Back in 2002, Michael Jackson claimed his album "Invincible" was sabotaged by Tommy Mottola and certain staff at Sony Music. Was this the case?

I've been a Michael Jackson fan for a very long time and I was a regular poster on certain MJ forums from 1991-2002 when everything concering "Invincible" happened. Here are some things that happened which I believe hurt the success of Invincible.

First off, the entire album was leaked by Sony on to their Russian site over a month before the official worldwide release. Every track could be downloaded in full before the album was even released. I know this happens a lot these days, but has a label ever leaked their one of their own albums onto one of their own official sites? I don't think so.

Something that I distinctly remember was there being a lot of people who just before and after the release of "Invincible" registered with numerous MJ fan forums and crapped on about how much of a bad album "Invincible" was. Some of these could of been, and probably were just regular people who weren't impressed with the album, but the owner of MJJForum spoke to someone who she had banned at the time for talking crap about "Invincible" and he revealed that Sony paid him to trash "Invincible" on Michael Jackson fan forums. He was not the only one. There were heaps of them who Sony paid to trash the album. And just like anything if people here enough crap about how bad a product is, they will not buy it, and in this case it worked like a charm and a lot of fans did not buy "Invincible" for one of two reasons... 1) they had allready downloaded it from Sony Russia or (2 they believed all the negative hype created by the people paid by Sony to trash "Invincible" of MJ fan forums.

Everything mentioned above happened even before the album kicked off and "You Rock My World" was released as an official single. YRMW being released as the debut single was another thing that hurt the album's success. Michael didn't want YRMW to be released as the debut single. He may have wanted to release it eventually, but not as the debut single. He wanted "Unbreakable" and had an idea for a 20 minute music video directed by Mel Gibson that he had in the works. But Sony still thought YRMW would do better. IMO, it was a bad choice. There is better debut single material on "Invincible" than YRMW, and "Unbreakable" is one song that I think would've worked better as a debut single. "Unbreakable" wasn't the only song Sony didn't release as a single that Michael wanted. Michael wanted six singles released (standard number of single releases for an MJ album), but Sony only released 1 official worldwide single, which was "You Rock My World". If they released "Break of Dawn", "Heaven Can Wait", "Butterflies" or "Whatever Happens", any of those songs would've been kick ass singles and would've pushed the sales of "Invincible" through the roof. But there was one other single that Sony wanted to release...

"Invincible" was released just after 9/11 and Tommy Mottola really wanted MJ to release "Cry" because he knew it would shoot to #1 and people will love it just because of it's relevance to what had just happened in America. But Michael allready had planned "What More Can I Give". He hadn't finished it, but he was allready in the process of doing so. They both had very strong ideas about what song out of the two would be a bigger success and neither of them would budge. Because Michael refused to release "Cry" instead of WMCIG, Mottola then made an effort to sabotage "What More Can I Give". It worked. This was a big mistake on Michael's part because if he had just done what Mottola said "Cry" probably would've went to #1 and would've promoted the hell out of "Invincible".

After the incident I just talked about Mottola became very pissed off with Michael and sabotage the whole "Invincible" album. Many record stores sold out of the album and when the requested more shipments from Sony, Sony didn't respond and for a long time "Invincible" was hard to find in a lot of stores. It was well after the mess that happened in 2002 with Michael calling Mottola a racist that Sony finally shipped out more copies of Invincible and by that time anyone who wanted to buy it allready had and it remains in the bargain bins of many record stores across the world.

So Sony leaked the album, paid people to go on MJ fan forums and trash the album, refused to release the singles MJ wanted and only released 1 singles worldwide, and didn't restock record stores with the album when they ran out.

"Invincible" didn't stand a chance, it was doomed from the start.

Wow, I didn't know all that went down
I bought the album on the strength of You Rock My World
but after a couple months of not really paying it much attention, I returned Invincible. My reasons:

1. Too long
2. Too many slow songs
3. It was a rather boring listen

I'm sorry DarlingDiana, but Invincible is a bad album. I bought it on the day of release and was so disappointed with it. I had some MJ fans listen to the album and they agreed, it lacked on several fronts.
However I do believe that Sony had a great marketing campaign up until the album got released. After the release the promotion went to zero. They knew this wasn't a good album and wanted some damage control.
MJ's video for the song wasn't that great either, the song wasn't catchy and the video lacked the MJ grandeur touch. I also remember that MJ complained about the Sony promotion and even called Motolla the devil at some point...
Now if only he released a decent album and not let the many different producers dictate the sound he would fare much better. what we got was a producers album not an MJ one!!!

Yeah, Sony shat on it big time. The album deserved much better promotion, imo.

As far as I know the singles were supposed to be:

You Rock My World
Cry
Butterflies (U.S. only)
Unbreakable
Whatever Happens
Speechless
2000 Watts
Break Of Dawn

R&B radio picked up on Heaven Can Wait but it was never a planned release.
Mike also expressed a wish to make a video for Threatened, too.
Still, the "failure" of the album makes no difference to me. It remains a fave.

starbuck said:

Almost everyone I've played it to have said it's a good album.

Cloudbuster said:

That's okay different people different tastes

starbuck said:

Not true, Mike's contract was up and Sony buried the album so he couldn't profit from it resulting at that time in a financial stalemate. He's since had to sell a further 25% of his shares in the ATV catalogue to pay of some loans that Sony provided for him. There's been a lot going on behind the scenes that people aren't even aware of. Sony have wanted MJ off their label since the '93 allegations... nor did they want him to re-sign with them once the contract was up and that's partly why they haven't promoted his work in the U.S. (the most profitible music market there is) very well since then. If he's not making money then they've no reason to support him.
Ergo: Sony have since dropped MJ.

Cloudbuster said:

okay, I also recall that MJ had to pay for some of the promotions from his own pocket! As Sony didn't have faith in the album. I also remember that MJ borrowed some millions from Sony to make the album...

I remember reading a story about Sony leaking Rock My World to radio so MJ coudnt release Unbreakable as the first single.

The album does have some great material on it, but the album doesnt't work as a whole.

In past he had a way of producing songs in a certain way that extreme differences in each song's sound didnt destroy album's flow( a la Dangerous)

I think What Ever Happens is up there with his best material. And if was produced better, Don't Walk Away could be another Human Nature. Speechless could work brilliantly if it was recorded live without the choir. One of his nicest melodies.

didn't invincible cost 50 million in production?

I don't get why so many people think "Invincible" is a bad album. It's just that it's different. Granted there are a few production problems. Jerkins screwed it up. But the songs are great, ignoring the crappy production. "Break of Dawn" is brilliant and I would put it up against MJ's classics like "Human Nature". "Heaven Can Wait" is great, and MJ deserved a grammy for his vocal performance. "Butterflies" is another awesome R&B slow jam. "2000 Watts" is so different to what MJ usually does, and I love it for that reason. It's also very sexually charged. I don't think MJ's done anything as dirty as that song since "In The Closet". Privacy" is a shit song, but I love how the beat is made from camera sounds, that pretty cool. And I think if it was sped up and Michael re-recorded his vocals, it would be half decent. "Don't Walk Away" is a great song, but MJ's did a poor job vocally and it lacks emotion and soul. It needed some soul. "Whatever Happens" is just plain great, it's going to go down as a classic MJ song. It hasn't been around long enough yet to be held up with "Billie Jean" and "Rock With You", but when people look back on MJ's music in 10-20 years, "Whatever Happens" will be up there with the best. There is some really great songs on the album. The ballads a beautiful. I love it.

MikeMatronik said:

No. That was a lie issued to the media. The figure given was $30m.
But it cost a lot less than that. Total production costs were still pretty high (around $12m) but no way near the rumoured amount.

What of the fact that many of the songs were dated by the time the album was released? Stuff like "Threatended" and "Heartbreaker" definitely sounded like yesterday's news by the time the CD dropped. I remember buying Invincible (on the day it came out, nonetheless) and thinking that it sounded like something made in 1999. Hell, there's an N'Sync song that sounded almost exactly like "Heartbreaker"; came out about a year before Invincible.

Besides, not only the sound was dated. By 2001, MTV had already been transformed into a network that rarely showed videos. A "20 minute" epic video directed by Mel Gibson might have been huge in 1991, but 10 years later, it was out of step with the times.I really think that MJ has been in his own world for so long now, that he really isn't aware of what goes on outside his bubble. That's one of the real reasons the album flopped.

And, I don't know where the album wasn't restocked after it sold out, because the record stores here definitely had tons of copies just floating around. I remember the shelves in Tower and Sam Goody having just racks and racks of copies of Invincible sitting on the shelves for months. Maybe after the CD didn't sell, the record stores just began shipping the albums back to the label, and decided not to reorder more.

If you want a copy, there's a used CD store near me that has about 15; they're selling them for $2.50.

MikeMatronik said:

well $65 million

These freaks like to try to rewrite history. This was written on this board years ago, MJ was exposed. Then these fans like to try to rewrite history about this guys failures after everyone has moved on. Clearly the world doesnt care and has moved on.

How in the world can an album that cost $30 million to make & another $35 milion to promote it. If he could actually sing and perform still you wouldnt have to do stunts like closing down nyc.

Give him a stage and mic, turn it on and just sing. You wouldnt need $35 Million for that.

starbuck said:

Nothing to do with Sony not having "faith in the album".
They simply wanted him gone from the label.

the album was crap. sony f*cked up....mj f*cked up. big wooo...

sosgemini said:

exactly, it's been and gone. The CD is over 5 years old; time to let it go. Hell, I think U2's "Pop" should've been a much bigger hit. It wasn't. It's considered their "flop". Doesn't mean that I don't love it. Actually, it's nicer sometimes to have something to yourself that the entire world isn't ga-ga over.

Honestly, i think Sony was very wise for putting out YRMW as a lead off single, it's very catchy and definitely, we i live, took the radio stations by storm.

If i'm not mistaken, didn't it also peak high in the Hot 100 in such short notice?



Back 2 the LP, i love it. It's not your typical -expected- MJ work which is exactly why i love that project. It's got an obscure vibe 2 it

DarlingDiana said:

I think his vocal is beautiful on that track.

PricelessHo said:

It hit no.10 in the U.S. With a retail release it would have gone higher, maybe even no.1. Same for Butterflies.
Sony made sure neither were released.

Cloudbuster said:

I think it really lacks emotion and soul. MJ needed to put more into it. He sounds great, yes, but he didn't deliver the vocal with any emotion.

Cloudbuster said:

Which had been common practice in America for years before YRMW dropped. Starting in the mid-90s, American record labels stopped issuing singles. The theory was that if people wanted the song,they'd have to buy the album. Huge radio hits from Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, hell even Janet and Madonna weren't given commercial singles. It wasn't just Sony trying to sabotage MJ.

DarlingDiana said:

I think a harder vocal would have ruined the song. It is, afterall, about regret. The loss in his voice is apparent, to me at least. I think he nailed it just fine.
Different strokes, of course.

Sony sabotaged an album that they had put millions into by paying people to post negative stuff about it on the MJ forums, and by leaking it to a website in Russia, and THAT's why the album flopped? LOL

Thanks, I needed that. It's been a rotten Monday, and that's the funniest thing I've read in ages.

Axchi696 said:

Not so common for a lead single, tho'. No-one could purchase YRMW at the height of its airplay. Retail singles were planned, but scrapped at the last minute.

So yes, it was all part of Sony's attempt to bury the album. Promotion was halted after a mere four months, so job well done on Sony's part.

Cloudbuster said:

Exactly. And Madonna and Janet were still getting US commercial singles back then. Hell, they're still getting them *now*

VoicesCarry said:

Well, neither "Beautiful Stranger" nor "American Pie" were given single releases. The lead single from The Velvet Rope also wasn't given a release, nor were "Go Deep", "Everytime", "Son of a Gun", "Just a Little While", etc...

Hell, Sony probably looked at the last commercial single they released for MJ (Blood on the Dancefloor) and realized that it didn't secure him a great chart position anyway.

In 2000, "Beautiful Day" didn't get a physical single, and believe me, U2's record label needed the album to be a hit.

Since the late 1990s, the Billboard Hot 100 has become less and less relevant. Chart positions in the United States really aren't as important as they once were.

Axchi696 said:

Then why was One More Chance given a retail release?
It actually went as high as no.2 on the sales chart, but lack of airplay meant it charted no higher than the 80s on Billboard.

Also, remixes of Stranger In Moscow were released to retail following Blood On The Dance Floor.

VoicesCarry said:

And other than Call on Me's limited edition release, what was the last Janet single to get a proper single release in the US? Someone to Call My Lover in 2001?

Cloudbuster said:

But do you realize how little these physical singles even mean anymore? Many of Madonna's physical singles from American Life also hit #1 on the sales chart, but didn't even crack the Hot 100.

The single is dead in the United States; has been since the late '90s. In 2001, Britney Spears released "I'm a SLave 4 U" with no US physical single. Kinda doubt Jive wanted the album to flop. It's just how the game is played in the US.