MJ top

Written on: 25 Jun. 2009

Written by: Roberto Vinicius P. S. Gama

Why I admire Michael Jackson's art...


Dance
MJ never got tired of highlighting some major influences of him, especially James Brown & Sammy Davis Jr., but he surely came up with some nice moves of his own.
Just check his performances in “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” (Billie Jean) and “Moonwalker” (Smooth Criminal act only, please) and then we talk about it...

Hard-work in show business
Businessman, choreographer, composer, dancer, director, producer, singer, writer...

Influential music videos
Probably no other artist used and influenced music videos as better as MJ, what includes making short music movies instead of regular music video clips.

Some summarisation of U.S. black cultural contributions
Beat-box as way of expressing mind compositions...
Great voice...
Influences from R&B and Soul...
Innovative and hybrid dance style... [e.g. street + tap + James Brown + MJ own moves]
Phenomenal on-stage performance...
Relations with jazz... [at least via producer's Quincy Jones musical baggage]

Song(s)
Although not composed by him, his performance in Rock With You would be enough for me... Great!
But, in case you wonder “What about his own songs?”, just remember that he composed Bad, Beat It, Billie Jean, Dirty Diana, Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Earth Song, Smooth Criminal, The Girl Is Mine, The Way You Make Me Feel...

The MJ genius mark
They worked together, they admired each other...
_ (Earvin) 'Magic' Johnson #32; [for me, the most talented and greatest basketball player ever; participated in MJ's Remember The Time music video]
_ Michael Jordan #23; [for many, the greatest basketball player ever; participated in MJ's Jam music video]
MJs.... geniuses!

Pre-Scriptum

Written on: 12 Apr. 2009

Written by: Roberto Vinicius P. S. Gama

I usually do not like top lists...

But I admit that there is something special about them: they are a mix of 'user-friendly' and 'marketing-driven'; they have some kind of public appeal, it seems that they stimulate people to check a specific list [do people like hierarchising things?] and compare with his/her own top list.

A friend mentioned some suggestions of mine a couple of times in his Top Five lists <http://rhadamanthys.blogspot.com/>, so I was wondering why not presenting some tentative top lists of my own.

As I am not fond of top lists, at least I will enjoy disregarding the 'multiple-five tacit convention' (Top 5, Top 10, Top 15...). [maybe this will spare some list space for others' opinions]

So, here are my best-attempted top lists...