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Do You Think Billie Jean Is The Best Song Ever MJ or not MJ?

Is it Billie Jean the best song ever?

  • Total voters
    48
I need only one of the ever best song from mj that must be BJ
 
For me...Billie Jean has a special place and meaning. That was the first song I heard on the radio when it came out. When the beats started I was stunned, without even knowing who is singing. ( I was 12 at the time )
I was standing by the speakers feeling like I never felt before. I remember it like it was yesterday.
After so many years , BJ still gets to me.
It is a LEGENDARY song. Epic. One of a kind.
 
Billie Jean is undoubtly a classic and remains a favourite of mine however, some songs like Scared of The Moon are lyrically amazing and the emotion that is filled within the song is truely amazing i'm not saying that Scared of The Moon is my favourite Michael songs but I personally feel that his less known songs and ballads are better...
 
Best dance track? YES.

'Stranger In Moscow' for me, as the lyrics are just pure genius!
 
Though a classic and a great piece of art, imo Billie Jean is not Michael's best song.
 
It's the most successful that's for sure. Not my personal favourite, but I like it a lot. Even people who are not fans tend to admit to liking Billie Jean. I do sometimes find myself rolling my eyes when fans say "if Billie Jean is your favourite song that means you're not a real fan" though....because it IS a good song hence why it is so successful, and if that is reason enough to question someones fandom that is pretty strange lol.
 
It's not my favourite either.I don't have a favourite MJ song.I couldn't choose one, not if my life it would be threatened.

Being the best and being everybody's favourite or being liked by everybody isn't the same thing.

A masterpiece is a masterpiece and not the fact that is or isn't everybody's no 1 made it a masterpiece in the first place.It's the craftsmanship that made it and the whole artristry encased in it.
 
fave song for me is man in the mirror but all songs are still great
 
I have no problem with anyone who says that Billie Jean is their favorite MJ song. What i hate is when someone says that Billie Jean (Along with Thriller and Beat It) is the ONLY good song he ever did
 
Exactly. ... Also mostly due to the fact that they hardly listen to anything else musically from Michael, or from the period when he was..yeah, you guessed it, black, as they ignorantly put it. .. The media have played too important a role in shaping/distorting public opinion on this issue.
 
Well, I personally think Wanna Be Starting Something is easily Michael's best song but Billie Jean is a close second (although I don't listen to the latter very often... perhaps because I've heard it too much). For me, WBSS has something special and the song is very underrated. The lyrics are creative and funny, the song is very diverse with the chant and everything, the melody is incredibly addictive, Michael's voice sounds very rich on it... it's just a perfect combination :)

Edit: oh, and I just love the live performance of this, I have to watch it at least once a day :wub:

[youtube]xg0AsWruz4k[/youtube]
 
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lucilla said:
The thing about BJ is that it has the whole package.
The music, the lyrics, and even the dance are brilliant.
I think it's one of the greatest single ever.

But I don't think it's the best song from MJ.
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Great post. I agree
 
I wouldnt be able to say that. He has too many songs that would qualify. Depends on which area of songs you're looking for. But his songs are to diverse to just say BJ is the best song. It's absolutely one of me fave's though.
 
MJ has made better songs.

Only one artist have ever made songs that are better than Billie Jean - And that is MJ himself!
 
It's an amazing song, but I'm not sure if I would see it as his best. What I do know for sure is that I personally don't think it deserves to be set apart from other songs so much, as is often done by non-fans - Billie Jean is great, but it's not like it's the only great thing Michael ever wrote.
 
I think Billie Jean is overrated. MJ had other great songs in my opinion.
 
MJultimatemusiclegen said:
So it starts. From beat 1, bass drum, but not just any bass drum, that bass drum (filled to the brim with all sorts of modifications) belongs to Billie Jean, beat 2, we have an even more iconic snare drum, production perfection, and so genius as to have faith in the simplest beat around. By beat 3 we now know the beat, minus a few basic but incredibly tastefull fills later in the record. The beat is so simple, but so intriguing, begging for more. The high hat gently taps the quavers, but mixed to a level so quiet it's disguised by the bass and snare, but simply adding to that sonic perfection that Billie Jean masters like no other. After bar 1 most people already know what this record is, and if you're a hardcore MJ fan, you know by beat 1, yes that's just 0.5 seconds into the track. After just 2 bars, the composition reaches another level as the bass enters. Played on the yamaha bass by Louis Johnson the line moves in quavers in the key of F#minor, the notes rise and fall, giving a true feeling of circularity and looping. It also hits the F# on the first and fourth quaver of the bar, creating a sycopated feel. Everytime it does this a synth bass doubles the note to emphasize that rhythm, no doubt subconciously affecting a new listener to the track allowing the synth chords later on to take the listener to the next level, as sneakily, they have already been introduced to that rhythm without possibly being aware of it through the emphasis on the F#'s in the bassline. After 12 seconds a shaker is added to the groove, to spice up the flavour and to give a sense of building, this will bring out the dancer inside you and the quaver motion in the shaker and high hat further strenghtens the movement in the bassline. After 10 bars, the chords enter played on the synth. These are F#min, G#min and Amajor, all three played in 1st inversion. They are hit on the first and fourth quavers of the bar, something you will notice is on these same beats F# is played in the bass, and this movement creates a harmonically interesting features of the whole intro being dragged backwards by the note F#. This restrain is cleaver and will also create dark tension around the dance groove, as most other dance tracks do not do this, this may be a reason Billie Jean creates a feeling like no other. At 29 seconds (after 14 bars) the voice of Michael Jackson enters it's own groove, it's important to note that whilst Michael's voice in came in after 14 bars, Michael Jackson entered the track from beat 1. From this point onwards, history is made, no more needs to be said. The intro lasts throughout the whole song, as more layers are added and added, this is to keep that energy going, and to stop the groove drying up. I could write an essay for hours on this song, it is incredibly cleaver, and a testament to all the work Michael put into this career.
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wow. thank you for this explanetion
 
Every part of the song is a hook and it is an amazing track .. one of the greatest of all time. But there's MJ songs I love more for various reasons
 
Can't believe i've just seen people say 'Is It Scary' and 'They Don't Care About Us' are the best songs of all time. They aren't even the best MJ songs of all time, far from it. In cases such as this one, you need to look at it as though you have only ever heard these songs once or twice.

Most of you will have heard Billie Jean 100's of thousands of times, and it's not as amazing to you now.......Right now, i'd rather listen to They Dont Care About Us than Billie Jean. But Billie Jean is still my favourite song of all time.

To me, Billie Jean is the best MJ song of all time and the 2nd best song i've ever heard. To me, Bohemian Rhapsody is the best song of all time with Billie Jean in second.
 
I will agree with you on They Dont Care About Us, that is a masterpiece. Is It Scary is a good song, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece.

But to say either are the best songs of all time is completely ludicrous, I know we are supposed to respect each others opinions but that is ludicrous.
 
L.T.D said:
I will agree with you on They Dont Care About Us, that is a masterpiece. Is It Scary is a good song, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece.

But to say either are the best songs of all time is completely ludicrous, I know we are supposed to respect each others opinions but that is ludicrous.
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You're ludicrous ;)

I think Is It Scary is a pure masterpiece...definitely...it's genius...the instrumentation and lyrics are stunning in every way
 
'Billie Jean' is the 'Yesterday' of our generation. Played on radios around the world almost 30 years after it's release. I've been to so many clubs where they play Billie Jean in amongst all the current chart music, Timberlake's 'Like I Love You' and Usher's 'Yeah' and it sounds fresher than all of them.

'Billie Jean' was the first real record which said 'genius'. He'd written other great songs before that, DSTYGE being one of them. But 'Billie Jean' transcends music. It's an event. It signalled a paradigm shift in the record buying public. Black music was the prevelant pop music form from 'Billie Jean' onwards.

It was the moment where black musicians took back black music. You hear the lie from MTV that the reason they didn't play black music was because they were a rock channel. But look at the list of the first 100 videos played on MTV. At about number 50 is Blondie's 'Rapture'. In other words, it was ok to play black music as long as it was fronted by white faces. Queen's Another One Bites The Dust is similar. With a bassline lifted straight from Chic, but with the right complexions and the right connections.

Yes, MTV played Prince and Tina Turner before Michael Jackson. But Michael was the first black face fronting black, soul music. 'Billie Jean' had to be good enough to bring about that paradigm shift. The fact that you hear it in almost every club around the world is testament to how good it was!
 
its a good song but michael has done so many other greaaaaat songs better than billie jean,too many to name!billie jean was so big cos he did the first moonwalk to it....good song but not best xxxxxx
 
Nop, I dont think it is, it's just been overrated by the public.
The people who say it is, they are the people who still spell it Billy Jean. :scratch:
 
If i HAD to pick these are what i would consider to be the TOP TEN greatest MJ songs of all time.

#1. Billie Jean
#2. Man In The Mirror
#3. Dont Stop Till You Get Enough
#4. Earth Song
#5. Way You Make Me Feel
#6. Beat It
#7. Stranger In Moscow
#8. Human Nature
#9. Smooth Criminal
#10. Rock With You

Honerable mentions would be Wanna Be Starting Somethin, Thriller, Lady In My Life, Will You Be There & They Don't Care About Us.

In saying that though alot of the above tracks aren't my favourites. But in terms of Billie Jean i would have to say it is THE best MJ song of all time.
 
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Billie Jean is probably his most popular song,but I don't think it's his best. Who is it and They don't care about us are much better,in my oppinion. :)
 
I personally prefer Heal The World ... the song really as a meaning to it, but Billie Jean is definitely up there. :p
 
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