tump said:

Agree for the most part. I think the most obvious first single would/should have been "Unbreakable", but they probably felt it was too cocky. I felt "You rock my world" was a letdown, as a first single and as a song. It did grow on me in later years though. Invincible in no way is a bad album, but yes, something is missing and it's most certainly his weakest.

Yrmw has a stronger melody than unbreakable and was a good choice as a first single, but the video was just ok.

RODSERLING said:

tump said:

Any song will reach number 1 from a new MJ album somewhere.

Playback of You Rock My World, if it is high, is probably purely because it was chosen as the first single and of course people will play the most recognisable tracks first, particularly casual fans (of which there are many). I was just never really feeling that track and still don't.

If I were selling records I'd choose several singles on the album before You Rock My World. Invincible would be an obvious first song choice to advertise the album. Coupled with an innovative video it would do very well...because it's Michael Jackson and everyone will be watching. The song bumps along better than You Rock My World as a first single. Break Of Dawn or Whatever Happens probably would be good second singles. But the album overall is his weakest solo album, in my opinion. Not counting the crappy remixes on Blood On The dancefloor. Or the after-death tragic cash-ins.

I can put on Dangerous and still be blown away in several areas. Give In To Me (just timeless), Keep The Faith (yesss), Jam (still great), Why You Wanna Trip On Me (more, more), Heal The World, Dangerous (love it), Who Is It (ahh!), Black Or White (minus intro), etc. To my ears there was none of that pure magic on Invincible. Something was definitely lost. I'm going to have to give it another listen to hear the stuff you pointed out. My copy was put away somewhere rather quickly.

[Edited 2/16/19 3:57am]

YRMW is a cross over track. It was heavily played on urban, pop/rock, adult and young radio. Whatever Happens could have achieved that too for sure. But not Invincible, who could only appeal to young urban radio. This is a great song IMHO, but definitely not a cross over song . Ppp

I don't think Invincible is a brilliant song, just better than You Rock My World and 1000x more buzzworthy than it. It sells the album probably better than anything else, much like Bad for the Bad album (not a great song but it has more energy and it hit number 1 in lots of countries anyway). I guess I don't think in terms of radio since I haven't listened to one in many years. In 2001 it could have been more important. It's probably more important now than I give it credit for, for all I know.

I read that MJ wanted to release Unbreakable as the first single: also a far better choice than You Rock My World, in my opinion. A good choice 'cause again there's more energy in that song. But I think the title of the song (Unbreakable) can create confusion with Invincible (a similar but different word), for whatever that's worth. Releasing Invincible would send a much clearer message instead: here is the single and that's the album. I don't think Invincible is a particularly brilliant song but I don't think that MJ needs to worry about playing it extremely safe (and bland) in order to cross over, nor do most artists. I know that some will feel different, but even Teddy Riley had reservations about You Rock My World as the first single. Artists should just do their thing without worrying about crossing-over. Maybe I'm wong. I think people just want to hear something more fresh, exciting and interesting. Other singles can take care of other markets.

Releasing unbreakable could have worked if the album was renamed that