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Michael Jackson's 'Xscape' feels shockingly vital
By: Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times
May 9, 2014, 3:05 PM

From the first, there was the voice, and with it Michael Jackson crafted beauty. The sequins and moonwalk came later..

Even as a tyke he captivated with tonal purity, and in the intervening four decades and 10 studio solo albums that voice was a unifier, one nestled not just within universal playlists but our very neurons — as anyone who's ever awakened with the bass line to "Billie Jean" or the chorus to "Rock With You" out-of-the-blue rolling through their heads can attest. "You've got to feel that heat" indeed.

Nearly five years after his death, that voice remains, and is at its most powerful on the new album "Xscape." Eight songs that use Jackson demos as blueprints to construct modern, vibrant tracks, the artist's second posthumous album of studio recordings feels shockingly vital, as though the producers charged with re-imagining this work had harnessed dance floor defibrillators.

Equally alive are the eight demos of these songs included with the deluxe package, resulting in a strong addition to the King of Pop conversation. At nearly every turn, "Xscape" succeeds in its intended goal of "finding new and compelling ways to capture the essence, the excitement and the magic that is Michael Jackson," as stated in the liner notes.

Considering one of those eight is a riff on soft rock band America's "A Horse With No Name," that's no small feat. (The deluxe package's final track pairs inheritor Justin Timberlake with Jackson for a fake duet of "Love Never Felt So Good." It's superfluous.)

From the first lines of the first song, the Paul Anka-penned, "Love Never Felt So Good," "Xscape" confirms that hearing Michael sing "new" material can still be a mystical experience, and throughout the freshly produced recordings the sound of a still-vital spirit rushes into the present with revived energy.

You can hear his breath in the slow-burning "Chicago," about an innocent tryst gone wrong, can nearly touch the quiver in his falsetto during "Loving You." "Blue Gangsta" is pure funk, with a vocal take that's toe-curlingly gorgeous and a conceit that ups the "Smooth Criminal" vibe. That crack of emotion, heard in headphones, races to the pleasure center, while the track's producers, including Dr. Freeze, Timbaland and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, build a sonic Robocop to support it.

In fact, "Xscape" often passes the skeptic's test.

Does it swing? Yes. Does it feel like a contractual obligation album? No. Does it honor Jackson's legacy? Yes. Can you dance to it? God yes. Can you mash to it? Certainly.

The product of "album producer/curator" Antonio "L.A." Reid and executive producers Timbaland and Jackson's estate overseers, the release offers sonic holograms of the best possible kind. This is especially true of the Rodney Jerkins-produced title track, which closes the album with robotic glory, and the nearly perfect opener, "Love Never Felt So Good."

Which, honestly, comes as a relief, because one sure way to destroy great art is through unchecked exploitation.

By the time Elvis Presley was four years gone, for example, his estate had authorized 12 different releases, and by the 10th anniversary Presley's ghost had been monetized for 24 different authorized albums. The King's reputation suffered. The Jimi Hendrix estate has so diluted the market with the late guitarist's outtakes that it's hard to know where to start and stop.

As such, Jackson's fans are rightly concerned about taggers painting mustaches on his Mona Lisas. Too, they're wary of being force-fed music by those charged with maximizing the estate's profits.

To its credit, Jackson's estate has so far been miserly, only issuing one other posthumous release of studio recordings, "Michael," from 2010. Another offering, the "Bad 25" anniversary edition, came out in 2012. The one aesthetic dud, the oft-ridiculous Cirque du Soleil production "Immortal," nonetheless has been a blockbuster as it's toured the world.

One measure of this effort's success? Jackson accomplishes something virtually impossible when, during "A Place with No Name," he makes soft rock vocal group America sound funky. A lost-in-the-desert re-imagining of the early '70s song, his demo is utterly surprising, like Frank Ocean turning an Eagles song into his "American Wedding." As updated by Swedish dance-pop masters Stargate (Ylvis' "The Fox," Rihanna's "Diamonds," "Firework" by Katy Perry), the new track thumps with classic hooks and melodies.

Thematically, "Do You Know Where Your Children Are" is less effective at its message than Prince's "Sign O' the Times," and showcases the more tiresome touchy-feely side of late-period MJ, the sweet protector of innocents who moralized on youth troubles and absentee parents with an admirable, if indulgent, righteousness. The original "Slave to the Rhythm" sounds more like a Roger Troutman and Zapp jam than an MJ track, with a gravel and growl that's fierce and convincing. Updated by executive producer L.A. Reid and others, its sturdiness is impressive.

By the conclusion, the producers have posited a future for hologram Michael, one that shimmers with surreality, capturing the idea of artist as cipher, and temporarily blinding us to the truth that his remains are entombed in Glendale. At the same time, "Xscape" offers a chance to once again be whisked back to his creative prime and recall the man before his flaws felled him, when he was untouchable.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...el-jackson-xscape-review-20140510-column.html
 



michaeljacksonVEVO has uploaded Michael Jackson - Michael Jackson's XSCAPE - The Collaborators Pt. 4

This came out Friday MAY 9
 


michaeljacksonVEVO has uploaded Michael Jackson - Michael Jackson's XSCAPE - The Collaborators Pt. 5

This a new one came out few hours ago..
 
The Michael Jackson Channel: Hear the King Of Pop’s legendary hits + brand-new tracks from XSCAPE


Rachel Brodsky
May 12, 2014


Airing Monday 5/12 at 5 pm ET through Monday 5/26 on The Groove, Ch. 50


Start working on your Moonwalk! The King of Pop is here, and in a really big way. Beginning Monday 5/12 at 5 pm ET, SiriusXM will launch the Michael Jackson Channel, an exclusive, limited-run channel dedicated to Michael’s legendary solo career.


Airing on The Groove, the Michael Jackson Channel will feature everything from Michael’s early hits, starting with 1979′s Off the Wall all the way up to Michael’s second posthumous album, XSCAPE, which is scheduled for release on May 13 and features eight new recordings.


But music isn’t all you’ll hear: The MJ channel will also feature reflections and stories from the producers who worked on the new album.


In addition to The Groove, The Michael Jackson Channel will be available through the SiriusXM Internet Radio App on smartphones and other connected devices, as well as online at siriusxm.com.


http://blog.siriusxm.com/2014/05/12...-legendary-hits-brand-new-tracks-from-xscape/
 
Love Never Felt So Good featured on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars"
 
The Return of the King
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A producer resurrects—and transforms—a Michael Jackson song for Xscape.

By Joseph Vogel
Rodney Jerkins worked with Michael Jackson on the original "Xscape" from 1999 to 2001.


When a version of the title track for Michael Jackson’s posthumous album, Xscape (out Tuesday) surfaced online in early April, producer Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins was still working on it. Holed up in Larrabee Studios in North Hollywood—where Jackson recorded tracks for his 1991 Dangerous album—he was listening for details. The sole producer for Xscape to have worked with Jackson on a previous album, Jerkins knew from personal experience the artist’s relentless pursuit of perfectionism.

“That was our process,” says Jerkins. “That’s the way we worked. We just kept at it until it was ready. We just worked on ideas, added this and that to the mix.” Jerkins could still hear Jackson’s soft but insistent voice pushing him, telling him to “dig deep,” and find sounds no one had heard before. Returning to the song over a decade since they last worked on it (and nearly five years since the singer’s death), he was trying to somehow channel “what MJ would be telling me if he was right there working with me.”

The track is one of eight mostly-finished songs culled from Jackson’s vault and “contemporized” by an all-star team of producers hand-picked by Epic Records CEO L.A. Reid (in addition to Jerkins, Reid tapped the talents of Timbaland, J-Roc Harmon, Stargate and John McClain). The concept for Xscape obviously will not appeal to purists. But the album has received surprisingly strong reviews from critics, and lead single “Love Never Felt So Good” is charting higher than any Jackson single has since 2002. This, of course, has as much (if not more) to do with the quality of Jackson’s unheard vocal performances as it does the new production.

When the title track seemed to leak in April, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Huffington Post called it “vintage MJ.” Spin called it “chrome-bright funk pop.” And BuzzFeed praised it as “the best new Michael Jackson song in forever.” Yet as Slate’s Forrest Wickman notes, that version of “Xscape” was not the production Jerkins was working on. It was the version Jackson and Jerkins last recorded together from 1999 to 2001. The new version, on the album, allows us to hear Jackson in new, reinvigorating ways. Jerkins’ work is emblematic of the transformations on Xscape; the song doesn’t replace, so much as it complements Jackson’s original track, accenting different features, textures, and possibilities inherent in the song.

Jerkins co-composed the song with fellow R&B hit-makers Fred Jerkins III and LaShawn Daniels (the trio previously co-wrote such late-’90s classics as Brandy’s “The Boy Is Mine” and Monica’s “Say My Name”). “Xscape” was first presented to Jackson in skeletal form (with partial lyrics) in 1999 over the phone during the early stages of the Invincible project. When Jackson heard the song, “he went crazy,” Jerkins recalls. “He was like, ‘That’s what I’m talking about! That’s what I’m talking about!’ It made him want to dance.” Anyone who worked with Jackson knew that was the ultimate barometer for a rhythm track.

Jackson was so excited about the song he insisted that recording begin right away. Since Jerkins was in New Jersey and Jackson was in Los Angeles, they utilized the latest technology from EDNet—a company that originated within George Lucas’ post-production facility, Skywalker Sound, and became popular in the music industry after its equipment was used on the 1993 Frank Sinatra album, Duets—to allow Jerkins to hear and record Jackson through a phone line with near-perfect fidelity while in different studios. Jackson laid down all his background vocals that day in Record One, as Jerkins recorded them from New Jersey. The producer flew out to L.A. soon after and recorded Jackson’s lead.

Sonically, the track juxtaposed clipped, percussive, climbing verses with an airy, harmony-driven chorus. Jackson loved to tell stories in his music, so he and Jerkins came up with an introduction to the song (“he called them ‘vignettes,’ I called them ‘interludes,’” says Jerkins) of a prison break. Early versions of the song begin with the sound of a jail cell door being unlocked; the prison guards have come to check on an inmate, but his cell is empty. For Jackson, the introduction, like the song itself, was a metaphor for his own unusual life, trapped behind gates, mocked, stalked, cornered, and labeled by a public that demanded he be anything but human.

The pair continued to tinker with the track even after it wasn’t included on Invincible. It first leaked online in 2002 and quickly became an underground fan favorite (in spite of the leak’s relatively poor sound quality). Yet Jerkins always felt bad the track never got its moment to shine. When Epic CEO L.A. Reid approached Jerkins about “Xscape” in 2013, the producer felt ready to address the song again. If Jackson were alive, he reasoned, he would want it to sound current. He wouldn’t play it safe or nostalgic; he would want the song to feel fresh and be heard. Jackson himself frequently returned to unreleased songs years or even decades after they were first recorded and tried out new production, arrangements, and lyrics; “Earth Song” was first conceived in Vienna during the Bad Tour in 1988, but wasn’t released until 1995’s HIStory.

Jerkins’ goal for the new version of “Xscape,” then, was to bring the production up to the present the way he felt Michael would. His new mix adds a bone-vibrating bass, punchy, disco-flavored horns, and cinematic strings to heighten the track’s drama and intensity. He wanted the song to capture elements of the past and present, but not to feel busy or showy; he wanted it to be leaner. “I wanted it to hit right away,” says Jerkins. “Just to get the energy of the song.” In place of the original intro, Jerkins allows Jackson to showcase his singular, syncopated beatboxing and trademark percussive vocal exclamations. There’s also Jackson’s voice from a long-ago recording, intoning “Darkchild,” Jerkins’ nickname. The glitchy, electronic feel of the 2001 version is supplanted by a balance of tight hip-hop beats and live instrumentation.

The song succeeds in large measure through its subtlety, allowing the listener space to focus on the details, from the contrasting key switches in the verses (listen to the transition at the 1:40 mark, as the ricocheting drums give way, and Jackson launches over a wave of horns) to the isolated harmonies in the bridge. Perhaps the most impressive moment comes in a second bridge at the 2:50 mark, after Jackson sings “This problem world won’t bother me no more,” when the momentum of the song suddenly stops. There is a kind of sublime tranquility as the harmonies repeat like a trance. Jerkins lets us hear Jackson’s finger-snaps, giving the moment an intimate quality. Then the music intensifies: The funky rhythm guitar sneaks in, the deep bass re-emerges and Jackson ad-libs to the finish.

“I’m proud of it,” says Jerkins of the final product. “The rhythms, 808s, and horns against MJ’s vocal. It’s intense. It’s the perfect storm.” Indeed, for all the updates, Jerkins leaves Jackson’s virtuosic vocal front and center: urgent, pleading, gasping, soaring—longing to escape “a system in control, [that’s] all ran by the book.”

Both this updated version and the leaked version Jackson and Jerkins last recorded together will appear on the deluxe edition of Xscape. Jerkins doesn’t know exactly how close he got to what Jackson would have wanted were he alive. But as the album deadline neared, he worked around the clock just as Jackson would have, listening for any last-second guidance. New rap verses were tested, including an incredible mix featuring Tupac, which was played at a listening party at Top of the Rock in New York City. (According to Epic Records executive Lauren Ceradini, this version will not appear on the album.)

After the party, as we descended in the illuminated Rockefeller Center elevator, Jerkins seemed both excited and relieved. When he began working with Jackson on Invincible in the late ’90s, the artist painted a vision of what they would achieve with the album. That vision—and that album—were in many ways derailed by a charged (and very public) dispute between Jackson and then-Sony head Tommy Mottola. Seeing “Xscape”—and Jackson—back in the spotlight after all these years offered a kind of redemption. “It’s amazing,” says Jerkins, shaking his head. “You can’t kill greatness.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/...s_produces_michael_jackson_s_song_xscape.html
 
Exclusive: Michael Jackson’s “Hologram” will be a “Slave to the Rhythm”

''I told you exclusively last week that Michael Jackson would appear in the form of a hologram on the Billboard Music Awards this Sunday.

Here’s an update: the Jacksonian projection will “sing” or perform to “Slave to the Rhythm,” a track from the “new” “Xscape” album released officially yesterday.

“Slave” is a fragment of music Jackson left behind, recorded in the 1980s. Last year, Justin Bieber put out a version with his vocal on it after Jackson’s kids gave him an MP3 file of it. That version was not used on “Xscape.”

The hologram is either 3D or 2D, a la the 2012 “Tupac Shakur” which shook up the Coachella Music Festival that year. That image was created by John Textor, the same man who is said to be putting together the new one. Textor is rather a controversial figure these days. His company, Digital Domain, went bankrupt soon after going public in 2012. Investors were left high and dry. He has a new firm now, and is aiming at making holograms out of any dead celebrity whose heirs or executors want to resurrect them. Elvis Presley may be next.

By the way, the people themselves, not just their careers, have to be dead. Mel Gibson wouldn’t count.

Ghoulish or foolish? I guess we’ll see what the reaction to this is on Sunday.''

Source: http://www.showbiz411.com/2014/05/1...cksons-hologram-will-be-a-slave-to-the-rhythm
 
Michael Jackson's 'Xscape': Track-By-Track Review
By Joe Levy | May 13, 2014 1:29 PM EDT

To answer your first question: Yes, it is good. And about your second: Better than you think.

To be sure, it's a strange project: a Michael Jackson record of vocals out of the vault and all-new music from Timbaland and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, Stargate, Rodney Jerkins and John McClain. L.A. Reid — who oversaw "Xscape" as the chairman and CEO of Epic Records — calls it "contemporizing" Jackson's archival material, which in this case was recorded between 1983 and 1999, or from the time just after "Thriller" to the time just before "Invincible." For the most part, the producers chose to work with a cappella vocals, in an effort not to be overly influenced by the original tracks. The result is an album that puts Jackson's vocal abilities — his smooth ecstasy and pained grit; his swoops, pops, shouts and grunts; those moments when he's overcome by emotion, or breaking free of all restraint and gravity — front and center.

It's the central reason why "Xscape" works as well it does, and to be sure, it works very well. Though these tracks build in complexity, they're never complicated. The focus throughout remains Jackson's voice, and there's none of the overworked and undercooked feeling that sank the previous posthumous Jackson album, 2010's "Michael." If "Xscape" sounds fresh, that's because it is. Once he was the world's biggest pop star, Jackson might spend years working on individual songs, cutting up to 50 tracks for a single album. But Timbaland completed his tracks for "Xscape" at pace of about one a day, once he got past the difficulty of listening to Jackson's vocals in the studio and not being able to talk back to him. Stargate took longer -- about a week -- for one of "Xscape's" standouts, "Place With No Name."

The songs on "Xscape" are split between joy and desperation. There are two pure love songs, two tracks about trying to find a world where the pain drops away ("A Place With No Name" and the title track), and four songs about being trapped (by bad relationships or sexual abuse). From almost the very start, when he was singing about burning the disco down on "Off The Wall," Jackson's music mixed celebration and terror, as if he was unable to find, or maintain, the division between the two. His music offered a place to both explore and escape those tensions. On this album, it does again.

Here is our track-by-track breakdown of the new Michael Jackson album, "Xscape":

1. "Love Never Felt So Good"

After a sweep of strings that invoke American pop classics — "Georgia on My Mind," "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" — the drums kick in and the bass pops. This is disco throwback, a sound that Pharrell and Bruno Mars have taken to the top of the charts in the last year. Produced by John McClain (co-executor of the Jackson estate) from a 1983 demo recorded with Paul Anka, "Love Never Felt So Good" is the sort of Jackson song you thought you'd never hear again: soaring, simple and direct.

2. "Chicago"

Timbaland and J-Roc's first entry is a dark funk tale of an affair with a married woman, with trap snares and washes of keyboard drama. Out front, Jackson's tenor voice lays out the promise of a love ("This woman had to be an angel from heaven sent just for me"), while his backing vocal screams of the consequences ("She tried to lead a double life, loving me while she was still your wife"). At the 3:20 mark, the drums drop out, and the vocals and fingersnaps take over. Timbaland sometimes felt he was hearing Jackson's spirit speak to him in the studio. This is one of those moments.

3. "Loving You"

Another straightforward love song, led by piano and hard-hitting drums from Timbaland and J-Roc. Originally recorded during the "Bad" sessions, this was a throwback to simpler times even then.

4. "A Place With No Name"

The centerpiece of "Xscape" is a remake of America's "Horse With No Name," which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972, when Jackson was 14 and just releasing his first solo album for Motown. The America song is the best and worst the '70s had to offer, with an indelible melody and lyrics about a mystical desert journey so meaningless that Randy Newman once described it as "this song about a kid who thinks he taken acid." Reworking it during the "Invincible" sessions in 1998 with producer Dr. Freeze, Jackson completely changed the lyrics, and the new song tells a story about a guy whose Jeep blows a flat on the highway, where he meets a woman who takes him to a utopia where "no people have pain." But in classic Jackson fashion, there's still tension — the woman who takes him there offers sexual fulfillment ("She showed me places I've never seen and things I've never done"), but he ends the song by pulling out his wallet and looking at pictures of his family, who aren't with him. Stargate delivers a keyboard-first track with a sound that recalls Stevie Wonder and a melody that invokes "Remember the Time."

5. "Slave to the Rhythm"

The original was produced by L.A. Reid and Babyface in 1991, during the "Dangerous" sessions, and was revised for "Xscape" by Timbaland and J-Roc. They've toughened up the R&B soap opera about a woman who's trapped by the rhythms of her life — dancing as fast as she can for the men in her life, both at home and at work — adding a spider web of keyboards and drums that capture the maddening pace the lyrics describe.

6. "Do You Know Where Your Children Are"

First recorded during the sessions for "Bad," then revived for "Dangerous," this is one of the message songs that Jackson liked so much. It tells the story of girl running away from sexual abuse and landing on the streets of L.A., where she turns tricks. Jackson was a victim of abuse, and accused of it; few will listen to this song without remembering that, and for some, his troubling life will overtake this track completely. Almost as if in anticipation of that, Timbaland and J-Roc use their most hypnotic keyboard riff as the central motif here, and the climbing synths in the bridge will have the listener thinking of Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."

7. "Blue Gangsta"

The vocal tracks "Xscape's" producers worked with were in a finished and sometimes perfected state — complete with backing vocals, fingersnaps, and handclaps. And on an album of great vocals, this is one of the standouts, moving from breathy restraint to screaming soul. Timbaland and J-Roc deploy a devilish synth-bass part and trap drums, but pull almost everything back to let a chorus of Jackson's backing vocals take over at the end.

8. "Xscape"

Rodney Jerkins produced both the original, during the "Invincible" sessions, and the remake of the title track. The deluxe edition of "Xscape" includes the original, and the side-by-side comparison shows how the aggressive, angular rhythms Jackson loved so much after "Thriller" have been softened on "Xscape." The aggression now comes principally from vocals. Jerkins goes for a deeper bottom, using 808 drums, while Jackson sings about wanting getting away from the system, from bad relationships, from everything that holds him back. And for four minutes here, he does.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6084867/michael-jackson-xscape-album-review-track-billboard
 
Immortal Tour Celebrates MJ And XSCAPE!. (C) 2014 MJJ Productions, Inc.

Blue Gangsta 2010-Edit?!! :)
 
Judge rules that Billboard Music Awards are OK to use Michael Jackson hologram at weekend show

By MICHELLE RINDELS, Associated Press --May 16, 2014



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(FILE - In this Feb. 24, 1988 file photo, Michael Jackson leans, points and sings, dances and struts during the opening performance of his 13-city U.S. tour, in Kansas City, Mo. The owners of technology used to create holograms of deceased celebrities on Thursday May 15, 2014, sued Jackson's estate and the producers of Sunday's Billboard Music Awards trying to block any use of their technology to generate a Jackson hologram during the show. )

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday that the Billboard Music Awards can use a hologram of deceased pop icon Michael Jackson at this weekend's show, rejecting efforts from tech companies seeking to block the digital performance.

Judge Kent Dawson said there wasn't enough evidence to show the planned 3-D image would violate patents held by Hologram USA Inc. and Musion Das Hologram Ltd.

The companies own rights to technology known for digitally resurrecting deceased rapper Tupac Shakur at the 2012 Coachella music festival.

"The court's decision is not surprising," attorney Howard Weitzman, who represented Jackson's estate and dick clark productions, wrote in an email. "The request to stop this extraordinary Michael Jackson event was ludicrous."

Plans to use the hologram during the show Sunday emerged with the lawsuit, but they weren't confirmed until the hearing Friday afternoon. Show producers had been promoting only a "history-making performance" at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena that would promote the singer's latest posthumous album, "Xscape."

Hologram USA and Musion said in their emergency lawsuit Thursday that one of their products was being used without authorization by a competitor to create a segment that depicts Jackson performing a new song, "Slave to the Rhythm."

Dawson noted that the lawsuit didn't provide evidence that the company's patents were being used to create the Jackson hologram, and attorneys for the defendants said the techniques being used were in the public domain. Technology and visual tricks that can create holographic-type images have existed for decades, although the Shakur performance sparked more interest in creating realistic performances of dead celebrities.

Attorney Michael Feder, representing the show and Jackson estate, filed a response Friday, saying the holographic performance had been planned for months and was discussed with Alki David, who owns the rights to the technology that creates and projects lifelike images to appear alongside live performers through Hologram USA and Musion.

Plaintiff's attorney Ryan G. Baker said his clients were disappointed with the ruling, but the lawsuit will continue.

"It's only the very beginning of a case that will continue to be prosecuted by my clients, and ultimately they are confident that they will prevail and will recover all available damages for the defendants' infringing conduct," Baker said.

Hologram USA obtained the rights to the patents after the bankruptcy of Florida effects house Digital Domain, which created the Shakur image to wide acclaim two years ago.

The lawsuit also named John C. Textor, the chairman of Florida-based Pulse Entertainment Corp. who was the former head of Digital Domain. Pulse is accused of using the hologram techniques without a proper license. Textor said he could not comment publicly on the case.

The lawsuit names Atlanta-based Pulse Entertainment Inc. as a defendant. Spokesman Ken S. Johnson said the company was listed incorrectly because it had no connection the Billboard Music Awards.

In March, Hologram USA sued Cirque du Soleil and MGM Resorts International over its show, "Michael Jackson ONE" at Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino. The show features a performance by a digital rendition of Jackson, which the company also contends is an unlicensed use of its technology.

The case is being handled in a Los Angeles federal court. Cirque du Soleil and MGM Resorts have been granted an extension until May 23 to respond to the lawsuit.

http://www.usnews.com/news/business...lboard-awards-defend-michael-jackson-hologram


Thank God.
 
Billboard Awards preview:
Michael Jackson imagery is ‘as if he’s still alive’
By Robin Leach / Saturday, May 17, 2014 | 12:32 p.m.

Highlights.


  • A “real-life” Michael Jackson will appear halfway through the 2014 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday at MGM Grand Garden Arena despite last-minute lawsuits and court filings to block the spectacle.

  • “It’s as if he’s still alive. He’s totally real. It’s absolutely uncanny. People who have seen just a little of it have become so emotional, they have tears running down their face. They are sobbing because it’s as if he didn’t die,” I was told

  • A veil of secrecy has been lowered over the Billboard extravaganza. The only official word from ABC and Dick Clark Productions is that “it will be a history-making performance.”

  • But I learned exclusively Friday night that Michael’s image to be unveiled about halfway in the three-hour ABC telecast is brand new technology.

  • “It was two years in development and took an additional six months to create for this network premiere,”

  • “This is way, way beyond a hologram. It is way, way beyond what you know as 3D. This isn’t even digital. It is far more advanced and a totally new process.

  • Michael will be seen dancing with a cast of dancers. He will be seen moonwalking back and forth the entire MGM Grand Garden Arena stage. He also will be seen dancing up and down stairs

  • “This is the most emotional piece of television we have ever produced in our 40-year TV careers,” two Dick Clark Productions execs told me. “A few people have seen it, a tiny portion of it, already in the arena and have been crying — it’s that powerful. Incredibly, it plays even better on the TV screen, so imagine how viewers will react at home.

  • “They will be in a state of disbelief. It’s as if he’s still alive at the height of his career.”

  • I learned that Michael’s estate trustees came across undiscovered L.A. Reid recorded footage of Michael that they didn’t know existed. The lawsuit says the music will be a new song, “Slave to the Rhythm.”

  • “They didn’t know what they originally wanted to do with it or make with it except just wanting to capture him alive forever. That became the background format for this new technology.

  • “This has never been done before. It is 100 steps beyond anything anybody has ever thought you’d experienced as a hologram. It is so real, it is so lifelike, there is no way an audience would know the artist is not there in front of them.

  • “That will be proven Sunday night with Michael Jackson, just like he’s done before time and time again as a pioneer with music-technology breakthroughs.”

  • A few key major city radio DJs were given a 30-second sneak preview of the spectacle after signing secrecy agreements. Under strict promises of remaining anonymous, I was told: “Within 10 seconds, I was shaking. Then I started sobbing. Michael was alive. I had goose bumps. He was as real as the day I last saw him alive.

  • “I cannot tell you what he does, but his fans from this point on will never believe that he died. It will be four minutes they will remember forever.”

  • No plans for its future use have yet been revealed, but I am told that plans will be forthcoming and will be expanded to include other song material later.


Read more at http://lasvegassun.com/
 
^^ Thanks for posting, QBee! That sounds fantastic! I bet it will definitely help boost the end of week US sales for Xscape, also. STTR is a great song and will play well. I can't wait! :)
 
Michael Jackson's 'Love Never Felt So Good' Gets Indian Makeover (Video)

The Justin Timberlake collaboration is reworked by Bombay Flip Project as part of a promotional push for the India release of Jackson's posthumous "Xscape" album.

To coincide with the India release of Michael Jackson's new posthumous album, Xscape, the Justin Timberlake collaboration “Love Never Felt So Good” has been given an Indian makeover by the Bombay Flip Project. The project was supervised by Sony Music India, which released Xscape here.

The cover version includes English lyrics interspersed with Hindi vocals, peppered with the sounds of the traditional Indian tabla. The Bombay Flip Project -- Kaavya Gupta (flute/vocals), Aakash Gandhi (keyboard), Rupak Dhamankar (tabla) and Siddharth "Dub Sharma" (electronics) -- reworked the track, which also features Aman Bhatt Shelke rendering guest vocals in Hindi.

Sony Music India plans to do another version of the track -- with a South Indian flavor -- in collaboration with music academy K M School run by acclaimed Oscar and Grammy-winning composer A. R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire).

SMI's extensive marketing plan to promote Xscape includes a series of events such as advance listening parties held in Mumbai and Bangalore.

Also tied in with the album was the release of the new Sony Xperia Z2 smartphone, which includes all Xscape tracks embedded in the phone.

Watch the Bombay Flip Project version of "Love Never Felt So Good" below.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/oHw0CeQKK6Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-jacksons-love-never-felt-705543
 
The Pop King (Still) Rises: Social Legacy Of Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson will always be the King of Pop.

This past weekend, the audience at the Billboard Music Awards were treated to one very special appearance &#8211; a hologram version of Michael Jackson &#8211; performing &#8220;Slave to the Rhythm&#8221; off the recently released posthumous album XSCAPE. The album, which hit stands last week, topped the UK charts, and is set to race for the peak position on the Billboard 200 with the Black Keys&#8217; Turn Blue. Almost five years after the pop star&#8217;s untimely death, Michael Jackson&#8217;s music still resonates with his fans, and his legacy is reflected in the vastness of his social following.

With more than 74 million page likes on Facebook, Michael Jackson is the fourth most popular artist on the social network , and rivals contemporary artists such as Rihanna, Eminem and Shakira. His fan base here continues to grow at steady clip, in the past month alone he amassed another 1.2 million new page likes, and close to 15 million over the past year. The pop star has a less prevalent following on Twitter, with a total of close to 1.4 million, though the press around the release saw him add about 37,000 new followers in the past month, a 66% increase from the month before.

The video for the lead track off the album, &#8220;Love Never Felt So Good,&#8221; has racked up more than 10 million views and 11,000 comments in the six days since it went live on the official YouTube channel for Michael Jackson. Featuring Justin Timberlake, and a clear homage to the king of pop and his infamous dance moves, the track is infectious and well-produced, and is strong lead single for the album.

The BBMA performance also had a clear impact online. More than 80,000 mentions on Twitter following the performance is a jump of more than 700%, and the Wikipedia page for Michael Jackson saw close to 350,000 visits in the past week. All of this attention is pushing massive sales numbers, and if Jackson snags the top slot on the Billboard 200, it will be the seventh number one US album for the pop star.

While they may have been beat out for the top rank in the UK, Turn Blue is the most successful album release for The Black Keys to date. Given their relative size to Michael Jackson online (Jackson has 18 times the number of Facebook page likes, and more than double their following on Twitter), they are performing remarkably well and the race is tighter than expected. With about 300,000 Wikipedia page views in the past month, and more than 6.5 million video views on YouTube, they are achieving mainstream success, with an alternative sound.

If someone is going to beat you to the top of the charts, I can think of worse people than the King of Pop.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/livbuli...still-rises-social-legacy-of-michael-jackson/
 
http://[URL=https://imageshack.com/i/neczsop][/URL]

Michael Jackson jacket designed by Wollongong duo


By LOUISE TURK
May 23, 2014, 9 a.m.

New threads for famous star: Robert Manzini (left) and Ricky Milne with the Michael Jackson wax figure, dressed in the jacket they designed and created.Picture: SONY MUSIC AUSTRALIA

Two Wollongong men are waxing lyrical about their moment with Michael Jackson and the biggest opportunity in their design careers.

Ricky Milne and Robert Manzini, both involved in local amateur theatre, created a jacket for the Michael Jackson wax figure at Sydney's Madame Tussauds museum.

The pair were approached by Sony Music Australia to design and create the jacket worn by Jackson on the new album Xscape - created from unreleased music and recordings, and officially released at the museum earlier this month.

Mr Milne, 26, said it was a unique challenge to make the jacket in a two-week time frame, in between work, study and theatre commitments.

"The jacket on the album cover is not in existence so Robert and I had to put our heads together to figure out just how to make this jacket from a computer-generated image come to life, and we did it," Mr Milne said.

"We are very proud of this piece of work because it is the first one to be made in the world."

Mr Milne said they were given the honour of dressing the Jackson figurine in their jacket and they were there, on the day of the launch of Xscape, to help Sony with the proceedings.

"People were lining up to purchase an album and get a photo with the Michael Jackson wax figure that was dressed in our jacket," he said.

The jacket was made to Jackson's measurements and the star, who died in 2009, had a tiny frame, Mr Milne said.

"He was always very tailored in what he wore," he said.

Mr Milne is a certificate IV in fashion design student from TAFE Illawarra's Wollongong West campus and Mr Manzini, 29, is a live production and theatre student from Enmore TAFE.

In their spare time, Mr Manzini is a graphic designer and Mr Milne is a make-up artist for the Arcadians Theatre Group. They are working on the production The Phantom of the Opera, which opens August 15 at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre.

"I'll be doing the phantom's make-up every night, which will consist of special effects like latex and a massive transformation," Mr Milne said.

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/...kson-jacket-designed-by-wollongong-duo/?cs=12
 
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