myosotis
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Re: News and discussion about new MJ album : Xscape, May 13, 2014.
I felt very sad to read this. I love to see images of Michael as they show me how other people 'see' him and interpret him. Michael was a visual artist as much as a vocal one, in terms of both dance and film. I haven't heard most of the new music, so I don't know which tracks to be 'excited about'. I have seen the cover, and this thread title seems to allow discussion of that here.
I will say one more thing about the cover before I abandon this thread entirely. It has taken me a week to figure out why (out of all the very many thousands of Michael images I have seen) this one doesn't work for me ( just personal opinion, and I don't expect anyone else to agree with it, any more than I would anticipate that anyone else would agree with my choice of favourite tracks).
I do like some of the work of this particular art director ( eg his MJ magazine images... but I do understand why these were not suitable for the album cover). I also understand that this art director also produced another 11 or so images which were not selected for the album cover. I imagine that as an artist, he created many other versions and interpretations before he put the final dozen ideas forward. (It would be interesting to see these).
My last word is simply that for me personally (unlike this art director's interpretation) Michael is not 'out there somewhere', like a mist in the Universe...but 'in here', in my mind (imagination, thoughts, memory), heart and soul. I'd like to see an artistic interpretation of the 'magic of Michael that moves and inspires people'. I don't know how many more MJ album covers there might be in my lifetime, and I know its a tough brief...but I hope that 'art' rather than 'photography' might be able to achieve it.
Isn't it a 'good' thing that we care about the cover? That there might even be some 'controversy' about it? It may be the first thing that people who don't know any of the music will see (in real-world record stores), and it is meant to attract their attention and interest, in the same way that the Xperia video is meant to. It is meant to 'say' something about Michael to people who might not know his work. It is also a lasting part of his legacy; something that will always be associated with the tracks on the album, and will be interpreted and re-interpreted in fan art and writing.
I felt very sad to read this. I love to see images of Michael as they show me how other people 'see' him and interpret him. Michael was a visual artist as much as a vocal one, in terms of both dance and film. I haven't heard most of the new music, so I don't know which tracks to be 'excited about'. I have seen the cover, and this thread title seems to allow discussion of that here.
I will say one more thing about the cover before I abandon this thread entirely. It has taken me a week to figure out why (out of all the very many thousands of Michael images I have seen) this one doesn't work for me ( just personal opinion, and I don't expect anyone else to agree with it, any more than I would anticipate that anyone else would agree with my choice of favourite tracks).
I do like some of the work of this particular art director ( eg his MJ magazine images... but I do understand why these were not suitable for the album cover). I also understand that this art director also produced another 11 or so images which were not selected for the album cover. I imagine that as an artist, he created many other versions and interpretations before he put the final dozen ideas forward. (It would be interesting to see these).
My last word is simply that for me personally (unlike this art director's interpretation) Michael is not 'out there somewhere', like a mist in the Universe...but 'in here', in my mind (imagination, thoughts, memory), heart and soul. I'd like to see an artistic interpretation of the 'magic of Michael that moves and inspires people'. I don't know how many more MJ album covers there might be in my lifetime, and I know its a tough brief...but I hope that 'art' rather than 'photography' might be able to achieve it.
Isn't it a 'good' thing that we care about the cover? That there might even be some 'controversy' about it? It may be the first thing that people who don't know any of the music will see (in real-world record stores), and it is meant to attract their attention and interest, in the same way that the Xperia video is meant to. It is meant to 'say' something about Michael to people who might not know his work. It is also a lasting part of his legacy; something that will always be associated with the tracks on the album, and will be interpreted and re-interpreted in fan art and writing.
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