I expect 2 get flamed hard 4 this one, but... this is 4

the of Pop!

C'mon, the man has been around 4 over 30 years in the biz, and as legends go, he's definately in the upper half of the spectrum.

So, I'll get this started.

I think whenever I hear anything from the "Thriller" album, I instantly slip back in2 my high school days. I graduated in '83, and Michael and Prince were both hot at the time.

I think "Billie Jean" was the song from "Thriller" that kicked my ass. The video, the Motown per4mance, the moonwalk...that will always hold special meaning 2 me.

But, I gotta go even further than that...I first heard "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" walking 2 school in 1979... I was mesmerized! The music, the melody... mmm, mmm, mmm. It was incredible!

Video wise, nothing touches "Thriller", it was the video that revolutionized the way videos were made. The dancers, the choreography, the special effects...it has yet 2 b topped (imo).

Now, I know a lot of peeps here get tired of Michael being brought up here at a Prince site, but u gotta understand; a lot of us were brought up at the time both Prince & Michael were the 2 hottest acts on the planet...and so, we dug both of them. Sure, times have changed... but the memories of the days they ruled are vivid in our minds.

If u want 2, go ahead, flame away...but I'd really like 2 hear from the folks who truly have something positive 2 say about his music or his videos... give it a try.

You Know I dig MJ.from 72-84 He was in the Zone IMHO.My Fave MJ Song as a Kid is "I Wanna Be Where You Are".as a Member of the J-5 "Never Can Say GoodBye".on Epic with His Brothers a tie Between "Show You the Way To Go"&"That's What You Get for Being Polite". Solo Adult for Me is:a tie Between "I Can't Help It"&"Billie Jean".I also dig MJ's Solo Song in the Film "The Wiz" You Can't Win".Speaks Volumes&His Vocals are in Teddy Pendergrass Land near the end."Shwo You the Way to Go" those Vocals Set Up "don't Stop till you get enough".Video this is Easy for Me:"Remember The Time".finally Eygpt done the Right Way IMHO.and I Agree with your Whole Post&Thread Man.I got Your Back Man Our Youth.Peace

by video of what i've seen is black and white.
that for me describes the 90s with so many different curves,ppl. of culture,the trouble that laid ahead,etc. wasn't the black and white video premiered(sp?) a few days before the rodney verdict?!!

each night, i see the video in my dream and to me this video is the ultimate video of the 90s.
mj has gone at amazing lengths to make great video and has gotten tons and tons of awards,attention,respect for them.

when i see new acts of today making lame videos no matter what the budget, it upsets me so very much.

song wise:
my brother LOVES don't stop till you get enough.
i really like liberian girl(sp?),keep it in the closet,you are not alone,the lady in my life, off the wall.

The entire Off The Wall album.

Although I liked the song "Billie Jean," it's not something I seek out to listen to. The only thing I can tolerate from the Thriller album NOW is "Human Nature."

Then there's "Another Part Of Me," "Smooth Criminal,"...I don't think there is a post-Off The Wall album I can listen to all the way through. Only a few songs here and there.

I disliked the Thriller video from day 1 when it premiered. Billie Jean is still my favorite MJ video.

Anyone ever notice that one of the guys in the dance scene at the end of "Beat It" makes a mis-step and tries plays it off (and does)?

The Michael Jackson of the Jackson 5 up to OTW is the Michael Jackson I remember fondly. Since then he's a different person in sooo many ways.

But the reason people get sick of other people posting about him is because they try to shove Michael down everyone's throats here. I don't see anyone posting nearly as much about any other artist (aside from this site's namesake) as people do about MJ here - which is indicative of just how much some are trying to shove him down people's throats. Some folks need to learn that they can't MAKE people on a non-MJ site love him just as much as they do.

If people make 5 posts per day about someone else you'd see a backlash about that too, but it usually doesn't happen.

Thank U mistermaxxx... I feel where ur coming from.

As a kid, I loved his work with the J5, "I'll Be There".
and as a kid, his solo, "Ben" and "Farewell My Summer Love".

I loved "You Can't Win" from "The Wiz", it was incredible, he stole the show as Scarecrow!

Later, with his brothers, I loved the "Destiny" album, my faves of course, "Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)", "That's What You Get (For Being Polite), "Bless His Soul", and "You Push Me Away".

"I Can't Help It" written by Stevie Wonder from his "Off The Wall" album was excellent 2.

So much material... this could go on 4 awhile.

Supernova, I had the chance 2 see him during the "Bad" tour, a show I'll never 4get. There was definately magic in the air, much like at a Prince concert...when u see someone larger than life...and everyone's feeling it!

"Human Nature" was/is a beautiful song...I love the mix SWV did with it back in the 90's, did u ever hear it?

Also, yeah, that fuck up on the "Beat It" video... that guy...he never fucking recovers! He's off the whole end of the video...and as much of a perfectionist Michael is, I can't believe he didn't see that one! LOL!

When will we stop talking about this turd on this site!?!?! It's a Prince site, not a gay molester site!!

Hate him do u? And yet u felt compelled 2 post...

I can't really pick a single favorite, kinda like Prince.

Song- tie between Human Nature, In the Closet, Can't Let Her Get Away, that Free Willy theme song (you know, the gospel-ish one "Hold me, like the River Jordan..."), Keep the Faith, and maybe a couple others...

Video- I'm tempted to say Smooth Criminal, but then I'd be forgetting Remember the Time and They Don't Care About Us.

Just to interject right quick though- yeah, Prince is still way better!

June 7, checked your profile- you've got great taste man. This is coming from a guy who graduated high school in '97. While you saw the rise of Prince and Michael Jackson, I was in the midst of the rise of Spice Girls and Chumbawumba...

LOL@jtgillia... and thank u 4 the compliment.

btw - the song title u can't think of is "Will You Be There", from the "Free Willy" Soundtrack.

June7 said:

Thanks Man we Vibing off the Same thing.My Last Fave MJ Album was "Dangerous"."Stranger in Moscow" is High on My List of Songs He has done.when He does Songs like that&"Whatever Happens" I can dig it.the 87 Tour was Tight "Heartbreak Hotel","Lovely One"&"Another Part of Me" were on Point."Someone Put Your Hand Out" was nice as well to me.for Me it's all about what you do as a Artist I don't get into anything else.MJ like,Marvin,James,Sly,Jimi,Stevie,Rick,Miles,EWF, Prince&90 Other Folks are all High on My All-time List of Faves Of All-Time.if you Moved Me back in the day then the feeling didn't go away.I Call it 100 Number 1's for me.MJ is Cool with Me.I Don't Go for alot of His Side-Show but Musically it's all it's about with me&He still has something there.but I just wonder does He want a Challenge Again?

June7 said:

No, I didn't know that. In general I didn't like the mainstream 90s music scene that much, but those ladies could really sing.


Exactly! In the ensuing years he HAD to notice it. I'll bet it makes him cringe now.

And I could never figure out WHY they changed "Heartbreak Hotel" by The Jacksons to "This Place Hotel" in later years. It's not because of Elvis' song, because song titles can't be copywritten. But when I first bought the album Triumph and saw that title I thought it was going to be a cover of Elvis' song. Much to my surprise it was MUCH better!

Favorite MJ song and video: "Billie Jean"

I remember when the 'Thriller' album first came out in late 1982.The first single "The Girl Is Mine"(with Paul McCartney) was a nice song,but it didn't exactly set the world on fire.No problem.When "Billie Jean" was released as the second single,people went nuts! That pulsing beat,the haunting melody and MJ's powerful vocal delivery make that song a true classic.With it's paranoid lyrics and unusual subject matter,it wasn't your average bubblegum pop hit.

The video was extremely effective.The way the ground lights up with MJ's every step...the killer dance moves during the second verse...the dramatic confrontaion with Billie Jean at the end of the song.It's a breathtaking video that perfectly captures the intense drama of the song.

It's hard 2 compare different periods in time, so i'll brake it down

OTW: actually one big highlite, but Don't stop tops it off

Thriller: mmm...i hate the girl is mine, Baby Be Mine is OK, Thriller and Beat It r great, absolutely love the other ones. All 3 videos were groundbreaking, Beat it least favorite one.

Bad: The Smooth Criminal video!!! Speed Demon doesn't work 4 me. Neither does the album as a whole

Dangerous: Will You Be There hits my soft spot. Give in to me, Who is it: wish he'd do more songs like that. ALL videos here r great, In The Closet with Naomi is my favorite. Rmmbr Jam with Michael Jordan, Rmmbr The Time, BoW, ...

HIStory: The Scream video! One of my all time favorites. The three opening songs of the album: Scream, TDCAU, Stranger in Moscow. Would have been a much tighter album if he had left 2 or 3 songs out.

BOTDF: BOTDF video was cool, Ghost didn't quite cut it and the HIStory Remix video sucked. What can i say, a remix album: da horror. The 5 new trax however were like a peak in the vault, darker, bombastic and interesting. I had hoped there'd b more like that on the invincible album, but that obviously did not happen.

Invincible: There r only 2 videos, one mediocre and one non-xistent, so... The album, well, 2 long again, at least 2 songs should have been left out. There was no coherence what so ever and it clearly lacked a supervising producer. Most songs however can stand on their own, most notably Unbreakable, Break of Dawn, 2000Watts, Speechless, Whatever Happens, Butterflies and Threatend.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned his 1997 "Ghosts" video.That's better than the "Thriller" video,imo.

Actually,since it's over an hour long,I don't know if it even qualifies as a "music video".It's more like a movie.

Earth.

I'm sorry, I'm at a coin, public pc and unfurtunatly have to less time to do answer as I would like to do.

But it's Earth.

Supernova said:

MJ was forced to change "Heartbreak Hotel" by Sony CBS at the time for the Elvis Reason.but surprisingly WHitney Houston had the same title for a Hit a Few Years Back¬hing was said or changed???though Her "Heartbreak Hotel" sounded alot like Wham's "Careless Whisper".

Arcamar said:

Are you referring to "Earth Song"(1995)? That was an awesome video!!

Brother 9/15 puts it down for MJ


Oh yeah...I'l keep saying it. Mike is a legend who has given us so much great music. In the 70's, sistas had his pictures on their bedroom walls, in the late 70's during his Off The Wall era, female celebrities wanted to be with him and admired him...(it is said that Kathy Sledge and Stephanie Mills dug Mike).He was a black teenage hearthrob(DON'T FRONT... YOU KNOW HOW MIKE AND HIS BROTHERS USED TO CONSTANTLY GRACE THE COVERS OF RIGHT ON! MAGAZINE BACK IN THE 70's WITH EDITOR CYNTHIA HORNER LOL)Dudes wanted to dance like him. CONFESSION TIME: I won two MJ dancing contests in the 80's...LOL.

You got to remember that Michael has one of the most compelling voices in R*B/soul music history. Listening to a lot of his latter day music stuff, you kind of lose sight of that because a lot of it is overproduced. But listen to him on ballads {"She's Out Of Life" and "All I Do Is Think Of You"}and you will some of the main ingredients that characterize a great vocalist.

OTHER POINTS- This is a man who created the dance "spinning in". Anybody who has seen MJ knows this is the move, where he takes his left leg and puts it over his right and thrust his self around in a circular motion several times(back in the 70s Mike would be spinning around in a circular motion so many times, you'd think he was an ice skater...now-a-days, he don't spin as much). Now understand that James Brown and Jackie Wilson, would spin too, but they would just go around maybe one or two times but their spin methods wasn't like Mike's. Mike augmented what they did and created his own spin style move. Many dancers have imitated Mike's "spinning in" move. When Mike did the robot on Soul Train performing "Dancing Machine" with his brothers Black Americans and some whites too were into doing it.

Like I said before, no matter what happens NOBODY can take what Mike has accomplish. Nobody can take the year 1983 from him, nobody can take away the records he broke even with his 1979 masterpiece OFF THE WALL ...

10 Favorite MJ Songs...


1.I Want You Back- The star is born. Listen to the urgency in Mike's voice. While Prince was trying to decide whether he wanted to be a musician or not, Mike had a number #1 Billboard hit.

2.Never Can Say Goodbye-Mike was only 12 years old when he laid vocals on this song about some of the emotional trials and tribulations in an ADULT relationship, so you know Mike couldn't have possibly been through these things, but he sounds so convincing through his vocals, that he makes you believe that he is caught up in this relationship...SO WHAT if Mike doesn't play any instruments, Mike's vocals on this song is a work of genius.

3.Mama's Pearl's- Great funky upbeat number. Mike's is quite mannish on this song..."find out what you've been missing sugar".

4.All I Do Is Think Of You-A lost R&B classic.R&B group Troop had a number one R&B hit with this song...But they can't compare to Michael and his brothers version of this song. You can hear Mike's voice expaning and maturing on this piece. This is a MJ tour de force which showcases Mike's vocal ability. I wish he's get back to more songs showcasing his vocal ability like this one. SO much SOUL so much SOUL!!!

5.Show You The Way To Go- A Gamble And Huff masterwork and another MJ vocal masterwork. Listen to the way Mike sings at this climax of this song, it appears as if he's singing circles around himself. Can you say SOUL MUSIC??? I wish they'd play songs like this on R&B old school stations instead of the same ole songs over and over.

Good thread June 7.I got your back...Despite Mike's eccentric ways, a whole generation have grown up off his music. The man is a legend.

Other 5 MJ songs and more on Mike later!!!

mistermaxxx said:

Geez, well that's just stupid. There are many songs with the same name throughout the history of music, it seems like another instance of bowing to the lardass known as Elvis.

I'M SORRY IF I OFFENDED YOU, ALL PRINCE FANS ARE NOT NEGATIVE MICHAEL HATERS, YOU'RE ALL GOOD PEOPLE

Arcamar said:

oh yes the EARTH SONG!!!

i forgot to mention:
you are not alone
earth song
ghosts


once, i met a guy who looked EXACLTY like the mayor who is played by mj in GHOSTS. the guy always wore brown jacket,pants,and a ski cap even in summer. and he always carried around a children lunchbox!!!
i'm thinking this guy could be mj. but he is not 5'10. and mj would be in limos and helicopters and in mansions not in a bus stop or in a bus. once i was standing only a few cetimeters next to the guy, and the guy was talking to himself. he said things like:DON'T COME NEXT TO ME. OR I WILL BREAK EVERY BONE IN UR BODY!. he was talking to himself occasionly, and this is the first time i heard him talk.

my friend likes the erath song of mj's work only. once i was seeing the video for it, and i wrote a poem based on it. i showed it to a guy in my class and he was thanking me cos he felt so inspired by it!

and as a kid i had an obession with nipples! and when i saw you are not alone, i came off of the obsession. i was sooo mad at mj for being half naked cos only dirty boys show their chests and angels would be completely robed not naked.

Eobad2 said:

But only the ones that actually like Michael's music right?

OTW: "I Can't Help It". Tight album all the way.

Thriller: "Billy Jean"

Bad: "Smooth Criminal"

Dangerous: "Why U Wanna Trip On Me?" Whole album is tight bar "Keep The Faith" and "Gone Too Soon" IMO.

I liked the single's off History but the other new tracks did very little for me.

Blood On Dance Floor album ain't my vibe really.

I like a few songs on Invincible but trash like "Lost Children" makes parts unlistenable which spoils vibe.

BEST VIDEO: "Keep It In The Closet". Naomi Campbell. Nuff said.

Essence said:

i love The lost children. lots of ppl. hate it!! i love the song. and i don't like the video with naomi. yuck!!
and everyone in my school that i talk to or chatted with love smooth criminal. i think its ok.

Billie Jean, Song and video

'Man in the mirror' and 'The lady in my life'.

Those songs are just beautiful and touching. I like when Michael reaches out and touches people with songs like 'Man in the Mirror. I think he did it again with the 'Earth song', but not quite like that one. 'The lady in my life' is just a romantic ballad, and one of the first love songs I've always remembered from when I was younger.

Other songs I really like are 'Liberian girl, 'PYT', 'Human Nature', 'Billie Jean', 'Remember the time', and 'Dirty Diana.

From the videos, my favorites are 'Smooth criminal', and 'Billie Jean'.
[This message was edited Thu Aug 8 12:17:45 PDT 2002 by Starmist7]

"Get On The Floor"

Quintessential late 70s disco with one of the phattest basslines in an era where cool basslines were a dime a dozen.