Song Analysis: "Tabloid Junkie"
July 2009

If Dangerous is Michael Jackson's most creative album, HIStory is his most personal. From the impassioned rage of "Scream" to the painful sincerity of "Childhood," HIStory is, in Jackson's words, "a musical book." It encompasses all that he had felt and held in over the difficult past few years: it was his diary, his canvas, his rebuttal. Rolling Stone described it as an "exhilarating... often heartbreaking package." In retrospect, it is also one of Jackson's most underrated albums...

...Following the pleading vulnerability of "Childhood" is the provocative "Tabloid Junkie": a full-fledged indictment of the news media's increasing penchant for sensationalism and misinformation. Critics have typically reviewed such songs as examples of Jackson's persecution complex and self-absorption, but such a dismissal misses a more important fact: unlike most pop music content to dwell in shallow sentimentality and recycled clichés, Jackson, in this rather ambitious track, is singing truth to power on an issue with relevance far beyond his personal life.


The song begins with the authoritative voice of a newscaster mindlessly repeating tabloid fodder as fact. It is a sort of postmodern, Orwellian moment where the mainstream media becomes the "ministry of truth," the controller and manipulator of its audience's social reality. "Truth" simply doesn't matter. What matters is entertainment, ratings, and a drug-like addiction to endless spectacle. "Facts" are whatever is printed or broadcast on TV to a passive, un-critical audience. In the song, as the newscaster speaks, keyboards begin typing frantically, illustrating how quickly stories (whether true or false, important or unimportant) are consumed, copied and spread.

In this case, many of the stories involve the "strange and weird" Michael Jackson, who, to both the reporters and audience, is no longer a human being but a consumable object.

Jackson allows the breathless reporting to build until it turns in to an all-out feeding frenzy with the sounds of wild animals representing so-called journalists.

"Speculate to break the one you hate," Jackson sings in a gritty opening rap, "Circulate the lie you confiscate/ Assassinate and mutilate/ As the hounding media in hysteria." Many people don't realize that Jackson, in this track and others, specifically uses the vehicle of hip-hop to deliver a political message.

In this case, the verses are conveyed in short, biting rhymes, before the melody comes in the chorus, repeating the mantra: "Just because you read it in a magazine/ See it on the TV screen/ Don't make it factual, actual." Jackson, in essence is providing counter-programming to the "news"; between verses the newscaster continues to recite stories that Jackson pleads with his audience not to believe. "It's slander," he proclaims later in the song. "You say it's not a sword/But with your pen you torture men/You'd crucify the Lord." These are some powerful lyrics from an artist one reviewer claimed had "a woefully narrow awareness of life."

Composed by Jackson along with R&B masterminds Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, "Tabloid Junkie" is a deftly constructed, sonically layered, four-and-a-half minute polemic that demands truth and accountability.

Rolling Stone described the track as a "mammoth funk-rock construction" with "lush vocal harmonies" and "quick-voiced warnings about the failings of media truth." Indeed, in an age when the "mainstream media" and tabloid coverage are conflated more than ever, when celebrity obsession consistently trumps far more important news, and undiscerning viewers are frequently distracted or deceived from the truth, Jackson's song remains an all too relevant rebuttal and warning.

[Note: This excerpt was written before Michael Jackson's death. It rings more true than ever in the aftermath of the singer's passing as we have, once again, seen an irresponsible, reckless media frenzy in which numerous "respectable" media outlets have relied on tabloid sites like TMZ and the Daily Mail and dedicated hours to trivial and sourceless speculation.]






Link
[Edited 7/15/09 16:10pm]

who remembers the mj trading cards, with the tasteless bubble gum? lol
i found like 9 cards and forgot about them!

http://music-mix.ew.com/2...chart.html

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

I just watched The View; Debbie's emails to one of her traitorous friends have been leaked. Girl, she don't want them damn kids, she NEVER DID. The custody battle is just a private thing to ensure her financial security and keep her from being villified publicly as the woman who threw away her own children. While I think whichever so-called friend sold her and her emails down the river should have the taste smacked out of their mouth, at least we can put to rest the argument that Michael and his family went out of their way to keep her from those children. Debbie Rowe was simply a surrogate paid for her services, not more, not less. Once she gets her $4 check ( ), she'll probably go sit her greedy ass down somewhere. On a more jacked up note, though, it sucks that these things are being leaked for those kids to see one day in public. Who the hell wants to read that they're not wanted?

Anyway, it's the second video down (under July 15th,2008):

http://theyaketyyak.blogspot.com/

Michael Jackson Dominates Everyone for Third Straight Week



http://www.reuters.com/ar...EN20090715

Ottensen said:

It's bothering me too. People are leaking info, making up BS stories and for what?


I don't get it

Did anyone hear about Debbie Rowe's e-mails getting leaked regarding the custody battle?

She says she's doesn't want the kids

http://community.livejour...2#comments

dirtyman2005 said:

Apparently they won't be out till around December.

Ottensen said:

That is just foul. that's why I say don't give her one damn penny. Let her ass go to court and have to defend all this shit. I mean these poor kids. Their father is gone and accept for their grandma, nobody wants them but to use them as cash cows. Just wicked IMO.

That bitch need an ass whoopin.

Timmy84 for all the pictures!

Copycat said:

Oh geez, if he does this, I hope he lets someone else do the designing, cuz his crap is tacky & gawdy to the max!

matthewgrant said:

Thanks!