Michael Jackson has died!!! (1 Viewer)

[StevenW]

I've been wiping away tears since yesterday. I'm really taken back how sad this has really made me. No other celeb in my life has made me feel this way when they passed. I think I can relate now to the sadness people experienced when Lennon was killed.

 

[MatthewA]

I bought this on SACD the day he died, for $75. It now starts at $350 at Amazon.

I couldn't believe this. His music has been a part of my life forever. There's even a Super 8 home movie of me dancing, as a baby, to "Beat It".

One thing I wonder, what happened to Neverland? Whoever bought it could turn it into a Graceland-style tourist attraction. Of course, they would have to skirt the less desirable elements of his personal life.

A coincidence: He died on the birthday of Sidney Lumet, who directed his only Hollywood film, the flop film version of the musical "The Wiz".

 

[Radioman970]

I nearly did that this morning too. But my thought is there will be a single collection with everything from J5 to his solo stuff to the final things he did. I need all that.

100 songs. whoa.... I'll bet he's got mx videos we've never seen too.

 

[Blair G]

The SACD copy that's been sitting at the local Best Buy for months is, of course, now gone.

I was planning to buy it this week (it was expensive @$31CDN...was waiting for a rewards certificate, which just arrived), before this all happened.

 

[Henry Gale]

"Michael Jackson's sister Janet Jackson has been handed the job of untangling the King of Pop's complicated finances.

When Jackson died on Thursday he left an enormous musical legacy and a back catalog worth millions - but also huge debts, estimated at $500 million, caused by his legendary and unrestrained spending sprees.

Janet has been named the executor of his estate and will soon begin the long process of handling his assets, debts and what money, if any, her brother left behind.

A family friend tells the New York Post, "She's in charge, she had the documents, she has control of his stuff.""

 

[Nick Martin]

Songwriters must have hundreds of songs, finished or not that they've got in their own libraries. Composers have probably dozens of pieces that they figured won't ever be heard. I'm sure anyone who writes - music, novels, poetry, etc has large collections of work they've never released or even considered releasing for their own reasons.

Maybe that explains how that murdered rap star Tupac kept coming out with posthumous new releases. As far as I know that briefly led to an "Elvis isn't Dead"-type conspiracy theory.

 

[Henry Gale]

Sorry, I'm blanking on which tunes Elvis wrote.

 

[Nick Martin]

I don't know what you mean by that, since I only referred to the oft-repeated theory that he's not really dead, which some people thought was happening with that rap star since new albums kept coming.

 

[Radioman970]

There's actually some funny stuff HERE about Elvis still being around. Major Smith leaves me in the floor. Great stuff...although I didn't pay to read more like it wants you to.

 

[Musicloveryan]

RIP Michael....Nobody really realizes what they have lost till it's gone, that guy was a talent.

 

[buttmunker]

Not to be a jerk or anything...but did Michael Jackson really write the music to his songs? By "music," I mean the musical instruments. I am confident Michael could write the lyrics, but since I never saw him playing a musical instrument, I wonder if someone else wrote the music to his songs, and didn't receive credit.

I am sure I heard that this happens a lot in music, depending on what juice the performer has. For example, The Beatles music. George Harrison gets credit for "Within You/Without You", but no way could he know how to write indian music! He gets full credit because he is George Harrison.

That the case with Michael? Did he write the music behind "Billie Jean?"

 

[ScottH]

Never understood the Michael Jackson hype. Dude could definitely dance & sing (and a great performer), but his music always seemed so "simple" (for lack of a better word) and uninteresting to me.

 

[Nick Martin]

Originally Posted by buttmunker

Not to be a jerk or anything...but did Michael Jackson really write the music to his songs? By "music," I mean the musical instruments. I am confident Michael could write the lyrics, but since I never saw him playing a musical instrument, I wonder if someone else wrote the music to his songs, and didn't receive credit.

I am sure I heard that this happens a lot in music, depending on what juice the performer has. For example, The Beatles music. George Harrison gets credit for "Within You/Without You", but no way could he know how to write indian music! He gets full credit because he is George Harrison.

That the case with Michael? Did he write the music behind "Billie Jean?"

Do you know for certain that George Harrison could not write indian-based music?

What if he did his research first?

As for Jackson, playing an instrument on stage or not has no bearing on a person's abilities to compose music.

Being a soundtrack listener, I know that there are some composers who write the music, then pass it to an orchestrator / arranger who will assign the lines of music to specific instruments to play. While that in itself is an art form just like composing is, that doesn't take away from the composers themselves. Since there are a variety of reasons for that to happen, ability is probably at the bottom of the list for those possible reasons.

Writing in certain styles, like indian music or something specific like that would be on that list of reasons for having someone else turn the written music into what you hear in the end product, probably to help make it as authentic as possible while the idea itself is still from the composer/songwriter, be it Jackson, Harrison or anyone else.

 

[JeremyR]

Michael actually could play the piano, I remember seeing him do so. And Lionel Richie was talking about it when they were writing We Are The World, apparently neither of them could read music, but Michael could play the piano by ear to the tune he was after.

 

[Cees Alons]

Originally Posted by buttmunker ">[/url]

For example, The Beatles music. George Harrison gets credit for [i]"Within You/Without You", [/i]but no way could he know how to write indian music! He gets full credit because he is George Harrison.

That the case with Michael? Did he write the music behind [i]"Billie Jean?"[/i][/QUOTE]George Harrison was an [i]expert [/i]in Indian Music. He'd been in that country for long times studying to play several of those typical instruments.
No one doubts he did write that song himself.

Michael Jackson may not have written all the different parts for all different instruments, but I never read anything about him not writing the lyrics of the songs he has been creating.

(This sort of reminds me of theories that Shakespeare could not possibly have written all those plays - so they must have been written by another guy only [i]using[/i] the name "William Shakespeare"

 

[JeremyR]

Michael Jackson wrote the lyrics to nearly everything he recorded, and almost everything you've heard on the radio he either wrote solely or he was a co-writer.

 

[bemombu]

May he rest in peace...his music will be remembered and be shared forever...we will surely misses you MJ...You've had a great tribute in the music industry...and you will always be the King of Pop..

 

[JoshM5]

It is sad that such a relatively young man died like this. It will be interesting to find what the true cause of death is after all of the tests are completed. I never met the man myself, but I do have a connection to the home he lived in Holmby Hills where all of this went down.

I thought since this forum is for Home Theater, and this thread is about Michael Jackson, I'd share what his theater looked like. I was hired by the builder/developer of this beautiful estate, and our involvement was only with the Home Theater and the lighting controls in the theater. The theater design was inspired by a Theo Kalomirakis design (his "Kiev" theater) and we didn't do the interior design, but rather specified, installed, and programmed the Home Theater components. The Home Theater can be seen here: http://www.dsientertainment.com/index.cfm/product/10/Holmby-Hills-Home-Theater-at-Michael-Jackson-estate

It features a high output Runco LCD projector (very bright for the time), Marantz electronics, and M&K THX certified speakers. The Marantz AV receiver is THX certified, too. All audio/video components, the motorized curtains, and Lutron lighting is controlled by a Crestron color touchscreen. The theater looked and sounded quite good.

Just so everyone knows, I did get permission from the moderator to post the link to our website which shows this theater. I hope you enjoy seeing it.

Thanks,

Josh

 

[crazzycat]

Its very sad but he will always be with us in his songs