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After Thriller was Michael in a lose lose situation?

analogue

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After Thriller it seemed like whatever Michael did people would critise him for it. If he made an album that sounded like Thriller people would have said ''Oh can't he do anything different? He needs to let go of Thriller allready'' but then if he did do something different people would have said ''Why is doing this? He needs to go back to his Thriller sound''

It was like he was damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
 
Well... let's say that after Thriller things got cmre complicated for Michael from every point of view. People started criticising him for various reasons, partly because of the rumors that started to go around abouthim, partly because he had some kind of treatment because of the Pepsi accident in 1984. So, after Thriller people tended to criticise him actually for anything...
 
Michael Jackson imo was not in a lose lose situation after Thriller at all. Michael Jackson on the contrary was a winner. Everything he touched turned to gold. And it was only after Thriller that he conquered the whole world and had one success after the other. That is fact. He also got much better as an artist and got revered for his genius especially outside the United States. And I believe one has to separate Michael's life and his artistry and commercial success and the tabloid narrative surrounding him because the latter was mostly completely fabricated and so at least to me doesn't really count. Of course I am aware that the media did brainwash a lot of people into seeing Michael more as a freak than a human being and that this view did harm him obviously. But looking only at Michael and how he handled all this it is very obvious to me that he was above all that and if anything was very capable of channeling all the negativity into high art.
 
analogue said:
After Thriller it seemed like whatever Michael did people would critise him for it. If he made an album that sounded like Thriller people would have said ''Oh can't he do anything different? He needs to let go of Thriller allready'' but then if he did do something different people would have said ''Why is doing this? He needs to go back to his Thriller sound''

It was like he was damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
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You sum it up pretty well - that's all the more reason for any popular artist not to get too obsessed with external approval, awards and sales figures, really. That's easier said than done when you're at MJ's extremely rarified level of commercial success, of course, and there's that pressure (whether internally or externally) to 'do another Thriller'. Never gonna happen.
 
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