Who Is/Was More Talented, Prince or Michael Jackson?
In a rare departure from my usual (over)serious pursuits on these venerable pages, a thought has come to mind, and thus I pose this question to the BIA faithful: who do you think is/was more talented, (The Artist) Prince, or Michael Jackson?
Prince was at the height of his popularity and celebrity when he made “Purple Rain” in 1984, which came in the wake of Jackson’s “Thriller” in 1982. Jackson followed that up with bad.
Now, I know I may be committing heresy in the eyes of some just by bringing this up, but I was as big a Prince fan as I was an MJ fan. In the past some have said Prince was more talented, by virtue of the fact that he was a musician who, in many cases, played all of the instruments on many of his recordings. And he is an awesome guitarist. He led the “Minneapolis sound” in the 1980s, which spawned groups such as “The Time,” “Vanity 6,” and musicians such as Jesse Johnson, Morris Day, Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin.
MJ is MJ. His total body of work with and without the Jackson Five is unparalleled.
What do you think?
Prince was at the height of his popularity and celebrity when he made “Purple Rain” in 1984, which came in the wake of Jackson’s “Thriller” in 1982. Jackson followed that up with bad.
Now, I know I may be committing heresy in the eyes of some just by bringing this up, but I was as big a Prince fan as I was an MJ fan. In the past some have said Prince was more talented, by virtue of the fact that he was a musician who, in many cases, played all of the instruments on many of his recordings. And he is an awesome guitarist. He led the “Minneapolis sound” in the 1980s, which spawned groups such as “The Time,” “Vanity 6,” and musicians such as Jesse Johnson, Morris Day, Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin.
MJ is MJ. His total body of work with and without the Jackson Five is unparalleled.
What do you think?
I've been away for a few days and this is the first post I find?!?! Just kidding, Clark. I think Prince b/c of what you mentioned, but I have a different angle to interject: I truly believe that Prince made MJ the legendary MJ.
If you think back to the MJ of "I Wanna Rock You", that MJ was a soft singing, smooth dancing, young man full of smiles. When Prince emerged, MJ felt challenged, and began to transform his image to that of a bad boy: grabbing his crotch, snarling, "I'm Bad" attitude kind of dude. MJ was a better marketing genius b/c once he got wind of his "new" persona, took it to a whole different level.
I've long thought this way and it was pretty much confirmed when, upon his death, talk got out that MJ wanted to beat the record for most concerts performed in a particular stadium in London. He wanted to perform 5o times in one month (?) -- the old record was 20. Set by guess whom?
Prince.