No thank you on any more MJ tributes.
HarveyCanal
"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
I'm so annoyed to find out this morning that my usual Tuesday night spot will be playing MJ all damned night tonight. How many times must we hear these same damn songs over and over and over? And I'm not even talking about the past few days. I'm talking about the past ~30 years. Shit is just too easy and it sickens me to see people bending over backwards onto such a candy soft pillow of long-expired nostalgia. 
Comments
you have 24 hours to comply.
what station is it?
I want to tune in.
1. Mostly black kids from the 70's who grew up with their mothers and sisters and such playing the Jackson 5 on a turntable like there was no tomorrow.
1a. Mostly black kids from the 70's who grew up with their mothers and sisters and such playing the Jackson 5 on a turntable like there was no tomorrow but later felt betrayed by any one or more of Michael's adult bouts with crazy.
2. Mostly black kids from the early 80's who not only had their culture permeated with the Thriller-era style of MJ but also identified with his success as the former little kid with lots of talent to go along with his cute smile and big afro.
2a. Mostly black kids from the early 80's who not only had their culture permeated with the Thriller-era style of MJ but also identified with his success as the former little kid with lots of talent to go along with his cute smile and big afro but later felt betrayed by any one or more of Michael's adult bouts with crazy.
3. Mostly white kids from the mid-to-late 80's's that genuinely love MJ's music but moreso feel obligated to pay ridiculous homage to him as if their frequent Starbucks customer card will not be stamped the next time they purchase an iced latte.
4. Mostly black kids from the 90's that after Obama's election genuinely wish to honor great black success stories and do so with an enthusiasm that is a sign of hearts being in the right place, but then again maybe not.
5. Creepy horny dudes that will latch onto any cause that gets women out and partying.
6. Non-Americans, all bets are off with these folks, God bless their hearts.
Give it about a week or so.
Believe me, it's going to be all downhill from here. Enjoy the good vibes while they last.
You can bet we will see the following in the near future:
Terrible (but official) remix/remake projects.
An endless stream of tabloid news about MJ's kids/estate that will make people yearn for the halcyon days of Lohan/Britney coverage.
A Very Special Christmas album dedicated to Michael.
MJ on the cover of "2009: A Year in Pictures" coverage.
Blah blah blah.
Check that 25 anniversary of Thriller trash that came out. Str8-doodoo.
to come -
Darius Rucker Does Michael Jackson
Thrill-Her - Woman In Rock Celebrate The King Of Pop
Black & Blue Notes - Jazz Covers MJ
Ben The Ratt - Hair Metal pays Tribute
Badder - Remastered Demos w/ wack Hip Hop interpretations
Muzakson - get it
And If I Were God - Gospel Music celebrates MJ
"Thrill-Her" =
You clearly put some thought into this, which in turn, illustrates your significantly limited capacity.
You sound hard at work on an MJ covers mix.
No. I am actually moving on too. I had gigs Friday and Saturday and was happy to be able to pay tribute. I'm looking forward to taking this off my radar because it is obviously going to get really gross from here forward.
It's already started.
When I fired up the computer this morning, first thing I saw was a news item speculating that MJ and Debbie Rowe weren't the biological parents of their children.
I wouldn't be surprised if Jacko gets exploited just as bad as Elvis (this didn't happen as much with Lennon). The summer is going to be the grace period, then by September, we'll see MJ statuettes advertised in the back of the National Enquirer. And they'll be ten times uglier than the one seen on the cover of his History album.
In the words of both Al Jolson and Bachman-Turner Overdrive,
you ain't seen nothin' yet
Oh yeah. That pretty much goes without saying.
Apparently the neighbors are very much against this happening and vowing to fight it in court. But it probably will.
Who wants to see an empty Zoo or a rusted Amusement park?
Isnt it like twice the size of GraceLand and does he even still own it?
I've thought about this too.
If there is any way to turn Neverland into an amusement park it will happen.
No matter who ends up with ownership.
The roadblock would be if it is located in a fancy neighborhood with out parking and access roads the neighbors would never allow it.
I think one reason why Elvis' estate is a joke is because RCA (from the time they signed him and added echo to the original Sun sides) has always done a poor job with his catalog.
In contrast Apple/EMI has done a much better job with Lennon's.
Elvis' estate has always encouraged commemorative plates and pillow cases.
Lennon's has discouraged them.
But if look at MJ's legacy, his appeal is visual and multimedia.
More like Elvis than Lennon.
One thing we will be seeing lots of is the music he has spent the last 2 years on.
If that sells there will be thousand of hours of unfinished (discarded) studio tracks from every period of his career.
What separated Lennon from Elvis is that Lennon (with the Beatles) kicked off the era where rock music was considered an Art Form.
Elvis, by contrast, was left over from the time, when rock was considered Disposable Trash.
So, naturally when Elvis died, you started seeing ads for Elvis commemorative plates and TCB pendants. But with Lennon, it was understood that that kind of shit was just NOT DONE. At least not in Lennon or the Beatles' names.
Michael Jackson didn't understand this.
When he gained the rights to the Beatles' catalog, what was the first thing he did? License "Revolution" to Nike for a sneaker ad.
Yoko, all the surviving Beatles, and their fans were all like: "WTF???"
Michael, in the meantime, is sitting up at Neverland wondering what the hell he'd done wrong. To him, that was Showbiz, just the way things were done.
There is a HUGE credibility gap between Elvis and Lennon.
Unfortunately, MJ fell on the teen-idol Elvis side.
I've stayed away from it, although I did put on OFF THE WALL over the weekend. I was watching CNN and someone talked about how in some cities, *all* of the station (or maybe that's "all of the stations I regularly listen to") were playing MJ. Understandable. Now compare this to my "small market" area where they have been playing the same set of songs every two hours, and not once did they play "Rock With You". It was "Black Or White", "Dirty Diana", "Heal The World"... the usual suspects.
I think now that some of the tabloid stories are surfacing, you're going to see things change a bit, and I'll be tuning out as best as I can. If anything, it's guaranteed fodder for every entertainment and tabloid rumor show and blog, and I could care less.
There has already been a gang of unreleased J5 stuff, but I'd imagine there's alot of stuff from the Dangerous & Invincible eras.
Which is funny, since for a good six year period, Lennon wanted his public life to be documented in every way possible, arguably paving the way for the accessibility some entertainers seem to prefer today. But Lennon did it sarcastically and played with the media, literally.
Or what some called the pre-B.S. era. In truth, The Beatles were like any other boy band, let's not forget this. But once they sported the mustaches and saw that their album covers and "promotional film clips" didn't look like the cover of "Teen Beat", that's when there was a shift in how the music was and should be perceived. Singles were for the kids, albums were for the adults. The Beatles were obviously not the first to make decent albums, but they were part of a collective of people in 1967 who made that change. It was also when it moved from being rock'n'roll to rock, when it tried to be a bit more sophisticated. When that happened, we had people like Iggy Pop say "screw it, I want to rock AND roll". In a way, rock'n'roll as an "art form" is very much manufactured, but one that did spark a greater awareness of things, particularly that "music didn't have to be played or sold in one way". That would be one major benefit.
I've often talked about this, but there just seems to be a different sensibility between the U.S. and the UK, and everyone else in the world when it comes to honoring someone in that way. If Elvis Presley retained his musical influence around the world, but he was from Manchester, how much different would it be? We probably wouldn't have any Elvis impersonators or sightings.
I think there is still some level of integrity, but we're probably not going to see much of it in MJ's case. I was watching CSI: NY and it was a show about a hidden underground train station, one frequented by FDR. It was said that FDR asked that the media not take any photos of him when he was seen in a wheelchair and they respected that. Try to see that level of respect or integrity today. Gene Simmons of Kiss did ask the media to not take any photos of him and the band without make-up, but there were countless Hollywood babylon-styled magazines where you saw them without it, and people thought it was a joke. "Nah, Gene Simmons isn't an awkward looking Jewish man."
Point is, there seems to be a level of respect that I think has almost disappeared, and is only used when we think that person is of value, but even that value can be exploited.
I agree with you, and yet it's easy to understand why someone would feel that what you said is foolish. Ask a younger generation and they will say "that's the game, that's how it should be played, MJ had every right to exploit their catalog because he owns it." But you hit it on the head: Elvis Presley was all about exploitation, look at the home he bought so that everyone could know who lived there. Lennon lived in an apartment. He did love the spotlight to a degree, but then realized that idolatry is false, and even said so in the song "God".
Or look at Frank Zappa. Say what you want about how Gail Zappa and the Zappa Family Trust has handled his music and legacy over the years, but we're not hearing Zappa's music in Old Navy commercials. Someone somewhere has the check to use "Valley Girl" and fortunately all requests have been denied.
But like anything, integrity has a price and it's sad that it's being sold @ dollar store prices.
22 hours left
I hear you man. Hey if you live in the NYC area and you need a break tonight, come hang out, I am spinning at Von on Bleeker Street, right off of Bowery. You are going to love it. We are doing an MJ Tribute tonight, spinning dance floor smash hits, b-sides, rarities, demos, unreleased cuts, sample joints, covers, etc...
EDIT: Shit I got confused for a second, you are saying you don't want MJ Tributes! Sorry for almost making you come to my MJ Tribute tonight at Von, where this is no cover charge tonight! I can't believe I just accidentally used your thread to promote my MJ TRIBUTE EVENT TONIGHT! What an ironic turn this thread has taken!
in progress...
and can we please never ever call him "Jacko"?