I needed to write this down and get some feedback as its quite upsetting for me and I know alot of other fans I have spoken too in the last week, primarily the last day or so.
Whats happening to Michael Jackson, his art and image.
Xscape - Worldwide smash, Number 1, fantastic, Michael is back on top again, but what was the cost, every instance they have removed Michael and replaced him with a stylized version or "their" view of how Michael should look and sound. Heres how............
The Album
Xscape isn't a Michael Jackson album, well not the standard edition at least. Everything Michael except his voice was removed from that album, years of work tapes, writings and guidelines were ignored in favour of new "comtemporized" production, Yes you can say there are some MJ influenced sounds on there, but it isn't really Michael, its okay to "comtemporize" but Michael was about moving forwards, always looking to the next big thing, the newest sounds, but these sounds aint new, they primarily come from 80's synths and drum sounds, the same sounds Michael DIDN'T use during those era's. What we have in Xscape is the use of Michael Jackson to sell a non-Michael Jackson album, I hope you understand me there.
The Demo's
We know some of the demos, are NOT the way Michael left them, parts have been removed and they have not been mastered very well, levels all over the place and vocals buried deep, they certainly had a lot less attention put to them than the other half of the album, its a shame as this IS Michael Jackson, you might not like the compositions, but its truly him 100%. Another example of how poorly these were handled is "Chicago" the backing track is in Mono, it wasn't recorded like this, wasn't mixed like this. The vocals are not Mono they pan. This is just my opinion but I really have a gut feeling after listening to these demos for quite some time that they were purposely mixed badly to make the new versions sound more brilliant.
The Cover and Artwork
Cone............well covering up half Michaels face isn't a great start in showing off Michael's image, secondly the same source image was used again but with a "newsprint" filter applied to it, are there any real pictures of Michael used in Xscape? I have not seen any, only Sillouettes and Stylized photoshops.
The DVD
This was the opportunity to show Michael creating these songs, the studio footage, "here he is doing what he does best". Instead we have what can only be described as propaganda for how better the new versions are compared to the demos, one instance whilst playing the "Blue Gangster" demo, LA Reid and Timbaland have a giggle follwed by Timbalands "This one don't sound as bad as the rest of them". Instead of showing Michael they all speak of how THEY remembered Michael or how THEY felt he was in studio with them.
The Hologram
First off, lets get the obvious stuff out the way. The CGI was poor, looked almost a decade old. The Dancer was an Impersonator and not a great one at that. Now today we can recreate Michaels movements almost flawlessly, 2d Tracking is coming on good but with care and attention hand animating over source footage is just as good. What we got was their representation of Michael, wearing not his own clothes but those they wanted him to wear, from an era they wanted him from, dancing how they thought he would. The Technology for this, was just the same as Tupacs "Hologram" infact it was less impressive as there was no real people on stage as far as I can see, what we got was 2d projection of an Impersonator dancing to Michael Jackson, everything on that stage (Minus the band up top of stage) was pre-rendered. What we got was a music video projected onto a screen, not a "hologram", no "first ever" no "lightyears ahead of its time". The idea was great, but it was possible for them to do it better.
People say I and others complain alot, but we are just trying to find Michael Jackson in all this. LA Reid speaks of this Bieber duet, he has and is willing to water down MJ to the lowest levels not thinking about us, or anyone else except the dollar signs, its simple to me this whole project used Michaels voice and their view of his image as a "whore" to push this album and it pains me to see how much it worked. I love Michael Jackson and I wanted so much more of him on this album and they had the tools to do that, sadly from now on because this album is a smash, they will do it again, the next hot producer on the next album, Michaels own work we waited for so long to be released pushed to the back.
So is it worth losing Michael to have him number one for a week.......a few singles and then forgot about until the time comes again for the next album? I am finding it hard to see any other way, your thoughts?
:blush:
Whats happening to Michael Jackson, his art and image.
Xscape - Worldwide smash, Number 1, fantastic, Michael is back on top again, but what was the cost, every instance they have removed Michael and replaced him with a stylized version or "their" view of how Michael should look and sound. Heres how............
The Album
Xscape isn't a Michael Jackson album, well not the standard edition at least. Everything Michael except his voice was removed from that album, years of work tapes, writings and guidelines were ignored in favour of new "comtemporized" production, Yes you can say there are some MJ influenced sounds on there, but it isn't really Michael, its okay to "comtemporize" but Michael was about moving forwards, always looking to the next big thing, the newest sounds, but these sounds aint new, they primarily come from 80's synths and drum sounds, the same sounds Michael DIDN'T use during those era's. What we have in Xscape is the use of Michael Jackson to sell a non-Michael Jackson album, I hope you understand me there.
The Demo's
We know some of the demos, are NOT the way Michael left them, parts have been removed and they have not been mastered very well, levels all over the place and vocals buried deep, they certainly had a lot less attention put to them than the other half of the album, its a shame as this IS Michael Jackson, you might not like the compositions, but its truly him 100%. Another example of how poorly these were handled is "Chicago" the backing track is in Mono, it wasn't recorded like this, wasn't mixed like this. The vocals are not Mono they pan. This is just my opinion but I really have a gut feeling after listening to these demos for quite some time that they were purposely mixed badly to make the new versions sound more brilliant.
The Cover and Artwork
Cone............well covering up half Michaels face isn't a great start in showing off Michael's image, secondly the same source image was used again but with a "newsprint" filter applied to it, are there any real pictures of Michael used in Xscape? I have not seen any, only Sillouettes and Stylized photoshops.
The DVD
This was the opportunity to show Michael creating these songs, the studio footage, "here he is doing what he does best". Instead we have what can only be described as propaganda for how better the new versions are compared to the demos, one instance whilst playing the "Blue Gangster" demo, LA Reid and Timbaland have a giggle follwed by Timbalands "This one don't sound as bad as the rest of them". Instead of showing Michael they all speak of how THEY remembered Michael or how THEY felt he was in studio with them.
The Hologram
First off, lets get the obvious stuff out the way. The CGI was poor, looked almost a decade old. The Dancer was an Impersonator and not a great one at that. Now today we can recreate Michaels movements almost flawlessly, 2d Tracking is coming on good but with care and attention hand animating over source footage is just as good. What we got was their representation of Michael, wearing not his own clothes but those they wanted him to wear, from an era they wanted him from, dancing how they thought he would. The Technology for this, was just the same as Tupacs "Hologram" infact it was less impressive as there was no real people on stage as far as I can see, what we got was 2d projection of an Impersonator dancing to Michael Jackson, everything on that stage (Minus the band up top of stage) was pre-rendered. What we got was a music video projected onto a screen, not a "hologram", no "first ever" no "lightyears ahead of its time". The idea was great, but it was possible for them to do it better.
People say I and others complain alot, but we are just trying to find Michael Jackson in all this. LA Reid speaks of this Bieber duet, he has and is willing to water down MJ to the lowest levels not thinking about us, or anyone else except the dollar signs, its simple to me this whole project used Michaels voice and their view of his image as a "whore" to push this album and it pains me to see how much it worked. I love Michael Jackson and I wanted so much more of him on this album and they had the tools to do that, sadly from now on because this album is a smash, they will do it again, the next hot producer on the next album, Michaels own work we waited for so long to be released pushed to the back.
So is it worth losing Michael to have him number one for a week.......a few singles and then forgot about until the time comes again for the next album? I am finding it hard to see any other way, your thoughts?
:blush: