Michael’s Fans – We are his swords & shields

By : Nikhil Gangavane

The recent excitement and speculation of a Michael Jackson album with new material was suppressed by controversies as usual but there was a huge difference this time. Till Michael was alive it was the media that created the problems and fuelled allegations, this time its hurtful to see so many fans fuelling a controversy that is finally going to affect Michael’s legacy. I can understand sentiments of Michael Jackson fans because I have been one for so many years following his every move and his feelings and most importantly respecting them. Most of the fans feel that just because SONY BMG supported my fan club, I support them. They are entirely wrong. 

In this blog I want to explain fans not just the business side of the whole thing, but how are we ourselves harming Michael Jackson’s legacy in all this FAKE voice fiasco we have set up.

A few years ago when Michael was charged with false molestation charges I wrote a song called “THE MICHAEL JACKSON ANTHEM”. I wasn’t very proud about the music arrangement part of the song, but I was surely very happy with my lyrics. The main line in the song which told the world about US… the fans was “WE’RE NOT JUST FANS… WE ARE HIS SWORDS AND SHIELDS!” And today what is happening is not intentional harm to Michael or his legacy, but we have been indirectly hurting his reputation and status by ourselves showing disbelief in what is been given to us. Are we an army staging a mutiny against our own king… our idol??? To understand what I am trying to tell, get off the shoes of being a MJ fan and see it as a third person and also as SonyBMG.

Releasing new Michael stuff had to be challenging because most of the songs released here might now have worked or finalized by Michael in the studio in production terms. They were raw and wouldn’t have been produced well until an album of unreleased material itself was final till he was alive. One fact that many of the fans are failing to notice is that even when Michael was alive THIS IS IT concert and the album related to it was coming through SONYBMG anyway apart from Mike’s hatred for the label that was displayed in 2001. The hatred was specifically targeted at Tommy Mottolla (HEAD OF SONY AT THAT TIME) and then against all music labels which were exploiting artist. The scene reached a different level when it was specifically staged as Music labels treating black(African-American) artists disrespectfully and cheating them.

Now as a third person let us consider that SONY BMG is exploiting Michael’s material for their profits. But any music label would be doing the same. I wouldn’t like to mention the other beneficiaries of Michael’s work who are on equal profit terms as SONY BMG, but many fans would conveniently want to ignore that fact. I don’t know how many of you are aware of a new contract that came out through TMZ on Friday that showed another negotiation did by a Jackson Family member. Now even when we are considering that SONY is profiting from Michael, Sony wouldn’t sake its reputation by using a fake voice like Jason Malachi as Michael’s voice. We as Michael fans have been doing a free publicity and PR stunt for Jason Malachi… something that would have cost him thousands of dollars. Sony, any other music label, any sound engineer or music producer doesn’t need Jason Malachi to sound like Michael Jackson. The sound technology today is advanced enough to use voco-coders, Sound wavelets and many other effects that can artificially produce Michael’s sounds at a certain pitch and pronounciations. Wavelets can make it happen. This is safer for Sony that putting Jason Malachi on Michael’s record.

On the other hand, regardless of the truth and lies all fans should remember that it is the sales that is going to matter to any person on the planet that will prove Michael’s success again. If fans are talking about doing piracy and not buying album, despite of being a release of new material after Invincible then we are creating a loss for Michael. The sales are going to prove how influential he and his music still is in todays world. Michael always wanted to release an album that would surpass the sales of Thriller, and if fans are not going to buy his albums and do piracy this will hurt his legacy in the long run. The album should be bought by every fan. I am not against listening to leaked tracks… downloaded tracks but see what the media will have to say after the sales are less. The media will portray the whole thing as a failure of Michael to lure fans into buying music.

This debate is totally useless as well as harmful to whatever the news is telling today. Fans should know that there is no alternative than buying albums that will be released only through SONY in the coming years. And not buying them might hit on the profits of MJ estate, his family as well as sony, but the harm to his legacy and reputation for sales will be much higher. The debates on forums, social networks and blogs have been so pathetic that some fan clubs and communities had to ban the topics on their forums or even messages posted anywhere else. For a change be positive and if you don’t want to buy the album keep it to yourself. 

Consider this in a simple way. Akon recently said “Jesus died of our sins and Michael died because of the sins of the media. Jesus had bible but Michael had Wikipedia.” This Wikipedia is the reaction of fans on fan sites, forums and social networks. The more negativity we generate the media will lap it up in its own way. Instead of being emotional for some reason that cannot be solved and illogical for something practical we should try to see what result we want to achieve. Not for us but for Michael. I know that this album might not topple sales for thriller, but it can become the best-selling album of 2010 if fans are determined. 

Before winding up I would again like to mention that I am not a SONY BMG freak. I am a Michael Jackson fan but since I am in entertainment industry in some way or the other I understand some business of how it works. I am neither a celebrity nor a successful producer, but for me what matters is what we are doing as an ARMY of Michael. There is this ignorance that engulfed us due to emotional reasons but we have to unite and break through it. The possibilities of many more unreleased stuff will be ruined if the first album after he is gone, is received so badly. So I pray and hope that all fans understand what we have to achieve keeping aside our feelings of hatred for some entities… for some obvious reasons. Let us just be Michael’s fans and nothing else for the days to come! L.O.V.E

THIS BLOG CAN BE FREELY PUBLISHED ON ANY WEBSITE / EDITORIAL / PRINT as long as a link is provided back the THE MICHAEL JACKSON ANTHEM PAGE & http://nikhilgangavane.blogspot.com