babykeia292

So me and my friend were thinking about how Michael's later albums didn't sell as well as his early ones and we were trying to figure out why. I, personally, think it's because they don't appeal to white America. For example, Invincible is more R&B and soul sounding. And Dangerous is more hip hop sounding. And those are the two albums that people say are his worst or they don't listen to.

What do you guys think?

SelinaS

I think a huge reason why Invincible didn't sell as well as Michael's earlier albums was because of lack of promotion by Sony and because of piracy. Illegal downloading of music shot way up around the early 2000's with Kazaa, Napster and other websites...so that might've hurt the sales quite a bit. Also, didn't Dangerous sell around 32 million copies overall? So it was extremely very successful.

babykeia292

Well yeah, everything Michael has done has been extremely successful, there are just certain albums of his that are completely ignored these days.

The Girl In The Mirror

I agree with all of the above, and bad publicity. Unfortunately people tend to believe what they read by the media, and if it puts you in a bad light, it might affect your sales. Which makes the injustice of it all even worse and I'm surprised no ones never done anything to try and stop it, even if we know in reality, we can't.

This is of course, by Michael's standard as his sellings were on another league above everyone elses, and by normal standards, all his albums were amazingly successful. But it is true what he said: The bigger the star, the bigger the fall.

angelicious

You've hit on all the right points - Invincible sold comparatively less units because of poor publicity and bad press. It's less about it being R&B/soul, i.e. "less appealing to white America" because Off the Wall was probably MJ's 'blackest' album and that did well. Also, I think there's just a time in an artist's career when the divide from the younger generation is just too great to overcome. Case in point, I hear Madonna is still making albums - only God knows who actually buys them. That being said, MJ (and Madonna) managed to stretch that period of relevance out for longer than the average artist which I'd say is about 10 years, if everything works out. Everything is for a season, and besides, why would one want to do the whole thing again if you've done it before?

Delusional Love

but i knew that i was out of luck the day the music died...

JCheartsMJ

This is very true. Dangerous was one of Michael's best albums to date IMHO. Invincible didn't start very well because there were ruckus between Sony and Michael. I think it was probably because Michael had a very high standards in Album sales. People were expecting more from him. I mean, today's artists are extremely lucky if they can reach 5 million copies for their album, but that's not the case with Michael. People expect Michael to sell at least 20 millions for one album, just because he's the King of Pop. So, 10 millions will be considered as 'flop'. Hell, I would LOVE to 'flop' like that! LOL

cookie666

http://www.mjshouse.com/stories/invincible_mirror.html

IT'S WAR; WORLD EXCLUSIVE: MICHAEL JACKSON BREAKS HIS SILENCE IN HIS FEUD WITH RECORD BOSS

The Mirror May 15, 2002, Wednesday
by Paul Martin


MICHAEL Jackson and his record company boss Tommy Mottola are at war over the music legend's fading career.

The self-styled "King of Pop" has sold more than 120 million albums in a 24-year solo career with the giant Sony corporation but in an astonishing attack, Jackson, 42, accused the company's chief Tommy Mottola of:

SABOTAGING his career by refusing to release any singles from his latest album Invincible, which would have helped world-wide sales of the struggling record, FAILING to advertise and promote the album during a record-breaking US television special about the superstar and WRECKING possible plans to sign a lucrative record contract with another label. Troubled Jacko has told close friends that he is disgusted with the treatment he has received.

A pal said: "Michael wants out of Sony, and he believes that some of the highest people in that company are hoping to make him pay the price for his disloyalty.

"The company has have stopped all promotion on the Invincible album, prevented him from releasing singles and basically sabotaged his career. "Jackson is furious at Mottola and any working relationship they had is now over".

"They are the two most powerful men in music going head to head in an all out war."

Poor sales of Invincible, the star's seventh for Sony-owned Epic Records, has sparked the bitter row which has been kept a secret until now.

Mottola, 52, former husband of Mariah Carey, is probably the most powerful man in the music business.

Bob Dylan, Ricky Martin and Destiny's Child are just some of the major stars on his Sony roster.

Jackson, however, has failed to recapture his 80's popularity which saw his Thriller and Bad albums sell 52million and 25million copies to date.

Invincible, his first album in six years, went to No1 in the UK and US album charts, but sank without trace within weeks.

Now Jacko believes the feud has been triggered by his shrewd business ventures which will entitle him to 50 per cent of Sony's revenue even if he leaves the record label.

In 1995 Jackson merged his music publishing catalogue, which contains more than 1,000 songs including 251 Beatles titles, with Sony's publishing catalogue. Sony and Jackson share the cash in a 50-50 split of the catalogue earnings, which DOESN'T include his own albums.

Jackson fulfiled his contractual obligation to Sony by releasing Invincible - and a future greatest hits album - and wants to leave the company while still making a huge profit from them.

The source said: "Tommy Mottola is angered by all this to say the least. Michael believes that Tommy wants to make sure that all the time and money invested over the three-year Invincible project will be lost.

"Michael sees it as a punishment for him outsmarting the corporate minds of a record company that is already in financial difficulty."

But music industry insiders say Jackson is merely the victim of his own bad career move.

One said: "Michael borrowed millions from Sony to make Invincible and the album has done so badly that he can't raise enough money from sales to pay it back.

"Now Michael is blaming Sony for the poor sales, so he has a reason not to come up with the money.

"But Sony will have a cemented contract which will cover them. They are not even obliged to put up a billboard advertising his album if they don't want to."

Jackson appeared to be as popular as ever when he launched his album last October amid a blaze of publicity.

He staged two Jackson Five reunion concerts at New York's Madison Square Garden to mark his comeback. Both concerts sold out in FIVE hours grossing more than $12million.

The shows were then televised by CBS last November netting a record-breaking 26million viewers - the most watched TV speciality programme in that network's history.

But sources claim that despite requests from the star his record company failed to place a television advert publicising his new album during the broadcast.

The insider said: "It was crazy. It was the perfect platform to sell the album to a massive TV audience.

"Sony claimed CBS had no airspace for the advert. Jackson again put in the request for a repeat airing of the show in January but they said there was no air space - this is bizarre when the show on TV is a Michael Jackson concert."

Then Jackson recorded an all-star tribute to the Victims of September 11 which included stars such as Ricky Martin, Destiny's Child, Shakira, Celine Dion and Gloria Estefan.

But despite the commercial power of such a line up Sony did not release the song, much to Jackson's bewilderment.

The source added: "This song was to raise money for charity and there's no doubt that it had so many stars involved that it could have been a success.

"Jackson offered to create a Sony Play- station game which would have attracted considerable interest.

"He also offered to participate in film ventures for Sony Pictures for no fee as a part of his own promotional effort."

Neither offer was accepted, said the source.

Jackson's sudden loss of popularity has baffled the music industry and fans alike.

His last major album, History, released in 1995, was the biggest selling double album of all time. He toured and sold out arenas around the world including the RDS in Dublin and Wembley Stadium for three nights.

Then in 1997 he released Blood On The Dance Floor as a re-mix album. Despite critics in the media branding it a failure, it was the biggest selling re-mix album of all time.

Yet by the end of March Sony had deleted Invincible from their international priority list of projects.

As a comparison, his last album History didn't cease to be an international priority until more than TWO years after its release.

A source said: "Even if Michael walks out of Sony today he gets half the revenue that many of their artists are bringing in.

"That's a bitter pull to swallow for bosses at the company who probably feel that Michael has outwitted them.

"In retaliation they are making it as difficult as possible for Michael to be appealing to any record company.

"Poor album sales, a lack of promotion and the frustration this will cause amongst fans will really hinder Michael's ambitions.

"Lots of the fans have started to think that Michael is not interested in music any more and has given up.

"But this couldn't be further from the truth. Even when he launched Invincible late last year he was working around the clock to make it a success. He even staged a record signing in New York where thousands of fans got to meet him - he had never done that before.

"What has happened can not be put down to simple indifference.

"Only five years ago Michael was still on top of the pop world and selling millions of records. He is still regarded by people in the music industry as the most talented and gifted artist in the world.

"Record companies would still fall over themselves to sign him up and he has already received a number of high profile offers.

"It's only a matter of time before Michael signs up with a new company and he's determined to overcome this problem.

"Despite the rumours that have been created around him he is still determined to keep a high profile in the music business. Michael believes he is still a big player in the music business and all the facts to date would still suggest that.

"But because the album has dropped away so quickly many are presuming that Jackson has lost the old magic.

"It just doesn't make sense that his new album has disappeared without trace."

Despite the feud, Jackson has continued to command a high profile in the music world.

In January he was named the Artist of the Century at the prestigious American Music Awards.

In March he made an appearance as best man at childhood friend Liza Minelli's wedding to David Gest.

Meanwhile, rumours have been circulating that he is in financial difficulty and struggling to pay off a number of loans.

It was recently revealed that he is so short of cash he had to pawn a pounds 1.4million watch to get a loan.

But Jackson, who owns a zoo and employs 120 staff at his Neverland ranch in California, insists that he has nothing to worry about. He added: "I'm comfortable and well looked after. I don't have to worry about money."

jocey

Dangerous is amongst the best selling albums ever, so I don't really understand what you mean. It was successful... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...bums_worldwide

Invincible may have only sold 10 million, but since 2000, no artist has sold that many. Selling 1 million = success for everyday artists.

"People think that being a star is about being fabulous, being in the spotlight, having your picture taken all of the time and everyone will worship and adore you....Being rich, rich, rich. Having it all. And you know what? They're absolutely right."

~ Super Pop - Madonna

Hippy Hollow

This is a really interesting question. I just watched the documentary "The Final Word" and Paul Gambacchini (US born UK DJ) has some really interesting critiques of the post-Thriller albums. He mentions specifically the "Black or White" rap and how it sounds dated - starting with Bad, he argues, MJ was following trends rather than starting them.

He also notes that Quincy and Rod Temperton never worked with MJ post-Bad and post-Thriller, respectively. They were part of the "dream team." Bruce Swedien stayed with MJ for years, but QJ's production and Temperton's songwriting - from Off the Wall, Rock With You, Burn This Disco Out, Thriller... undeniable parts of the Jackson magic.

And of course the music biz changed quite a bit. Thriller is often noted to have been the album that saved the record industry, but it's highly unlikely that any album will ever have that level of appeal and sales, just because the industry is so fragmented, and it's so easy to find pirated stuff. So Bad probably did as well as it could have done. Dangerous is a good album but it has less magic (IMO) than the QJ produced albums, that just sound otherworldly. HIStory was not a strong album, and I agree with Gambacchini on why: QJ seemed to filter a lot of MJ's ideas, and either reject the not-so-great ones, or make them better. No way a song like "D.S." would have made it on to a QJ-helmed project.

The other thing is that MJ was more famous for controversy than music. I remember buying HIStory on the day it was released and kind of being quiet about it to my friends because I knew they'd make fun of me. Contrast that to Bad and Dangerous, which had most people into music queueing up to buy it at midnight at Tower Records. Sony certainly didn't seem to want Invincible to do well because they did next to no promotion of it. Hard to know if that was in part MJ's fault or not.