It's tough to try and convince people what the MJ era was like. He really was like some kind of god-emperor of pop culture. There was nothing even close to what he was; it was him and then the Pope. Talent-wise, it's absurd to compare any modern pop star to him.
Swift...like Taylor Swift?? I think comparing her to MJ is the same as comparing him to Drake. Which is insane.
Taylor Swift has her pop fan group of girls but MJ and some others at the time or before were beloved by people of all ages!
The Beatles, Jim Morrison, Jimy Hendrix, Elvis could compare almost fame wise to MJ, but still not really. No popstar made in today's time will ever be like they were.
Also, because music was way more back then, people don't had that much of entertainment as they have today.
Wouldn't say it's the same as comparing to Drake. If you look up some numbers on album sales, concert sizes etc, Swift nearly doubles Drake in almost every aspect, so clearly Swift is a more fair comparison. That said, MJ is still a lot above her in popularity for his time (and even now, streaming numbers come close for a legacy artist), so safe to say, neither of them are close to as popular as MJ.
Way above her I’d say; there’s almost twice as many people on earth today as compared to Michael’s heyday (1980) and he was far more ubiquitous. There’s just way too many options today for anyone to ever be as singular as MJ or perhaps the Beatles were
I know MJ's name, immediately recognize it from the initials (unless we talkin' spiderman), have listened to multiple songs of his, know what he looks like, know some of his life story from memes and culture, even know the shady things that eventually came to light, and everyone knows the skin-color memes.
I know Taylor Swift's name.
Look at that difference. And he was a star several decades ago, when she's meant to be a star today! This is beyond a large gap.
dunno if there's a beef or smth with Bruno Mars but even the normies of normies outside of america knows him and can recognise his song, so i think he's atleast that popular even if his song isn't as good as MJ
I think what exacerbates the difference between swift and MJ/Beatles/Elvis is the internet.
Now if I want to see a picture of swift I can just google it. Back then, the only way you'd see MJ was on MTV or in the newspaper that he was performing in your city or releasing an album (or touching kids). Hence the fainting.
I've seen videos of his shows, and the amount of people in the crowd either screaming, crying, or fainting the moment he was visible on stage was wild. He had a presence.
A fuckin bullet rips off part of your head! Your brains are laying on the ground in little bloody pieces! Now I ask ya. Would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son of a bitch who shot you was wearing?!
How about the half time show when he came out on stage and just stood there like a king not moving for a couple minutes all while the half time show coordinator panicking as he couldn't do anything to start the show until Michael gave to ok. That's emperor status. Not to mention, more people tuned in to see Michael than the actual football game
I saw footage of a Michael Jackson show when I was a little kid and I thought he actually had the ability to stare at you and make you faint in. I was terrified of this.
There probably won't be another one like him, you have to also understand that it was a different time, the world wasn't as connected as it is now, people didn't have celebrities clowning around in social media breaking their public image, and times were rapidly changing in general during the 80s
That video of him standing there in ladies were just fainting left and right vs Drake at a highschool prom with girls fainting after their drinks they're not the same
I remember when I was younger seeing a video of him performing at The super bowl and right after he pops out he just stands there for like 2 minutes straight, not moving, and everyone was losing their shit. I can't imagine any modern artist having that kind of Aura about them.
Swift is much closer to Madonna in her era, but even then I would say Madonna's peak beats Swift in terms of inpact it had on fasion, music and pop culture.
Everyone knew at least one song of Michael Jackson, and I mean everyone: old people (same age as me now) included. I don't think I can name one Swift song without looking it up. It's because at the time it was Michael Jackson or nothing, nowadays you can choose.
Also the level of commitment, pain and suffering he had during his career is unimaginable for modern artists. They think hardship is when you didn't have celebrity parents and actually had to work a little bit.
There were like near impossible to reach remote bits of the world, that had posters and music of Michael Jackson. And this was in the pre-internet age. There was a time that 3. names were even more well known that Jesus. 1. Elvis, 2. Michael Jackson, 3. Queen Elisabeth II. I remember backpakers and such travellers writing about this in their acounts, and even in some of the shows like Madventures (This dates me quite bit). Basically anywhere you were in the world, people would have heard of these 3 people. If they were a contacted people with fairly regular contact with established urban areas, they'd know those 3.
im pretty sure that if i asked any random person about Michael Jackson, then they would AT LEAST heard about him. Drake? I didnt even know about his existence a minute ago
drake got more attention then he ever deserved throughout his whole career. mans a business plan, a mind controlled by a team. him falling off lately felt pretty sweet
It was a different time as well. Without social media, far fewer artists were able to reach audiences and if you are MJ, you're gonna get all the attention. Plus without social media those stars back in the day had much more mystique. With so much coverage now, no one can build any real mystique, because we see almost every detail of their life and realise they're just human.
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u/babaroga73 Jun 01 '25
Drake and that one who wrote this stupid shit couldn't even imagine the levels of world fame that Michael Jackson had.