@theblogpound is bored. (S)he (who went to UCD btw… if that’s a(nother) clue to their identity) asked me to come up with a post about Michael Jackson’s future song prospects. Hmmm.

I had to do a bit of research on this one. Starting with a l-o-n-g entry on Wikipedia, it appears Jackson’s last single, One More Chance was released in November 2003. It didn’t do as well as others, reaching no. 5 in the UK only. Before that it was 2001’s You Rock My World, the one with Chris Rock and his last major hits were in 1996. Wow. I’d forgotten it was that long ago.

Right so. Michael Jackson. Releasing. A good song.

What’s Jacko been up to recently? Not much it seems. After the Bashir interview in 2003 it seems he pretty much disappeared off TV, only reappearing at the court case in 2005 where he was acquitted. He moved briefly to Ireland and then to Bahrain. The child abuse allegations continue to dog him, the rumours of his financial downfall peaked in 2006 though apparently he’s making as much as $75 million a year from his deal with Sony publishing.

He was in London in 2006 to receive eight world records from the Guinness book of Records including “First Entertainer to Earn More Than 100 Million Dollars in a Year” and “First Entertainer to Sell More Than 100 Million Albums Outside the United States”. So, there’s no denying he was popular and influential.

Even his recent album Thriller 25 got to no. 2 in the US and no. 3 in the UK. That’s not bad for someone whose last major major hit was over 11 years ago.

What’s a good Jackson song?

I’m sure this is subjective. For me the later songs were intrinsically “Michael Jackson songs”, connected very much to his lifestyle and image – Heal the World, They Don’t Really Care About Us, Scream, Earth Song and Will You Be There (the Free Willy song) were all songs that tied in with him either battling the damage to the Earth or the damage to his reputation.

The record companies lapped the publicity up and got really behind him, pushing it higher and higher – Jackson was King and despite the growing rumours in the states, the songs were pushed on us by all the radio stations and on TV. The videos helped – all fantastically computer generated imagery, special effects and pretty people that just lit up our fairly dull TV screens. Even if you didn’t like his music, you had to appreciate the special effects.

Before this era though, Jackson was on form. Almost every song seemed destined for success. 1991’s Black or White is another song intrinsically linked to the video, having the unbelievably cool-at-the-time Macaulay Culkin rapping in it and then all that morphing technology at the end. Remember the Time as well was another great video with Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson. At a time when there were very few celebrities (compared to TV celebrities today) this was really big stuff. As a 13 year old watching The Beatbox on a Sunday morning, I was transfixed.

Remember as well that he was a master of choreography, of movement, of dance. He understood drama, he understood showmanship. Nothing was too big, too difficult. 100 zombies all dancing in time together – no bother. Nowadays we’re spoiled by all the effects, all the spectacles and are wise to the marketing. Just because you’re on the TV now doesn’t mean you’re cool or special or extraordinary. There almost is no equivalent to the power it once had.

For a while he was like Bond movies – a new, better release every year. In the 80s he pretty much had it sown up, with hits like

1989 – Leave me alone. (very sledgehammeresque video. I still remember the elephant man skeleton in it)

1988 – Smooth Criminal, Man in the Mirror, The Way You Make Me Feel

1987 – Bad

1985 – We Are The World, and of course, Thriller

1983 – Beat It and Billie Jean

and more and more songs. The team behind him seemed buoyed by every success and chose to use or exploit every headline to sell more songs. And that it seemed to do. Constant airplay, moonwalking aplenty and rumours of his eccentric lifestyle made him seem inhuman, alien, glamorous. He was like Coca-Cola – someone recognised all over the world, and adored for same.

The songs vary widely. Unlike someone like Eminem, say where you could read the lyrics and think “yep, that’s him”, Jacksons varied anywhere from

“Hold me like the river Jordan and I will then say to thee you are my friend”

to

“You Close Your Eyes, And Hope That This Is Just Imagination, girl, but All The While, You Hear The Creature Creepin’ Up Behind. You’re Out Of Time”

to

“I am the victim of police brutality, now I’m tired of bein’ the victim of hate You’re rapin’ me of my pride Oh, for God’s sake”

to

“You’re Just A Product Of Loveliness I Like The Groove Of Your Walk, Your Talk, Your Dress. I Feel Your Fever From Miles Around. I’ll Pick You Up In My Car And We’ll Paint The Town”

to

“Mother Always Told Me Be Careful Of Who You Love And Be Careful Of What You Do ‘Cause The Lie Becomes The Truth”

I’d imagine that most of you would have no problem naming the songs if you thought about it. He did love songs, dance, swing and rock in his own style but without making it so. What do I mean by that? Just that as different as Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal are musically, they’re still uniquely identifiable as his songs.

In the same vein, I struggle to think of a great, successful cover of any Jackson song. Even Smooth Criminal by Alien Ant Farm was still Jackson’s song, almost a tribute to him, whereas there are countless examples where singers have taken covers and made them their own.

Jackson himself:

I still remember the euphoria that surrounded Jackson’s high profile visit to Ireland where Brenda O’ Donoghue from the Gerry Ryan show followed him around HMV. Nowadays I’m sure that apart from the die hards, him coming to Dublin (where he lived for a while at the Four Seasons) would generate a page in the Star, mostly about the “shock horror” of “alleged child abuser being allowed to play here”. (Tabloid journalism is scum writing imho). He’s lost the image, the coolness, the wow factor. We know too much of him and there’s too much to compete with his image. Paris Hilton would most likely draw a much larger crowd. I’d imagine that’s true of a lot of this side of the world. Not sure about Asia though.

Equally, what would a song from Jackson be now? Anything he’d be likely to release would be parodied, lyrics strip-searched for even the vaguest reference to homosexuality, child abuse or “revenge on those who accused him. Charity songs will be disdained as will any song like Man in the Mirror where he suggests to the listener that if they might wanna make the world a better place, Take a look at yourself and then make the change. Anything self pitying will just be seen as a cry for more attention from a drug addicted, peter-pan-delusional has-been.

Would a record company back him? Would they pump the money into marketing a new single knowing what sort of publicity it might generate? The best scenario Jackson could hope for is if his accusers Jordan Chandler and Gavin Arvizo both came out and said that they’d lied, that it was all for the money, that Jackson had never done anything wrong. Even still though we’re left with the sadness of seeing Jackson in that Bashir interview, admitting he slept with children in his bed, spending $6 million in a day in a store, parading his children (including the wonderfully named Blanket) in veils or hanging one over a balcony. The magic is over. The tabloids showed us behind the curtain, up the sleeve and into the hat and exposed the tricks there. Now with the proliferation of so called reality TV, digital cameras and You Tube there is no magic. We see him without the make-up. He’s just another person.

Why not just tell people I’m an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They’ll believe anything you say, because you’re a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, “I’m an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight”, people would say, “Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He’s cracked up. You can’t believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth.

If there was to be another good Jackson song, chances are it would be written and produced by him, but not performed. He’s 50 now, and how many over 50s are popular enough to generate huge interest? Some young, up and coming X factor hopeful in the US could take his interest and he’d work with them. A charity single he’d write would go to number one. He’d be ideal to write another Christmas smash. Until then though, I think we’ve seen and enjoyed the best of Jackson. It wore him out, he’s afraid to give more. He doesn’t really need to. But one thing is for sure – we lost something valuable when we lost Jackson. There’s no equal. There never will be.

“I’ve been in the entertainment industry since I was six-years-old…As Charles Dickens says, “It’s been the best of times, the worst of times.” But I would not change my career…While some have made deliberate attempts to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support me.”

What say you? Will he release another good song? What was your favourite Jackson moment

Jackson at the Superbowl in 1993. Watch him move. That’s a real showman in action. Robbie Williams will be long dead from an overdose before he equals something like this.

And Jackson’s Pepsi ad

(So, @theblogpound, how was that? If you say “but I said Michale Jackson”, there’ll be slaps!)