It’s not often that I write about books in this column–FORBES does have the excellent blog, “Booked,” for that–but every now and then something I read has so much to do with the topics I regularly cover on this beat that I’m compelled to type up some thoughts.
One such book is Joe Vogel’s terrific Man In The Music (Sterling, 2011), which explores the life and work of Michael Jackson. The King of Pop, of course, is a frequent subject for me–I started writing about him on the day of his death and quickly became fascinated with his vastly-underrated business savvy. That’s been underscored in recent years by his posthumous financial success, boosted heavily by his estate’s shrewd deal-making, all of which I’ve covered extensively for FORBES.
Jackson has pulled in half a billion dollars since his death, and regularly tops our annual accounting of the top-earning dead celebrities. For that matter, he out-earned every living artist in 2010 and bested all but U2 this year; another nine-figure annual total seems likely with the success of the Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour, a joint venture between the estate and Cirque du Soleil that placed Jackson back atop Pollstar’s touring charts in December.
Man In The Music puts the reader right there in the studio with Jackson, shedding some much-needed light on a mysterious and misunderstood man. Though it focuses primarily on Jackson’s sonic legacy, offering song-by-song analysis of each album, a full understanding of Jackson’s music brings his financial success into clearer perspective.
For instance, we learn that Jackson was an extremely efficient in the studio (at least earlier in his career), coming in with all his songs immaculately prepared and ready to record–a “producer’s dream.”
We’re treated to anecdotes from producer Quincy Jones, longtime sound engineer Bruce Swedien and other collaborators including Rod Temperton, Greg Philinganes, Brad Buxer and Bill Bottrell. These serve to show just how much effort Jackson and his team put into making music composed of sounds the ear had never before heard, especially in some of his later (and under-appreciated) work, like the 1995 album HIStory.
Vogel also reminds his audience of Jackson’s immense commercial ambitions. After his strong solo debut Off the Wall, he told his producers that he wanted his follow-up to be the best-selling album of all time. They laughed. And then Jackson released Thriller, which quickly fulfilled his prophesy. After that, his stated goal was for his next album to sell 100 million units. Though Bad has sold “only” an estimated 35 million copies worldwide, Thriller has surpassed 110 million.
Jackson’s heavily-publicized trials and tribulations are mrntioned throughout the book, but they’re clearly not its focus. If anything, Vogel makes the case that these events so deeply colored the perception of Jackson that his later work was never judged objectively.
Man in the Music is definitely worth a read–and don’t be surprised if it makes you go back and listen to “Stranger in Moscow” with a whole new outlook on The King of Pop.
