<p>Adam- I know what you mean. Even among my close friends I’m the only one who likes my music, so I mostly only meet people with the same tastes at concerts. Otherwise it’s like they’re nonexistant.</p>
<p>i like:
the beatles (obviously from the name)
the beach boys
stevie wonder
michael jackson (don’t care what you say, the man’s still a genius)
prince (same as above)
bob dylan
the who
fleetwood mac
tupac
notorious big
kanye west
paul simon
rufus wainwright
panic at the disco
eminem
jimi hendrix
almost all motown music
and most classic rock and pop</p>
<p>I don’t get why everyone thinks Michael Jackson is a genius…</p>
<p>What am I missing?</p>
<p>^ An open mind.</p>
<p>Yeah, sure.</p>
<p>If I think Hitler was a genius (and many people do), and you don’t, does that mean you lack an open mind?</p>
<p>In other words, instead of making a smug remark, please tell me what specifically makes Michael Jackson a “genius”.</p>
<p>jack’s mannequin
the fray
the rocket summer
lupe fiasco
kanye west
ben folds
ben kweller
jimmy eat world
something corporate
we shot the moon
third eye blind
motion city soundtrack
rage against the machine
jay-z</p>
<p>I kind of like whatever tickles my fancy. These are the first ten songs that come up on random play all:</p>
<p>***** You - Ani DiFranco
Come on Get Higher - Matt Nathanson
Yes We Can - Will.I.Am feat. Barack Obama
Hold Me - Matt Nathanson
Proud - Heather Small
Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well - Mike Doughty
Girl All the Bad Guys Want - Bowling for Soup
Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson
All We Are - Matt Nathanson
Brand New Colony - The Postal Service</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Because before him, there wasn’t really a pop star. Sure, there were good and popular solo artists (Dylan, Bowie, Adams, the list goes on), but he successfully transitioned from being the cute leader of the Jackson 5 into one of the biggest acts of the twentieth century.</p>
<p>He’s also an excellent dancer, if you haven’t noticed.</p>
<p>^ ditto, i guess i should have said he’s a genius to me because people see genius in different ways. there’s no denying that he was a child prodigy, i mean the kid could belt like marvin gaye with emotion that he didn’t even quite understand yet. as he got older, he learned from a very early age how to create an image of himself, as most apparent in the 80s with the sequins in his clothes, the unreal glide of the moonwalk, the hiccup in voice, his androgynous if ever changing looks, it’s all something he created deliberated to make him the biggest star in the world. when asked why he wore sequined socks, he said he wanted people to recognize him just from looking at his socks. i mean he was that huge. so for me michael jackson is a genius of creating image. and yes, as time went on, that image got more and more bizarre (he has issues that would take a while to explain) but what he did between 1980-1988 cannot be ignored. he was a pretty shrewd business man too. he went behind his friend paul mccartney’s back and purchased ATV music publishing company which had northern songs, the beatles entire catalog (minus george songs and some early mccartney songs). that took some balls but he had his on that since the 70s. anyway there had been no star on his level really since elvis (yeah the beatles were huge, but they were a group) and i don’t think there has been one since.</p>
<p>Woohoo! They may arguably be the biggest band in the world, but I find it rare to find any U2 fans at all!</p>
<p>So, these are all the artists I tend to listen to a lot of. I don’t know what to call the genre. Perhaps rock, alternative, and pop? I bolded my favorites, but I do like all these artists a lot.
U2
Barenaked Ladies
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Eric Clapton
Dire Straits
Coldplay
The Killers
Jack Johnson
Paramore
Counting Crows
Foo Fighters
Modest Mouse (although I do find them annoying at times)
Switchfoot (I think I’ve grown out of this band)</p>
<p>Explosions in the sky
Nick Drake
The Beatles
Smashing pumpkins (pre-adore)
City and Colour
Fionne Regan
Iron and Wine
Aphex Twin
The White Stripes
Velvet Underground
Neutral Milk Hotel
Knights of the Abyss
Whitechapel
The Beach Boys
Queen
Early Incubus</p>
<p>Queen
David Bowie
Toto
Journey
Elton John
Genesis/Phil Collins</p>
<p>80s music is sooo good.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So basically, the arguments here are that he did something no one else did before, and that he made an image for himself. However, there are plenty of other artists who achieved similar measures, but didn’t become globally popular (aka, popular in the West) due to having core audiences in poorer, non-English-speaking countries.</p>
<p>For example, Teresa Teng became immensely popular throughout Asia in the 70s and 80s, eventually selling over 100 million albums. That she was able to infiltrate the population of communist China, even despite occasionally being banned by the CCP as “bourgeois” and “reactionary ideology”, speaks volumes. Not to mention, she sung in six different languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Indonesian, and English) in order to broaden her appeal. Her level of fame was arguably regionally unprecedented.</p>
<p>Then, there’s the much more familiar Elvis Presley, who has sold more albums than Michael Jackson, and clearly forged an image of his own that to this day remains familiar with the mainstream public. In terms of the music industry, he clearly was unprecedented as well.</p>
<p>There are also Ayumi Hamasaki and Jay Chou. One only needs to look at their Wikipedia pages to see how they, too, have gone to unprecedented levels in highly personalized ways. The former doubles as a fashion icon, and the latter doubles as a critically acclaimed film director. And unlike Michael Jackson, they’re unlikely to end up with the media image Michael Jackson eventually carved out for himself (that is, one of a discolored wannabe-pedophile).</p>
<p>Then there’s A. R. Rahman, who single-handedly revolutionized the Bollywood film score industry (indeed, in some senses, he <em>is</em> the industry). Since starting his career in the 90s, he’s sold over 200 million cassettes and become the first citizen of his country to win a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards - and all this with his main audience being one of the poorest major countries in the world.</p>
<p>Now, you might respond, “Well, maybe those people are geniuses as well”. But I wouldn’t consider them geniuses, and I wouldn’t consider Michael Jackson a genius. Perhaps we just have different standards for the label. Maybe if Michael Jackson wrote all of his music (and wrote better music), and wound up in a more…productive adulthood, I’d consider differently. But otherwise, I just don’t see a genius.</p>
<p>By the way, as for the “child prodigy” argument, we see that every week on YouTube. It’s of course impressive, but to cite it as evidence for being considered a “genius” really dilutes the label. Once you’ve seen nine-year-olds outperforming Randy Rhoads, six-year-olds channeling Eva Cassidy, and five-year-olds playing Mozart concertos, singing Marvin Gaye at a young age doesn’t seem quite so superhuman anymore.</p>
<p>Lastly, as for the “balls” argument, I don’t really consider courage as having anything to do with being a “genius”. Sorry.</p>
<p>He is (or, was) a good dancer though. I’ll give you that.</p>
<p>well as i said, we see genius in different ways. but you can’t deny that he’s a gifted entertainer.</p>
<p>R&B & Rap</p>
<p>Drake
The-Dream
Asher Roth
Wiz Khalifa
Pitbull
Lil Wayne
Rick Ro$$
Ryan Leslie
Gorilla Zoe
Snowgoons
Method Man</p>
<p>and most artists similar to that.</p>
<p>I hate it when I make a really awesome post and it ends up killing the thread.</p>
<p>I usually get stuck listening to one band for a month or so. I get completely obsessed with just their music and then wear myself out of it from hearing it too much.</p>
<p>This month’s flavor: Queens of the Stone Age (first and last albums kick ass)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>To be fair, you’re citing a lot of artists from Asia, where the population far outnumbers anything in the US, so comparing album sales is not really a great measurement.</p>
<p>Of course, Elvis was great, but that doesn’t mean that Michael Jackson isn’t.</p>
<p>AdamWest, I am the same way, although I usually do a rotation. A few months ago, it was Seether, now it is Avenged Sevenfold.</p>
<p>I like types of rock, and Classical, and Soundtracks from the Lord of the Rings or similar ones.
As a classical musician, I definitely have my favorites:
- Mahler
- Brahms
- Beethoven
from there I don’t know which composers I like most. Bach, Haydn, some Mozart anything from the Romantic era, and most of the big composers from the 20th century: BARTOK, and then the Russians.</p>
<p>its all about the euro trance / house.
makes for great driving music.</p>
<p>Tiesto
Fedde le Grand
Ferry Corsten
Armin van Buuren
etc etc.</p>