azza
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The following article is a rough draft I've been working on for the passed number of days, which I've written and pulled together from various articles I've read on Michael Jackson's most underrated album 'Invincible.Please feel free to let me know of any inaccuracies and I will change them. Circumstances sorrounding the album stopped it from being the event it should have been.The main objective is to bring the album back into the focus of the fans and incourage fans to revisit an album that is often over looked and underrated.There needs to be more positivity towards Invincible, and the first step in this direction is to gain an understanding into the story behind the album.I want to use this thread to get that story out there.
On October 30th 2001 Michael Jackson released what would become the superstar’s last album of original material in his lifetime. The album of course being Invincible.The album was a slick slice of cool R&B, Urban, Soul, peppered with Hip Hop and Dance tracks and a fair amount of Contemporary-Adult-Pop music. Fourteen out of the album's sixteen tracks were co-written by Jackson including two tracks solely written by Jackson “Speechless” and “The Lost Children”. The album's full length is over seventy-seven minutes long and the sixteen songs' lyrics reflect on Jackson's personal experiences, consisting of common Jackson themes such as romance, paranoia, invasion of privacy and threatening situations. The album shifts between the aggressive “Unbreakable” and classic Jackson ballads “Speechless”.
Back in March 2001, Jackson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. He had been inducted just four years prior as a member of the Jacksons.
But behind the scenes, Jackson and Sony Music were engaged in a spat that would ultimately ruin the future of the album effecting sales and public opinion. Despite the album underachieving ( 10 million copies sold was regarded a flop in comparison to Jackson’s passed efforts) it had a huge potential to allow another half dozen iconic original Jackson short films and a slew of radio hits that could have graced the airwaves for decades to come. On its initial release reviews for the album were good and music commentators the world over were raving that this was to be his great “comeback album”.
However, just before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed then Sony Music Entertainment head, Tommy Mottola, that he was not going to renew his contract, signed in 1991, which was about to expire in terms of supplying the label with albums of full-new material for release through Epic Records/Sony Music Entertainment. By 2002, sales and interest in the album had decreased rapidly, which prompted Mottola to cancel all single releases, video shootings and promotions concerning the Invincible album. Due to this, Jackson made allegations about Sony not supporting its African-American artists. Jackson referred to Sony Entertainment's head, Tommy Mottola, as a "devil" and a "racist" who used black artists for his own personal gain. Jackson also insisted that Mottola called Irv Gotti a "fat n****r",. Sony issued a statement saying that they found the allegations strange, since Motolla used to be married to pop star Mariah Carey, who is of Venezuelan and African-American descent, and was currently married with Mexican pop star Thalía.
Upon the albums release it became clear that Sony were failing to promote Invincible, which was the most expensive album ever made (A staggering 30 million dollars). Sony said they had an allotment of 25 million dollars set aside for promotional projects for Invincible, but it became apparent to Jackson and others that no such amount was spent.
Pretty soon after its release a number of things turned sour concerning the project. A number of music critics for the worlds music press decided Michael Jackson’s album wasn’t invincible after all and soon pretty much every other music journalist across the globe followed suit. Reviews became mixed and things turned worse again when it emerged Jackson was caught in a tug of war with his record label Sony Music for control over Jackson’s ATV catalogue which includes his Beatles catalogue amongst others.
Jackson became worried and out of his fear came up with a theory that Sony Music were failing to promote his album in an attempt to lower his earnings and get him in a strangle hold where he would have to hand over his ATV catalogue as collateral repaid for money he’d spent on making the Invincible album.
This was not just paranoia on Jackson’s part, there was perhaps a feeling at Sony Music that Jackson as both an artist and shareholder had too much power, influence and control within the company. Jackson was also waiting for full control over his own catalogue which was due to return to him. Jackson was waiting for licenses to the masters of his albums to revert back to him, thus allowing him to promote his old material and preventing Sony from getting a cut of the profit. Jackson expected this to occur early in the new millennium, however, due to the fine print and various clauses in the contract, the revert date would remain many years away. Jackson began an investigation, and it emerged that the attorney who represented the singer in the deal was also representing Sony, creating a conflict of interest.
A few years before the release of Invincible, as an advance on payments on the forthcoming sales of the album, Jackson negotiated a loan from Sony Music, a common transaction between artists and record companies. In order to validate the loan Jackson had to put his ownership in the ATV Music Publishing catalogue (Including his 251-song Beatles catalogue) as collateral.
Jackson bought the ATV catalogue in 1985 (When he famously fell out with Paul Mc Cartney for buying The Beatles catalogue) and in 1995 he merged it with Sony Music’s publishing catalogue to become ATV/Sony Music Publishing. It is said Jackson received an estimated 95 million dollars from the merger.
When Jackson informed Sony that Invincible would be his last album for them the label began to pressure him for the money he borrowed from them. The problem was that Sony were simultaneously preventing Jackson from repaying the money he owed them by sabotaging the promotion of the Invincible album, Jackson’s main source of income to refund the loan.
Invincible sold 5 million copies within its first five months but Jackson needed the album to hit the 7 million mark before Sony would begin to make a return on the project. Jackson also personally needed it to push to 7 million before he himself would see any money from it.
Eventually the album went on to sell an estimated 10 million copies, which by anyone’s standards would be considered a wind-fall and worldwide success, but critics deemed it a flop judging it specifically on Jackson’s past glories, notably ‘Thriller which is now said to be around the 100 million mark, making it the biggest selling album of all time. The Bad album is estimated at 30 million, Dangerous 26 million & the HIStory album at 14 million, taking into account that the HIStory album being a double album, disc-one consisting of Hits and disc- two containing new original material made its pricing higher than a one-disc album. However, these figures need to be reassessed as since his untimely death on June 25th 2009, Jackson’s back catalogue has since went on to shift a staggering 100- plus million further units.
It’s not the first time that an artist has had a public feud with their record label, Prince in a fall out with Warner Bros in the 90’s painted the word Slave across his face, not wanting to sell anymore albums for them. Later he even changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in an attempt to sabotage sales. George Michael famously had his own spat with Sony for more freedom and creative control, refusing to appear in his music videos. Jackson’s situation was different though, he genuinely wanted his album to sell because it was in his best interest, both personally & financially.
The situation between artist and label went from bad to worse with both parties unable to agree on matters which were key elements as to why Invincible failed to be the event that every other passed Jackson album had been.
The first single from the album was “You Rock My World”, on September 21st, 2001. The R&B dance number was written by Jackson and producers Darkchild and featured a spoken comedic intro with Chris Tucker. Apparently Jackson wanted the first single from Invincible to be the track Unbreakable, and that he had already began to conceive the video for the song. Which he wanted to be a 20-minute short film. Sony on the other hand wanted You Rock My World and their last minute decision forced Jackson to rush the conception of a new video for the new single. Sony brought in director Hype Williams to come up with a treatment for the video but Jackson was unsatisfied with both the director and the budget for it. A new director ‘Paul Hunter was hired and after a renegotiation for the budget was agreed, filming proceeded.
This, however brought further draw-backs for the album. The original video for You Rock My World is an 12-minute short film that music stations weren’t willing to air due to its sheer length, instead opting for a poorly edited 3-minute version of which concentrated mainly on the choreographed dance scenes ( Which, due to the last minute decisions was rushed) and drew heavily from Jackson’s 1988 masterpiece short film ‘Smooth Criminal. This gave the critics more ammunition and the overall consensus was that Jackson was a washed-up has-been. Sadly the depth of the 12-minute full-length short film was lost in its translation down to a badly edited, cheap 3-minutes. The video in its entirety was where anything good about it lied and has to be viewed in full to be any way appreciated, and featured cameos from Marlon Brando, Chris Tucker, Billy Drago and Michael Madsen. You Rock My World was the only worldwide single release from Invincible and would reach the top ten position in 22 countries.
Jackson had also planned to release "The Lost Children", "Break of Dawn", "Butterflies", "Speechless", "Cry" and "Whatever Happens" (with Carlos Santana who at the time was enjoying worldwide success with his album “Supernatural ) and "Threatened" of which Jackson had a great idea for a short film for it.
Jackson decided that he wasn’t going to tour the album and instead agreed on making a number of public appearances, first making a surprise appearance with N*Sync during their performance of “Pop” on 6th September 2001 at the MTV Video Music Awards. The appearance was unannounced and came as a surprise to Michael Jackson fans all over the world. The following night (7th of September) saw Jackson make the first of two appearances in New York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate his 30th anniversary as a solo artist which would also be filmed for a TV Special. The show bought some of the music and entertainment world’s biggest names together to celebrate the music of the legend. Guest performers included: Luther Vandross, Destiny’s Child, Liza Minelli, Usher, Mya and many more who paid tribute to Jackson by singing songs from his musical career and their current material. The second show took place on the 10th of September, the day after being one of the darkest days in recent American history ‘September the 11th, a day which would not only change New York or America, but the western world for ever and overshadowed everything else that was going on in the world at the time, whether it be politics, sports or entertainment.
September the 11th had a huge personal impact on Michael Jackson, not only as an African-American, but as a humanitarian (He would later put his creative juices to work creating the song What More Can I Give, and pulling an all-star cast together for the project, with all funds going to the families effect by 9/11). The highlight of the shows in New York were seeing Michael reunite with his brothers ‘The Jackson’s on stage for the first time since 1984’s Victory Tour, seeing them perform a selection of Hits including “Can You Feel It”, “I Want You Back” and “Shake Your Body” and a special performance of “Dancing Machine” with N*Sync. Jackson closed the concerts with a special performance of his own greatest hits, including “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “Black or White” (with Slash), “You Rock My World”, and “The Way You Make Me Feel” (with Britney Spears). The show broadcasted in November to over 26 million viewers in the US and featured a mix of the two concerts. The show went on to win two NAACP Image Awards for “Outstanding Variety Series / Special” and “Outstanding Performance in a Variety Series / Special”. Sony were furious that Jackson didn’t involve them in the MSG Specials and boycotted the event, sending a memo to all departments that forbid anyone within the label to organize any kind of promotional activity in connection with the concerts..
The shows were eventually sold to various TV stations around the world as a promotional tool without any involvement on Sony’s part but the fee that the shows producer David Gest was looking for was so high that certain markets such as Germany and France couldn’t afford it, although it did air in most countries eventually, via satellite TV.
You Rock My World was a big radio hit in America and Billboard Magazine analysts and music industry insiders predicted that the song could reach #1 in Billboards Hot 100 provided there was a physical single commercially available. American charts are based on sales and radio airplay combined. However, Sony Music repeatedly delayed and postponed a physical release of the single and eventually it was never released in America in spite of a big demand from the public.
To justify their decision, Sony Music claimed the release of a physical single would have harmed sales of the album. But the singles market in the USA is a small one and a physical single release would have sold a mere few thousand copies, enough, combined with radio airplay to make a mark on the Billboard Charts but nowhere near enough to harm album sales. The promotional impact that a #1 single would have, would have been a massive coup for the project and only further boosted positive public opinion on the album.The single eventually went to #1 in eight countries, peaked at number 2 in the UK and number 10 in the US. It was a top 10 hit in a total of 30 countries and was nominated for a Grammy Award. The short film won the NAACP Image Award for Best Music Video.
Jay-Z remixed You Rock My World at Jackson’s request but refused to let Sony use his remix on physical copies of the single worldwide because they ( Beyond Jackson’s control) refused him the right to use Jackson’s vocals on a remix of his track ‘Girls,Girls,Girls that they had recorded together. However, Jay-Z's remix was eventually included on a 2001 promotional single edition of Speechless" with the You Rock My World remix as its B-side.
Jackson later disscribed how he was inspired to write "Speechless, "I was with these kids in Germany, and we had a big water balloon fight. I was so happy after the fight that I ran upstairs in their house and wrote 'Speechless'. Fun inspires me. I hate to say that, because it's such a romantic song, but it was the fight that did it. I was happy, and I wrote it in its entirety right there. I felt it would be good enough for the album. Out of the bliss comes magic, wonderment, and creativity."
Cry was the next single to be released from the album and director Nick Brandt was hired to make the video.Brandt had previously worked on short films for Jackson's singles, "Earth Song", "Childhood" and "Stranger in Moscow.Again Jackson was not happy with the low-budget project Sony Music presented and became so displeased that he decided not to appear in the video, further weakening it’s commercial appeal. The video was filmed in six different locations, five of which were in California and another in Nevada. People featured in the video included members of a real life gospel group. Shout, an out-take from the Invincible sessions written by Jackson, T Riley, Claude "Quo" Forbes, Samuel "Cyph" Hoskins, Carmen Lampson and R Hammilton along with "Streetwalker" an out-take from the Bad sessions and which had previously appeared as a track on the 2001 special edition of "Bad both appeared as B-Sides for the physical "Cry single.
In November 2001, Jackson finalized the production of ‘What More Can I Give, a charity song for families of the victims of September the 11th, which featured an all-star cast including Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Britney Spears, Beyonce, Aaron Carter and Carlos Santana. Unfortunately, Sony Music refused Jackson the right to release it due to contractual obligations. “What More Can I Give” was recorded in October 2001 and featured 35 recording artists. The song was written by Jackson in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks with the goal of raising $50 million for charity. Jackson said the song was intended to “create a sense of global unity in the face of mindless violence and mass murder”. Jackson produced the single but couldn’t release the record with another company without Sony’s approval. Sony wanted Jackson to let go on more financial interests. After trying each and every legal way to release his charity single, Jackson eventually gave up on the project.Unfortunately, Sony Music refused Jackson the right to release it due to contractual obligations. Although it would eventually become available as a digital download in October 2003
On October 21st, 2001, Michael Jackson organised a special charity concert in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, called “United We Stand: What More Can I Give”. It was held at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. John Stamos hosted the event which included performances by Al Green, Bette Midler, Destiny’s Child, Pink, Usher, Mariah Carey and many more. Jackson closed the concert with performances of “Man in the Mirror” and his new benefit single “What More Can I Give”. All proceeds from the concert went to several charities.
A few days later, on October 26th Jackson took part in an online Audio Chat sponsored by Rolling Stone. He answered questions from fans via telephone about the new album, the recording process and his music.
Butterflies was to be the third single off of Invincible to be released to radios in America. The song became an instant hit and started to climb the Billboard charts. Unfortunately, Sony Music were not willing to release a physical copy of the song commercially to help it reach the #1 spot on the charts. More problems occurred when the project for a “Butterflies” video was discussed by Jackson and Sony Music. Once again, Jackson wasn’t satisfied with the proposal Sony Music presented to him and did not want to participate in a project he didn’t believe in. Discussions came to a deadlock and the Butterflies video was scrapped.
The song, written by Andre Harris and Marsha Ambrosius, who is one half of the London bred neo-soul act Floetry and was produced by Jackson and Harris.Jackson had first met Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart, who is also a member of Floetry, through John McClain (the man who was also repressenting Sony and simultaneously Jackson), who was also DreamWorks's senior urban executive. Stewart said she was surprised that Jackson invited her and Ambrosius to a studio and asked for their input on the recording of the track.She recalled in an interview with LAUNCH magazine, "It was incredible because he asked, he continually asked, 'Marsh, what's the next harmony? Girls, does this sound right? What do you think? Is this what you were looking for? He was so open".When Ambrosius first met Jackson, it took a few minutes for her to calm down. She recalled to the same publication Stewart was interviewed by, "To begin with, I was kinda shook. Because you don't realize how you're going to feel until you're put in that kind of situation. I had the tears in my eyes and got kinda nervous. But as I got into it, I realized it was work, it was a job. I had to vocally conduct a legend. Harris commented on the single, "He's showing you, I'm still the Michael Jackson that did 'Billie Jean' and 'Rock With You' because 'Butterflies' really falls along those lines. The song has been said to be Jackson's favorite track from the Invincible album.
Jackson was interviewed by TV Guide in early November 2001. He discussed his music, his 30th Anniversary celebration and fatherhood.
On November 7th, he gave his first ever in-store signing appearance at the Virgin Mega Store in Times Square in New York City to promote Invincible,
where he brought the whole of Times Square to a halt and reduced New Yorkers to tears. Thousands of fans stormed the pavements, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jackson, while traffic in busy Times Square was brought to a halt.
On January 9th , 2002, Jackson appeared at the American Music Awards to accept the “Artist of the Century Award”.
In March 2002 three promotional TV appearances scheduled in Europe for March were canceled as a result of Jackson’s feud with Sony Music. At Sony Music’s request, director David Meyers worked on a treatment for the Unbreakable video. However, Jackson wasn’t satisfied with the project. But Jackson’s own original concept for the video was deemed too expensive and Sony Music wouldn’t finance it. As a result Jackson decided to produce the Unbreakable video himself and began work on the project alone. In the end it never saw the light of day.
By the end of March 2002, Sony Music deleted Michael Jackson from their “international priority” list of projects. Only five months after the release of Inivncible, the album was no longer considered as a “priority” by the record company. As a comparison, the HIStory album stopped being an “international priority” by the end of 1997, more than 2 years after its release.
In June, 2002, Jackson was inducted into the Songwriter’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his achievements as a songwriter. Also in June, Jackson was presented with a special “30th Anniversary Award” by designer Nijel. Fans from all over the world had helped to create the award.
Jackson joined forces with Johnnie Cochrane and Rev. Al Sharpton and held press conferences and protests to speak out against Sony Music in June and July. This is when Jackson publicly accused record companies of conspiring against their artists and he also personally attacked Tommy Mottola. Fans staged a peaceful protest outside Sony Music’s offices in London on the 15th of June, where Jackson joined in. On the same day, Jackson attended the Killer Thriller party, held by MJNI at The Equinox at Leicester Square, along with 2,200 fans. Michael announced that Invincible was indeed his last studio album for Sony Music.
In November 2002, Jackson was presented an award for “Pop Artist of the Milennium” at the Bambi Awards in Berlin, Germany. It was at this award show that the official music video for “What More Can I Give” was debuted.
in December 2002 Michael Jackson was presented a special Billboard Award: “Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Thriller” by Chris Tucker.
Despite the feud and all the politics that went on behind the scenes, the album went on to become a success by anyone else’s standards, except that of Michael Jackson. There were too many other things going on outside of the music and too many things that failed to happen within the music that would have made the album what it should and could have been.
One of the most remarkable things about the Invincible album are the songs that didn’t make the final cut.
Fall Again, Beautiful Girl, The Way You Love Me, We've Had Enough,Shout,Angel, Do You Love Me, Escape, Edgar Allan Poe, On My Anger,The Gloved One, She Was Lovin' Me, Ekam Satyam-The One Truth, Cheater(New Version), In The Valley,
All In Your Name, Maybe We Can Do It-Featuring P. Ditty,That Kind Of Lover-A duet of the A1. Featuring Ray Ruffin, Pressure, Ride With Me....
Recording sessions spanned five years and Jackson (due to a fall out with The Neptunes, saw him refuse the tracks "Like I Love You, Senorita and Rock Your Body which became the defining tracks on Justin Timberlakes "Justified " album with each of these tracks becoming major hit-singles in the pop charts around the world)
Jackson recorded some of the most innovative music of his adult career during the Invincible sessions. A number of tracks from the Invincible recording sessions have appeared in recent years in one way or another, whether it be by official release on Jackson’s Ultimate Collection, B-sides for singles or leaked on the internet.
In 1999, French photographer Arno Bani, then just 23, captured Jackson in one of the most stunning photo shoots of Jackson’s career. Jackson had reportedly wanted Bani to take pictures for Invincible. The photos were commissioned by Jackson himself after he saw Bani’s work in The Sunday Times newspaper. The photographer signed over the rights to Sony for 10-years but the pictures were never used by the record label.
The beautiful futuristic image, captured by Bani was taken in 1999, on the cusp of the millennium. In the portrait Jackson is styled with cropped hair and clothed only in an embellished black Yves Saint Laurent blazer. The portrait is highlighted with a glittered blue circle around Jackson's left eye.
The design around Jackson's eye recalls the iconic image David Bowie was styled with for the cover-art of the 1973 album Aladdin Sane.
As cover-art 'Michael Jackson's Blue Eye' would have suited Jackson's last studio album Invincible thematically - an album which saw Jackson return to his R&B/soul roots and yet still experiment with the then sound of pounding, sampled dance tracks. However the portrait was not used and instead Invincible featured an Andy Warhol inspired image of a close up of Jackson's face. The Invincible album cover was initially released in a number of colours for fans to collect, which would allow fans to create their own Warhol inspired pop-art ala the famous Warhol "mass-produced" Marilyn, Elvis and Jackie Onassis silkscreen portraits. Jackson himself was a subject of Warhol's in 1984
'Michael Jackson's Blue Eye' stylistically recalls another Jackson portrait which was deemed unsuitable as cover-art years earlier by a Sony Music executive, the image in question was the intended cover-art for Jackson's 1987 album Bad. Photographed by Greg Gorman in Los Angeles 1987, the color portrait features a close up of Jackson's face, with "black lace superimposed over it. The pictures from the Bani session have since been released in a book.
It is reported that the iconic cover-art of the Bad album, photographed by Sam Emerson, which features Jackson in full body pose wearing his iconic costume from the Martin Scorsese directed Bad short film, was in fact Jackson's "second choice”.Both Bani and Gorman's images side by side, taken more then a decade apart seem to present Jackson in a similar image - as a clearly daring and defiant individual, who continued to remain artistically progressive throughout his life.
Producer Rodney Jerkins has called for the album to be re-released being quoted in his interview with Linda Hobbs saying “I think Invincible needs to be re-released. Because something happened at the record company (Sony) that caused them not to promote it no more after we done put our heart and soul in it. He had about five singles on the album. But it came down to who can stop who. And he was caught up in that mess.
Jerkins:” There's stuff we didn't put on the album that I wish was on the album. My first batch (of beats) is what I really wanted him to do. I was trying to really go vintage, old school Mike. And that's what a lot of my first stuff was, that I was presenting to him.”
Jerkins also says he videotaped and documented the Invincible studio sessions and is quoted as saying “I'll just say Michael asked me to document everything. And I did. And I'm sure one day it'll see the light of day. I got to make sure it's made in the way Michael would want to see it.”
Tommy Mottola resigned from Sony Music Entertainment in January 2003.
The Invincible album is Michael Jackson’s most underrated album and underachieved in a number of ways due to events listed above. The album needs to be re-released as a deluxe edition containing, a new booklet containing extensive liner notes and unreleased pictures, the original album re-mastered, the original album stripped back to its rawest form, an album of out-takes and a dvd containing footage from the studio sessions that Jackson had Rodney Jerkins document. The archives, the technology, the material and the footage exists to make this happen, and Jerkins has gone on record as saying that he wanted to release footage and material from the sessions but he would have to go through a lot of red tape. A re-release of the album including a disc of out-takes would help push the albums overall sales further to what Jackson’s original vision for the project would have been.
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