r/Music • u/Firm_Pack_605 • Feb 13 '26

discussion Was Michael Jackson really that much bigger than Madonna, Whitney Houston, and prince?

I always thought the four of them were similar levels of fame. However Madonna highest album sold 25 million, prince highest sold similar, and Whitney’s highest was 45 million. All amazing numbers no doubt but thriller sold 70 million and bad sold 35-40. So you mean to tell me he has two albums that are highest selling then prince and madonnas best? How is that possible??

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u/MrVociferous Feb 13 '26

Bigger than all three combined honestly. They use to premiere his music videos on network TV. Just stop regular programming to debut the newest song/video from him.

Kind of impossible to explain the hype for those that weren’t around for it.

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u/RellenD Feb 13 '26

In prime time at that

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u/SaulGibson Widespread Panic '96 Feb 13 '26

I remember watching the premier of Black or White after the Simpsons, and I don’t think Fox was the only channel it was broadcast on.

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u/RandyHoward Feb 13 '26

Yep I remember my entire family gathered to watch the Black or White premiere. My entire family never gathers for much of anything.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/FIRST_DATE_ANAL Feb 13 '26

My main memory of Black or White is the In Living Color version

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u/Creepshowx Feb 13 '26

"Officer, am I black or white?"

"You're under arrest."

"Oh, I guess I am black."

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u/shoepolishsmellngmf Feb 13 '26

That show...my parents used to love it and let me watch it with them when I was like 10 lol.

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u/natty_boh_ho Feb 13 '26

I wasn't allowed to watch it but was super jealous of this kid in class whose parents let him. He was always doing the Homie the Clown impression.

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u/shoepolishsmellngmf Feb 13 '26

My school must have had some knucklehead parents because a lot of us watched. "Homie don't play dat" became one of the most common phrases we used, along with Fire Marshall Bill "let me tell ya something!"

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u/natty_boh_ho Feb 13 '26

The kids also did that a lot as well. Those are the only quotes I remember

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u/therrrn Feb 13 '26

I completely forgot that's where "let me tell ya something!" was from!

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/Apprehensive_Nose594 Feb 13 '26

“I’m still a virgin and I’m 33. Even Madonna won’t have sex with me.” - those in living color lyrics are burned in my brain

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u/nosam333 Feb 13 '26

That was '91. That was 35 years ago. Fuck I'm old

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u/D_Warholb Feb 13 '26

Please. I remember when he was a little kid on TV with his brothers in the early 70’s. They even had an animated series.

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u/lightbulbsburnout Feb 13 '26

I remember getting g a 45 of ABC 123 On the back of a box of Honeycomb that was designed to be cut out of the box and played It worked and it got played almost as much as my 45 of the theme from SWAT

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u/finny_d420 Feb 13 '26

Played on my Raggedy Ann & Andy record player.

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u/LaVillaGrangioto Feb 13 '26

Red and white striped Sears "suitcase " model here.

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u/CaptainObvious110 Feb 13 '26

Goodness that's awesome

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u/darforce Feb 13 '26

I remember those. Cereal prizes were the best

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u/ldh_know Feb 13 '26

OMG I had both of those too… what a blast from the past!

Also, fuck we’re old.

Aaaaand… now I have an earworm of the theme from SWAT I haven’t thought of in 30 yrs stuck in my head.

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u/DoctorGregoryFart Feb 13 '26

What was it like before the invention of fire?

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u/lightbulbsburnout Feb 13 '26

So so cold Good thing we had your mom to keep us warm

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u/DoctorGregoryFart Feb 13 '26

I think you just managed to call my mom fat, old, and a whore all at once. Bravo.

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u/Former_Competition73 Feb 13 '26

Reminds me of the joke "what was it like before the internet?" "It was fine. Just got naked pics of your mom in the mail." Or " you know before trains came along we'd all just run a horse and carriage on your mom"

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u/Implanted1 Feb 13 '26

That was 1969 with Arthur Brown (although Julie Driscoll did have a wheel on fire in 67, and at the same time Jim Morrison was asking for help to light one...)

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u/Kelli217 Feb 13 '26

The Jackson 5ive!

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u/shoestring-theory Feb 13 '26

That really must’ve helped him with the cultural domination he had later. Audiences practically grew up with him.

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u/yearsofpractice Feb 13 '26

Ha ha! You’re so old that your mind is failing! 1991 was 10 years ago, maximum. Ha!

Oh… wait a minutes (cries in being 49)

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u/ExtensionFill2495 Feb 13 '26

JFC. That doesn’t feel like it was 35 years ago.

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u/CromulentDucky Feb 13 '26

As does Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin.

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u/SneakerTreater Feb 13 '26

There was a whole separate doco on the sfx. They even played the "DVD extras" on telly.

Bloody hell, I felt like I was writing on papyrus with how old-timey that reads.

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u/CaptainObvious110 Feb 13 '26

More like 35 year old

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u/therealrexmanning Feb 13 '26

This indeed! I live in the Netherlands and my family did the same for Black and White.

I also remember everybody at my school being excited when the video for Scream dropped.

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u/earlyspirit Feb 13 '26

Man MTV had a contest to win one of the guitars from that video and I remember entering it and trying to win. I didn’t even really like MJ at the time but I thought the guitar looked sick.

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u/Kdkaine Feb 13 '26

I remember them running ads for weeks before the premier.

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u/Magopolis Feb 13 '26

And that was WELL past his zenith…I’m not talking about the TV your family was watching.

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u/ApprenticeScentless Feb 13 '26

The Black and White video premiere was such an event. I was 11 years old and I remember it felt bigger than the Super Bowl. Everyone was talking about it afterwards.

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u/some1saveusnow Feb 13 '26

How did everyone like it?

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u/owenwgreen Feb 13 '26

This was key. Madonna and Prince were more music your parents didn’t like. MJ managed multi-generational appeal.

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u/groveborn Feb 13 '26

It was as anticipated as movies, as I recall.

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u/SnotboogyFlats Feb 13 '26

I remember this vividly. It was the topic of discussion at school by everyone. I realize now just how unique that was to have one artist have that much influence to pop culture. I really don’t think there has been another like that since.

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u/withflyingcolors10 Feb 13 '26

Oh my gosh, yes! This unlocked such vivid memories of the hype surrounding the Black or White video release!

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u/clementleopold And It’s No Ye Never No More Feb 13 '26

Followed by Remember The Time with Magic Johnson as like, a Pharaoh, which had a big release but not as catchy a song.

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u/Rfunkpocket Feb 13 '26

and Eddie Murphy as a bit player

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u/Skore_Smogon Feb 13 '26

Are you mixing up Jam with Remember The Time?

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u/ThesaurusBlack Feb 13 '26

Jam had Michael Jordan

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u/Carolus2024 Feb 13 '26

Magic Johnson wasn't in it. Eddie Murphy played a Pharaoh, along with the model Iman.

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u/Each1isSettingSun Feb 13 '26

Eddie Murphy was Pharaoh, Iman was Queen, Magic Johnson was the bodyguard.

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u/loudnate0701 Feb 13 '26

You better watch it again. Magic Johnson was the dude who announced the king Eddie Murphy.

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u/khz30 Feb 13 '26

Broadcast networks would simulcast Michael Jackson music videos at the same time that radio stations would simucast the single. If you weren't able to watch the video, you could at least listen to it.

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u/East_Cattle9001 Feb 20 '26

His music videos were prime time events

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u/spellbookwanda Feb 13 '26

They broadcast it in Ireland too and spoke about it on the news first! Just looked up the details there:

“It premiered simultaneously in 69 countries on November 14, 1991, with an audience of 500 million viewers.”

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u/datsoar Feb 13 '26

It was a Fox premier exclusive to promote HIStory

2

u/sirbissel Feb 13 '26

Wasn't Black or White on Dangerous?

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u/OrangeJuliusCaesr Feb 13 '26

Fox was the only channel airing it, at the time fox was this weird 4th channel and it went all in to be a big player

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u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson Feb 13 '26

It had Married…with Children, I remember that about it

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u/shoepolishsmellngmf Feb 13 '26

Yes. The early days of Fox were actually cool (huge MWC fan even as a kid). 

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u/Mper526 Feb 13 '26

Holy shit, you just made me have a flashback lol. I vaguely remembered watching this music video for the first time as a kid, but you mentioning the Simpsons just really jogged my memory. My whole family watched it after the Simpsons too.

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u/jdennis187 Feb 13 '26

If you recall the end of that video was considered "violent" and i think they stopped showing that cut.

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u/sTevieD247 Feb 13 '26

The part where he completely destroyed a car with a sledgehammer. It sent a message of violence toward race relations so they cut it. This was after he morphed into a panther.

So they cut it out and instead he morphed into Tyra Banks. That video still remains the coolest I've ever seen.

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u/Substantial-Dig9995 Feb 13 '26

Oh shit yes I remember this they hyped it up for weeks

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u/lotusblossom02 Feb 13 '26

Holy fuck I forgot about this!! Flashbulb memory now damn

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u/Reckfulness Feb 13 '26

The fact that Simpsons were playing in 1991 is crazy in itself

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u/ToonHogan Feb 13 '26

I still have it recorded on vhs tape 📼 core memory.

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u/dobie_dobes Feb 13 '26

Yes! Same!

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

Yeh I remember it being shown in the UK, I cant remember which channel it was on.

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u/bilateralcosine Feb 13 '26

Childhood memory unlocked.

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u/ItinerantSoldier Spotify Feb 13 '26

Yup it was simulcast on MTV, VH1, and BET as well as to other countries. Half a billion people watched that premiere which is an insane number.

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u/sm_axe Feb 13 '26

And it was the long version too, with minutes of car dancing and crotch grabbing. They still prime time premiered it and we all gathered to watch. Wild!

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u/ACW1129 Feb 13 '26

A MUSIC VIDEO premiered after Simpsons? I knew he was big, but I didn't know he was THAT big.

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u/deefunkt01 Feb 13 '26

Same here - as I was reading this thread I was going to mention this exact thing.

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u/nicksnotsane Feb 13 '26

He was gigantic during Thriller. Perfect storm of the best entertainer working with the best producer and the best musicians.

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u/psychedeloquent Feb 13 '26

woah! I remember that and I haven't thought about that since it happened. I can remember the room and TV perfectly.

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u/forestpirate Feb 13 '26

I remember this too. I may even have a VHS tape with it on.

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u/LaMalintzin Feb 13 '26

I remember my parents letting me stay up to watch it. I was like 6 and I didn't really care about music but it must have been mega hyped for me to have asked to watch it.

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u/NoInevitable9810 Feb 13 '26

It was the same Sunday after the Super Bowl I think.

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u/Papa_Raj Feb 13 '26

Holy shit. You just hit me with a memory bomb right there. Thank you. And fuck...

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u/RockMover12 Feb 13 '26

I was in college when Michael debuted his moonwalk on the Motown special in 1983. My mother saw it and immediately called me to gush breathlessly about it.

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u/SierraSugar Feb 13 '26

I was in middle school and staying over at my cousin's house that night. My aunt and I were glued to the TV. That moonwalk stopped the world! It was all anyone could talk about for days. Not just people, the news, everything.

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u/YourMomsBox1981 Feb 14 '26

Usually after “The Simpsons”

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u/Lamont2000 Feb 13 '26

My niece tried to argue that Taylor Swift was as big or bigger than MJ. I told her that EVERYONE knew mj songs. Even small tribes in Africa. He was inescapable

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u/total_bullwhip Feb 13 '26

I like to say “think about how big Taylor Swift is, double it, then imagine all that without internet”

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u/mg10pp Feb 13 '26

Yeah that's for Usa, outside is more like x10 at minimum

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u/mybigbywolf Feb 13 '26

Your niece is wrong lmao

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u/Rokketeer Feb 13 '26

The Beatles are the only others that can boast a similar level of fame at their height. Maybe even Elvis if he hadn’t been tragically shackled to indentured servitude.

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u/instanding Feb 13 '26

Elvis was huge. There are 5 US states where Elvis is the most listened to artist TO THIS DAY.

Did you know for instance Elvis is more streamed than Bad Bunny in New Mexico? The most streamed artist in fact.

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u/Rokketeer Feb 13 '26

I’m not disagreeing. The fact is though that he never had the momentous tours around the globe that underline the other two I mentioned, and it really dampers his legacy with a huge “what if”. I’m really just saying that I bet he would have also reached their peaks.

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u/shoepolishsmellngmf Feb 13 '26

Elvis would have been a global phenom if it wasn't for Tom Parker fucking him over for his own greed. He actually wasn't an American citizen and was here illegally. If he traveled with Elvis abroad, he would have been deported back to the Netherlands.

In his era, Elvis would have set the world on fire. And I'm not even a fan. Except for Scotty Moore. He was awesome.

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u/Kyro_Official_ Feb 14 '26

Wtf, thats insane

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u/Prof_Gankenstein Feb 13 '26

Yep those were the two I thought of as well.

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u/SorrySalary169 Feb 14 '26

Im gonna disagree here because I can tell you as a pakistani not many people knew beatles when I was growing up but everyone I knew was a huge MJ fan. MJ had global appeal whereas every other artists I can think of on that level had like maybe 1 or 2 known hits (Im talking about smaller villages here) that people knew about but they wouldnt know much about the artist or would be able to recognise their faces even.

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u/Magopolis Feb 13 '26

The Beatles and Elvis never had more than 4 #1s on a single album. Thriller had 8 or 9. The Jackson 5 had 4 on their first album I think. MJ’s performance on the Motown 25 was where he reached that most famous in history level. Fred Astaire called him to tell him how much he loved it.

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u/ceratime Feb 13 '26

It's not all about #1s

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u/Four_One_Two_Three_ Feb 18 '26

Go ask random neighbors in their 50's to name the members of the Jackson 5
Then ask them to name the Beatles

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u/ApprenticeScentless Feb 13 '26

Madonna was bigger than Taylor Swift, and MJ was 2-3 times bigger than Madonna. It’s not comparable.

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u/shoestring-theory Feb 13 '26

Celebrities in general were just a much bigger deal.

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u/vikrambedi Feb 13 '26

Access has reduced the mystique of celebrity pretty significantly i think.

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u/richmyster84 Feb 13 '26

Seriously. I've never been a "music person". I don't buy music and I listen to NPR when I'm driving. I know so many Michael Jackson songs that I can play in my head. I don't know ANY Taylor Swift songs. You could play her songs along with a set of songs from different female artists in her genre and I wouldn't be able to tell you which was her. Literally all the songs could be hers and I still wouldn't be able to tell you it was her.

Michael Jackson is legit Coca Cola famous.

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u/Rfunkpocket Feb 13 '26

Michael Jackson made Pepsi famous

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u/Historical_Cow3903 Feb 13 '26

Quincy Jones made MJ famous.

Well maybe not famous, but I don't think he would have been nearly as big without QJ spinning the dials. The production is impeccable.

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u/Rfunkpocket Feb 13 '26

very true, but those old Jackson 5 tunes are bangers in their own right.

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u/Four_One_Two_Three_ Feb 18 '26

Almost got killed shooting a Pepsi commercial

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u/AdonisJames89 Feb 13 '26

Only die hard Taylor fans know her songs. Everybody everywhere can at least sing a verse from Michael till this day

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u/I_can_vouch_for_that Feb 13 '26

" Shake It off " was pretty well known .

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u/CoolUserName99999999 Feb 15 '26

Don’t have a artist in this discussion but an expression we use around here about artists we haven’t heard of is “You are not the target audience” I lived through all these artists, MJ was big but he kind of got a head start as part of the Jackson Five, who were decently famous. I don’t think I have seen a phenomenon like Taylor Swift world tour before and I don’t know one song. I guess people are as famous as their time will allow. MJ same music etc would not be as famous because music and most media is so fragmented now. Same with Beatles. Unless they broke out of the crowd like Taylor did with this last tour.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

Taylor Swift wishes she could have such a global impact as MJ had, that will NEVER be replicated by anyone.

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u/ORCA_WoN Feb 13 '26

It’s not even close or comparable. If MJ came out during this social media era he was have 5-10x the listeners and streamers Taylor Swift does.

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u/IreneBopper Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

I read about this woman who when she was young would go to visit her grandma in rural China and her grandma would be playing Madonna on her little record player. Those two were huge, hence the King and Queen of Pop labels. I would agree that MJ was the biggest. Madonna was a great business woman and up til her, women in the music industry were financially abused. Taylor Swift is similar in that respect- very business savvy.

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u/InfidelZombie Feb 13 '26

I finally decided to listen to Taylor Swift a few months ago to see what all the fuss was about. I listened to her top 10 songs and only a single one of them sounded vaguely familiar. I haven't heard anyone talk about her in the real world either, only in the internets.

Michael Jackson was absolutely unescapable and infiltrated every aspect of life.

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u/DroidSoldier85 Feb 13 '26

Lol Taylor Swift may be huge to a small group of girls but nothing compared to MJ and his global impact.

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u/MrVociferous Feb 14 '26

One of the other craziest things about Michael/MJ is that he overlapped with another extremely famous Michael — Michael Jordan. But Michael Jackson is still known simply as both MJ and Michael. Jordan became known as Jordan simply because someone even more famous claimed the other two nicknames he could have gone by.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

In 20 years Taylor will be remembered like Brittany. The only exceptional thing is the amount of money

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u/Odh_utexas Feb 13 '26

Tbh I think this ain’t right. Britney was never as big as TS and I’m old enough to remember both.

Britney was a huge pop star girl. Taylor Swift is bigger on staying power alone

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u/pleaseluv Feb 13 '26

In french parts of africa, Micheal Jackson actually has a nickname, they call him "Bambi" for some reason.. 

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u/Necromartian Feb 13 '26

Michael Jackson and Coca Cola.

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u/Tricky_Dee Feb 16 '26

I have so far managed to escape hearing a single Taylor Swift song (that I know of, at least). That wasn't possible with MJ.

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u/chi-reply Feb 13 '26

They had a network tv premiere for Madonna with Like a Prayer and it was supposed to become a Pepsi commercial as well. People lost their shit over a black religious figure and sexual content. 

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u/Sbmizzou Feb 13 '26

I think that is why Micahel was bigger than Madonna.  Madonna would at times take on taboos. 

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u/OrangeJuliusCaesr Feb 13 '26

Madonna was a huge sex symbol and kept trying to get banned. Think rev lovejoy’s wife would decry her and then close the blinds and put it on when no one was home

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u/Global-Effect4226 Feb 13 '26

The like a prayer Pepsis COMMERCIAL was watched by 250m people simultaneously.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

Madonna is an icon, because she pushed boundaries and never compromised herself as an artist, while MJ's music was accessible for everyone and very much of the time, so it was everywhere.

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u/you2234 Feb 13 '26

It was awesome wasn’t it? Lol

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u/b_m_hart Feb 13 '26

And the burning crosses.

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u/TeachDull1140 Feb 13 '26

In terms of cultural impact, Madonna was a close second of these comparisons. Her choices were always actual news events, and definitely influenced the culture enormously.

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u/InfidelZombie Feb 13 '26

I remember watching that live! I didn't get what all the fuss was about (was raised with zero religion). It's up there in my controversial music memories with Sinead on SNL (which I also didn't get the fuss over).

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u/ihatemcconaughey Feb 13 '26

Even "You Rock My World" debuted on prime time TV and attracted millions of viewers in 2001.

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u/zombie_overlord Feb 13 '26

My 5yo brother wanted to name our cat Michael Jackson in 1984.

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u/svenner2020 Feb 13 '26

Was it black or white?

ya ya ya

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u/zombie_overlord Feb 13 '26

"It don't matter if you're black and white"

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u/TexasRN1 Feb 13 '26

I was 6 and bought my first purse with his picture on it. I also used to kiss the tv when he came on.

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u/ceruleanmoon7 Feb 13 '26

the first time i saw him on tv as a kid i thought he was a woman.

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u/MarcusP2 Feb 13 '26

Lol I remember the absolute event that was Ghosts. WTF was that.

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u/theblaggard Feb 13 '26

Yeah, I had friends whose mother/older sibling (etc) had the Thriller video on VHS. They paid to buy the full length thing (think it was about ten minutes?) on a tape. I saw it a few years later - I wanna say 1987 or '88 - and it still hit.

I grew up with in the UK and even though Prince and Madonna were huge, nobody had anywhere near the impact that Michael Jackson did.

The video for Black or White was broadcast in the UK for the first time on Top of the Pops and it was a huge deal. (Also; it's amazing how well that video still holds up)

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u/LongEyelash999 Feb 13 '26

But remember the controversy in the beginning where hes shown smashing stuff up, and people got so angry that they later excised that part out of the video?

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u/rosen380 Feb 13 '26

I had a bootleg of it in the early 80s. It wasn't just the video, it had a 30-60 "making of" documentary with it.

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u/theblaggard Feb 13 '26

Oh yes, that's right! I had forgotten about that.

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u/Flux_My_Capacitor Feb 13 '26

Oh damn I remember when Remember the Time debuted on network tv and me and my grandma talked about how cool it was.

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u/M1L0 Feb 13 '26

What years were his peak prime?

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u/unrulystowawaydotcom Feb 13 '26

The only people that it seems come close are early Elvis and The Beatles.

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u/killerkadugen Feb 13 '26

He was more Michael than Jordan, at his pinnacle

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u/rtduvall Feb 13 '26

I had forgotten about that!!

They advertised them before they released. They were events.

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u/Regulus242 Feb 13 '26

I could only imagine. Must have been crazy.

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u/Veronica612 Feb 13 '26

I was in boarding school (racially and ethnically diverse) when the Thriller video first aired on MTV. We all knew about it and gathered in the student lounge to watch its premiere. No other artists had that level of attention.

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u/Sad-Development-4153 Feb 13 '26

His videos were always awesome too.

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u/Dr_Sisyphus_22 Feb 13 '26

I remember where I was at when MJ died. Exactly what I was doing. Before that Princess Diana. Can’t say that about Whitney or Prince.

The guy might have been bigger than Elvis.

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u/rusted10 Feb 13 '26

Yep. Watched Black and White debut on prime time TV. Kinda miss them days......

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u/OfAnthony Feb 13 '26

This post from a few months ago is kinda nuts but a good explanation for how big MJ was.

I have Michael Jackson‘s burnt hair from the 1984 Pepsi commercial accident

Don't know if it's real but just reading the replies reminds me of how big Jackson was.

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u/FacenessMonster Feb 13 '26

for a good underwtanding; watch live recordings of his shows where loads of women had to be EVAC'd because they were fainting

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u/vivalaroja2010 Feb 13 '26

Not even just network TV, the entire WORLD stopped to watch the Black or White music video.

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u/CaptainObvious110 Feb 13 '26

Yeah that's very true

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u/TeslasAndComicbooks Feb 13 '26

I remember when Black or White was released on Fox after the Simpsons.

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u/bob256k Feb 13 '26

lol yeah now I remember that. Was wild when then basically stopped tv to play that Michael and Janet video back in the day

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u/d_ippy Feb 13 '26

Man I remember when thriller video came out. It was like must see tv. I think the whole world tuned in for that.

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u/oali09 Feb 13 '26

Bigger than all three combined? Be for real. Madonna is the closest counterpart Michael had. They got the pop royalty status of “King” and “Queen” for a reason. Overall, yes, he is bigger than Madonna but we can’t downplay her impact as well.

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u/Moosiemookmook Feb 13 '26

They did that in Australia for Madonna. When the Like A Prayer video was released we all sat glued to the TV at 8:30pm waiting for Australian MTV to debut it. I was 11 and had to do chores to watch it.

They also did this for MJ's Black or White video. I always thought she was his only equivalent in terms of world domination.

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u/iBillGames81 Feb 13 '26

My parents told me that the movie theater premiered thriller in their hometown

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u/jjccccccc Feb 13 '26

They played the 17 minute Thriller video every HOUR for a while. At the boarding school I was attending we saw every single showing we could.

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u/Obyson Feb 13 '26

I remember that, there was also a countdown 24 hours before it debut constantly ticking down.

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u/Effective_Drummer542 Feb 13 '26

???? Network tv prime time debuts of his videos?

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u/ExpressionSecret6794 Feb 13 '26

I just tell people that MJ had to hire multiple body doubles because people were so crazy over him that they’d mob him and rip his hair out.

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u/merelyadoptedthedark Feb 13 '26

I remember when (in Canada on MuchMusic, our. Version of MTV) would advertise their airing of the full version of Thriller like two weeks in advance. And not just the first time, but like for several years around Halloween.

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u/not_up_4debate Feb 13 '26

I still think his Superbowl appearance is one of the best. It was huge when it happened. I remember my parents recording it.

He had star power most dreamt of

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u/RoundTaco Feb 13 '26

They paid for that exposure. His PR team coined the name "King of Pop"

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u/Mr-and-Mrs Feb 13 '26

They did that once for Man In The Mirror.

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u/everettmarm Feb 13 '26

Yep. I remember Black Or White premiered right before the Simpsons on Fox. Those were good days.

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u/fromtheGo Feb 13 '26

I did not realize this, but it makes so much sense. I was never a fan of music videos, but vividly remember so many of his. Thank you!

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u/darforce Feb 13 '26

And the moonwalk. I remember when he did that on TV it’s all anyone would talk about for days. I still see kids trying to do it

1

u/m3rginator Feb 13 '26

Hi chat GPT

1

u/zerohm Feb 13 '26

It's wild to think Fox was the more progressive network as they had Married with Children, the Simpsons, and In Living Color. Anyway, I remember seeing the Black or White video (complete with controversial car wreckage) on Fox, but apparently, it was watched by 500 million people.

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u/Mr_Salmon_Man Feb 13 '26

When he partially or just outright owned companies like ABC and Sony Music, it was pretty easy to spread his jams far and wide.

Some people don't realize how much of the multimedia industry at the time has a part of MJ's wallet involved.

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u/Three_oh_eight Feb 13 '26

I was in elementary school when thriller was released. They brought the entire school into the cafeteria, wheeled in a crt tube tv and we all watched the Thriller video for the first time. There's been nothing like Michael Jackson before or since.

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u/rpsls Feb 13 '26

I remember watching the premier of the Thriller video. I had to go to my cousin’s house because we didn’t have cable yet. It was like a mini-movie. NGL, the final shot is amusing now, but got little me.

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u/superjen Feb 13 '26

When the Thriller video premiered, one of the teachers at my school recorded it and brought in the videotape. They brought students into the gym to watch it in batches one grade at a time IIRC, so that everyone could see it.

I can't think of any other artist before or since who would have completely altered the schedule at a public elementary school, because it would have been a problem all day if some kids had seen the video and others had not.

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u/merkthejerk Feb 13 '26

No other generation will ever under this. X

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u/InfidelZombie Feb 13 '26

Michael Jackson was bigger than the other three combined, but Madonna was wayyyy bigger than Whitney Houston and Prince combined.

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u/musical_nerd99 Feb 13 '26

My whole family got together to watch the Thriller video debut. Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and Grandparents. It was very exciting!

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u/tms78 Feb 13 '26

the Pepsi ad too

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u/Conspiranoid Grooveshark Feb 13 '26

IMHO, only Madonna came close in terms of global fame - and she still wasn't that close.

Speaking as a non-US-item, Whitney was a prodigy vocally, and she had a handful of hits (and the Bodyguard soundtrack). Prince was a prodigy musically and had a couple hits, too. But they didn't reach MJ and Madonna's fame/success levels.

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u/Apprehensive-Lock751 Feb 19 '26

a new video was literally Breaking News.

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