Someone upthread made a comment along the lines of his legacy being more a cultural one than a musical one and that’s really the feeling I have. Looking back as a 90s teenager, it’s remarkable how little music there is for someone who was a “famous musician” for several decades.
I remember the breathless TV premiere of the Black or White video, but even at the time it seemed like hype over substance. Without having read this thread I wouldn’t have been able to name another single released after that – I remember the giant floating statue, but not Earth Song itself.
He was forever in the news but seemingly never for the music, only the endless rumours & allegations, the weird personality ticks, the monkey, the masks, the cosmetic surgery, the child dangling over a hotel balcony – each new & increasingly weird plot twist feeling like a desperate attempt to remain in the public eye while simultaneously decrying fame and no longer having any real interest in doing the thing that made him famous in the first place.
The 80s albums were before my time so I don’t really have an understanding of what impact or how groundbreaking they were on release, but the singles never really felt like more than fun, upbeat stuff to fill commercial radio playlists. The sort of songs that get played at wedding receptions, not because anyone genuinely loves them, but because the memory of having been around when the song was a hit is one of the few cultural touchpoints a dancefloor of strangers might have in common.
