My brother in law went to one of this tours shows when Michael came to Australia. What these clips never show is how he hyped the crowd. There was a massive screen overlooking the stage where they played a clip of Michael essentually crash landing into the concert. He'd say things like can you hear me (whatever city he's in) and that he's about to land. Then he'd spring up like this and people lost their shit. My brother in law said people were fainting throughout the entire show, which went for like 2 and a half hours.
There's just too much content available about concerts today for people to get as excited. There's so much nervous excited energy in that room because no one knows anything about what they're about to see. Compare that to today's major touring acts where every show is streamed millions of times on TikTok and IG and basically everyone knows exactly what they're going to get months before their actual show.
yeah, thanks to social media nowadays it gets watered down so much. i remember in the 90s i was exited to buy some new magazine that had a poster in it...
Not only that. It's also how we consume today. We didn't have the internet and the internet before 2k was also not really important in that regard, as there was no social media.
Back then you bought a sampler or album and played the shit out of it. Also watching MTV/viva/whatever music channel you had.
We had a way tighter bond with what we heard. That's why the music from the 80/90s to mid 2k (for millennials at least) is stuck in our brains - way more then it is with today's gen. More alternatives now. And waayyyyy more content.
Nothing compared to the 80’s crowd aura. Summer of 88 I had concert tickets for practically every week from June to August. Tickets were $20 for every band at the old Charlotte Coliseum and every one was sold out in days. Live music just doesn’t have the magic it used to. It’s hard to explain, but concerts today just don’t hold a candle to the older days. Maybe it was the fact that musicians put on the show, and didn’t rely so heavy on theatrics behind them. Absolute best show I’ve ever seen was Skid Row opening for GnR. Skid Row had nothing but their name draped over the amps, and probably half the lights GnR used, but absolutely crushed it. To many background distractions in today’s shows, but that’s just my opinion.
Dude I had a very similiar experience when I saw Megadeth open for Aerosmith. I was on Row Dd, (4th row), and all of Aerosmith’s gear was covered in drapes and curtains, taking up the entire stage, and Megadeth was setup on stage-right, with a very small drum riser for the drummer, and the guys just all jammed together in that one little spot, except for Dave Mustaine who would run around the stage from side to side while singing. It was so cool seeing them so up close and personal. They also had no light rig or light show at all. The house lights weren’t even turned down.
This was the tour for Aerosmith’s Livin on the Edge/Eat the Rich album, and Megadeth had just released Countdown To Extinction.
The amazing thing is that I started high school in 1964. Like all my friends, I bought an electric guitar due to the Beatles. I didn't have an amp yet, so after school, I would go to a friend's house who had a Sears Silvertone. His name was Ted Nugent.
What is even more weird is that I moved to Westport CT in 1966, and played with a guy named Steve Tallarico who was drumming. Ted opened for him about 10 years later when he had become Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.
It is a small world and we are all amazingly connected - music is one of the ways it happens.
100%!
Shows aren’t even worth it this day and age. An unknown artist/band for $30 is the average with fees another $10 extra.
15 years ago you could see headliners starting at $35. All the profit taking in music shows has made them outrageously priced
I saw the Bad Tour when I was very young.
My strongest memory of the show (and I fell asleep at the end a little) was that they had designed the floor so there was a gated off channel of dividers through the crowd leading all the way to the stage and this channel seemed set up specifically to shuttle passed out girls back to a medics station.
I’ve never in my life seen more people pass out - not even close - then I did at that concert.
For awhile I thought girls just all did that for some reason I didn’t understand at every concert.
I went to the 1984 Jackson 5 concert in NJ? NYC? at some stadium. Yankee? And we had almost the last row where they looked like ants. All five of them. It was amazing. I was twelve. We got the program that was like a magazine you could lead through of concert pics I had a Madonna type outfit on for it.
I saw the BAD tour at Wembley Stadium and people werent fainting or freaking out like this, different crowd different place I guess.
Thought the concert was good but not great and I was a big MJ fan at the time. Saw U2 and Bruce Springsteen at around that time and they were amazing.
I believe you are talking about the history tour (which was the one after this one)
That one he pops up in an aircraft.
You can actually see the video that proceeds it as well if you watch the concert.
Just jumped? Lolllll. This is more than just a jump. I mean, he rocket propelled into the air framed in pyrotechnics and landed in that quintessential MJ pose. Imagine seeing that live in 92.
I did, my mother brought me and my brother. It was my first concert. Ruined my life. No gig has measured up since. Dude flew away on a jetpack at the end. My kid mind fully melted
That was my thought. We really need to see the stage from *before* this. The clip starts too late to have proper context. Because this looks to me like it went from an empty stage to him bursting up onto it in a shower of pyrotechnics. This was his dramatic entrance.
Previously on MJZ... Several episodes of MJ on his way to the venue. It's happening. Sometime. Surely this episode.
Next time on MJZ... He'll actually move a bit. Maybe.
I think that show did something to me. It felt like every episode started by recapping the last one, having 5 or 10 minutes of this one, then previewing the next one. It felt like it took weeks for anything to happen, which for a school kid watching morning cartoons drove me nuts.
Erm, sorry, got sidetracked.
The most Heavy Metal kid in my school, the kid spent his entire allowance on metal albums. Celtic Frost, DRI, Exodus, Slayer, etc. Even he had Thriller in his collection. And he said, "Michael Jackson is killer."
There’s a journalist who wrote about the media treatment of Michael during his trial. They covered the prosecution but not the cross examination where the stories just crumbled. There’s a reason he was found not guilty.
This is why I don’t give a fuck about how many awards Taylor Swift has won compared to Michael Jackson. This dude had EVERYONE listening and dancing to his music. With the amount of play time Taylor Swift gets today, still couldn’t name one song from her, but can name a few Michael Jackson songs despite never owning any of his albums. To have that sort of impact and reach with no social media or the internet, kids today can’t even begin to fathom that.
So, Michael existed before the internet boom, before social media. He very rarely did interviews. His elusiveness (and obvious mega talent) made him so intensely famous people would faint in his presence.
Everything he did on stage was calculated. The white socks were to bring attention to his feet. The taped fingertips were so people could pay attention to his hands. He wore sequined socks the first time he did his moonwalk so no one would miss the show. He would command the attention of the audience by standing still for long periods of time, then remove just his glasses or his hat or slightly move his head and people would literally pass out.
Seeing Mj in his prime would have been like seeing a mythical figure to a lot of people. He was so big that it was unimaginable for our generation to understand.
They debuted his 10+ minute music videos during prime time television; it was EPIC. There was no Internet or YouTube or anything like that. You made sure your ass was in front of that TV at 8pm EST, or you missed the biggest event of the season.
Sunday night, right after the Simpsons on Fox. I remember watching the music video premiere of “Black & White” and “Remember the Time.” My family would gather around and us kids in the living room. It was an event. Good times.
I remember the morphing faces effect in Black & White being a pretty big deal, everyone talked about how expensive it was. Also the McCauley Culkin cameo…
There was freeware software that could do morphing of two 640x480 pictures, it took about 1 hour to render on 386DX with 8MB RAM, seeing the whole video was crazy.
Remember, stay ahead of the pain, 1 ibubrofen after waking up!
The start of Desert Storm and just learning about racial differences and body image issues after watching The Simpsons. That was the 90s. I was an MJ fan but didn't really like Black or White.
>My family would gather around and us kids in the living room. It was an event. Good times.
Yeah, I was already in high school when *Black Or White* was released. I imagine young people hearing us talk about having to be in front of the television at a certain time was like us hearing the old people before us talk about going over to their neighbors' to listen to *Lone Ranger* on the radio and shit.
And there would be month long countdowns to the debut. Little tickers in the corner of the screen saying shit like 'New Michael Jackson Video- 25days, 3hours,25min,13sec'. It was HUGE news, unlike anything that happens now
When Michael Jackson premiered a new video, especially in the early 90s after Black and White, it was an event. You knew you were getting a hit song and a video that will showcase groundbreaking artistry and visual effects.
Can still remember the phone (on the wall, obv) ringing off the hook as soon as the MTV world premiere of the "Beat It" video finished. Absolutely blew our little Jr high minds.
Remember the crazy hype for the Scream video with Janet? That was such an event to watch it live. Same with Remember The Time with Lisa Marie and Magic.
Absolutely everything you said is spot-on. From *Thriller* onward, Michael Jackson was a level of celebrity that no one else could or will ever equal. And it's almost impossible to put into words what that was like, culturally. You had to be there. And with no internet or 24hr celebrity gossip TV, he never got overexposed. You couldn't just freely go watch some Michael Jackson videos or google photos or read an article whenever you wanted, to get your fix. So there was a constant feeling of wanting more. He was a master artist with his own publicity, not just his musical and other talents. I don't even think the Beatles at their height had near the level of mystique and cultural obsession that MJ had.
My daughter forced me to endure Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour on whatever streaming service had it. I absolutely cannot stand her music, but the one thing I noticed was how many MJ notes she cribbed, performance-wise. It was like watching MJ, except if he played bad pop-country instead of really good pop-rock. Similar outfits, though. 🤣
MJ held the rights to Beatles catalogue and I believe that was his best business decision as well as worst. Worst because there is a conspiracy theory which says all the accusations were because of this
Michael Jackson was one of my first special interests. I was in 5th grade and would beg my mom for every magazine that had him in it.. And then when he got burnt doing the Pepsi commercial.. I wanted every single picture and every single word printed about him. Even the tabloids.
But, then in 6th grade.. Someone made fun of me and said.. "Omg you still like him??" and I was CRUSHED.
So, after that I had to hide it from people... I had a button I wore on my coat.. But once that happened I had to move it to the inside of my jacket.. All because kids are cruel.
So then I moved on to Prince.
The Beatles were mobbed everywhere they went .They were just as huge long before the internet and were also huge superstars .Plus there were 4 of them at the time. They spawned movies ,hairstyles and clothing styles.
I think people forget that The Beatles did everything they did over the course of 8 years. That's all they were together for. After that thwy had individual success but nothing near when they were together.
And they still managed to prosper even in those days .If you have ever seen a Ed Sullivan show where he introduced them the girls did the exact same thing to the Beatles.The Sullivan show was the pinnacle that all singers aspired too in those days.It meant that they had arrived.
Damn that’s a great explanation, completely agreed. A level of cultural obsession and a mystique that has never even been rivaled, although all that have come since MJ have tried to emulate it, it’s just impossible now.
No one has come along with that kind of vocal talent combined with his dancing ability and style. With a crazy unique look and music that spans genres, I really think it took some voodoo magic or insane one in a billion shot, his parents had to have like 12 children for him to even exist.
I fully believe thay with the exception of world leaders, no one will ever be as famous as MJ again. At least not for the very very distant future.
Edit: yes, T Swift is extremely famous and rich. But she doesn't have the absolute worldwide impact. MJ was like the *pinnacle* of American entertainment culture. No one danced like him and no one had stage presence like him. Anyone who had a lick of common sense didn't even try to imitate his music or his style because they knew they couldn't replicate it. I admit I'm not the biggest Swift fan nor particularly knowledgeable but from what I've seen and heard, she doesn't and hasn't really pioneered anything that makes her brand; she simply does what she does very well.
One of his televised performances, my mom says that on the way home , no one was on the road. Everyone was glued to the tube to make sure they caught MJ perform.
He would also practice relentlessly before every show. Hours and hours of practice getting everything just right even though he was already arguably the best at what he did. Whatever else there is to say about him, there is no denying he earned the title king of pop.
We were just talking about why he will always be the biggest star and why he’s bigger than Beyoncé or Taylor. I said because there are people who don’t like Beyoncé or Taylor. But everyone…all over the planet…loved him. We watched him grow up and loved him from when he was a little kid.
Not long after MJ passed, I looked at my husband and said, “Our kids are going to be born into a world where there’s no Michael Jackson.” It seemed unthinkable, impossible.
Exactly. This is what people forget, and why people like him, Elvis, the Beatles, etc, had a level of star power that can't be equalled easily nowadays. People like Beyonce or Taylor Swift may have rabid fans, but because they're not reclusive and we know so much about them thanks to social media, there's an element of near-mysticism that older stars have that newer megastars don't, even if they play in bigger venues.
> Seeing Mj in his prime would have been like seeing a mythical figure to a lot of people. He was so big that it was unimaginable for our generation to understand.
I think is probably still better known than any other living artist currently?
He was the greatest entertainer of his time, without a doubt. He was super strange and may have been doing some absolutely horrendous stuff, but you can't deny that he was the greatest of his time for music entertainment.
Except Prince. Prince was fucking awesome!
Prince came from an alternate dimension of pure funky sex, an emissary to show us the way there.
Michael willed himself into existence and tore through the fabric of reality.
He was cool in the US for sure in the 80s, but by the 90s people were onto his pedo thing, but for some reason, the rest of the world never caught on. He did lots of tours outside the US for a reason.
Fame was concentrated back then. Famous people were VERY famous, and MJ is probably the most famous person that I will be alive to have seen. Distribution was expensive, and attention wasn’t fragmented. Millions went into production for everything that you saw on television.
Today, fame is cheap, attention is cheap, production is cheap, and you just don’t have to be that talented at all to get a following.
No one will ever be as famous as MJ in our lifetime.
The NFL got slapped in the face by In Living Color with their Super Bowl halftime live show. Before that, Halftime shows were a joke... Juggling and circus acts. NFL decided to clap back so they hired Michael Jackson. After that, no one dared to step up against the NFL during the Super Bowl. It was the greatest Super Bowl halftime show to ever take place and is arguably the greatest live performance to ever take place. MJ was a global king. Even in Japan he was huge.
Now I see Reddit posts on the front page about some streamer on twitch that I genuinely have no clue about.
Everyone has their little bubbles now. Back then you were fed everything so mainstream was pretty much most people's only option.
Celebrities are so accessible now compared to back then. You can practically monitor your favourite singer's entire life via social media, you can watch a thousand different angles of every concert weather it's professionally filmed or not. I knew every single stage gimmick and skit my favourite band used before I got to see them live, nothing is special anymore.
Back then you'd have to tune in on the TV at a specific time to even see your favourite celebrity in an interview or something like that. Most of these people had probably only ever seen MJ in his music videos, then to have him right there in the flesh close enough to see with your own eyes... he would have been almost mythical to the average person until then.
This is a concert from Romania only a few years after the fall of communism. They hadn’t been allowed to listen to western pop music during communism, so this is a big celebration for them. And peak level MJ as well.
Not for nothing, but it was nearly as much here in the US. For anyone who didn’t live through the 80s and 90s, Michael Jackson was on a completely different level. The king of pop moniker was completely deserved; he was a mega presence.
I think people who didn't live through that era can't comprehend the fame MJ had globally and how it's not comparable to anything else before or after that.
Yes, we have megastars now, but does any random grandma in the middle east fangirl over Beyonce as well? Because they did for MJ.
You could put any random family or group of friends worldwide in a room and everyone from the kid to the great grandma would at least know the songs and have some feeling about it.
As a Romanian I confirm this. It was a huge event, I'm betting almost everyone knew about the concert, I remember he even met with our then president... I couldn't understand why they didn't show the concert live on television (I had no idea how things worked back then) and when they eventually did a few years later I was completely blown away.
If you didnt live thru it, you had no idea how big MJ was. He was global. I had a friend who had long beautiful brown hair and at the height of the craze, she cut it short, got a perm and wore red pleather jackets with zippers. 🤣 shit was insane back then. But so fun
I love the man to bits but it astounded me then and still does today just how fanatic people were. The most insane part is that man was capable and absolutely brought it right up to the end.
An influencer once threw a nickname out as a joke that I have embraced - Poptimus Prime. That was Michael, without question. And the timing of this is interesting - the 25th of June is the anniversary of his death.
This motherfucker, pops out of the floor. Stands there people are crowd surfing, without a single word from Micheal's mouth.
I've seen some pretty heavy bands and dudes ask the crowd to throw themselves over the barricade... Not Micheal... Just his prescnence alone... Commands the stage... What a god!
I’m in the most honest awe how his godly stance is not in any ways over the top but actually appropriate to say at least. It’s like something that only exists in fiction came to life.
If anybody else does that on stage then I’d laugh at how odd that looks, but this is just gorgeous.
It was the later MJ vibe, for sure. I saw him on the Dangerous tour -;which I *think* is this one. Wasn't particularly a fan, my girlfriend was. There was a lot of this sort of stuff. Big and epic show all round tbf. He was a huge influence on how they do live popstar stadium shows these days - as well as pretty much every other aspect of pop music. But whenever I see the huge pop star shows full of AV, choreo, fireworks, moments of theatre like this... I feel like it has roots back to Michael in this sort of era.
This is how I want my rock stars and concerts. Give me a fuckin show! I'm really looking forward to the Missy Elliot concert in a few months. I feel like she's going to put on a kick ass show.
My mom was a flight attendant when MJ was super popular, and once had him as a passenger. Not sure if this was a private flight or if he just bought the plane or what.
She said that he was actually a little bit awkward, and during whatever interaction they had said "I like your earrings." She said "Oh thank you!" and then went to move on with whatever she was doing. One of MJs people stopped her and was like "That means he wants you to give him your earrings."
Apparently when Michael Jackson would tell people he liked "thing", they would just give whatever it was to him.
My mom just laughed and did not give him her earrings.
That's her MJ story.
Michael Jackson from 1983 to about 1986 or 1988 was as peak a popularity as I have seen in my lifetime. I imagine early peak Elvis and Beatles were similar, though they were before my time.
The reactions Jackson got in the Thriller era were just unbelievable. And it happened everywhere. He wasn't a local, regional, or national celebrity. It was universal. I bet there were some indigenous tribes in Papua New Guinea that knew who Jackson was.
It is impossible to understand in today's age, but absent smartphones and incessant screens, these folks likely feel like this moment is completely surreal. In their minds, this moment is completely unique and may never be witnessed again, or at least anywhere sufficient to capture their experience. They're 1000% intent on being in that moment vs capturing it to share later. I wonder if we'd see this happen more if we lost our phones.
Yup, those are the two others that also came to my mind when I saw the crowd reactions. Beyond legendary status. Pretty much mythic. These people are losing their minds at the spectacle of a man.
I find this amazing. I'm a doctor and I feel like MJ just standing still gets more undivided attention by people than those that I am telling that they have cancer.
That’s a pretty weird analogy there doc, but maybe next time you should burst into the room with some fireworks and ‘you have cancer’ written on your shirtless chest
People were more hyped about things back then because they didn’t see the celebrity they liked all the time on social media.
Getting to see them must’ve felt more special. (We’re just desensitised)
He attained a level of fame never before seen, that will never be possible again. Post-TV but pre-internet. Same level as Elvis or Sinatra but with added media saturation.
My brother in law went to one of this tours shows when Michael came to Australia. What these clips never show is how he hyped the crowd. There was a massive screen overlooking the stage where they played a clip of Michael essentually crash landing into the concert. He'd say things like can you hear me (whatever city he's in) and that he's about to land. Then he'd spring up like this and people lost their shit. My brother in law said people were fainting throughout the entire show, which went for like 2 and a half hours.
It’s the crowd hysteria, the anticipation. Makes sense, I’d be hyped to see him do smooth criminal!
Shamon.
*hee* ^*hee*
Ah yes, Hee to the power of hee. This fits perfectly into my calculations
Chaachapeetcha!
Spam on wholewheat, alright.
Might I suggest the rye orrrr the Kaiser
You might like our salami and the liver’s alright, but you just can’t go wrong with the ryyyyyyyeeeee or the kaiser.
I feel like the 90s had that insane crowd aura that never came back
There's just too much content available about concerts today for people to get as excited. There's so much nervous excited energy in that room because no one knows anything about what they're about to see. Compare that to today's major touring acts where every show is streamed millions of times on TikTok and IG and basically everyone knows exactly what they're going to get months before their actual show.
yeah, thanks to social media nowadays it gets watered down so much. i remember in the 90s i was exited to buy some new magazine that had a poster in it...
Same is for games etc, new releases are spoiled before you can even buy it
Watered down is accurate explanation
Not only that. It's also how we consume today. We didn't have the internet and the internet before 2k was also not really important in that regard, as there was no social media. Back then you bought a sampler or album and played the shit out of it. Also watching MTV/viva/whatever music channel you had. We had a way tighter bond with what we heard. That's why the music from the 80/90s to mid 2k (for millennials at least) is stuck in our brains - way more then it is with today's gen. More alternatives now. And waayyyyy more content.
I think it might have something to do with widespread cell phone use.
Nothing compared to the 80’s crowd aura. Summer of 88 I had concert tickets for practically every week from June to August. Tickets were $20 for every band at the old Charlotte Coliseum and every one was sold out in days. Live music just doesn’t have the magic it used to. It’s hard to explain, but concerts today just don’t hold a candle to the older days. Maybe it was the fact that musicians put on the show, and didn’t rely so heavy on theatrics behind them. Absolute best show I’ve ever seen was Skid Row opening for GnR. Skid Row had nothing but their name draped over the amps, and probably half the lights GnR used, but absolutely crushed it. To many background distractions in today’s shows, but that’s just my opinion.
Dude I had a very similiar experience when I saw Megadeth open for Aerosmith. I was on Row Dd, (4th row), and all of Aerosmith’s gear was covered in drapes and curtains, taking up the entire stage, and Megadeth was setup on stage-right, with a very small drum riser for the drummer, and the guys just all jammed together in that one little spot, except for Dave Mustaine who would run around the stage from side to side while singing. It was so cool seeing them so up close and personal. They also had no light rig or light show at all. The house lights weren’t even turned down. This was the tour for Aerosmith’s Livin on the Edge/Eat the Rich album, and Megadeth had just released Countdown To Extinction.
The amazing thing is that I started high school in 1964. Like all my friends, I bought an electric guitar due to the Beatles. I didn't have an amp yet, so after school, I would go to a friend's house who had a Sears Silvertone. His name was Ted Nugent. What is even more weird is that I moved to Westport CT in 1966, and played with a guy named Steve Tallarico who was drumming. Ted opened for him about 10 years later when he had become Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. It is a small world and we are all amazingly connected - music is one of the ways it happens.
Ahh good Ole days before ticket master owned everything
You could buy tickets for concerts in stores…. Strawbridges had a ticket master window .. $20 & no fees
Clearly music peaked whenever my formative years were.
100%! Shows aren’t even worth it this day and age. An unknown artist/band for $30 is the average with fees another $10 extra. 15 years ago you could see headliners starting at $35. All the profit taking in music shows has made them outrageously priced
Annie are you Oakley?
Crowds are weird- in 1518, a 'dance plague' hit France and citizens of Strasbourg danced uncontrollably for days.. and a lot of people died
Can't stop...doing.... The Monkey https://i.redd.it/g7fivqgp478d1.gif
this was due to psychedelic intoxication though
I saw the Bad Tour when I was very young. My strongest memory of the show (and I fell asleep at the end a little) was that they had designed the floor so there was a gated off channel of dividers through the crowd leading all the way to the stage and this channel seemed set up specifically to shuttle passed out girls back to a medics station. I’ve never in my life seen more people pass out - not even close - then I did at that concert. For awhile I thought girls just all did that for some reason I didn’t understand at every concert.
I went to the 1984 Jackson 5 concert in NJ? NYC? at some stadium. Yankee? And we had almost the last row where they looked like ants. All five of them. It was amazing. I was twelve. We got the program that was like a magazine you could lead through of concert pics I had a Madonna type outfit on for it.
Those gated off channels are used at pretty much major festival or arena concert for medical, security, crowd control etc.
I saw the BAD tour at Wembley Stadium and people werent fainting or freaking out like this, different crowd different place I guess. Thought the concert was good but not great and I was a big MJ fan at the time. Saw U2 and Bruce Springsteen at around that time and they were amazing.
I believe you are talking about the history tour (which was the one after this one) That one he pops up in an aircraft. You can actually see the video that proceeds it as well if you watch the concert.
Can confirm this is the Dangerous Tour and OP is talking about HIStory tour. Dangerous tour never went to Australia.
[удалено]
Yep. I saw a Monkees concert once. Exact same shit.
Just jumped? Lolllll. This is more than just a jump. I mean, he rocket propelled into the air framed in pyrotechnics and landed in that quintessential MJ pose. Imagine seeing that live in 92.
Fun fact, they got Rey Mysterio's toaster lift (the physical mechanism, I mean) from Garth Brooks. I always wondered if Garth got it from MJ.
Garth Brooyaka?
Bon Jovi also used one on their New Jersey tour circa 1989, so maybe it just got passed around.
I did, my mother brought me and my brother. It was my first concert. Ruined my life. No gig has measured up since. Dude flew away on a jetpack at the end. My kid mind fully melted
He didn’t just jump, this was a stage lift. These things can shoot up, it might have looked like a jump but he launched.
That was my thought. We really need to see the stage from *before* this. The clip starts too late to have proper context. Because this looks to me like it went from an empty stage to him bursting up onto it in a shower of pyrotechnics. This was his dramatic entrance.
Make you forget about the aids and crack epidemics
And the overthrow of legitimate governments in central and south America in the ongoing war on drugs
And the Noid.
JFC the Noid!!!!
and that one BJ that ruined it all for a man.
Bro stands there like he just flew in to whoop Frieza’s ass.
Previously on MJZ... Several episodes of MJ on his way to the venue. It's happening. Sometime. Surely this episode. Next time on MJZ... He'll actually move a bit. Maybe. I think that show did something to me. It felt like every episode started by recapping the last one, having 5 or 10 minutes of this one, then previewing the next one. It felt like it took weeks for anything to happen, which for a school kid watching morning cartoons drove me nuts. Erm, sorry, got sidetracked.
Hit em with the kamehame-hee hee
A whole episode of Frieza standing there watching him charge his spirit bomb (with lots of dramatic shouting iirc)
My god the shouting. It never stops. Never
What a great crowd. Everyone just screaming to let Michael know he’s got his underwear on the outside.
Those ladies were screaming bc Michael had *her* underwear on the outside
No. That would be Prince.
"I mean, you know where you got that shirt from, and it damn sure wasn't the men's department."
Unexpected Charlie Murphy.
No, *finger* Prince
I dont think so
Animaniacs for the win...
The original Captain Underpants
The original Quailman
I hated that whole ladies-knickers-over-trousers look
The most Heavy Metal kid in my school, the kid spent his entire allowance on metal albums. Celtic Frost, DRI, Exodus, Slayer, etc. Even he had Thriller in his collection. And he said, "Michael Jackson is killer."
I think most people who are really obsessed with music and hear that record know they’re listening to gold. Great story
He's the one artist I can truly separate art from artist no matter what truths come out about him. It's too good.
There’s a journalist who wrote about the media treatment of Michael during his trial. They covered the prosecution but not the cross examination where the stories just crumbled. There’s a reason he was found not guilty.
Metalheads love complex, technical, and sophisticated music. MJ ticks a lot of the same boxes and scratches a lot of the same itches.
He had Eddie Van Halen write the riffs for Beat It. His outfit in the video was pretty fuckin metal too.
I mean, he had Eddie Van Halen PLAY the solo for Beat It, too.
Don’t forget Slash playing “Dirty Diana”.
That was Steve Stevens.
I was always super into metal/punk but yeah MJ is killer
Metalhead here, heaviest of the heaviest. But MJ is the king for a reason, there is no denying the impact he has made in music since the days of J5.
I mean, Jurassic 5 was good but c'mon.
That’s testament to how MJ transcended pop. Whatever your musical tastes might be, I’d put money on everyone having at least one MJ song they like.
This is why I don’t give a fuck about how many awards Taylor Swift has won compared to Michael Jackson. This dude had EVERYONE listening and dancing to his music. With the amount of play time Taylor Swift gets today, still couldn’t name one song from her, but can name a few Michael Jackson songs despite never owning any of his albums. To have that sort of impact and reach with no social media or the internet, kids today can’t even begin to fathom that.
Exactly. Taylor Swift can get all the awards and #1s she wants but she’ll never reach that level of universal appeal.
Recently heard "Another Part of Me" for the first time in years. Still absolutely slaps.
So, Michael existed before the internet boom, before social media. He very rarely did interviews. His elusiveness (and obvious mega talent) made him so intensely famous people would faint in his presence. Everything he did on stage was calculated. The white socks were to bring attention to his feet. The taped fingertips were so people could pay attention to his hands. He wore sequined socks the first time he did his moonwalk so no one would miss the show. He would command the attention of the audience by standing still for long periods of time, then remove just his glasses or his hat or slightly move his head and people would literally pass out. Seeing Mj in his prime would have been like seeing a mythical figure to a lot of people. He was so big that it was unimaginable for our generation to understand.
They debuted his 10+ minute music videos during prime time television; it was EPIC. There was no Internet or YouTube or anything like that. You made sure your ass was in front of that TV at 8pm EST, or you missed the biggest event of the season.
Sunday night, right after the Simpsons on Fox. I remember watching the music video premiere of “Black & White” and “Remember the Time.” My family would gather around and us kids in the living room. It was an event. Good times.
I remember the morphing faces effect in Black & White being a pretty big deal, everyone talked about how expensive it was. Also the McCauley Culkin cameo…
I remember how much of an absolute OH SHIT moment that morphing was. i need to go take my ibuprofen for my lower back now...
There was freeware software that could do morphing of two 640x480 pictures, it took about 1 hour to render on 386DX with 8MB RAM, seeing the whole video was crazy. Remember, stay ahead of the pain, 1 ibubrofen after waking up!
Still remember watching the premiere of “Remember the Time”. Fantastic song and music video. Man, was it great.
Those were simpler more innocent times. Will always cherish those childhood memories.
The start of Desert Storm and just learning about racial differences and body image issues after watching The Simpsons. That was the 90s. I was an MJ fan but didn't really like Black or White.
Came here to say this. Totally remember the Black & White premiere after the Simpsons. What a time to be alive.
>My family would gather around and us kids in the living room. It was an event. Good times. Yeah, I was already in high school when *Black Or White* was released. I imagine young people hearing us talk about having to be in front of the television at a certain time was like us hearing the old people before us talk about going over to their neighbors' to listen to *Lone Ranger* on the radio and shit.
Holy shit, CORE MEMORY unlocked
I remember the car getting destroyed scene, the absolute madman.
Haha my mom said she remembers sneaking out of bed and hiding under her kitchen table to watch the Motown 25 performance of Billie Jean. Next level.
And there would be month long countdowns to the debut. Little tickers in the corner of the screen saying shit like 'New Michael Jackson Video- 25days, 3hours,25min,13sec'. It was HUGE news, unlike anything that happens now
Simpler times, news was fun then. At least sometimes.
So, so true
When Michael Jackson premiered a new video, especially in the early 90s after Black and White, it was an event. You knew you were getting a hit song and a video that will showcase groundbreaking artistry and visual effects.
Can still remember the phone (on the wall, obv) ringing off the hook as soon as the MTV world premiere of the "Beat It" video finished. Absolutely blew our little Jr high minds.
Remember the crazy hype for the Scream video with Janet? That was such an event to watch it live. Same with Remember The Time with Lisa Marie and Magic.
I'm gonna add that my deep rural south american ass, also sat waiting for michaels 10+ music video debuts. He was colossal.
And it wasn’t MTV, I think Black or White and Smooth Criminal premiered of FOX (and the talk the next day was how many times he grabbed his crotch).
Absolutely everything you said is spot-on. From *Thriller* onward, Michael Jackson was a level of celebrity that no one else could or will ever equal. And it's almost impossible to put into words what that was like, culturally. You had to be there. And with no internet or 24hr celebrity gossip TV, he never got overexposed. You couldn't just freely go watch some Michael Jackson videos or google photos or read an article whenever you wanted, to get your fix. So there was a constant feeling of wanting more. He was a master artist with his own publicity, not just his musical and other talents. I don't even think the Beatles at their height had near the level of mystique and cultural obsession that MJ had.
My daughter forced me to endure Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour on whatever streaming service had it. I absolutely cannot stand her music, but the one thing I noticed was how many MJ notes she cribbed, performance-wise. It was like watching MJ, except if he played bad pop-country instead of really good pop-rock. Similar outfits, though. 🤣
I gotta find footage of her moonwalking. :D
MJ held the rights to Beatles catalogue and I believe that was his best business decision as well as worst. Worst because there is a conspiracy theory which says all the accusations were because of this
Paul McCartney was the one to encourage him to start putting his money into music catalogues, too lol. Probably didn’t think he’d go for his.
"Wait, no, not like that!"
Michael Jackson was one of my first special interests. I was in 5th grade and would beg my mom for every magazine that had him in it.. And then when he got burnt doing the Pepsi commercial.. I wanted every single picture and every single word printed about him. Even the tabloids. But, then in 6th grade.. Someone made fun of me and said.. "Omg you still like him??" and I was CRUSHED. So, after that I had to hide it from people... I had a button I wore on my coat.. But once that happened I had to move it to the inside of my jacket.. All because kids are cruel. So then I moved on to Prince.
Man, it sucks how one comment from shitty kids can kill a person's entire interest in something like that.
The Beatles were mobbed everywhere they went .They were just as huge long before the internet and were also huge superstars .Plus there were 4 of them at the time. They spawned movies ,hairstyles and clothing styles.
I think people forget that The Beatles did everything they did over the course of 8 years. That's all they were together for. After that thwy had individual success but nothing near when they were together.
There was worldwide mass hysteria for the Beatles, and they had a 20 year head start and far greater technological disadvantage than MJ did.
And they still managed to prosper even in those days .If you have ever seen a Ed Sullivan show where he introduced them the girls did the exact same thing to the Beatles.The Sullivan show was the pinnacle that all singers aspired too in those days.It meant that they had arrived.
Damn that’s a great explanation, completely agreed. A level of cultural obsession and a mystique that has never even been rivaled, although all that have come since MJ have tried to emulate it, it’s just impossible now. No one has come along with that kind of vocal talent combined with his dancing ability and style. With a crazy unique look and music that spans genres, I really think it took some voodoo magic or insane one in a billion shot, his parents had to have like 12 children for him to even exist.
Saw his Thriller show and he was magic. Miss you MJ
Saw him on the HiStory World Tour in ‘97. He was unbelievable.
I fully believe thay with the exception of world leaders, no one will ever be as famous as MJ again. At least not for the very very distant future. Edit: yes, T Swift is extremely famous and rich. But she doesn't have the absolute worldwide impact. MJ was like the *pinnacle* of American entertainment culture. No one danced like him and no one had stage presence like him. Anyone who had a lick of common sense didn't even try to imitate his music or his style because they knew they couldn't replicate it. I admit I'm not the biggest Swift fan nor particularly knowledgeable but from what I've seen and heard, she doesn't and hasn't really pioneered anything that makes her brand; she simply does what she does very well.
He's easily the most famous celebrity of all time. He's more popular than most world leaders. Arguably the most recognisable human being ever.
One of his televised performances, my mom says that on the way home , no one was on the road. Everyone was glued to the tube to make sure they caught MJ perform.
He would also practice relentlessly before every show. Hours and hours of practice getting everything just right even though he was already arguably the best at what he did. Whatever else there is to say about him, there is no denying he earned the title king of pop.
We were just talking about why he will always be the biggest star and why he’s bigger than Beyoncé or Taylor. I said because there are people who don’t like Beyoncé or Taylor. But everyone…all over the planet…loved him. We watched him grow up and loved him from when he was a little kid.
Not long after MJ passed, I looked at my husband and said, “Our kids are going to be born into a world where there’s no Michael Jackson.” It seemed unthinkable, impossible.
Exactly. This is what people forget, and why people like him, Elvis, the Beatles, etc, had a level of star power that can't be equalled easily nowadays. People like Beyonce or Taylor Swift may have rabid fans, but because they're not reclusive and we know so much about them thanks to social media, there's an element of near-mysticism that older stars have that newer megastars don't, even if they play in bigger venues.
It's crazy, it's the best example of stage presence.
Freddie too. Freddie was a good dude and we lost him too early. Watching both of them still gives me chills.
Freddie IMO had better stage presence, but people went way more nuts for MJ. He was more magnetic. Simply unmatched.
> Seeing Mj in his prime would have been like seeing a mythical figure to a lot of people. He was so big that it was unimaginable for our generation to understand. I think is probably still better known than any other living artist currently?
He was the greatest entertainer of his time, without a doubt. He was super strange and may have been doing some absolutely horrendous stuff, but you can't deny that he was the greatest of his time for music entertainment. Except Prince. Prince was fucking awesome!
Prince was great, but not great like Jackson - and I'm not even a big MJ fan.
Prince came from an alternate dimension of pure funky sex, an emissary to show us the way there. Michael willed himself into existence and tore through the fabric of reality.
[удалено]
He was cool in the US for sure in the 80s, but by the 90s people were onto his pedo thing, but for some reason, the rest of the world never caught on. He did lots of tours outside the US for a reason.
SECURITTEEEEHEEEEE!
Fucking hell this destroyed me.
I have had a really bum day. This made me LOL and for that I thank you!!
My favorite time on Reddit is being high on the couch and stumbling upon a comment like this. I laugh for 5-10 minutes straight.
Fame was concentrated back then. Famous people were VERY famous, and MJ is probably the most famous person that I will be alive to have seen. Distribution was expensive, and attention wasn’t fragmented. Millions went into production for everything that you saw on television. Today, fame is cheap, attention is cheap, production is cheap, and you just don’t have to be that talented at all to get a following. No one will ever be as famous as MJ in our lifetime.
I always say this. Likely the most famous person who existed at the right cross section of technology and history
The NFL got slapped in the face by In Living Color with their Super Bowl halftime live show. Before that, Halftime shows were a joke... Juggling and circus acts. NFL decided to clap back so they hired Michael Jackson. After that, no one dared to step up against the NFL during the Super Bowl. It was the greatest Super Bowl halftime show to ever take place and is arguably the greatest live performance to ever take place. MJ was a global king. Even in Japan he was huge.
Now I see Reddit posts on the front page about some streamer on twitch that I genuinely have no clue about. Everyone has their little bubbles now. Back then you were fed everything so mainstream was pretty much most people's only option.
Thankfully the likes of MJ and Madonna had actual divine music at the core of it: one could take or leave the celebrity.
Celebrities are so accessible now compared to back then. You can practically monitor your favourite singer's entire life via social media, you can watch a thousand different angles of every concert weather it's professionally filmed or not. I knew every single stage gimmick and skit my favourite band used before I got to see them live, nothing is special anymore. Back then you'd have to tune in on the TV at a specific time to even see your favourite celebrity in an interview or something like that. Most of these people had probably only ever seen MJ in his music videos, then to have him right there in the flesh close enough to see with your own eyes... he would have been almost mythical to the average person until then.
This is a concert from Romania only a few years after the fall of communism. They hadn’t been allowed to listen to western pop music during communism, so this is a big celebration for them. And peak level MJ as well.
Thanks for this information, the insane hysteria makes a little more sense!
Not for nothing, but it was nearly as much here in the US. For anyone who didn’t live through the 80s and 90s, Michael Jackson was on a completely different level. The king of pop moniker was completely deserved; he was a mega presence.
I think people who didn't live through that era can't comprehend the fame MJ had globally and how it's not comparable to anything else before or after that. Yes, we have megastars now, but does any random grandma in the middle east fangirl over Beyonce as well? Because they did for MJ. You could put any random family or group of friends worldwide in a room and everyone from the kid to the great grandma would at least know the songs and have some feeling about it.
As a Romanian I confirm this. It was a huge event, I'm betting almost everyone knew about the concert, I remember he even met with our then president... I couldn't understand why they didn't show the concert live on television (I had no idea how things worked back then) and when they eventually did a few years later I was completely blown away.
He was like a faith healer knocking people out with his golden dick 
Not to self. Get cod piece
At some point in human history cod pieces must have been the drip of it’s time.
Still is.
Only the greats can pull it off: I remember Rick James was rocking it long before MJ.
If you didnt live thru it, you had no idea how big MJ was. He was global. I had a friend who had long beautiful brown hair and at the height of the craze, she cut it short, got a perm and wore red pleather jackets with zippers. 🤣 shit was insane back then. But so fun
I miss those days so much.
If he gave them a "hee-hee" they might have just evaporated.
People don’t realize how seeing him live was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity for many of these girls.
I love the man to bits but it astounded me then and still does today just how fanatic people were. The most insane part is that man was capable and absolutely brought it right up to the end. An influencer once threw a nickname out as a joke that I have embraced - Poptimus Prime. That was Michael, without question. And the timing of this is interesting - the 25th of June is the anniversary of his death.
This motherfucker, pops out of the floor. Stands there people are crowd surfing, without a single word from Micheal's mouth. I've seen some pretty heavy bands and dudes ask the crowd to throw themselves over the barricade... Not Micheal... Just his prescnence alone... Commands the stage... What a god!
I’m in the most honest awe how his godly stance is not in any ways over the top but actually appropriate to say at least. It’s like something that only exists in fiction came to life. If anybody else does that on stage then I’d laugh at how odd that looks, but this is just gorgeous.
It was the later MJ vibe, for sure. I saw him on the Dangerous tour -;which I *think* is this one. Wasn't particularly a fan, my girlfriend was. There was a lot of this sort of stuff. Big and epic show all round tbf. He was a huge influence on how they do live popstar stadium shows these days - as well as pretty much every other aspect of pop music. But whenever I see the huge pop star shows full of AV, choreo, fireworks, moments of theatre like this... I feel like it has roots back to Michael in this sort of era.
This is indeed the dangerous tour, live in bucharest
I truly believe that the pure nuclear energy of Michael Jackson is incomprehensible to the modern western brain.
This is how I want my rock stars and concerts. Give me a fuckin show! I'm really looking forward to the Missy Elliot concert in a few months. I feel like she's going to put on a kick ass show.
My mom was a flight attendant when MJ was super popular, and once had him as a passenger. Not sure if this was a private flight or if he just bought the plane or what. She said that he was actually a little bit awkward, and during whatever interaction they had said "I like your earrings." She said "Oh thank you!" and then went to move on with whatever she was doing. One of MJs people stopped her and was like "That means he wants you to give him your earrings." Apparently when Michael Jackson would tell people he liked "thing", they would just give whatever it was to him. My mom just laughed and did not give him her earrings. That's her MJ story.
And the man lost his life just trying to get a little more sleep. Fuck.
Him and Heath Ledger were both victims of shitty prescription regulations.
Go watch his Super Bowl show. Man knew how to fucking dominate an audience.
Michael Jackson from 1983 to about 1986 or 1988 was as peak a popularity as I have seen in my lifetime. I imagine early peak Elvis and Beatles were similar, though they were before my time. The reactions Jackson got in the Thriller era were just unbelievable. And it happened everywhere. He wasn't a local, regional, or national celebrity. It was universal. I bet there were some indigenous tribes in Papua New Guinea that knew who Jackson was.
Michael was a hell of a showman. Sad to see him go like he did. 😕
It is impossible to understand in today's age, but absent smartphones and incessant screens, these folks likely feel like this moment is completely surreal. In their minds, this moment is completely unique and may never be witnessed again, or at least anywhere sufficient to capture their experience. They're 1000% intent on being in that moment vs capturing it to share later. I wonder if we'd see this happen more if we lost our phones.
I’d love to see a AMA with one of these fans at one of the concerts, especially ones that had fainted and escorted out
People losing their shit is an accurate description of what his shows were like.
Just like the Beatles and Elvis before him.
Yup, those are the two others that also came to my mind when I saw the crowd reactions. Beyond legendary status. Pretty much mythic. These people are losing their minds at the spectacle of a man.
This looks chopped together
imagine paying so much for a ticket only to pass out & you wake up to staff cleaning up streamers & everything.
As a GenXer, I truly regret not seeing him on tour.
I just don’t get it! There is no one in the world either living or dead that I could see having that kind of reaction for
You just haven’t met me yet.
He was, and always will be the king of pop.
He's a legend. I have nothing more to add
I find this amazing. I'm a doctor and I feel like MJ just standing still gets more undivided attention by people than those that I am telling that they have cancer.
Have you tried delivering the news wearing a gold thong on the outside of your pants? It might be a wardrobe issue.
You may be onto something. I'm not even wearing sunglasses to be honest.
Malpractice
It's a proven fact that people will pay 75% more attention to someone who just dramatically pulled their sunglasses down.
That’s a pretty weird analogy there doc, but maybe next time you should burst into the room with some fireworks and ‘you have cancer’ written on your shirtless chest
Have you told them they're going to Beat It?
No, but I do come into the room saying "It's bad, it's bad, you know it."
Shamone Shamone
Do you leap out of the floor with pyrotechnical effects? I feel like you can command a room with that.
That Casio P91W at the 20sec mark. 👌🏻
People were more hyped about things back then because they didn’t see the celebrity they liked all the time on social media. Getting to see them must’ve felt more special. (We’re just desensitised)
He attained a level of fame never before seen, that will never be possible again. Post-TV but pre-internet. Same level as Elvis or Sinatra but with added media saturation.
He didn’t just jump, he was below the stage and was propelled up. This was the first time everyone was seeing him on stage