Would you say the HIStory album is a masterpiece of artistry (even by MJ’s standards) or an attempt to be “trendy”?

history is a great album fans love all the songs on it the normal masses only know they don't care about earth song you are not alone and scream childhood stranger in moscow is unfortunately underestimated
 
BTW, I always wished History would be a 100% protest concept album; only songs about his side of the (allegation) story and explaining who he was instead of a few songs that touch on that subject. But now that I think of those songs: did History actually bring something new besides D.S.? I mean that one was definitely about the allegations but all the other songs..? Thematically they could have easily been on Bad or Dangerous too right..?
I would say most of the songs on HIStory are related to the allegations and his portrayal in the media :
Scream (The Media bashing him)
Stranger In Moscow (feeling lonely and depressed after just being accused)
This Time Around (It's him being pissed about the allegations and people wanting to put him down)
D.S (Tom Sneddon Diss Track)
Money ("You'll do anything for money", this feels like it could be aimed at the people that want to gain money from him, such as the Chandlers)
Childhood (Him Justifying himself on why he is the way he is)
Tabloid Junkie (Similar theme as Scream)
2Bad (Similar Theme as This Time Around)

Also Smile, even though it's a cover could be interpreted as him saying despite all the bad that came his way, In the end there is still hope and he tries to find it by smiling.

I feel like songs such as Stranger In Moscow, This Time Around, 2BAD etc... wouldn't have ever existed if he didn't go through the 93 allegations so I really don't think they could have been on BAD or Dangerous.
 
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I would say most of the songs on HIStory are related to the allegations and his portrayal in the media :
Scream (The Media bashing him)
Stranger In Moscow (feeling lonely and depressed after just being accused)
This Time Around (It's him being pissed about the allegations and people wanting to put him down)
D.S (Tom Sneddon Diss Track)
Money ("You'll do anything for money", this feels like it could be aimed at the people that want to gain money from him, such as the Chandlers)
Childhood (Him Justifying himself on why he is the way he is)
Tabloid Junkie (Similar theme as Scream)
2Bad (Similar Theme as This Time Around)

Also Smile, even though it's a cover could be interpreted as him saying despite all the bad that came his way, In the end there is still hope and he tries to find it by smiling.

I feel like songs such as Stranger In Moscow, This Time Around, 2BAD etc... wouldn't have ever existed if he didn't go through the 93 allegations so I really don't think they could have been on BAD or Dangerous.
Yes so I was under the same impression but then I thought 'Michael basically wasn't someone to change a winning concept and so probably wanted to continue making albums like the ones before: a little something for everyone/family entertainment/same personal themes. That's why I now doubt History is that unique:

'Scream': anti press, just like 'Why You Wanna Trip'/'Leave Me Alone' e.a., 'They Don't Care About Us': same, but more an anthem like 'Man In The Mirror'. 'Stranger In Moscow' could have been created as a result of the allegations but is still about loneliness in general and there are also more MJ sings around that theme (Scared of The Moon, Someone in the Dark, She's Out of my life e.a.). Earth Song is in the vein of 'We Are The World, Heal The World etc. So 'This Time Around' is probably about the allegations but in that case so subtle that it is still debatable imo and Biggie's lyrics make it more about backstabbers in general too.
'Money' may seem inspired by the allegations but doesn't mention it at all and throughout the song all kinds of greedy people are being named, making it even more of a generalized song. 'Come Together': I don't even know why that was on History in the first place, but it's definitely not about the allegations. 'History', the song, is a motivational track like 'Keep The Faith' e.a. 'You Are Not Alone': is just a love song, 'Tabloid Junkie' is about the press again; mainly rumours about his sexuality and general slander. 'Smile' is about overcoming sadness in general, The ad libs of '2Bad' make it sound like it was actually meant as a sequel to 'Bad' and lyrically I guess it's about general slander again. 'Little Susie' is about child neglection; also a very common MJ theme.

So 'Childhood' is him explaining his childlike behaviour. I agree that this one was probably written in response to the allegations, but it could also be written after opening about his childhood to Oprah and then mentioning his difficult past several other times after that (but before the allegations). Seeing it like that 'D.S.' would be the only track that is, without a reasonable doubt, about the allegations and would be out of place on any of his previous albums; making History pretty much a regular Michael Jackson studio album..?
 
I think the song on Youtube with the most amount of views is Baby Shark, like over 11 billion or something. There's many people who listen to music in languages they don't speak or understand. What about instrumental songs or artists?
I guess you've just missed my point. Of course I don't mean literally 100% of all songs.

But yeah, I'm aware of Baby Shark...

Do you think most of the people who listen to death metal, horrorcore, goth, showtunes, & gangsta rap do the things the songs are about?
It's certainly inspirational in a lot of cases. I don't know who would aspire to drug dealing and prostitution, but evidently some people do.

Like, it must be a coincidence, but there was a lot of discussion in another thread a few days ago about why rap isn't more popular with non-blacks. Here's your answer. Maybe if all the songs weren't about guns and jewellery, other people would be able to relate, then you'd sell more copies, then you wouldn't need to invent a "rap chart" or whatever, just to make the sales look good.

Are you aware of the Kidz Bop series of albums?
I'm not.

Please don't enlighten me.

You are Not Alone , a nice song but a cringe video and now we know R Kelly wrote it makes it even worse.
Yeah, that's one of the few songs that goes against the album's prevailing trend. It's pretty generic, anybody could have sung it and it would have sounded fine, you wouldn't raise an eyebrow.

Similar to Dangerous but it was not quite as good.
That's pretty much how I see it as well.

I personally like that he included some ballads like, Childhood, Smile, Little Susie, etc.
Agreed. But when I'm listening to Childhood, I ask myself, what would I think if I heard somebody else singing it? It would just be wrong.

Same question for Leave Me Alone, Privacy, DS, etc.

Michael about relatable songs: Heal the World, Speechless, ummm and that’s a difficult one, I think ummm. hmmmm .. You are my Life. AD: So you went for the ones that are kind of the biggest statements in a way, it seems to me. MJ: Yeah because it is important they are very melodic and they have a great important message that’s kind of immortal. That can relate to any time and space you know.
Yeah, those three are more relatable. Notice two of them are straightforward love songs. You don't need to explain anything about them. For somebody to understand and appreciate half of HIStory, assuming somebody young who wasn't alive in the 90s, you'd need to spend a lot of time explaining the whole backstory.

the song was originally called Tabloid Jungle in the 80s
Wow, didn't know that. Thanks.

If artists only made songs about other people and not about their personal experiences it would all be so uninteresting and bland imo
True. And for me, part of the interest is to see how similar those experiences are to my own. I guess that's often why people like artists who look like themselves, come from the same town, etc.

But again, it's good to have some middle ground. When you have somebody who's whole life has been so unique and unusual, that can be a barrier that gets in the way. I can't understand the subtleties of MJ's life, just like he could never understand mine.

People often say GNR and Oasis can never make another album as good as their debut. The main reason for this is because the band themselves changed after becoming big. Their whole circumstances changed, they no longer had the same drive/passion as they did when they started (how could you have the same desire when you're a 30-year-old millionaire as you did when you were 20 and homeless?) The type of experiences you're writing about at that point are very different to what you were writing about before (contrast Nightrain with November Rain or Supersonic with Champagne Supernova, or whatever). It all effects the relatability.

isn't it more interesting the hear the stories and experiences a very unique individual such as Michael Jackson has to share
It definitely is interesting. But it can easily go too far. There's a difference between 1 or 2 songs on an album that say "I'm MJ and I do MJ stuff", and having 10 of them on an album.

To me a piece of art is a way for an artist to share a bit of his story, of course no one other than him can relate to being the most famous person on Earth,
That's what I'm getting at. When it's MJ it makes it one step harder to relate.

in a way it helps getting to know him and his life by hearing his side of the story
I like what you did there.

I agree and ironically enough his unique circumstances also made it hard to 'believe' him (for me) when he actually did songs more relatable to the public later on; like when he sings about casually walking into a park with a girl I immediately think: yeah right, MJ in park without a crowd of people :)
I'd not really thought about the believability before. I guess you're right.

I would say most of the songs on HIStory are related to the allegations and his portrayal in the media. I feel like songs such as Stranger In Moscow, This Time Around, 2BAD etc... wouldn't have ever existed if he didn't go through the 93 allegations so I really don't think they could have been on BAD or Dangerous.
Good point. Without that stuff, the album after Dangerous would have been very different. Not nearly as angry, etc.
 
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Agreed. But when I'm listening to Childhood, I ask myself, what would I think if I heard somebody else singing it? It would just be wrong.
I think this way anytime someone covers some MJ songs though. There's very few people can get away with.
 
Like, it must be a coincidence, but there was a lot of discussion in another thread a few days ago about why rap isn't more popular with non-blacks. Here's your answer. Maybe if all the songs weren't about guns and jewellery, other people would be able to relate, then you'd sell more copies, then you wouldn't need to invent a "rap chart" or whatever, just to make the sales look good.
I think you're mistaken about that. Hip hop has been mainstream music since the 1990s. There's rappers all over the world in many languages. There's rap in Bollywood movies and in K-pop music. Nu-metal was rapping & rock music. There's even hip hop sounds in contemporary country music and there's also "hick hop". Hip hop is often used in movie trailers no matter what the movie is about. Just because you might not listen to hip hop does not mean anything. Drake, Nicki Minaj, & Lil Wayne have more songs on the Hot 100 than anyone else, along with non-rapper Taylor Swift. A lot of popular actors today are rappers like Queen Latifah, Will Smith (aka Fresh Prince), LL Cool J, Ice Cube, Ice-T, etc. Paul McCartney, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, & many other veteran artists have done collabos with rappers or hip hop producers. Duran Duran had an album produced by Timbaland and has done remakes of rap songs like 911 Is A Joke & White Lines. In recent years, even symphony orchestras are doing hip hop music or collaborating with rappers. Classical music is mainly a white audience. Snoop Dogg has a cooking show with Martha Stewart & The Roots are the house band on The Tonight Show. The drummer from The Roots (Questlove) has written popular books and has won an Oscar for his documentary Summer Of Soul. The Oscars are as white as you can get. 🤣
 
Yeah I am not sure where they get the idea that rap isn't popular with non-blacks. That can pretty well be disproven across the entire planet. You would find rap music ranked pretty highly on any chart in the western world, and where it isn't, the things that are ranked are probably influenced by rap and hip hop culture. I am Australian and Australia is basically a bastion of rock music. The charts have the following hip hop singles -

Lovin On Me - Jack Harlow NUMBER ONE
Paint the town red - Doja Cat - NUMBER FOUR
Cassi X O Rae - Prada - NUMBER NINE

On the album charts Nikki Minaj Pink Friday is NUMBER THREE
The Diamond Collection - Post Malone is NUMBER SIX

Australia is a multicultural country but it doesn't have a huge black population. There are 500'000 Aboriginal people and maybe less of other black descent (think Sudanese, African, African-Australian, African-American). So in a population of around 23 million we may have 1 million or possible 1.5 million (to be generous), "black" people. And yet hip hop is all over our charts and had I bothered to look past the top ten, or if I knew what most of the acts actually sing, there would be way more hop hop than I am listing here.

Beyond today's charts the Marshall Mathers LP has sold 800'000 copies in Australia, making it a top 20 highest selling album of all time.

There is just no basis to say that rap is not popular with non-blacks.
 
Like, it must be a coincidence, but there was a lot of discussion in another thread a few days ago about why rap isn't more popular with non-blacks. Here's your answer. Maybe if all the songs weren't about guns and jewellery, other people would be able to relate, then you'd sell more copies, then you wouldn't need to invent a "rap chart" or whatever, just to make the sales look good.
I literally only see white people listening to and enjoying rap.
 
I literally only see white people listening to and enjoying rap.
The first 2 singles Wham! ever released was Wham! Rap & Young Guns and that was in the early 1980s. Run-DMC, Fat Boys, LL Cool J, & Beastie Boys were the first hip hop acts to really get shown on MTV a lot and get regular Top 40 airplay in the mid-1980s. The was another British group from the early 1980s called Modern Romance who had rapping in their music. One of the ex-members of The Clash, formed another group called Big Audio Dynamite, which had hip hop sounds. MTV had the show Yo! MTV Raps. That was MTV, not BET. Blondie had a #1 on Top 40 radio with Rapture. Falco (Der Kommissar, Rock Me Amadeus) was rapping in German. If you look at the audience at concerts for more Afrocentric acts like Public Enemy & Digable Planets, even the audience for them is often largely white. X-Clan music videos used to get shown on MTV. There was a song in the late 1990s spoofing this called Pretty Fly For A White Guy by the alternative rock band The Offspring. The Weird Al version is Pretty Fly For A Rabbi.

The reason the Fresh Prince got a TV sitcom on a major network is because his group DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince had pop hits and he had a more family friendly image than say NWA or Beastie Boys. MC Hammer & Kid n Play had Saturday morning cartoon shows. So did New Kids On The Block. They were a singing group, but they did have rapping in some of their songs, just like the group they were copied from New Edition. Just about Mariah Carey's entire career is doing collaborations with whatever rapper was popular at the moment. New Jack Swing is R&B singing over hip hop & go-go influenced sounds, which kind of killed off the traditional R&B band (that played instruments) on the radio. The NJS acts also had a more hip hop street look and image, instead of the old Temptations matching suit & tie look. That's probably a reason NJS became so popular with the younger audience at the time, it sounded more like the hip hop music they were listening to. A rap feature replaced the instrumental break in a lot of popular music. And that's what you got today with mainstream music. Jay-Z & Kanye West have won more Grammys to date than The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, U2, & Phil Collins. The Grammy Awards recently had a Hip Hop 50 Years program on TV and a lot of the recent inductees into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame have been hip hop artists.

Even Donald Trump invited Kanye West & Kid Rock to the White House. Years before he became president, he was seen with several rappers and appeared on an episode of Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. The actor Warren Beatty released a movie called Bulworth in 1998 where his character was a senator who went on TV and rapped while trying to get re-elected. Beatty is a boomer era guy, not a part of the younger generation who were the main hip hop fans.
 
Like, it must be a coincidence, but there was a lot of discussion in another thread a few days ago about why rap isn't more popular with non-blacks. Here's your answer. Maybe if all the songs weren't about guns and jewellery, other people would be able to relate, then you'd sell more copies, then you wouldn't need to invent a "rap chart" or whatever, just to make the sales look good.
This couldn't be further from the truth, rap has been one of the most popular genres in the mainstream for years now and if you go to a hip hop concert nowadays most of the audience is white.
 
Yeah, very out of touch with the whole rap thing. Also "make it more than guns and jewellery" is a very bruh statement to make.

Maybe you just have trouble relating to some things generally given your previous statements.
We've been overrun lately with bitter middle aged "anti-wokers" lately. Who blame MJ for feeding children Soda at gun point and condoning war crimes, and believe rap music is thug music made by thugs like, Quincy Jones and Teddy Riley.

It's funny how there's never a time here without bad actors of some kind.
 
The first 2 singles Wham! ever released was Wham! Rap & Young Guns and that was in the early 1980s. Run-DMC, Fat Boys, LL Cool J, & Beastie Boys were the first hip hop acts to really get shown on MTV a lot and get regular Top 40 airplay in the mid-1980s. The was another British group from the early 1980s called Modern Romance who had rapping in their music. One of the ex-members of The Clash, formed another group called Big Audio Dynamite, which had hip hop sounds. MTV had the show Yo! MTV Raps. That was MTV, not BET. Blondie had a #1 on Top 40 radio with Rapture. Falco (Der Kommissar, Rock Me Amadeus) was rapping in German. If you look at the audience at concerts for more Afrocentric acts like Public Enemy & Digable Planets, even the audience for them is often largely white. X-Clan music videos used to get shown on MTV. There was a song in the late 1990s spoofing this called Pretty Fly For A White Guy by the alternative rock band The Offspring. The Weird Al version is Pretty Fly For A Rabbi.

The reason the Fresh Prince got a TV sitcom on a major network is because his group DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince had pop hits and he had a more family friendly image than say NWA or Beastie Boys. MC Hammer & Kid n Play had Saturday morning cartoon shows. So did New Kids On The Block. They were a singing group, but they did have rapping in some of their songs, just like the group they were copied from New Edition. Just about Mariah Carey's entire career is doing collaborations with whatever rapper was popular at the moment. New Jack Swing is R&B singing over hip hop & go-go influenced sounds, which kind of killed off the traditional R&B band (that played instruments) on the radio. The NJS acts also had a more hip hop street look and image, instead of the old Temptations matching suit & tie look. That's probably a reason NJS became so popular with the younger audience at the time, it sounded more like the hip hop music they were listening to. A rap feature replaced the instrumental break in a lot of popular music. And that's what you got today with mainstream music. Jay-Z & Kanye West have won more Grammys to date than The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, U2, & Phil Collins. The Grammy Awards recently had a Hip Hop 50 Years program on TV and a lot of the recent inductees into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame have been hip hop artists.

Even Donald Trump invited Kanye West & Kid Rock to the White House. Years before he became president, he was seen with several rappers and appeared on an episode of Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. The actor Warren Beatty released a movie called Bulworth in 1998 where his character was a senator who went on TV and rapped while trying to get re-elected. Beatty is a boomer era guy, not a part of the younger generation who were the main hip hop fans.
👍🏻
 
I think you're mistaken about that. Hip hop has been mainstream music since the 1990s. There's rappers all over the world in many languages.
Like, the part you bolded wasn't my assertion. I was making the point that things like a "rap chart" are just participation awards, so will always be garbage and pointless. The response was "no, we need it, otherwise how will rap songs get to #1!" So what are we saying, they get to #1 anyway, therefore proving my point that it's redundant?

Just because you might not listen to hip hop does not mean anything
I do have some rap. I've got whole albums by MC Jammer, Jazzy Jeff, I've got a whole CD where they rap in French, and, unless my memory is playing tricks on me, the first single I bought was Monie Love.

But my tastes don't mean anything.

Yeah I am not sure where they get the idea that rap isn't popular with non-blacks.
I don't make a point of memorizing what's popular with different people. I don't care. My whole point was that music doesn't need to be, and should not be categorised in such a racist way.

Yeah, very out of touch with the whole rap thing.
It's ok. I don't need to be in touch with it - I'm not trying to make money selling rap music.
 
You're not in the business of managing music charts and their efficiency either, so don't worry about if it makes sense or not. It's not our fault or choice either, it just is.
 
It's ok. I don't need to be in touch with it - I'm not trying to make money selling rap music.
Well maybe don't make comments like "make it more than guns and jewellery and it would sell better" if you don't know what you're talking about and don't have an interest in being informed.
 
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We've been overrun lately with bitter middle aged "anti-wokers" lately. Who blame MJ for feeding children Soda at gun point and condoning war crimes, and believe rap music is thug music made by thugs like, Quincy Jones and Teddy Riley.

Hold on, I guess I am 'middle aged' too and generally 'anti-woke' lol, but I was part of organizing Hip hop parties in the early 90s and have seen, and met, the biggest of the biggest. To speak with KRS-One: 'I WAS THERE! (And where were you?)'
 
Hold on, I guess I am 'middle aged' too and generally 'anti-woke' lol, but I was part of organizing Hip hop parties in the early 90s and have seen, and met, the biggest of the biggest. To speak with KRS-One: 'I WAS THERE! (And where were you?)'
I wasn't talking about you in this instance though.
 
But to balance it out a little bit: Hip hop, was (and still is) ridiculed by the 'boomers', just like Heavy Metal, Grunge, House etc. since they didn't grew up with it. In short.

To be totally honest Hip Hop did 'make' it hard for itself when Gangsta Rap emerged; I think before that it gained slow recognition as a new form of 'pop music': for everyone that is. After that it became only youth orientated and only a small part of the youth (in europe that is). Yes me and my friends listened to Hip hop (later DnB), and also some NJS, but most at school absolutely did not
 
Bence mükemmel bir albüm zaten michael ne yapsa olanüstü yapıyor açık ve net şimdi
 
I don't think Michael was trying to follow any trends when making HIStory. HIStory was a much needed and necessary album for Michael to make. After 1993 he had a lot to get off his chest and he was always better expressing himself through his music than he was in interviews.

The album is called HIS story so of course it's going to be a very personal album.
 
One of the ex-members of The Clash, formed another group called Big Audio Dynamite, which had hip hop sounds. MTV had the show Yo! MTV Raps. That was MTV, not BET.

The Clash themselves had some rap songs, mainly Magnificient Seven which was one of their hits, but not necessarily their most mainstream. Also (This Is) Radio Clash. Their collaborations with Futura 2000: The Escapades of Futura 2000 (but this is much more "underground") and Overpowered By Funk.

Note: I may be mistaking but to my understand rap was fast rhythmic talking/singing, which may not necessarily be "hip hop" and existed before hip hop... but quickly reading though some article from the origins of hip-hop, I guess that's something I should second check when I find time. Regarding the last example, I would personally classify it as a rap song, but I'm not sure where rap stops and where funk starts in this sound... Both are styles I don't know too well. Corrections welcome.

I don't think Michael was trying to follow any trends when making HIStory. HIStory was a much needed and necessary album for Michael to make. After 1993 he had a lot to get off his chest and he was always better expressing himself through his music than he was in interviews.

Right, and I was thinking... I stand by what I previously said regarding Dangerous and HIStory being both great albums. But I wonder, if Michael didn't have to go through all the stuff he through since 1993, maybe HIStory wouldn't exist, or would be less "dark"... or Michael would have released more albums with more positive thoughts... (Also maybe Is This Scary (the "movie") would have been released around 1994 instead of Ghosts as we know it (not sure if it would have been better), and maybe Michael could have release his elusive hypothetical "ballad album" he was mentioning in the 70s and later in the 90s... So, HIStory is great as it is... But maybe it would have been worth trading it for a brighter version of MJ's career starting from the 90s...
 
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Note: I may be mistaking but to my understand rap was fast rhythmic talking/singing, which may not necessarily be "hip hop"... but quickly reading though some article from the origins of hip-hop, I guess that's something I should second check when I find time. Regarding the last example, I would personally classify it as a rap song, but I'm not sure where rap stops and where funk starts in this sound... Both are styles I don't know too well. Corrections welcome.
Hip hop can refer to the music, which does not necessarily have to contain rapping. There's instrumental hip hop songs, such as some of the records J Dilla released. A well known example of this is the 1983 song Rockit by jazz artist Herbie Hancock. The DJ is also part of hip hop, many of the earlier acts had a DJ who would scratch or mix breakbeats. Originally the DJ was the main star, not the rapper/MC (Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Eric B & Rakim, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Rodney-O & Joe Cooley, etc). Even if the DJ was not a part of the group name, they were there and the acts often had songs about their DJ:

Run-DMC (Jam Master Jay)
LL Cool J (Cut Creator)
Salt-N-Pepa (Spinderella)
Beastie Boys (DJ Hurricane, Mix Master Mike)
Public Enemy (Terminator X)
Whodini (Grandmaster D)
Gang Starr (DJ Premier)
Geto Boys (DJ Ready Red)

The labels kind of phased out the hip hop DJ starting in the 1990s, and made the rapper the star. Hip hop is also the culture which includes breakdancing, locking, fashion, graffiti, slang, etc. Hip hop is the main reason there is an Urban Dictionary today. With rapping, you can find recorded examples of that going all the way back to the 1920s, although it didn't have a name. There was a radio DJ in the 1950s named Jocko, who was basically rapping or rhyming on his radio program. So was Muhammad Ali in the 1960s. Ali even had an album of his poetry rhymes around 1964, when he was still Cassius Clay. In 1968, comedian Pigmeat Markham released the single Here Comes The Judge, which if a listener hadn't heard it before, might think it came out in the 1980s or 1990s. James Brown's 1973 song The Payback, could be considered proto-gangsta rap. Even the current Megan Thee Stallion style rapper has a foremother with blues singer Lucille Bogan who was around in the 1920s & 1930s. 1970s R&B singer Millie Jackson is a early version of that too and so is Blowfly (aka southern soul singer & producer Clarence Reid). The Last Poets, Gary Byrd, & Gil Scott-Heron are kind of the early Public Enemy & X Clan social/political style. Gary Byrd (also a radio DJ) is a co-writer on Stevie Wonder's 1976 song Black Man. Stevie also produced Gary's 1983 track The Crown.
 
Should Michael have done the Super Bowl halftime show again?
I'm just thinking if hypothetically he did it at the start of 2002, he could have promoted some Invincible songs, closed the show with Man in the Mirror due to 9/11 and his sales would have significantly went up. But he never did it.
 
Should Michael have done the Super Bowl halftime show again?
I'm just thinking if hypothetically he did it at the start of 2002, he could have promoted some Invincible songs, closed the show with Man in the Mirror due to 9/11 and his sales would have significantly went up. But he never did it.
He'd have had to have been invited or have wanted to, and I can't imagine he saw it as necessary. According to Jermaine he would've tried again in 2011.
 
History is an album I really love, but I have to admit that some tracks suffers from being alongside strong hits

The Great
- The first three tracks (Scream, They Don't care about Us and Stranger in Moscow) are classics. Hearing them back to back is a treat, their music videos are among MJ's best imho 💙
- Earth Song. Guy Pratt bass adds a lot to it ❤️ The last section is among Michael's best vocal run in his discography
- Little Susie is a great song, the lyrics elevates it

The Good
-Smile first part is really good. It could have been a great track but, sadly, When the 90s drums starts, It instantly dates the whole track, and that's really unfortunate.
-Money. A really underrated track. It it always sounded kinda unfinished to me, I can't explain why.
-Childhood. It's a track where the lyrics explains a lot about the guy, and I like them. The trouble is the very Disney-like over-production on it, it tends to become cheesy, sadly.

The Meh
- I tend to skip D.S. (way too on the nose and generic sounding)
- Come Together and Tabloid Junkie. But, In both cases, i would have appreciate them better on a different album (BAD and Dangerous respectively).
- History. It tries way to hard to be anthemic, it feels forced to me (the use of sound samples from historical events, the over the top production: choirs, orchestra, the Boys II Men, etc ).

The Cringe
- You Are Not Alone. The music video, even at the time, was questionable. And the R. Kelly connection.


Verdict: Masterpiece? Sadly, no. It contains some of MJ's best lyrics, yes. It has songs that aged really well, and the first part of the album is killer. A bit inconsistent on its second half.
 
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