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How could Michael write "Billie Jean" if it's not about his own life?

DuranDuran said:
I Am The Walrus isn't about cocaine. It's about nothing, it's just jibberish lyrics. Do you need to know about a duck that dances to write Disco Duck? No.


That would be the song Cold Turkey, a solo song. He wrote the song for The Beatles, but the other 3 rejected it, so he went and recorded it himself, although he did convince Ringo to drum on it.
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Yeah that's the one.
 
Michael also wrote Another Part Of Me. Does that mean he's an alien from outer space that has a "mission" "taking over" the earth? Or did he interview some Martians to get an idea for his song? No, it's just made up from from his imagination.
 
He reminds me of Donna Summer lyric-wise, like the songs are probably not about HIM but they're about something he conjured up, like you pointed out, Duran. However, I would think there was something autobiographical about some of the songs MJ writes though.
 
a writer can create any type of reality or a metaphor to whatever they want and make a picture out of it. Marvin Gaye wrote his what's going on Album through his Brother's experience in Vietnam. you can do what I call 3rd party writing.
 
speed demon was written after MJ got a speeding ticket on his way to the studio... But he took that and created a whole story and song from it.. You can take your life experiences and create a song INSPIRED by it, not neccessarily autobiographical.
 
MichaelJ1988 said:
From his autobiography, Moon Walk...

"Rod (Temperton) was a kindred spirit in many ways. Like me, he felt more at home singing and writing about the night life than actually going out and living it. It always surprises me when people assume that something an artist has created is based on a true experience or reflects his or her own lifestyle. Often nothing could be farther from the truth. I know I draw on my experiences at times, but I also hear and read things that trigger an idea for a song. An artist's imagination is his greatest tool. It can create a mood or feeling that people want to have, as well as transport you to a different place altogether."
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I thought that this statement would prove that Michael doesn't need to experience things to write about them. As it says above, he writes a lot of songs based on imagination alone.
 
thats what makes him who he is. thats his magc..his essence. a pure storyteller thru music. heck pple 2this day still dont get the song lol
 
Ever heard of empathy? That's what most art is based on. A good artist can write about anything, not just his/her own experience. I find it annoying when people always believe that everything you write comes from your own experience. There is so much more to writing. It's a parallel universe, you write about stuff you haven't experienced yourself, this is what makes it exciting and interesting.
 
last unicorn said:
Ever heard of empathy? That's what most art is based on. A good artist can write about anything, not just his/her own experience. I find it annoying when people always believe that everything you write comes from your own experience. There is so much more to writing. It's a parallel universe, you write about stuff you haven't experienced yourself, this is what makes it exciting and interesting.
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IMO "experiences" can come from books and tv also.. You don't have to be in that situation irl.
 
MichaelJ1988 said:
I thought that this statement would prove that Michael doesn't need to experience things to write about them. As it says above, he writes a lot of songs based on imagination alone.
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I understand, but you just can't "imagine" about things you don't know about... Only if the imagination world is "fantasy" and completely made up, but not so many Michael's songs are made up that way.
 
Michael was shy but grew up in an adult world. The Jackson 5 performed in adult clubs and no doubt Michael was seeing strippers, hearing swear words, references to drugs, prostitution and all sorts of stuff when he was still quite young. By the time he wrote Billie Jean he was probably more than aware of the subject matter he was writing about.
 
A songwriter's job is to connect with people. Even if it's not about their own lives--just to make a song that's an anthem for promiscuous men who don't use condoms and have five possible different baby-mamas but want to deny their children. Billie Jean is not my lover.

You know?

:)
 
Bee said:
I do believe that you can write a song and not go through the situations. Many artists have talked about writing the songs based on what a friend of theirs went through or something like that. MJ often stated what "Bille Jean" was about. I also do believe, based on what he says in his songs, that he went through some of it in his own life. The questions is: which songs?

Topflux, I understand where you are coming from and I do not think some people on here are reading what the poster posted carefully. It is very possible that the things that MJ talks about in his songs is what he personally went through. Being creative is one thing, but going through it is another. I think songs like "Dirty Diana" and "I Can't Let Her Get Away" are songs that are deeply personal. Even "Will You Be There" must have been personal for MJ as well. The way he sang that song had to come from a really personal place in his life. As for the media, I mean, MJ tells them something and these losers blow it up into something completely different so it is possible about the media.




So, everything that he sang in his songs are fiction? Is that what you are trying to say? How would you know for sure? MJ has always been mature and childlike, but this discussion isn't really about that. We really have no idea for sure what MJ truly experience in his life so I do not think anyone is getting anything twisted. I think that some people are missing the point of Topflux topic. I am not trying to put you out there, I am just simply stating.



I see what you are saying. I think MJ just improvised some things in the song and sang it.

BTW, I do not have speakers and I want to know what Jermaine was saying about "Billie Jean".
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Ok I'm a writer...I equated it to fiction because 99.9 percent of the time, fiction comes from real life experiences. There is truth to fiction. Of course, there is truth to what he's singing...you took what i said to a whole 'notha level lol

But it IS possible that BJ isn't word for word truth. It IS possible that he might have came up with the story himself, taking what he knows from LIFE in general, and what he has experienced with his brothers...without him going through it himself. It is possible. People write stories by grabbing things that they know about in life, what others have experienced, and interpreting them into a new story. That's fiction.

And no i don't claim to know what Mj did in his life, but based on what MJ has said about the subject...i'm sticking to the notion that BJ isn't a real person that had sex with MJ and all that lol. It might be true or not, but in this instance I'm taking MJ's word for it cuz that's all i got to go on. (besides tabloid hoochies that proclaim they're MJ's baby's mommas) lol

And what others have said here is true... Mj wrote about a TON of topics. He wrote about aliens, war, gangsters, gangs, zombies, monsters, ghosts...everything. So if everything MJ wrote was experienced, he had a pretty damn eventful life lol
 
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J5master said:
And no i don't claim to know what Mj did in his life, but based on what MJ has said about the subject...i'm sticking to the notion that BJ isn't a real person that had sex with MJ and all that lol. It might be true or not, but in this instance I'm taking MJ's word for it cuz that's all i got to go on. (besides tabloid hoochies that proclaim they're MJ's baby's mommas) lol

And what others have said here is true... Mj wrote about a TON of topics. He wrote about aliens, war, gangsters, gangs, zombies, monsters, ghosts...everything. So if everything MJ wrote was experienced, he had a pretty damn eventful life lol
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I would be surprised if Michael did NOT sleep with any of those girls.

And Michael has had a really eventful life. He has been in places and in situations that common people never be and in those places happen many "weird things".
 
If i remember correctly, Quincy jones said this song was about a woman who accused Michael of fathering one of her twins. And as for the beats, Michael said in LWMJ that it came from God (i think he meant that spiritually). The beats just came itself when he was driving.
 
Topflux said:
I would be surprised if Michael did NOT sleep with any of those girls.

And Michael has had a really eventful life. He has been in places and in situations that common people never be and in those places happen many "weird things".
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I didn't say he didn't have an eventful life.

And fact is we don't know who he slept with, its the same likelihood that he DIDN'T sleep with those girls as if he DID. Hell, Michael COULD have been part of an underground gang that was drug dealing and ish behind the scenes...:lol: He could be or have done ANYTHING behind the scenes. But I chose to believe MJ in this instance of how the song was created. If he chose not to tell us what goes on in his bedsheets, then I'd rather not know or speculate. It's his business.

My point is it's NOT impossible to write a song or story or anything and NOT have experienced it lol People make up whole worlds and universes from the top of their heads and make it as vivid and detailed as can be. If people can do that, MJ can certainly make a song and NOT have experienced it first hand. He MAY have experienced the things in BJ (and u can believe what u want on that front lol) , but he didn't HAVE to.
 
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^ right it was a stalker and stuff...he took something real and spiced it up a bit.
 
i thought Billie Jean was about a real girl that would sneak into the Encino house and lay out in the swimming pool. She was desperate to be with Michael and accused him of fathering one of her twins.
 
MindIsTheMagic said:
i thought Billie Jean was about a real girl that would sneak into the Encino house and lay out in the swimming pool. She was desperate to be with Michael and accused him of fathering one of her twins.
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And Michael just watched her, not even touched?! If so, what a fool, I mean Michael.
 
Topflux said:
I mean they say "Billie Jean" can't be written 'bout his own life because he had no life with other youngsters and he was also shy and disciplined by his father..

But I've always wondered if he hadn't seen that life just like others how could he wrote songs like that? You can't write messages like that from nowhere. So he was in disguises to explore I think? There are so many songs from Michael just can't fit into who they (the media) think he is. I wasn't the fan when he was a child but I was a fan when the Thriller short film came out. And I've always thought his childhood troubles are actually oversized by the media, what do you think..?
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well Quincy Jones has always said.. Michael's songs are autobiographical...

and Billie Jean was written from a personal experience...
 
MindIsTheMagic said:
i thought Billie Jean was about a real girl that would sneak into the Encino house and lay out in the swimming pool. She was desperate to be with Michael and accused him of fathering one of her twins.
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It is. He just added more of a story to it. If you hear the two demos, they seemed more personal, the finished version created another story as if the dude was wondering if it was his child or not.
 
Billie Jean was written by MJ INSPIRED by a true event..

Think of movies.. is every horror movie producer a killer???? lol!

Take ED GEIN for example.. he (a serial killer) inspired so many movies..
*Texas Chainsaw Masacre
* Silence of The Lamb
* Psycho

None of those are TRUE stories, but a producer took the ED Gein story and created a movie INSPIRED by a true story.. Than another producer created another movie from the same story.. and then again..

You don't have to LIVE it to write about it..


Sorry to corrilate billie jean to horror movies etc... lol! I know it does not fit, but gets my point accross
 
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