Was Michael Jackson really that famous?

[DrVanNostrand]

 

[Silentlucidity]

yep, absoloutley one of the most famous musicians ever! Deeply insecure and abused by his own father, never really became an adult because he lived a life so far from any notion of normality. I am on the fence on the peado accusations, yes weirdness and an unhealthy liking for hanging out with children but sexsual abuse ..I am not sure. Its pretty shocking that the parents would let their children stay with him... and then settle out of court for large sums of money...

 

[nonoob]

he did have the resources to buy the music catalogue.

IIRC, he bought Sony. One man bought Sony, All of it's Music...Unreal !
His MANY Videos...Thriller - Studio Version here, Amazing Production.

 

[mozfonky]

IIRC, he bought Sony. One man bought Sony, All of it's Music...Unreal !
His MANY Videos...Thriller - Studio Version here, Amazing Production.

yes, he had the foresight to do all of that, to think big, Quincy Jones is in a vid from the time calling Thriller "the Citizen Kane" of videos, he's right, that's what it was and is, no matter what came after, that was the one that took this new format and widened the scope.

 

[Fedorgasm]

Yes. Growing up in the 80's he was literally the most famous person on the planet.

As a kid we didn't know any business people like Jeff Bezos or whoever it was in the 80s. If we wanted to dream about being rich we'd say we wanted Michael Jackson money.

 

[Strychnine]

Absolutely.

I was a teen when Thriller dropped, and it was like watching a Supernova.

Michael Jackson engulfed the entire PLANET.

 

[BFoe]

I'm pretty sure MJ has sole songwriting credit on that, which doesn't mean it's 100 percent his but I thought he came up with the entire basis of his own songs, as heard on demos. People give Quincy a lot of credit (deservedly) but to listen to MJ's home demos is to hear just how brilliant he was on his own.

He absolutely was. Extremely talented, no doubt. On Beat It, Eddie plays uncredited. He tells a story that when he was in the studio to lay down the guitar solo, he also re-arranged the track a bit. Who knows if that’s true.

 

[Thawing Mammoth]

they absolutely do, very protective and hypersensitive to any form of criticism. Elvis fans are about the same. From what I've seen on forums, Prince fans aren't like that, they actually seem to hate him and the Bruce Lee fans over on his forum seem to be about the same, it's weird.

It also seems to be a thing with MJ fans that they take the worldly things like sales and grammy awards very seriously. Like they'll rattle off a list of awards and sales figures like it actually means something. It's like they use it as evidence that he really was that special and unique.

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

Michael is one of the most famous people to ever live imo.

Him and Elvis are about equals in terms of musicians that are super famous. And The Beatles as well.

 

[mozfonky]

It also seems to be a thing with MJ fans that they take the worldly things like sales and grammy awards very seriously. Like they'll rattle off a list of awards and sales figures like it actually means something. It's like they use it as evidence that he really was that special and unique.

that was MJ too and was one of his major faults. His fixation on that kind of acception had to stifle his creativity. If you're only focus is selling 100 million, it's gonna effect how you do your work. People in that business change though, Prince went from singing, "I don't care to win awards" to "you'll be at the grammy's and U2 will beat you" and "It was easy to sing that line (the one above) because I wasn't winning none".

 

[mozfonky]

Michael is one of the most famous people to ever live imo.

Him and Elvis are about equals in terms of musicians that are super famous. And The Beatles as well.

From all my readings, and observations, Elvis was the most charismatic human that i know of, only Michael comes close.

 

[Trabaho]

His album sold like 25 milion copy's, that's a world record. Back then there was no internet so the tv stars were the only stars.

Today you got 1 milion stars cause social media and youtube

I was a fan as a small kid.

 

[Thawing Mammoth]

that was MJ too and was one of his major faults. His fixation on that kind of acception had to stifle his creativity. If you're only focus is selling 100 million, it's gonna effect how you do your work. People in that business change though, Prince went from singing, "I don't care to win awards" to "you'll be at the grammy's and U2 will beat you" and "It was easy to sing that line (the one above) because I wasn't winning none".

Yup, money changes everything. And the numbers game is def coming straight from the man himself+marketing. As did the king of pop title, of course, which also gets endlessly repeated. It's like getting props for his singing and dancing wasn't enough for Michael Jackson so now it isn't enough for his fans either

 

[mozfonky]

Yup, money changes everything. And the numbers game is def coming straight from the man himself+marketing. As did the king of pop title, of course, which also gets endlessly repeated. It's like getting props for his singing and dancing wasn't enough for Michael Jackson so now it isn't enough for his fans either

It wasn't and that was really sad because when all your worth comes from outside, that's no good. They say that he was in a funk when Off The Wall didn't win all the awards he thought it deserved, traumatized actually. But I still think that was his very best album. The King Of Pop title was embarrassing at the time, Elvis was the King Of Rock but he never referred to himself that way as far as I can remember. MJ also used some of the fascistic, Leni Riefenstallish type of videos which just showed how out of touch he'd gotten, at least to me. It happens to them all though, they just live in a bubble and always have enough ass kissers around that they only have to deal with reality so much.

 

[Cielo_]

He owned the 80s. MTV Videos, Album Sales, Commercials, Tours. He was GLOBAL in a way that most are not. He was a God in Europe and Japan. The debuts of his videos were like a movie release. His fashion and dancing style was all over the world. He did We Are The World, The Superbowl, Victory Tour, and was page 1 news no matter what he did. From having an amusement park, to living with a chimp named bubbles, to being weird with little boys, he was always in the news. Thriller is the biggest album ever....and every album had crazy amounts of number 1's.

Hold up, he had an amusement park?!

 

[Thawing Mammoth]

Hold up, he had an amusement park?!

 

[Natural Order]

I get the opinion that MJ is more famous today than when he was alive. Great dance entertainer, some decent songs, but when alive he was a strange guy, having sleep overs with young boys, all the plastic surgery, bleaching his skin,... I just remember when growing up my friends and I thought he was weird.

Whoa, definitely not. Michael had half the planet under a spell in the mid-late 80's. His aura and fame today doesn't even register in comparison.

Also remember he had been a name since he was a child as part of Jackson 5.

 

[Sirwastealot]

Even more. I wasn't even there was his peak of thriller but in the 90s he was by far the biggest musician on the planet. I would even say bigger than elvis and beatles at his peak but they were before my time so i might be off on that.

You just can't get a sense of how huge he was if you haven't lived through it. Even those concert videos don't do it justice.

He was a weirdo too, but most of them are. Look at madonna today.

 

[nonoob]

Neverland and the animal's monthly upkeep costs were enough to buy a house. Bubbles was one of his cool pets.

 

[CyberRubberDuck]

I mean was he like Top 5 most famous people who ever lived famous?

I remember after he died his funeral being broadcasted on my country's state TV channel, almost like he was some sort of famous foreign leader or something like that.

Talking to his obsessive fans you get the impression he was more famous then The Beatles, Hitler or Einstein, and on par with Jesus Christ.

Like watching this concert of his and people started screaming for over 2 minutes while he just stood still doing nothing.

Yes.

Next question.