Michael Jackson top albums, career and his family now: The lone #1 single from the 32-million selling Dangerous, “Black or White” spent seven weeks atop the Billboard charts. Directed by John Landis (“Thriller,” National Lampoon’s Animal House) the first quarter of its video reveals Jackson’s mischievous child-like streak, with Culkin towing out Spinal Tap-sized speakers, amplifying the volume to “ARE YOU NUTS!?!,” and shredding so hard that George Wendt gets ejected into the stratosphere screaming “Da Bears.” But this was Michael Jackson, not O’ Shea. Being King of Pop meant the need for mass appeal. The “Black or White” video exists as a microcosm of Dangerous itself. It potently affirms Jackson’s manhood, offers passionate screeds against racial strife, gang violence, and a parasitic American media. This is the album as multi-media spectacle, a precursor to Lemonade, with accusations of infidelity substituted for videos of Macaulay Culkin doing air guitar windmills to a Slash guitar solo and lip sync rapping about turf wars.
Now, admittedly, it’s child’s play to see the flaws and nitpick this release from here until the next one. (Oh, don’t deny it…you know it’s coming.) However, the real joy is hearing Michael Jackson on something that isn’t “Beat It” or “Heal the World” or something we’ve all spun thousands of times, especially over the past year. While nothing on this record comes close to rivaling any of his past material, you can’t deny the urge to indulge yourself in something labeled, “new Michael Jackson”, and that’s where Michael succeeds. In terms of lasting power, however, you’ll probably forget about it in a matter of weeks, but who knows? Maybe you’ll feel nostalgic again. After all, that’s what death does to the best of us. Still, as we learned with Invincible, it takes more than just a studio effort to conjure up the magic.
Skipping over his teenage albums is just silly – I mean, would you skip Brandy’s debut album just because she was 15 when it dropped? Playa please. Y’all gotta do better. Oh and let me clarify the word “entire.” While most of your favorite bloggers like to pretend that Michael Jackson’s career started in 1979 with Off the Wall, that was FAR from the case. We’ll be revisiting MJ’s TOTAL solo discography, going all the way back to his 1972 debut.
Michael Jackson family: Mocienne Petit Jackson’s (Michael Jackson’s daughter) books are now available in french! For our french visitors: La deuxieme partie de l’autobiographie en trois parties de Mocienne Petit Jackson commence par une description detaillee de l’enlevement de Mocienne et de sa vie aux Pays-Bas (Michael Jackson Livre en francais). Par la suite, le recit nous devoile comment se deroule sa vie avec sa famille adoptive, chez qui elle reste en compagnie de la cousine Delivrance. Petit a petit, elle decouvre que son vrai pere est Michael Jackson. A l’age de 15 ans, elle quitte sa famille adoptive et vit dans un internat pendant 4 ans, avant de s’installer vivre toute seule. Nous la suivons tout au long de son adolescence et de son entree dans la maturite, ce qui n’a pas toujours ete facile. Mocienne rencontre un homme avec lequel elle a un enfant. Cependant, cet engagement ne dure pas. Nous en apprenons davantage sur les problemes qu’elle rencontre avec les Services de Protection de l’Enfance, suivis de nombreuses affaires judiciaires. Au debut, celles-ci portaient sur sa propre personne, plus tard, elles se transforment en bataille pour la garde de son fils. Une situation inacceptable prend le relais d’une autre situation inacceptable. Nous sommes egalement mis au courant de nombreux evenements traumatisants vecus par le personnage principal, de ses depressions et de ses nombreuses luttes pour faire face a la misere impregnee dans sa vie et a son combat pour s’en debarrasser. L’auteur explique clairement ces luttes a travers de vifs flashbacks.