I hope you'll forgive me for not uploading anything for so long, but I've been on a roll lately. Today, I come to talk about Michael Jackson's struggle with Sony. He has also worked with Universal and Motown, but he mainly released records with Sony and Epic (which was owned by CBS Records and later absorbed by Sony).
Perhaps for other musicians it is necessary to make a small introduction, but in this case, I don't think the King of Pop needs that, but, in his honor, I will make a small summary (as small as possible considering the magnitude of his career):
Michael Jackson, full name Michael Joseph Jackson, was born in Gary, Indiana, on August 29, 1958, and began his musical career in the Jackson 5 with his brothers, releasing ten albums with the band (Motown and Epi
From left to right: Tito, Marlon, Michael, Jackie and Jermaine Jackson
He had a troubled childhood due to his father's physical and psychological abuse of him and his siblings, leaving him with problems that would accompany Michael throughout his life (physical insecurities, anxiety, his tendency to remain hyper-obedient and also to remain childish in adulthood), all of this would later get him into trouble.
In 1975, he began his solo career, although it was his fifth album "Off The Wall" (1979 - Epic Records) which really established him as a solo artist and a promising star (he generated 4 Top 10 hits and reached No. 3 on the Billboard chart). And then came his sixth album, the world-famous "Thriller" (1982- Epic Records), that made him achieve stardom, winning seven Grammys and eight American Music Awards, including the Award of Merit (the youngest artist ever to win it). Thriller became the best-selling album of all times (approx. 65 million copies) and topped the Billboard chart for 37 weeks, remaining in the top 10 for 80 weeks, with seven singles reaching the Top 10 songs.
From that album on, Michael was already one of the biggest names in the industry, and with it came different kinds of accusations and rumors. In 1986 he was diagnosed with vitiligo, which caused an uneven depigmentation of his skin, so he resorted to makeup and was accused of wanting to "be white" and other rumors such as having the intention of buying the bones of the Elephant Man. In 1987 he released "Bad", also with Epic Records, with great success but not reaching the success of "Thriller" (obviously), and in the same year he went on the "Bad World Tour", a record-breaking tour accomplishing things such as filling seven times the mythical Wembley Stadium, becoming one of the most successful musical tours in history and that would last until 1989 (most of the earnings were donated to hospitals and orphanages, something very typical of Jackson).
In March 1988, he bought an estate in Santa Ynez where he would build Neverland, with its own amusement park, zoo and movie theater. It was around this time when he was given the nickname of the "King of Pop", popularized by Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he had a great friendship.
Now, we start to deal with what has brought us here, and, first of all, sorry in advance as it is a bit of a confusing timeline to follow because a LOT of things happened to this man, and I'm trying to summarize it. The thing is, in March 1991, Michael renewed his contract with Sony Music (CBS Records was acquired by Sony Music in 1988, so the latter would be automatically in charge of distributing the albums of the artists who had recorded for Epic and CBS), the conditions of this contract were that he had to release at least three studio albums, one remix album, two more greatest hits collections and a compilation box set. That same year he released the album "Dangerous", with the single Black or White. In '92 he created the Heal the World Foundation to help the world's most disadvantaged children, victims of violence, poverty and terminal illnesses, and later went on the Dangerous World Tour, all proceeds of it went to the foundation.
From that moment on, Jackson faced several difficulties in his life, such as the first accusations of abuse (a topic for another post, and if you ask me, I consider him innocent), and his divorce from Lisa Marie Presley after 20 months of marriage, although he also had some joys such as the birth of his children Prince and Paris Jackson after marrying Debbie Rowe when the tour of his album "HIStory" was passing through Australia. It's worth mentioning that he merged his ATV catalog with Sony's publishing company, who acquired half of it for 95 MILLION dollars.
The hardest disputes started in the 2000's, in 2001, Michael released the album "Invincible", but he was waiting for his contract with Sony to expire so he could manage everything himself without depending on the powerful major or having to pay them a big part of the benefits, so he tried to find a way to end the agreement before, notifying it to the, then president of Sony, Tommy Mottola, so in retaliation, the label canceled everything related to the album two months before its release, in addition to canceling the single "What More Can I Give", which Jackson recorded with the aim of raising money for the victims of 9/11, along with many other great artists. In addition, Jackson realized that the lawyer who represented him in that case, also worked with Sony, and that the label was pressuring him to buy part of his royalties (this will be useful later).
Finally "Invincible" was released, selling 13 million copies worldwide, and it was here, when Michael accused the previously mentioned Tommy Mottola of being a "racist and a mobster", which made Sony decide not to renew his contract, in addition to making him pay 25M dollars that they lost due to Michael's refusal to tour through US territory. He was also denied of being able to refuse to release of a compilation album ("Number Ones") in 2003, because they still had his distribution rights.
Michael was openly critical of Sony, and especially of the infamous Mottola, whom he also accused of abusing Mariah Carey, a close friend of the singer and wife of the company's president at the time, since she told Michael about all the problems Tommy caused.
Michael and Mariah performing "What More Can I Give" (Washington, 21/10/2001)
It has never been the norm for artists to speak openly so bad about their record label as Michael did, usually fearing retaliation. But Michael Jackson was not just any artist, he was (and is) the King of Pop, and after a lifetime working for others, he wanted to break free and be able to take his own reins, something he sadly never accomplished, because although he managed to "leave Sony", in quotation marks, because the last two albums he released (a special edition and a compilation) were with Epic, a subsidiary of Sony, he did not have much time being free, because before he could start his last tour "This is It", organized by AEG Live, he died in his Holmby Hills mansion due to a "drug overdose"
Before I say anything, this is all speculation, Sony please don't sue me. But there has always been a halo of mystery surrounding the King of Pop's death. A lot of questions arise such as: The house was full of people, how come no one noticed Jackson's condition? They only sentenced his doctor to four years for manslaughter? And on top of that, he gets out in two for good behavior? Why did he give him Propofol, and why did the bottles have no doctor's details on them as is standard in the US? (plus Propofol is a general anesthetic agent that can only be given by licensed anesthesiologists), how could he have traces of 18 different medications? Why did the doctor take half an hour to call 911?
I could really fill this post with things that don't fit about that day, and there are numerous people who believe that Michael was silenced, among them, there is none other than his own sister, La Toya Jackson. Even Michael himself believed that they were after him, and maybe he wasn't very wrong. Because, do you think that all the show business ended with his death? The answer is no. After his death, as it usually happens, his sales went through the roof, collecting $90 million in the first year after his death. The fever for Michael was so high, that Epic (Sony) released the single "This is it", accompanied by a double album under the same name. The movie "Michael Jackson's This Is It" was also released (I dare you to guess the production company, it may start with S and end with ony), which along with the album, grossed around $250 MILLION, bah, nothing, pocket change.
And, indeed, that did not end there. There are more posthumous adventures of Sir Michael, due to the increase of Jackson's sales, Sony/Epic bought the exploitation rights of the King of Pop (which they had been trying for some time as I said in previous paragraphs) off his heirs, for ten projects, since the distribution rights that Sony owned were going to expire in 2015. This was considered the biggest deal in the music industry, go figure. This deal included the already released albums "Michael" in 2010 and "Xscape" in 2014.
If you thought that in this paragraph I was going to say goodbye, tough luck, because I'm going to put the icing on the cake, and that is that on the album "Michael", Sony included THREE FAKE songs, originally performed by Jason Malachi. They also included false credits such as Dave Grohl in the song I Can't Make It Another Day. Producer Will.I.Am and Michael's own father criticized the release since nothing was approved by Michael before his death, and that he would not have considered it worthy due to being incomplete and not being "good enough" given his outstanding perfectionism, but it's obvious that Sony did not care, and along with the rest of the projects since Michael died, they collected their bag (oh well).
Now, that's all for today's post. I hope you liked it and made you learn about all the injustices suffered by Michael, an artist I consider one of my favorites and one of the best artists of all time, who gave us so much, but he couldn't enjoy. See you in the next post, which I hope is not so full of dirty tricks of the industry that I, know if fortunately or unfortunately, I fell in love with.
ANNEX
Here I will make a small footnote briefly explaining the types of music property rights, as I name several in the post and it can be confusing. If I see that you are interested in them, I could explain everything in a post of its own.
Copyright: They protect original works and the way in which they are expressed (books, music, photographs...), and only the authors have the right to profit, to distribute, to reproduce, to copy, to translate or to adapt the work.
Distribution rights: Although they are related to copyright, the distribution rights can be sold to third parties, and this allows the distribution of the work and part of the benefit it provides.
Exploitation rights: Like the distribution rights, they can be sold or transferred, and they allow you to obtain an economic return for the use of your work, like when a song is used in a movie
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