Billie Jean is very cool.

Good point.

Spike Lee Announces NEW Michael Jackson Project
 

Spike Lee Announces NEW Michael Jackson Project
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NEW PROJECT INVOLVING ' OFF THE WALL

This past Saturday (08/11), during the Festival of TagCDMX technology and Creativity, the filmmaker Spike Lee (Director of "They don't Care About Us", "BAD25" Doc etc.) made an important announcement for fans of the King of Pop--a documentary about OFF THE WALL is coming!

He didn't give many details, but it is believed a Making Of the album, in the style of "BAD 25"-which is filled with some previously unseen images, trivia and interviews about the songs and music videos from the album.

http://entretenimiento.terra.com.mx/...f46d0RCRD.html

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sheltonjlee
1 hour ago
Today I Had The Honor Od Interviewing Ms. Katherine Jackson For My Doc On Her Son Michael Joseph Jackson's Album OFF THE WALL. God Bless Her.
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sheltonjlee
1 hour ago
This Man Mr. Joseph Jackson Had A Dream,A Vision For His Children To Make A Way In This World Through Their Talents. Mr.Jackson , The Patriarch Of The Family Gave Us A Great Interview For The Doc I'm Doing On His Son's OFF THE WALL ALBUM.
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sheltonjlee
20 hours ago
Chairman,Owner,Songw riter,Producer And Visionary Mr. Berry Gordy. Motown-The Sound Of Young America. Mr.Gordy Blessed Us With An Interview For My Doc On Michael Jackson's OFF THE WALL Album.
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sheltonjlee
23 hours ago
My Main Man-St. Stevie Wonder. I Interviewed Stevie For My Documentary On Michael Jackson's OFF THE WALL Album. HISTORIC. YA-DIG? SHO-NUFF
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SIEDAH GARRETT @SIEDAHGARRETT · 4h 4 hours ago
Big blast being interviewed by Spike Lee for his forthcoming documentary Michael Jackson's OFF THE WALL. @SpikeLee
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Off The Wall Era: Michael Joseph Jackson
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I'm actually interested to see this. Off The Wall was a groundbreaking album and the entire story behind the inception and history of it should be fun to watch. Also Spike Lee seems like a very natural pick for it, and I always loved Mo Better Blues which was musically based.

I do like Off The Wall
I might have to give this a watch.

Thanks for the welcome back by the way! Its great to see you as well, missed you xxx Also, yes Spike is a HUGE MJ fan lol. MJ and him were actually friends, he did a documentary to celebrate the 25th anniversary of MJ's BAD era in 2012. Spike Lee also directed Michael's "They Don't Really Care About Us" music video. He seems to really respect Michael and it reflects in his work.

Yessss you should!!!, I think its Michael's most underrated works and ironically Mike at his best. I am EXCITED :D

Well that's one of the reasons it interests me.
I was old enough to be aware of all the Thiller stuff and his rise in the 80s and seen so much stuff from that era.
Off The Wall came out when I was something like 6 years old and before I'd really developed any great interest in music, plus that time seems to get overshadowed by what he did later.

I like music documentaries, I even watch ones of bands I don't like and find them interesting.

Wow unfortunately I wasn't as lucky as you and wasn't born yet lol I actually got into Off The Wall later on and yes it is criminally overshadowed. I think some of his greatest moments as a songwriter and vocalist are on OTW. Michael singed like a butterfly and his vocals were so smooth. His singing style later got more gritty (which I also love) but there are some very unique special moments that is captured on this album that is distinct for that album. Also, it was down right funky! Mike should have stayed with that funk!!


I am not sure if you read this but I did a review of Off the wall and talked about the underrated tracks of the album. Here are the posts just in case you didn't or are interested.

The track "Girlfriend" was a single but it is underrated in my opinion so I am briefly going to discuss it.

Girlfriend was the last single from the Off the Wall album and it was released on July 60, 1980. It was written by Paul McCartney and produced by Quincy Jones

Fun fact: Paul Mcartney and MJ were good friends. Paul Mcartney had wrote the song for MJ to sing. Paul Mcartney had mentioned to MJ that he had a song that he wanted him to sing for his solo album. MJ was a big Beatles fan and had agreed. However, McCartney ended up recording it himself with his band Wings, and it was issued in 1978 on the album London Town. It was later suggested to Quincy for a possible track and he had no idea that Paul Mcartney had wrote for MJ in the first place. Some of Mcartney's version is omitted from Michael's version but MJ eventually recorded it for his album and it became a single in the UK.


My Review: This song sounds like Beatles/Paul McCartney sound but MJ makes it his own. I personally prefer Lennon as a songwriter but Paul does his thing here for this song. Like Stevie, I think he made a great choice in picking MJ for the song I really like the bubble gum pop energy to the song. The production is really good. I would say it is MJ's least soulful song on the album but it is still nice and flows with the album.
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It'd be cool if it wasn't a Spike Lee film, not a big fan of him except for Do the Right Thing. I bet Ken Burns could make a great doco on MJ though.

You should have checked out Spike's BAD 25 documentary he did in 2012 on MJ, it was great and it aired on Thanksgiving, did you see it? I like Spike's productions because he is objective and he makes an effort to interview people who were involved in Michael's albums (engineers, producers, choreographers, etc) It is real personal and intimate.

I'll check it out. Never actually seen any of his documentaries (unless you count biopics like Malcolm X), so he could be better in that film than his creative works.

You don't like Malcom X?

I thought his direction in that film was a work of genius.

Michael Jackson = Complete Legend.

1 of many gone before their time...

Oh my god oh my god!!!!!!!!!!
 

Yes :(


ATTENTION: TV ALERT MOTOWN 25 SPECIAL TO AIR AGAIN THE SPECIAL WHERE MJ SHOWED THE WORLD THE MOONWALK!!!!

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Jackie Jackson, Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Randy Jackson of The Jackson Five perform at Motown 25 on May 16, 1983.

Paul Drinkwater/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

The special will re-air Saturday on PBS stations as part of a national pledge drive.

The special that introduced TV viewers to Michael Jackson's moonwalk and the Temptations and Four Tops' vocal battle will air on 300 PBS stations on Saturday as part of a national pledge drive. The landmark TV special included reunions of Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and performances by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and other Motown luminaries.


Watch 'Motown 25' Exclusives From DVD Box Set


The airing is tied to the release of new DVD versions of Motown 25, a single disc in remastered surround sound with an hour of bonus material and a three-CD set that includes six hours of extras. Motown: Big Hits & More, a seven-CD set created by TJ Lubinsky, executive producer and co-host of public television's My Music, is being offered as well.
Here's a look at the ins and outs of Motown and its artists around the time Motown 25 first aired on NBC on May 16, 1983, with a few oddities thrown in as well:


Big ratings.
The original broadcast of the two-hour show was watched by 47 million people, according to Nielsen, with 35 percent of the country with a TV set turned on watching Motown 25. The show did especially well in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Francisco and Philadelphia.


Marvin Gaye's TV Comeback.
Gaye was never fond of performing on television -- check out his performance on Soul Train where he apologizes for his poor lip-synching technique -- and 1983 was packed with as many TV appearances as he made in his peak years of 1965 and 1969. He appeared on the Grammy Awards, the American Music Awards and talk shows and sang the national anthem at the NBA All-Star Game. He was murdered a year later on April 1.


Motown and country music?
T.G. Sheppard appeared on Motown 25 despite having had no relationship with the label since 1977. He was, however, the biggest star on Motown's short-lived country label, initially Melodyland and then Hitsville, which ran from 1974 to 1977. While recording for the Motown subsidiaries, Sheppard had eight songs on the Top Country Songs chart, including two No. 1s and another pair of top 10 singles. After the label closed, Sheppard moved to Warner Music where he charted almost 40 times.


The return of the Four Tops.
Levi Stubbs, Duke Fakir, Obie Benson and Lawrence Peyton had just re-signed with Motown after stints at ABC and Casablanca, where they had recorded late-period hits such as "When She Was My Girl" and "Are You Man Enough." Stubbs and the Temptations' Otis Williams decided to stage a battle of the band for the show, a format they have taken on the road for more than 30 years now. The group's reunion with Motown, however, was short-lived -- just two albums before they moved to Arista.


The Supremes' really short reunion.
Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, who replaced Florence Ballard in 1967, reunited for one song on the special, "Someday We'll Be Together." Destiny has not filled the promise of the song. An attempt at a reunion tour had been scrapped a year earlier after Wilson balked. In 2000, a Diana Ross & the Supremes: Return to Love reunion tour of the three was scuttled after Wilson objected to Ross receiving a payday nearly four times better than hers: $15 million to $4 million. Ross started the tour, doing the shows with former Supremes she never recorded with, and after attendance fell off, half the dates were canceled.
Underappreciating James Jamerson.
Motown 25 concerned itself with stars and not the regular musicians, a.k.a. the Funk Brothers, who helped define the unified sound of the label's records. Jamerson, the studio bassist who reportedly performs on 95 percent of Motown's records made between 1962 and 1968, was in the audience at the show held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, but he had to buy a ticket from a scalper. Jamerson died three months after the show aired. In 2000, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2002 his story was a key part of the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown.


An Emmy win and a sequel.
The special received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program, besting the Tony Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, Second City Television and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Two years later, Motown and executive producer Suzanne de Passe were back in the Emmy winner's circle for Motown Returns to the Apollo, which beat out an AFI tribute to Gene Kelly, a PBS Lena Horne special, Late Night With David Letterman and Carson.


The Commodores without Lionel Richie.
On a night populated with reunions, one that did not occur was Richie joining the Commodores. They smartly played "Brick House," a song Richie did not appear on. Drummer Walter "Clyde" Orange sang it as he had done on the record; Willie King, who wrote the song with his wife, was there along with the rest of the original members - Ron LaPread, Milan Williams and Thomas McCleary.


"Billie Jean" drops on the Hot 100 …
The modern music business relies on television appearances to help give singles a boost on the charts. The reverse occurred for the landmark performance on the show, Jackson's moonwalked "Billie Jean." Granted, Michael Jackson's "Beat It" was No. 1 when Motown 25 aired, "Billie Jean" continued a freefall on the Hot 100 during May 1983, dropping from No. 14 to 24 to 29 to 42.


…while Thriller stays at No. 1
Michael Jackson's Thriller -- on Epic Records -- had been No. 1 for 10 consecutive weeks prior to the special airing and it stayed atop the Billboard 200 for another five weeks. Flashdance replaced it at No. 1 for two weeks, but Thriller would return to No. 1 for another 10 non-consecutive weeks in 1983 and 1984.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...n-25-revisited

http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/d...02/motown.html

Criminally overshadowed? Well, if you judge it up against Thriller and the subsequent couple of albums after, then ya. But on it's own it's far from overshadowed from a commercial aspect (commercial aspect added for Frown's benefit)

Off The Wall

- 8x platinum in the USA
- 20 million units sold worldwide
- ranked 68th in Rolling Stone's top 500
- was the first MJ album to have 4 singles peak in the top 10
- inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
- MJ won a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance

Any artist would give anything to have a single album with that sort of pedigree.

:love: for the Statistics! Nicely done

However, I think Off The Wall is underrated "musically" by the general public (outside hardcore R&B circles). Off The Wall is also never propped up like Thriller and BAD is. When people think of MJ at his best they usually think of those albums and Off The Wall is hardly mentioned. I am not saying that it was not successful but it is not as appreciated compared to Michael's other works.

So it's one of the most famous artists in the world's albums but it's not as famous as two of his other albums? I don't know, a little less famous for MJ is still incredibly damn famous. I'm with Cthula on this one.

Just because MJ is the biggest pop star on the planet doesn't mean he does not have songs or albums that are not appreciated. Also, just because something is known doesn't mean it is respected or known for the right reasons. Off The W all gets its just due from music lovers but its not an album that gets much attention from the media or general public from a musical standpoint compared to Thriller. Ironically, OTW is more musically diverse than Thrilller.

...okay. Refer to Mr. Chiulas stats and you might find a lot of music enthusiasts.

All of Michael's album's sold over 10 million copies world wide. He is the third biggest selling artist of all time. However, that still does not necessarily mean it certain albums or songs do not get recognized by the media. OTW is often overlooked even by the general public. Thriller and even BAD are always sited OR all three of them together (OTW, Thriller, BAD) However, OTW, is never really appreciated on its own merit artistically compared to his others like Thriller.

Music enthusiasts and the general public/media are different audiences though.

Uh...

Music enthusiasts do make up a large percentage of the general public.

Actually no they don't.

A general music listener is very different from a music enthusiast "music listener."

What's the difference exactly? Both have the ability to form a strong opinion about an artist / band. And what even is a "general music listener"?

Soulflower - I don't know you except for a few months on this forum. I have a word of advice that you can take, or blow off. Your choice.

You don't have to fight every damn fight. Stop being so defensive and/or combative about your passions. It'll probably make your ride here much smoother.

Off The Wall is a MONSTER album achievement by any standards.

Accept that and stop trying to argue that it's "not appreciated enough" or "overshadowed".

Sure, the MJ bandwagon fans that jumped on board once Thriller blew up probably don't wanna look back, but any true MJ fan reveres OTW. I personally think it's MJ's best work.

Chill girl.

I'm a music fan and I don't know much about that album.

I will use us and this conversation as an example.

You and I are not "general" music listeners. We are passionate and are very opinionated about music. We go out of our way to voice our opinions about various topics related to music, songs, albums artists and pretty much anything related to music. We go out of our way to do this by going on message boards and engaging in other extra behaviors that an average casual music listener would not do. We are music enthusiastics.

A general music listener is someone who casually listens to anything at their disposal or anything that is easily accessible. They don't care enough to have an opinion about it and they are not interested in looking for music or other types of music. Listening to music that they have easy access to (i.e. turning on the radio in the car) is done out of convenience, not passion or extreme interest. They have little interest but its not enough to call them enthusiastics.

But you know the songs.

I appreciate that you actually did give me a pretty good example of a difference. Makes this go a little bit smoother. And I surprisingly do agree with your definitions. However, I can't help but think that whether or not someone is an enthusiast, or a "general music listener" as you put it, they can still form a pretty strong opinion on a popular album. It being popular, I imagine some parts of the album would show up on the radio which would be perfect for the convenient listener. I did however jump the gun a little bit before realizing that a music enthusiast would be far more passionate about their opinion as opposed to just your general music listener. But, I still really wouldn't put the two in two different categories. If someone listens to music, and they can form an opinion about it, they're an enthusiast in my eyes. If however they just don't want to bother, well that's a different story.

I do, but I hardly hear them played much.
And yet I've heard his other albums to the point of overkill, and I don't even own them.

I remember Don't Stop Till You Get Enough getting a lot of radio play when I was younger. I could just be imagining that, but that was one of the first ways I heard of Michael Jackson. Though, it could be different based on where you live.

The only time I ever hear that song played is when they do a 'Hits of 1980' hour.
Otherwise it's all his later stuff.

Weird. I remember Don't Stop, and Thriller getting a lot of radio play a few years back. But of course, once his death became a factor, radio stations became filled with Michael Jackson tracks. However, I will say that I don't think the other two songs that Chula posted ever got radio play. Again, i'm just going by memory. I use to listen to the radio almost religiously as a kid, but some things are still fuzzy.

Then I would argue that we have to examine the quality and bases of the opinion.

If someone says they like a song because it has a catchy beat or because the singer has a nice voice while that is an opinion, its not that opinionated imo. In other words, just because someone "likes the singers voice" doesn't mean they are a fan of the singer or they have an extreme interest in their music.

IMO, a music enthusiast will be more passionate and have more information for their reasons for their opinion. They also go out there way to express their opinion.


For example, one time a radio personality said something on the radio I did not like that was music related and I called the radio station to express distaste of it. I called for almost 45 minutes but the line was busy.

Why just don't?

It may be partly an age thing and partly a country thing, but here in the USA during the late 70s and early 80s those singles from OTW were killing it here.

They got huge everyday airplay on any number of popular stations as well as music TV shows.

That is still an opinion though and I have said about certain bands that I listen to that the main reason I listen to them is for the vocalist (Porcupine Tree is an example, I love Steven Wilson's voice), and as you've said you consider me a music enthusiast. Sometimes when forming an opinion, I do agree that it is always good to express it more in depth, honestly I'll listen to someones recommendation if they go more in depth with why they recommend it over someone who says something like "this album is good." I do see where you're coming from, and understand that i'm just debating for debate sake. I just don't really see a difference in traits with general music listeners and music enthusiasts, but again, I do see why you would come to the conclusion that there is a line between the two. Personally, I see them as one thing described as "someone who listens to music," that's all it really needs to be anyway.

I am enjoying your responses though, for once you do seem to be understanding the rules of debate, and it makes it so much easier to talk with you.

Off The Wall doesn't get that much radio play.

I am sorry but I am not sure what point your making.

Why don't what?