maria. I tried very hard to explain to the children what was really taking place, but I found that on many occasions I didn't have to do that, cause the children already knew cause they had parents that were fans and were as much involved as we were in educating the children
I met a little boy whose mother had a Jackson party at her house. I thought that was so cool.:)
 
I agree that his earlier work is very underrated. Even Quincy Jones said that "they", the powers that be, are trying to write MJ out of music history.
 
con·spir·a·cy - an agreement between two or more people to commit an act . . .

The various situations stated above are in agreement with this definition. Yes there is a conspiracy against Michael Jackson; he himself has mentioned this many times. The challenge is to BREAK this chain "other" attempt to bind him and label/ mock us with.

Thus far we are WINNING!
 
It's true that Michael's earlier work doesn't get the acknowledgement it deserves. I won't say that the Jackson Five had as big an impact or were as popular as the Beatles or Michael as a solo artist. Michael just reached another plain and became more famous then even Muhammad Ali. But for a long time, the Jacksons were the second largest selling group in history, next to the Beatles, and in counting Michael's sales with the group, combined with his solo sales, he far exceeds the sales of the Beatles. I don't think, actually, that the majority of their music was all that great. They had some great songs and set records, being the only group in history to have 4 straight consecustive number one hits with "I Want You Back", "ABC", "I'll Be There" and "Never Can Say Goodbye". But a lot of their work was filler too and they, in their early career, didn't have a lot of control over the music. Jermaine and Tito rarely even played the instruments on the actual records, simply because Motown wouldn't allow it and because they're were better musicians. Michael, Jermaine and Jackie were the only ones even recording backing vocals, and Michael of course worked the most because he was also assigned lead on most of the songs. When they broke from Motown and finally started gaining some artistic control, the music became much better, imo, and of course it just went to an entirely different level when Michael went solo, due to his brillaince as a song writer and working with talented people. Michael also gets more credit as a vocalist from when he was a child, which I find absurd, because his voice got better when he grew into an adult, in terms of quality, range and technique, plus emotively, even though he was brilliant from he start, he became more adept at expression as well.

I do agree though that the Jackson Five have been ignored and those accomplishments they achieved should be given more attention. They opened a lot of doors for a lot of people.
 
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Datsymay said:
Many of MJ's early work are classics. MJ WAS a superstar before he did Thriller. The Jacksons broke attendace recoreds and billboards records. They were litterally bigger than the beatles. Now while all members of the beatles are hailed as heros, MJ's earlier work which includes solo albums are being brushed aside and he is being treated as if he hadn't done anything until Thriller.
Many of his contemporaries grew up with MJ's earlier work and were influenced by him. This includes Madonna and Prince. There are major stars who owe there influence to MJ and J5, so why is his earlier work being written out of the history books as if they never happened.

I went to a school to watch a class assembly about a year ago and the children did the history pf pop music. They showed Elvis, Madonna, spice girls and Beatles of course,. They did not mention Michael Jackson at all, but the phenomenon that was the J5 was not even mentioned at all. Shock, horror, esp when the majority of these children were from the black community too.
I don't believe in conspiracy theory, but could there be an attempt to erase MJ's earlier work from the music history book, the same way that Mary Secole's was removed from history>^_^ Just asking.
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I'll never know the definite answer, so I'll try to guess with the best of my knowledge, on a side note this is a very good question. In my honest opinion people looked at Michael's early solo career as apart of the Jackson 5, they considered it "Group work" so Michael didn't get credit for it alone, since he was of course still apart of the Jackson 5. Clearly Michael wanted a change so he decided to branch out on his own without his brothers in the background. The music was different, up to date and people loved what Michael Jackson could do solo, apart of that was his style, it was unique he was a trend setter and last but not least a graceful performer, no one has ever witnessed such magnificent performances live that kept you on your feet throughout the show until Michael Jackson hit the stage. Alone he has changed Music history unfortunately it was recognized until the impact of thriller, but I believe that's what Michael wanted. :)
 
I find more disturbing the fact that people don't regard Michael as having a career after Bad. It feels like Dangerous, History, Invincible don't even exist. In terms of production, Thriller and Bad don't even come close to the complexity and the outrageous sounds of Dangerous and History. Every "pop star" nowadays does the Off The Wall/Thriller/Bad Michael Jackson sound!...but songs like Jam, Will You Be There, In The Closet, Scream, TDCAU, Who Is It, Earth Song, Tabloid Junkie, Stranger In Moscow, Ghosts, Shout, Morphine, In The Back, Is It Scary.....you've never heard anything like it. Those songs are unique. They were only made once and no one will ever be able to come up with something like that. Those are some of his songs that really make me go bonkers!!!!!!! I always wonder what the hell is going on in his head to put out something like Is It Scary....the way he's screaming in the end and all these noises coming together to create this....strange strange strange wicked...sound....! I'm addicted to the freaky Michael Jackson! But I guess people will only see that in a thousand years to come.

His life is not a crime, he's just a victim of his time.
 
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Roger Spy said:
I find more disturbing the fact that people don't regard Michael as having a career after Bad. It feels like Dangerous, History, Invincible don't even exist. In terms of production, Thriller and Bad don't even come close to the complexity and the outrageous sounds of Dangerous and History. Every "pop star" nowadays does the Off The Wall/Thriller/Bad Michael Jackson sound!...but songs like Jam, Will You Be There, In The Closet, Scream, TDCAU, Who Is It, Earth Song, Tabloid Junkie, Stranger In Moscow, Ghosts, Shout, Morphine, In The Back, Is It Scary.....you've never heard anything like it. Those songs are unique. They were only made once and no one will ever be able to come up with something like that. Those are some of his songs that really make me go bonkers!!!!!!! I always wonder what the hell is going on in his head to put out something like Is It Scary....the way he's screaming in the end and all these noises coming together to create this....strange strange strange wicked...sound....! I'm addicted to the freaky Michael Jackson! But I guess people will only see that in a thousand years to come.

His life is not a crime, he's just a victim of his time.
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Yeah, I actually find that more disturbing as well. Michael's solo work on "Dangerous" and "History" is brilliant and some of the best song writing I've ever heard. The compositions are out of this world. I think songs like "Heal The World", "Who Is It", "Will You Be There", "They Don't Care About Us", "Stranger In Moscow", "Earth Song", "Childhood", "Little Susie", and "Money" outdo by a lot most of the work he did on his first two solo albums.
 
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Neither era of Mike has been fully embraced EXCEPT when he did "Thriller". That ain't a conspiracy, that's just plain f*cking stupid.
 
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without doubt thriller is going to remembered and more celebrated than earlier and later work, and rightly so. even if you may think his newer or earlier material is better, they do not possess the timeless quality and iconic status that we had with the thriller era. In any case, it is better that he be largely remembered for thriller rather than focusing on his darkest hours.
 
I totally agree with most of what has been set both regarding his pre-Thriller and post-Thriller work of which I am a huge fan of both. I was born in 1976 and since my Mom was a fan of The Jacksons/Off the Wall, these are some of my first memories of music, period.

It is true that when people look back at MJ's career, the whole M25 and Thriller are usually the main focus. But with anything, when there is only a small amount of time available they will focus on that high point in the career. I usually compare it (for any basketball fans) to Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points a couple of years ago. People rarely mention about the 63 point game he had the previous week which was actually more impressive because he scored those 63 in only 3 quarters of play vs. 4. Since the 81, Kobe has had many 50 point games (which is incredible by B-Ball standards) but when folks are talking about Kobe they will always go back to the 81 which is his defining moment equivalent to over 100 million copies of Thriller.
 
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