Timmy84 said:

Nah, l have to disagree, sorry, but whether you are a fan or not, you gotta admit Michael Jackson is the greatest entertainer of all time... Leave that "old-school was better" mentality for a while...

Sure Michael took a lot from James Brown, Sammy , Fred Astaire and many others.. Mozart was an admirer of Haydn too, but he ended up making better music !!!

'Cause no one took it to the level he did,no one BEFORE and AFTER him : l mean, the choreographies, the dances, the videos, the looks, the "weirdness", the pyrotechnics, the message, even the physical changes.... I mean who else could entertain us in so many ways??
l gotta give props to James Brown, Sammy and Princey, they were/are badass showmen, but come one...You know Michael Jackson is the greatest ENTERTAINER (musically, there's a tie between Bob marley, Princey and The Beatles for me...)...

midiscover said:

oh noo! U didn't !! what the!

take MaSKANKA off this list. it cheapens the list, the idea, the thread etc.

Graycap23 said:[quote]

daPrettyman said:

Dead ON it.

I would say Michael Jackson. I personally would say Prince but the average person doesn't remember much about Prince after "Purple Rain" other than "Kiss" and a few songs here and there. With the average listener, Prince pretty much ended after "Purple Rain".

midiscover said:

daPrettyman said:

A coin toss between James & Sammy. These two men inspired Michael.

But if I'm force to choose one, my vote goes to James.

CHIC0 said:

Madonna has very little raw talent. She is not even the best dancer on the list, even though she studied dance. Madonna greatest influence on music is that anyone as long as they are prepared to work very hard and are able to reinvent themselves can go very far, regardless of how limited their talent is.

CHIC0 said:

Your post tells me you are either very young or just simply don't know your entertainment history. Madge is good, but she doesn't compare to Sammy, James or MJ.

FrenchGuy said:

I don't know how you can say that we have that "old school" mentality when MJ is technically "old school" now.

Timmy84 said:

Michael's been old school for a while now timmy but yes

daPrettyman said:

ummm....then why ad her to the list if you don't hold her in the same regards as the others or don't respect others opinions???
that's like asking someone if the want this or that, then after they choose one, you tell them that only the other is available.

CHIC0 said:

If you re-read the original post, you will see that I did not come up with the poll/list. I found this poll on another site and found it interesting of the people that were included on the list.

Here are the updated results from the site I found this poll:

18% Sammy Davis Jr.
51% The Beatles
42% Michael Jackson
14% James Brown
26% The Rolling Stones
14% Madonna

daPrettyman said:

yes. i see that. and i chose who i thought was the best from the list.

Prince is the one and I don't give a flying shit what the list says..lol

CHIC0 said:

I know. It's just that there are 2 or 3 others that are more qualified for the title of "greatest entertainer"

daPrettyman said:

you know what....?!?


meet me in orgnotes!!

CHIC0 said:

Let's go!

Michael Jackson of course...

Ellie said:

I find them boring at best, stiff at worst,,,live wise.

Nothing entertaining about those bunch,,,,good song writers though.

daPrettyman said:

Good at everything, every night.
In many cases here, you're fighting a noble but losing cause.

As suspected earlier, this is looking simply like a popularity contest.
The problem with attempts to have a discussion about subjects like "The Greatest This or That" when no parameters are set for "Greatness" is that many folks have a hard time making a choice based on facts versus their feelings or who like happen to like.

I have a feeling many don't remember when you had to prove yourself almost every night and not just on the occasional concert tour.
You never had to wonder whether Sammy was really singing or playing those instruments.

It seems that many like to use extremely loose defintions.
That being the case, I was almost expecting someone to try and make a case for Soulja Boy's inclusion as the "Greatest Entertainer".
If you can croak out a few notes then you qualify as a "singer".
If you manage to squeeze a note or two out of an instrument, then you qualify as a "musician".
The quality of those notes appear to be irrelevant.


In any case, based on your update, where exactly is this poll being taken?



Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Records

theAudience said:

YES! to all these things. I think Sammy edges out Michael because he sang LIVE always.

Uh, but Mike was probably the first black entertainer widely accepted as sexy by a (white,) mainstream audience. He even said himself he considered that the reason why the media hated him so much.

And let's not forget MTV would never have played Billie Jean if a bigwig executive hadn't threatened to tell the world about it...

purplesweat said:

But Vegas was the old MTV in terms of wide exposure to white audiences. And Sammy had white poon tang before MJ too - widely accepted as sexy. MTV would never have played billie jean or any black song/artist if Sammy hadn't first opened the doors and played at places where black people would only be seen in the kitchen.

DesireeNevermind said: