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
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?
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.
It's one thing to have millions of your fans' attention. It's another when you have the world's attention.
Michael had videos premiering on prime time television. He sold Wembley stadium 7 times on the Bad tour and ticket demand was so great, he could've done more. He was meeting presidents. Royalty. I think the only comparison that can be drawn is to The Beatles.
With the way the music industry and how divided attention is in the world today. We won't see phenoms like those 3 again
When Invincible was released, Michael appeared at the MTV studios and the MTV guy who was host(can't remember his name) said that the crowd of people who showed up outside was bigger than Britney Spears, N'Sync COMBINED. Let's not forget how huge Britney and N'Sync were. The MTV host said that he had never seen anything like the crowd that Michael drew EVER. Btw, Britney and N'Sync were as big as Justin Beiber or bigger. However, none of them could compare to Michael's fame or celebrity. No one in history has, and those are just the FACTS.
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.
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.
Wow this thread really DID turn into a Michael jackson Vs. Prince thread didn't it?
The focus of the original arguement was if Michael Jackson garnered the hysterical reactions he conjured during his heyday. I say no.
I loved MJ and Prince more, but neither spurred reactions of fainting or crying myself into fainting.
Those MJ clips look as rediculous as they are.
As for the MJ vs. Prince debate I'll end it here; the tracks "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" alone eclipse ANYTHING Michael Jackson has ever created creatively, in terms of innovation, quality, appeal, maturity, soulfulness, sexiness and overall awe!
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.
Wow this thread really DID turn into a Michael jackson Vs. Prince thread didn't it?
The focus of the original arguement was if Michael Jackson garnered the hysterical reactions he conjured during his heyday. I say no.
I loved MJ and Prince more, but neither spurred reactions of fainting or crying myself into fainting.
Those MJ clips look as rediculous as they are.
As for the MJ vs. Prince debate I'll end it here; the tracks "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" alone eclipse ANYTHING Michael Jackson has ever created creatively, in terms of innovation, quality, appeal, maturity, soulfulness, sexiness and overall awe!
The focus of the thread was if Michael's fame was overrated. The answer is NO, his fame was not overrated. The bottomline has NOTHING to do with whether you, me, or anyone else likes Michael or Prince. There has never been anyone who has achieved the Fame that Michael did. All of the comparing of who plays what instrument, wrote the greatest songs, etc. doesn't change that FACT. That's what this thread is about. All of these comparisons means crap. It's like comparing Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. Why try to tear down one to build up the other. Btw, I will put up "Earth Song", "Stranger In Moscow" against ANY song in terms of innovation, quality, appeal, maturity, meaningfulness,awesomeness. This does not take away from the songs that you listed. Just don't try and act as if Michael didn't create, compose, produce some EXCELLENT music. He did.
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.
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.
Yes. And who was the Jackson 5?? Michael Jackson fronting and anchoring the whole thing.
I don't think you find many MJ fans who would deny that Prince was a great musician. But you find plenty of Prince fans denying that MJ was a great musician too. Which is bs on those Prince fans part. He was. Just as Prince.
And I'm not threatened but the other user puts Prince down.
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.
Wow this thread really DID turn into a Michael jackson Vs. Prince thread didn't it?
The focus of the original arguement was if Michael Jackson garnered the hysterical reactions he conjured during his heyday. I say no.
I loved MJ and Prince more, but neither spurred reactions of fainting or crying myself into fainting.
Those MJ clips look as rediculous as they are.
As for the MJ vs. Prince debate I'll end it here; the tracks "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" alone eclipse ANYTHING Michael Jackson has ever created creatively, in terms of innovation, quality, appeal, maturity, soulfulness, sexiness and overall awe!
The focus of the thread was if Michael's fame was overrated. The answer is NO, his fame was not overrated. The bottomline has NOTHING to do with whether you, me, or anyone else likes Michael or Prince. There has never been anyone who has achieved the Fame that Michael did. All of the comparing of who plays what instrument, wrote the greatest songs, etc. doesn't change that FACT. That's what this thread is about. All of these comparisons means crap. It's like comparing Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. Why try to tear down one to build up the other. Btw, I will put up "Earth Song", "Stranger In Moscow" against ANY song in terms of innovation, quality, appeal, maturity, meaningfulness,awesomeness. This does not take away from the songs that you listed. Just don't try and act as if Michael didn't create, compose, produce some EXCELLENT music. He did.
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I think you misread the topic. Or did you stop at the title?
The OP made it clear that the whole aspect of Michael's fame that consisted of people tearing their hair out and gouging out their eyes was cringy. I, and the OP, don't think Michael's fame rated that reaction.
That being said I think it's pretty bold to come on a Prince forum and poo-poo Prince's greatness to prop up Michael Jackson. Prince could've been Michael Jackson if he wanted to. But he had edge. And edge will get you fans, but it will alienate half the people.
i'm old dude, how old are you? what's more, how many places on earth have you been to? there are places, ya, getting rarer and rarer where the people really wouldnt know or care about what's happening in the entertainment business. The reason Ali had such popularity, aside from all the other stuff was that he labelled himself as a muslim which automatically got a lot of people, totally non-interested in boxing to pay attention all over the world.
purple05 said:
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
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
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?
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.
It's one thing to have millions of your fans' attention. It's another when you have the world's attention.
Michael had videos premiering on prime time television. He sold Wembley stadium 7 times on the Bad tour and ticket demand was so great, he could've done more. He was meeting presidents. Royalty. I think the only comparison that can be drawn is to The Beatles.
With the way the music industry and how divided attention is in the world today. We won't see phenoms like those 3 again
Agreed with all of this.
We have popular names today but even the ones of the highest pecking order fail to stack up to the megastars of the 1980s. Shoot, some of the mid level stars of the time were above today's biggest names. Comparing stars like MJ, Prince, Madonna, Lionel, Springsteen and George Michael to acts like Bruno, Bieber, Beyonce, Weeknd, Adele and Taylor Swift makes the latter group look like one-hit wonders in comparison. Adele and Taylor are the only ones who can even begin to match their predecessors with the amount of albums they sell but that's the only department they have something of a chance in.
In terms of fame, star power and universal appeal, the 80's stars stomp their successors.
P.S.
Only on this site have I seen so many people try to undermine Michael's success. It is a fact that Michael was always the more popular name and the bigger star; it doesn't matter if Prince "played instruments" or "made better songs", he was never on MJ's level of fame. Despite how much many on here like to stress "artistry" over "popularity", the fact that Michael has always been bigger than Prince seems to bother people. [Edited 11/20/17 8:23am]
Whoever brought up Bieber and those stupid Jonas Brothers...
well... the Jonas Brothers fame was prob akin to the Jackson's fans (for noise concerns in a live setting)
but the Jacksons became ubiquitous and actually had shit tons of talent.
Bieber... I wouldn't compare him to Michael... MJ was a raw singer and dancer.
Bieber (at a comparable age) was a copycat teen fad.
and finally.... Michael was worldwide... Bieber was "USA". possibly UK?
I don't believe his fame is anything relative.
Was it overrated? U might have to stipulate as in HOW.
TO MJJ, in the end, I'm sure HE felt it was overrated. It eclipsed himself and set him completely apart from having any normal life. that's why he hob nobbed with actors, former child stars, rich people etc... cause they usually didn't want a part of him, and were less likely to deceive him.
Other people wanted a cut of the cake. or some of his fame. Or to rip his clothes to shreds....Considering the immensity of it, he managed pretty well.
♫"Trollin, Trolling! We could have fun just trollin'!"♫
and now that people want to turn it into a P vs MJ thread i'm out before it's locked.
Let's hope it won't get locked, because even though the question wasn't directed at me but at the orger I'm having another amusing "P vs MJ" battle with on the other forum , I'd like to tell a little bit about countries I've been to and music I've heard. You will hear no Beatles or Elvis in East Africa. In all my time there, I've heard Prince only once and that was in a tourist disco. You will hear Michael Jackson and a lot of hip hop. Yet I did hear the Beatles quite often in Peru. Paul McCartney even toured there. I didn't hear a lot of Jackson there. But there is one artist that you hear everywhere in the world. And that's Bob Marley.
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.
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.
Yes. And who was the Jackson 5?? Michael Jackson fronting and anchoring the whole thing.
I don't think you find many MJ fans who would deny that Prince was a great musician. But you find plenty of Prince fans denying that MJ was a great musician too. Which is bs on those Prince fans part. He was. Just as Prince.
You don't have to be able to play a lot of instruments to be a good musician. George Clinton proves this. He plays no instrument, doesn't sing very well, yet he created some fantastic music. But I thought The Jackson 5 already existed before little Michael joined and it was their father who was running the whole thing?
Some of Mike's fans start blogs dedicated to Paris, Prince, & Blanket. I don't think that's done for any of Madonna's children. If so, it would be Lourdes, since she's a model.
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
Re: Kids - Thats because MJ's kids are lil attention grabbers. M's kids could give a crap about muhc of anything as they're loaded and worldly tbh, and they're talented too Little David Banda is a great soccer player and musician, Rocco is an artist, Lourdes is modeling and designing clothes. MJ's kids are getting tattoos and crashing ATVs, starting record labels lol.
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?
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.
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.
Wow this thread really DID turn into a Michael jackson Vs. Prince thread didn't it?
The focus of the original arguement was if Michael Jackson garnered the hysterical reactions he conjured during his heyday. I say no.
I loved MJ and Prince more, but neither spurred reactions of fainting or crying myself into fainting.
Those MJ clips look as rediculous as they are.
As for the MJ vs. Prince debate I'll end it here; the tracks "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" alone eclipse ANYTHING Michael Jackson has ever created creatively, in terms of innovation, quality, appeal, maturity, soulfulness, sexiness and overall awe!
The focus of the thread was if Michael's fame was overrated. The answer is NO, his fame was not overrated. The bottomline has NOTHING to do with whether you, me, or anyone else likes Michael or Prince. There has never been anyone who has achieved the Fame that Michael did. All of the comparing of who plays what instrument, wrote the greatest songs, etc. doesn't change that FACT. That's what this thread is about. All of these comparisons means crap. It's like comparing Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. Why try to tear down one to build up the other. Btw, I will put up "Earth Song", "Stranger In Moscow" against ANY song in terms of innovation, quality, appeal, maturity, meaningfulness,awesomeness. This does not take away from the songs that you listed. Just don't try and act as if Michael didn't create, compose, produce some EXCELLENT music. He did.
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I think you misread the topic. Or did you stop at the title?
The OP made it clear that the whole aspect of Michael's fame that consisted of people tearing their hair out and gouging out their eyes was cringy. I, and the OP, don't think Michael's fame rated that reaction.
That being said I think it's pretty bold to come on a Prince forum and poo-poo Prince's greatness to prop up Michael Jackson. Prince could've been Michael Jackson if he wanted to. But he had edge. And edge will get you fans, but it will alienate half the people.
Even his biggest success had too many quirks.
Lol at Prince could've been MJ. As talented as Prince was he just doesn't have the charisma that MJ had.
i'm old dude, how old are you? what's more, how many places on earth have you been to? there are places, ya, getting rarer and rarer where the people really wouldnt know or care about what's happening in the entertainment business. The reason Ali had such popularity, aside from all the other stuff was that he labelled himself as a muslim which automatically got a lot of people, totally non-interested in boxing to pay attention all over the world.
purple05 said:
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
You're correct but from unbiased sources Ali while very popular isn't as popular as MJ. Both are huge global icons along with Marley, Beatles, Pope, etc
i'd have to see those sources, in ali's day, he was probably more popular than Mike in his Prime. anyway, fame is not that important, it's the substance that matters and both guys brought plenty to offer the world.
purple05 said:
PeteSilas said:
i'm old dude, how old are you? what's more, how many places on earth have you been to? there are places, ya, getting rarer and rarer where the people really wouldnt know or care about what's happening in the entertainment business. The reason Ali had such popularity, aside from all the other stuff was that he labelled himself as a muslim which automatically got a lot of people, totally non-interested in boxing to pay attention all over the world.
You're correct but from unbiased sources Ali while very popular isn't as popular as MJ. Both are huge global icons along with Marley, Beatles, Pope, etc
Re: Kids - Thats because MJ's kids are lil attention grabbers. M's kids could give a crap about muhc of anything as they're loaded and worldly tbh, and they're talented too Little David Banda is a great soccer player and musician, Rocco is an artist, Lourdes is modeling and designing clothes. MJ's kids are getting tattoos and crashing ATVs, starting record labels lol.
.
This thread is hilurrious.
Outside of Paris the boys are pretty low key. People are always hounding them
and now that people want to turn it into a P vs MJ thread i'm out before it's locked.
Let's hope it won't get locked, because even though the question wasn't directed at me but at the orger I'm having another amusing "P vs MJ" battle with on the other forum , I'd like to tell a little bit about countries I've been to and music I've heard. You will hear no Beatles or Elvis in East Africa. In all my time there, I've heard Prince only once and that was in a tourist disco. You will hear Michael Jackson and a lot of hip hop. Yet I did hear the Beatles quite often in Peru. Paul McCartney even toured there. I didn't hear a lot of Jackson there. But there is one artist that you hear everywhere in the world. And that's Bob Marley.
Fair enough but I'm sure there are parts of the world you'll hear Jackson & Beatles in that you won't hear Marley.
Re: Kids - Thats because MJ's kids are lil attention grabbers.
I don't know about that. Over at one Mike fan site, people were posting pictures of the kids when Mike was still alive and trying to keep them hidden wearing masks. It got to the point that the mods made a rule telling posters not to post pics of them taken by the paps, only if they were approved by Mike himself. This was because the mods said this is not what Mike wanted Some of these fans of Mike's kids would hate on their cousins, talking about the cousins and Mike's siblings and Joe were a bad influence on them.
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
I think you misread the topic. Or did you stop at the title?
The OP made it clear that the whole aspect of Michael's fame that consisted of people tearing their hair out and gouging out their eyes was cringy. I, and the OP, don't think Michael's fame rated that reaction.
That being said I think it's pretty bold to come on a Prince forum and poo-poo Prince's greatness to prop up Michael Jackson. Prince could've been Michael Jackson if he wanted to. But he had edge. And edge will get you fans, but it will alienate half the people.
Even his biggest success had too many quirks.
Lol at Prince could've been MJ. As talented as Prince was he just doesn't have the charisma that MJ had.
Michaelmania in 1983/84 was outrageous....unlike anything I had ever seen! It was alot of fun
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.
I had never seen an album that lasted as long as Thriller did.There was one point,in mid-1983,when the album was selling a million units a week,which even prompted Quincy Jones to remark "this is getting ridiculous",lol.
There are only two songs on Thriller that weren't singles ("Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady In My Life") but even the latter song got alot of airplay on R&B and quiet storm stations.
I had never seen an album that lasted as long as Thriller did.
What about Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd?
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
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.
I had never seen an album that lasted as long as Thriller did.There was one point,in mid-1983,when the album was selling a million units a week,which even prompted Quincy Jones to remark "this is getting ridiculous",lol.
There are only two songs on Thriller that weren't singles ("Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady In My Life") but even the latter song got alot of airplay on R&B and quiet storm stations.
it was just a phenomenon that'll never be repeated. people kept waiting for it to stop selling but it just went on and on. Everyone liked MJ at the time for the most part, there was nothing not to like, he was cool, good looking, polite
Re: Kids - Thats because MJ's kids are lil attention grabbers. M's kids could give a crap about muhc of anything as they're loaded and worldly tbh, and they're talented too Little David Banda is a great soccer player and musician, Rocco is an artist, Lourdes is modeling and designing clothes. MJ's kids are getting tattoos and crashing ATVs, starting record labels lol.
.
This thread is hilurrious.
Ehh...I'm not incredibly interested in Michael's kids but that's not entirely inaccurate. Yeah Paris is out there and Prince is directing music videos, he's also in college and being involved with the Heal LA. Aside from his recent accident, that guy is lowkey for the most part
Paris...nah she's everywhere now
"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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Yall sound like guys in my family who are sports fans arguing over which basketball & football team is best. 
, I'd like to tell a little bit about countries I've been to and music I've heard. You will hear no Beatles or Elvis in East Africa. In all my time there, I've heard Prince only once and that was in a tourist disco. You will hear Michael Jackson and a lot of hip hop.
It was alot of fun