One of the main reasons why he held off on releasing an album after Thriller was overexposure. Thriller had 3 videos, 7 singles (the eighth was supposed to be The Lady In My Life but got cancelled) and had a couple of collaborations. He was everywhere so and then when Victory hit, there was a bit of backlash. He did We Are The World and Telethon '85 in Australia and then he decided to disappear for awhile, plus Bad was taking a lot longer to make than he and Quincy had thought AND Captain EO was in production
If you look at articles from back then, there's alot saying "Enough already". He didn't even do Live Aid, so he knew he was overexposed by '85
They said the same thing about Prince.By 1985/86,people were saying that Prince is overexposed,he should take a break,he's flooding the market,etc.And of course,Prince experienced a backlash in 1985,although I don't think he really cared (lol).It would have been cool if Michael had that same "I-don't-care" attitude.
I agree about Prince. Prince always had a nonchalant attitude toward the media anyway but I think when it came to Michael, it was like a different scenario.
They said the same thing about Prince.By 1985/86,people were saying that Prince is overexposed,he should take a break,he's flooding the market,etc.And of course,Prince experienced a backlash in 1985,although I don't think he really cared (lol).It would have been cool if Michael had that same "I-don't-care" attitude.
I agree about Prince. Prince always had a nonchalant attitude toward the media anyway but I think when it came to Michael, it was like a different scenario.
Totally different scenario .. Michael was RAISED in the spotlight so he didn't know what a break was until he became over-exposed during the Thriller era .. Although he (along with his brothers) were over-exposed during J5/Jacksons days, he didn't really gain control of his career until Thriller ..
I agree about Prince. Prince always had a nonchalant attitude toward the media anyway but I think when it came to Michael, it was like a different scenario.
Totally different scenario .. Michael was RAISED in the spotlight so he didn't know what a break was until he became over-exposed during the Thriller era .. Although he (along with his brothers) were over-exposed during J5/Jacksons days, he didn't really gain control of his career until Thriller ..
Right. A "break" was foreign to Michael from the time he was seven.
Starlight was an original, NOT Thriller. And you're right, Michael would have never released Starlight to the public unless he had a remix version to prevent from sounding too much like Thriller.
It's the same exact song beyond slight lyrical changes. "Thriller" is better, imo!
LOL I totally agree! Starlight doesn't have same impact as 'Thriller' imo. I don't know why you even choose this one....why not 'Street Walker' or 'Cheater' instead?
It's the same exact song beyond slight lyrical changes. "Thriller" is better, imo!
LOL I totally agree! Starlight doesn't have same impact as 'Thriller' imo. I don't know why you even choose this one....why not 'Street Walker' or 'Cheater' instead?
"Starlight" was okay but Michael was right when he said the song wasn't kicking so he told Rod he wanted a song about monsters and that's when Rod came up with "Thriller".
I think the reason why Bad did so well was the wait, honestly.
MJ would not have wanted to drop an album too close to the releases of Purple Rain and Born in the USA---for a brief year there, Prince and Bruce Springsteen reigned supreme, and although an MJ album would have been huge, it wouldn't have been as big as bad.
I remember the buzz around Thriller--it was insane. That album re-energized a slumping record industry. Albums and tapes were becoming hot commodities and gifts again. But a side effect of this is that people were getting burned out on MJ. I mean, Pepsi commercials, overexposure--you name it, folks were getting tired of him. I remember radio stations promoting MJ-free weeks.
5 years was a long time between albums, but I think if he would have dropped something 2 years out, it would have been considered market saturation--if not so much in content, then just by presence.
I think that they were getting tired of him because it was the same music. If it would have been some new stuff, everybody & their mama's would have been on it! Besides, it wasn't like 'Thriller' was long album. It was only 9 songs. I recall a radiuo station playing "State of Shock'" for 48 hours [i think.] straight when it first came out just because it was new....
Okay, so we all know about the lame album 'Victory' that was released in '84 by The Jacksons [as well as the 'Victory' tour that followed]. But imagine in '85 that MJ dropped an album that actually fits right in between both 'Thriller' & 'BAD'. What would it have sound like? Would it have been too soon? Could it have stood next to 'Thriller'? Or could it have possibly messed with his legacy? Please give your opinions........
I don't know about 'lame'.
There were some pretty decent songs on Victory, actually.
"I don't think you'd do well in captivity." - random person's comment to me the other day
Check me out and add me on: www.last.fm/user/brandosoul "Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for."-Bob Marley
I love how he knew how to make the crowd 'wait'. No one can say dropping an album between Thriller & Bad would've been helpful for his career as a whole or not. No one knows. He had more #1s than anyone else during 80's with just 2 albums and sold more albums than anyone...That's big enough. and
MJJstudent said:
hmmmmmmmm... i like the fact that nothing was released between the two actually... similar to STEVIE. i like that michael did captain eo in between thriller and bad, and was quite successful with that. if anything, there could have been a series of songs michael produced for the film, as opposed to the two (one of the songs ended up on 'bad' anyways). there was a score released for captain eo, but perhaps michael could have put a few songs on that album, similar to what happened with the E.T. storybook.
michael also did we are the world, produced and wrote 'centipede', worked with artists like jennifer holiday, etc. so he was in no shortage of material which got released. i'm one of those folks who's not a fan of constant releases. from a listener's perspective, i like that the infrequent releases don't wear out any welcomes; and from a marketing perspective (especially with someone like michael), you wanna keep the mystery. and perhaps doing frequent releases may pull from the perfectionist mode of an artist like michael.
Then he would have been more like Prince. Which would be a good thing. Look at it this way - between the release of "Bad" and "Thriller" (including the years those albums were released in) , Prince released "1999", "Purple Rain", "Around The World In A Day", "Parade" and "Sign O' The Times". And made two movies.
Ultimately once you move past hype, sales, etc (which are finite concepts).... what you are left with is the body of work. Which is infinite.
Michael shouldn't have been so concerned with trying to "beat" or even match Thriller and simply focused on making great music, like Prince did.
They are my two favorite artists of all time - and I think both of them could have learned something from the way the other went about things.
No thank you. I like the fact that there was less material released. Considering how big MJ was, any more albums, and it would have been overexposure.
that would have been a crazy tour... with his 'superclean' image he was promoting at the time, and her pro-(lots of)sex 'boy-toy' image... i could imagine media going overtime on this. it would have been PERFECT! the most perfect marketing strategy... it would have been no openers, because by 1984, madonna was huge too... they could have done 'billie jean' together. it would have historically been the highest-grosing tour to this day, i think.
either that, or have run-dmc open for him, like how the beastie boys opened for madonna.
i have to say, i'm actually not the greatest fan of the 'thriller' album, nor of madonna, but I TOTALLY WOULD HAVE GONE TO SEE THAT TOUR!!! man, to see him do 'human nature' and her do 'everybody'... that would have been fine enough for me.
^^They had the same manager in those days.This could have happened.
Instead Madonna sang Billie Jean in her concerts during Like A Virgin era I saw it on youtube!! I like Madonna but I wonder what Madonna was going for (image wise) during that time could've fit in MJ's standard...
I think the reason why Bad did so well was the wait, honestly.
MJ would not have wanted to drop an album too close to the releases of Purple Rain and Born in the USA---for a brief year there, Prince and Bruce Springsteen reigned supreme, and although an MJ album would have been huge, it wouldn't have been as big as bad.
I remember the buzz around Thriller--it was insane. That album re-energized a slumping record industry. Albums and tapes were becoming hot commodities and gifts again. But a side effect of this is that people were getting burned out on MJ. I mean, Pepsi commercials, overexposure--you name it, folks were getting tired of him. I remember radio stations promoting MJ-free weeks.
5 years was a long time between albums, but I think if he would have dropped something 2 years out, it would have been considered market saturation--if not so much in content, then just by presence.
If you look at articles/reviews for the singles for Thriller by the 5th single, they were saying "Yet ANOTHER single from that album"
Okay, so we all know about the lame album 'Victory' that was released in '84 by The Jacksons [as well as the 'Victory' tour that followed]. But imagine in '85 that MJ dropped an album that actually fits right in between both 'Thriller' & 'BAD'. What would it have sound like? Would it have been too soon? Could it have stood next to 'Thriller'? Or could it have possibly messed with his legacy? Please give your opinions........
I don't know about 'lame'.
There were some pretty decent songs on Victory, actually.
I agree, it's not a bad album, it just wasn't a very good Jackson's album. IMO, it just seemed they were trying SO hard to show that they were more than just Michael that they ended up with a "various artst" compilation-type album, one where everyone just happened to be related.
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The tour that would've ended all tours!
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