I think this might be true, but there general gist is this: Viacom, or MTV had a policy that they did not have videos by Black artists in heavy rotation - the reasoning being that the core audience of MTV would not watch these videos. What Michael Jackson did was disprove that theory. Not only would MTV watchers pay attention to his videos, they became the most popular. So record companies would pay for videos for artists, knowing that MTV would not only potentially play them, but they might even make it into heavy rotation and shift even more records.
I agree to an extent, but his being Black mattered to me. The Jackson family were like royalty, and they looked like my family (okay, we didn’t have afros that size). I didn’t see Black people who were rich and at the top of their game in a lot of places when I was growing up (think 1970s-1980s). The Huxtable phenomenon was a few years off. I wasn’t in America when Thriller made it huge, but when I got here I watched MTV a lot and all they ever showed was crap hair metal videos like Winger and Poison and Warrant… so when Bad came out in '87, at least they mixed it up a little more. Of course their were other Black artists on - Run-DMC with Aerosmith, LL Cool J, Lionel Richie, Prince, etc. but MJ was always leading the way.
Hippy, what’s your take on who is the best person to raise Jackson’s kids? Is it true Michael was basically supporting the entire Jackson family with the exception of Janet?
Word, that’s really cool. Proud of my guy, I’m sure he is too. Ironically, he might yet top the achievements of Thriller and he isn’t here to see it. Well, on this plane…
In some ways he probably knew that would be the case… he could only get bigger in death. In the past seven days he has a new record for chart performance, nearly broke the internet, and got Rush Limbaugh to speak positively about Sharpton and Jackson!
I somehow doubt that the grown-ass Jackson siblings, who have their own modest business concerns are completely suckling on the MJ teat. People forget that Tito’s sons have a successful music career as 3T. Marlon has a successful career in real estate and television media. Jermaine has appeared on television in the UK quite a bit in the past few years.
I suspect MJ took care of his parents and probably some family affairs. I’ve got to believe their Hayvenhurst mansion in Encino is paid for, but maybe he pays for upkeep, staff, etc?
I really have no opinion about who is the best person to care for the kids. Debbie Rowe seems to be uninterested and uninvolved in their lives, and it would be weird for young kids to be raised by someone so publicly detached from them. Katherine is elderly but I imagine as MJ was close to his mother, the closest family member to them. So she might be best… though I agree that Joe is bad news. I suspect they live under the same roof but separate lives, so maybe he won’t be very close to them - which is good for everybody, really.
Katherine has been getting a lot of shit for allowing Joe to abuse the kids. I do think she could have and should have done more, but I’m also sympathetic to her - I suspect she was at least psychologically abused by him too.
I’ve been reading articles/books on him of late, and I read a quote by someone in one of the Maureen Oth ones in Vanity Fair about him reliving childhood because he was a child star and a narcissist. And a lot of stuff that suggests that his “I feel like a child because I didn’t have a childhood” persona is a very carefully crafted image. (Like in private, according to people like Lisa Marie or Liza Minelli, he speaks in a regular low voice, drinks, swears, etc.) Do you think there’s any truth to this?
I’ve been a little tweaked with MTV’s MJ tribute. They forgot he was part of the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons. I would have loved to have seen the videos for “Can You Feel It” and “Blame it on the Boogie” (my favorite video with the brothers, they looked so happy - I can only imagine what it was like to be playing, singing, producing your own music after being directed by Joe/Berry/CBS all your lives).
I just discovered that CBS re-released the Destiny and Triumph albums last year, and they appear to be remastered. I got them off iTunes and I’m really happy with them - they sound great.
I’m thinking of compiling a “deep cuts” listing of MJ moments that the casual fan might have missed… stay tuned…
I have heard this, and I actually think there’s probably something to this. I think he had nothing resembling a real childhood, and I truly believe that he was deeply psychologically wounded from this. That’s not to say that the other brothers didn’t adapt better, and other kids haven’t had far more harrowing childhoods. I remember watching a British documentary that had a friend of his say that yes, he had a “normal” voice that was lower, and he drank - I don’t think that’s out of the parameters of someone with an arrested development. I do think he had something of a messianic complex, and he felt he needed to play a role - to appear childlike and innocent publicly, where he might behave in a more risque fashion privately - but I still think he was psychologically 13 or so. Think of the angelic kid in your sixth grade classroom who smokes cigarettes and cusses when he’s out of school with his buddies.
I don’t think he was cynically manipulating his persona, though. That’s exactly how 13 year olds behave.
I’ve been searching for a clip I remember from the 70s and can’t find it; please tell me you remember it too! Basketball great Bill Russell had a late-night talk show, and one night the Jacksons were the guests. The boys were all very relaxed and spontaneous and seemed like just a nice kids.
A basketball hoop was brought out, and Russell coached each boy on making his favorite shot. Little Michael, of course, wanted to slam dunk, so Russell grabbed him by the waist, picked him up over his head and let him slam the ball. It may have been the only time in his life that Michael got to be a little boy.
