• sylver_dragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    18 days ago

    Good marketing and lucky timing. He benefited greatly from the rise of MTV and music videos. With his talents for music and dance, he was the right person at the right time to really take off. His music videos were good.

    And his PR people did fantastic work marketing him. Whoever convinced Disney to make the Captain EO ride at Disneyland was a genius.

    • Crackhappy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      18 days ago

      I fucking loved Captain EO. Such insanity and catchy music and dance moves all blended in this 80s dystopian wild ride.

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
    0·
    18 days ago

    Go back to the 70’s and 80’, witness the insane popularity of songs by the Jacksons, and in particular how popular Michael’s songs were.

    He also did duets with other artists and I believe he had hand in songs that became popular with other artists.

    That’s all, really. The Jackson’s had their finger on the pulse of pop. And I say this as someone who never listened to their music intentionally, even I was very aware of it (and will admit much of it had a strong appeal).

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
        0·
        18 days ago

        Not “the same”, more like “same enough” to have broad appeal - that is he understood what was immediately accessible in music, but it wasn’t always the same thing. That’s what was so brilliant about his music.

        • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          18 days ago

          What’s more, his music is still getting radio play. He’s been dead for fifteen years, and his music was most popular thirty years ago, but one of your local radio stations probably played a few of his songs within the last week. That kind of staying power almost never happens outside of more niche genres. That he did it with pop is insane.

  • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
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    18 days ago

    The fact that Thriller has been and still is the world’s best selling album for 42 years probably

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
    0·
    18 days ago

    Hard to describe the impact he had, even if you didn’t care for his music. On fashion, choreography, design, the 80s were really driven by Jackson.

  • warlaan@feddit.org
    0·
    17 days ago

    It’s very similar to the previous “King”. Elvis Presley was not just a good musician, he was a cultural statement. When people first heard him sing on the radio they were sure they were listening to a black singer, but when he started talking in interviews it became very obvious that that he was not.

    Michael Jackson did something similar. He came from the musical background of black Soul bands, but as a solo artist he covered a variety of styles that were unexpected from a black musician. It’s not a coincidence that a lot of his songs deal with social issues as well (“It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white.”, “Heal the world.”, “start with the man in the mirror” where most songs of other artists are about love or having a party).

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    16 days ago

    There is no way to convey to you how unbelievably cool Michael was in the 80’s and how amazing his fresh new sound was. The sidewalk lighting up as he walked on it in the Billy Jean music video was the coolest thing we’d seen on TV back then. He perfectly blended music, dancing, fashion, style, attitude, and theatrics to create an entire persona that all the listeners and viewers could share in. He set trends, broke records, and topped charts. I cannot convey what it felt like to back then to young people because there hasn’t been anything that original since the 90’s when Nirvana and Grunge exploded across the music scene. I wish there was something recent to point to and say “it was like that!”, but there’s nothing.