# Can you still enjoy Michael Jackson’s music? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [July 2, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-enjoy-michael-jackson-s-music/1003638 "2024-07-02T15:49:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 71
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2024, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-enjoy-michael-jackson-s-music/1003638/71 "2024-07-04T04:44:49Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Lots of albums have had marketing and been pushed on the public. None have sold fifty million copies. And none had gotten pushed as hard as that one did. And again, who the hell cares that it sold more? It just means he had more market penetration. The album was marketed to hell and back. You would know none of it without marketing, no song is “popular” without good marketing, and that record was marketed very well. I firmly believe that’s the secret to the number of units it moved. The songs themselves are pretty “meh” to my ear. Jackson might as well be singing gibberish, as well (heck, I might like it _more_ if he was). I didn’t have any particular love for them then, and my feelings haven’t changed. > [@RickJay](#): > > “Average” pop is way below that. The average but popular music of the time was Rick Springfield and Air Supply and DeBarge. Heh, all of those put out _very_ similar music to Jackson’s solo work. It’s fine, but I’m not learning to play any of it unless there’s a paycheck at the end of it. They’re all about the same, but Jackson had better marketing. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-still-enjoy-michael-jackson-s-music/1003638)._