Michaelmania in 1983/84 was outrageous....unlike anything I had ever seen! It was alot of fun | |
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it was a great time as a young music fan, so exciting. I love elvis but I was really too young to watch his career as it unfolded. Michael was amazing, had everyone's attention, even the people that would make fun of him. It seemed like that album would just not stop selling, every week there was some new milestone. Moreoever, for those younger fans who weren't there, at that time, Michael's image was perfect, nothing that wierd, the llamas and the snakes are about as wierd as it got but nobody thought much of those things at the time. He was just so cool and mysterious. It was like watching Elvis' early interviews where he knew exactly what he was doing and what he meant. what came later would taint how the people who were there saw him, so you younger fans will never know what it was really like to watch the prime of MJ as it happened. | |
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Funny enough, the American music awards are tonight and I saw an article where they named the biggest AMA winners since 1990 and Taylor swift is on top of the list. Excuse me but if you took away 1990, mj is the biggest award winner of that show, and I'm sure Stevie and Whitney are behind him. Look at the attempt to rewrite artists accomplishment just to promote great white hope America sweetheart . That to me is problematic, rewriting the discourse, and nobody will pick up on it . Kanye was right for doing what he did at the vmas. I don't think it was even about beyonce when he did that but calling out big corporations for rewriting Impact historically by black America. Same thing little Richard said at Grammys in 88 but MTV culture didn't sensationalize it
Thanks for giving insight to his fame in the 80s. I was so young then but he and Madonna were the biggest thing and had impact for years. No other artist was performed for years and years the way mj was at talent shows, dances, events, weddings by people both young and old. You could not be into pop music or big mj fan and you still knew him by the tag line for biggest star in the world or best dancer or knew it was his beat or he was putting out a big music video [Edited 11/19/17 16:36pm] [Edited 11/19/17 16:37pm] [Edited 11/19/17 16:38pm] [Edited 11/19/17 16:43pm] [Edited 11/19/17 16:53pm] | |
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No it wasn't. It would take 10 Princes to equal one Michael. | |
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What? I'm sorry, but Prince easily could've beat MJ in some things. | |
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In some things Yes. But pure entertainment? That choice of who would you liked to see doing their thang? Nobody matched Michael. I grew up preferring Prince (OMG 1987-1995 I was insanely obsessed) buy as I got older I appreciated Michael's insane greatness more. It wasn't until he was gone that it really sank in. | |
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Lol...comparing Prince and Mj is completely pointless. FOOLS multiply when WISE Men & Women are silent. | |
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MJ always did the same. Prince never gave the same concerts. You could've gone to the Bad Tour and that's it. Nothing new cam after that. | |
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Seeing Prince with his hip hop desparation in 1993 was the biggest disapointment I ever felt about a concert. Prince is great no doubt, But Prince just copped MJ, Hendrix, James Brown, Sly Stone and rolled into one persona. The only breakthrough thing he ever did was 'If I Was Your Girlfiend". That was ahead of it's time. That's what made Prince genius. Yeah the MJ vs Prince thing is pintless (and possibly a little racist) but we do it, don't we? | |
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And what made MJ a genius? He copped people too! And btw, If I was your girlfriend was not the only thing that made Prince a genius. That Man played 27 Instruments, wrote and produced his and other people's songs. So no. IIWYG is not the only thing that made him a genius! Don't ever say that again because it's not true. | |
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Tons of people self produce their music. Prince produced more mediocre music than significant music, Please name what 27 instruments Prince played. You can rule out horns. 27? Name them. [Edited 11/19/17 17:30pm] | |
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1. Vocals 2. Background vocals 3. Guitars 4. Orr Bass 5. Ms. Poly Moog (Is that a synthesiser or a female character from a Lithuanian kids show ) 6. Syndrums 7. Arp Pro Soloist 8. Arp String Ensemble 9. Synthesizer bass 10. Singing bass (!!!!) 11. Drums 12. Clavinet 13. Oberheim 4 voice 14. Arp Soloist (Standard Arp?) 15. Handclapsandfingasnaps. 16. Slapsticks (?) 17. Fingacymbals 18. Wind chimes 19. Congas 20. Electric guitars (Not sure you can play more than one at a time ) 21. Water drums 22. Bongos 23. Fender Rhodes Piano 24. Mini moog 25. Fuzz bazz 26. Acoustic Piano 27. Orchestra Bells 28. Wood blocks 29. Guitar solo 30. Brush trap 31. Tree bell 32. Acoustic guitar 33. Bass Solo
JUST TO EDIT: Thriller wasn't put on the second place when it came to the best Albums of the 80s, but PR did. Sign O the Times is better than Thriller, Christal Ball, Parade etc.
Now breaking them down into groups we have . 1. Vocals (2) 2. Synthesisers and Keyboards (9) 3. Bass instruments (5) 4. Guitars (4) 5. Drums and Drum machines (3) 6. Percussional Instruments (10) includes 3 wtf instruments (Tree bells, wind chimes and Wood blocks and 1 I don't consider an instrument - hand claps and finga snaps.
What's listed here is for the Album For You [Edited 11/19/17 17:37pm] [Edited 11/19/17 17:39pm] [Edited 11/19/17 17:44pm] | |
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done with your edits? More than half those I can play myself and many of them are basically the same bloody thing if you break it down. Prince created his own myth and people went along with it. It's just hype. He didn't invent anything. He just excelled at what others created before him. Take away MJ and Hendrix and there's no Prince. | |
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Okay, stop. You are saying that MJ inspired Prince? That's bullshit and you're putting Prince down to make MJ look even bigger. The fact stays, Prince could play multible instruments! YOU CAN'T TAKE IT AWAY FROM HIM. And MJ didn't invent anything new too. Take away Sinatra, JB and there would be no MJ either!!! So stop with that bullshit. You are obviously a MJ dick rider. | |
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Yes. He did inspire Prince. Prince went and saw the Jackson 5, when he was still a kid and Michael, at the same age, was already up on stage performing. But I see, just another threatened little Prince fan. | |
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We're on a Forum, dedicated to Prince. Not MJ. What do you expect? And I'm not treated but the other user puts Prince down. MJ was more popular but he wasn't a great musician. Prince topped him easily. But you threatened little MJ fans can't even give him that credit.
Prince was inspired by the jackson 5 not by MJ in particular. | |
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Dude from age 16 to about age 29 (1999) I rode Prince's dick. After that I became a casual fan. It's all subjective. For whatever reason MJ thrills me more these days. No one reached the heights he did with Thriller. It was crazy. As you can tell I'm a Marvin Gaye man anyway [Edited 11/19/17 18:05pm] [Edited 11/19/17 18:06pm] | |
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You are praising MJ's heights (Wich is okay) but you also put Prince's genius down by stating that IIWYG was the thing that was his genius, when it was so much more. Prince was a fullblood musician MJ was a fullblood dancer/performer | |
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Fair enough. But is one greater than the other? I often hear that Prince was the better musician. Perhaps when it comes to playing but not necessarily songwriting. | |
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Aren't you the person who made a entire thread about Mike fans comments on Youtube videos? If you're not threatened, why comment at all? I don't participate in who's better than someone else, because there's no such thing as "best" or "real music by real musicians". My mother would not count neither Mike or Prince as "best" because she does not listen to them. My younger relatives would probably consider Rihanna, Lil Wayne, Eminem, or Beyoncé better because that's the music of their generation. You probably haven't come accross the Beyhive. Yall sound like guys in my family who are sports fans arguing over which basketball & football team is best. At least with that there's a score to factor in. It's music, not a competition. Sure there's things like a Billboard & Cashbox that ranks what is selling the most for a particular week. But it's not a race in which the fastest runner comes in first so there's a winner. You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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I'm a fan of both, I was a MJ Fan before I knew who Prince was. Both had their greatness for sure. No one will reach them, ever. They stand alone, each for their own. | |
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PeteSilas said: i don't know, his heyday was 45 years ago so his fame naturally isn't what it was but in his time he was cited as "the most recognizable man on earth" and he was. Him being Muslim introduced a lot of the worlds population to him when a lot of those people might not even have understood what he actually did for a living. MJ, of course is known all over the americas and europe, how deep into the other spots on earth I don't know.
Lol at you thinking MJ was only big in US & Europe. How old are you? MJ fame runs pretty deep on every continent that isn't Anartica for obvious reasons | |
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homesquid said:
Fair enough. But is one greater than the other? I often hear that Prince was the better musician. Perhaps when it comes to playing but not necessarily songwriting. OMG I've said that so many times that Prince wasn't a better songwriter. MJ wasn't as prolific and people may not like his content AND his songs weren't always lyrically deep but don't sleep on MJ in the song writing department. MJs best songs are just as great if not better than Princes best. | |
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So Keyboards/piano/, guitar, bass, and drums/percussion, basically....
Mike and Prince were both great. There's no need to big one up to bash the other. This place still does that shit after all these years (Not directed at you TheWhiteDude, just speaking in general) [Edited 11/20/17 0:39am] "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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Reading old articles (since I wasn't born until a few years after), it gives you the impression that even the press knew something big was happening. Billboard talking about how radio stations were playing Billie Jean and Beat It before they were singles (listeners were surprised that Beat It was from Michael)
Off The Wall debuted in the mid 40s on the Billboard 200 and reached #3 and was #1 on the R&B chart for 16 weeks. That album was huge. When Thriller was released, if I remember correctly from Billboard's article, only one R&B album went platinum in 1982 (The Gap Band's IV album)
Thriller debuted at #11, not to mention he had 2 singles in the top 5 at the time (The Girl Is Mine and Diana's "Muscles"). By February, it was #1 and this was before MTV played the videos (The week he hit #1, he was the only black artist in the top 10) He was the first artist to be #1 in the US and UK at the same time.
By November, the album sold over 12 million in the US....Then Thriller hit Showtime, MTV, and Friday Night Videos. By October '84, it was at 20 million in the US and 33 million worldwide. The man was IT. "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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Wow, guys, I wasn't expecting 5 pages of replies! Especially since the OP wasn't even my own original question (I found this question on a discussion board years ago and it just popped into my head recently).
But yeah, Michael Jackson was THE star of the 1980s. It must have been amazing knowing his Thriller album reached a new milestone each week. | |
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By the time I was a kid, he was arguably THE biggest star in the world. Yeah there were the albums, concerts, and videos....
but there was a Michael Jackson perfume.
a Michael Jackson candy bar
a Michael Jackson shoe line and toy line
A MICHAEL JACKSON VIDEO GAME
He was the man
"We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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So for those who were alive in the early-mid 1980s... would you compare Michael's Thriller fame with, say, Justin Bieber circa 2010? Or Backstreet Boy mania of the 1990s? Or it was even bigger than that? | |
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I was born in '87 and even in the 90s, he was on another level. I don't think you can compare Bieber or the boy band craze of the 90s-00s to what Michael, Madonna, Prince had in the 80s and 90s. To be honest, I think those three were the last of the "Megastar". I don't feel Adele, Beyonce, Bieber, and others can equate to how big they were.
With the way the music industry and how divided attention is in the world today. We won't see phenoms like those 3 again "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." | |
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homesquid said:
Tons of people self produce their music. Prince produced more mediocre music than significant music, Please name what 27 instruments Prince played. You can rule out horns. 27? Name them. [Edited 11/19/17 17:30pm] Prince was a very talented musician; but, his first manager did an interview and said that it was a myth that he played 27 instruments. He said that was something that was created. | |
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