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Megarate | Blood on the Dance Floor by Michael Jackson


Cello

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Cello
32 minutes ago, Ororo Munroe said:

omg this gif... makes me feel some things. :udidnt:

The MVs for Come Together and Dirty Diana are.. 

Billie Eilish Wings GIF by First We Feast: Hot Ones

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Cruelty
17 minutes ago, Cello said:

I'd still love to read this :pray: Love reading everyone's opinions and fun facts about MJ

It's coming! It turns out I wrote down lots of thoughts last night when I was quite drunk, but then at the bottom I just wrote 'FINISH IN THE MORNING they'll like this because. i'll add to the discussion' :partysick:

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Cruelty

Sit down, children, it’s time for NeonSkeleton's defence of Blood on the Dance Floor.

5d2e4a049f764c2b4921fb396c98a26a.gif

I think most of us are on board with the 5 ‘new’ tracks (‘new’ in inverted commas since the majority are outtakes from other projects), so I won’t say too much about them. But I mean, they’re great. Obviously they’re great. So, so invested in moving into the future and creating really interesting and innovative sonic canvases. You can feel ‘Morphine’, for example, striving to be something MORE, something that stretches the sonic world of Michael Jackson. From the first bar it’s unsettling, vindictive and aggressive, before breaking into that beautiful orchestral interlude (all arranged by Michael himself!) It’s just fantastic. And I’m sure I’ll have lots to say about ‘Is It Scary’ during the ceremony, but it’s easily the best MJ track of the 90s. ‘Superfly Sister’ is also on this album.

And now the remixes.

I mean, it makes sense. The biggest hits from HIStory were the ballads, so they’re the ones you remix. But wtf are you supposed to do when the label calls and asks for a remix of 'Stranger in Moscow', or 'Earth Song'?! The fact that these remixes are even listenable is a triumph. Being asked to remix something like 'Scream' is also evil, because all of these tracks were produced so tightly & so distinctively the first time around that it’s difficult to discard the original from your mind.

So, I can already tell that you awful ghouls are going to sink all of these remixes, and that the History Remix will land outside the top 10 despite being one of the best ever Michael Jackson tracks, so it needs to be said: a lot of these remixes are GREAT. They’re doing very clever things with the material, whilst preserving the club feel. The snippets of ‘Beat It’ in the bassline of ‘2 Bad'; the jazzy chord voicings of ‘Stranger in Moscow’; that repeated vocal stem ‘this time around this time around this time around’. 'Scream Louder' takes the fury of the original to a slightly more fun place; '2 Bad' is funky in an entirely different way to the album version. These remixes are clever.

And, if you think about it, a remix album is an invitation for other producers to think about ‘who is Michael Jackson?’ and present their own version of that. So with 'Scream Louder' and 'This Time Around' we get some added brass, some strings and 70s Clavinet, reminiscent of Off the Wall or Thriller, for example. And the new songs too are very interested in the question ‘who is Michael Jackson?’… but I’ll say more on that in the ceremony.

blood-on-the-dance-floor-michael-jackson

I said, slightly jokingly, that the album sounds better when you’re drunk, but it’s true. Because, at the heart of it, that’s what remixes are for — the point of a remix is to experience your favourite songs when your body is filled with alcohol, when your brain is more ready to eliminate details, to experience fun, to kiss cute boys, to dance until the club kicks you out. So the bass is fatter, the beats harder, the vocals sparser. Yes, the songs won’t sound as pretty, or as authentic, but a remix isn’t a replacement for a studio recording, it’s a reimagination. Suddenly, you can experience Billboard Number 1 single ‘You Are Not Alone’ in the club as well!

And we need to talk about the ultimate Michael Jackson remix: the History Lesson. I remember hearing it when I was 9 or 10, and it stuck in my mind even back then. This would still GO OFF in a club in 2022, I think. Jettisoning the historical soundbites is a shame, but understandable since nobody wants to be listening to Martin Luther King in the club. But the radical new energy that this remix gives the song is just… something else. There’s a ferocious tension at work from that bubbling organ, that defiant chant of ‘HISTORY’, that interplay of urgency and ferocity. Picking out ‘KEEP MOVING’ as a vocal stem to hang the whole thing around is so clever. Such an epic piece of music.

Ultimately, I do feel that Blood on the Dance Floor is misjudged. Judge the remixes on their own terms—as remixes—and they’re great. If I was alive in the 90s I’d absolutely be going to the club, getting my LIFE to Tony Moran’s HIStory Lesson and kissing some adorable boy to the euphoric strains of the You Are Not Alone mix. And after HIStory was an opportunity to reflect on the past, Blood on the Dance Floor comes roaring out of the traps with a collection of innovative songs that push MJ firmly into the present. And I think if the album suffers, it’s because it marries studio recordings and remixes. The album does both of these very well, but they’re entirely different art forms.

But still. It’s great. It’s his greatest album. Until right now, I hadn’t quite realised that. All his albums are fantastic; he has the best discography of any musical artist, ever. But I honestly think Blood on the Dance Floor is my favourite. And I’m so excited that this forum is going to be discussing an album that I never see anybody talking about!

165bb0e73e46da1465ebbf604e52068d.gif

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Cello
3 hours ago, NeonSkeleton said:

So, so invested in moving into the future and creating really interesting and innovative sonic canvases. You can feel ‘Morphine’, for example, striving to be something MORE, something that stretches the sonic world of Michael Jackson. From the first bar it’s unsettling, vindictive and aggressive, before breaking into that beautiful orchestral interlude (all arranged by Michael himself!) It’s just fantastic.

yes yes yes to this!

3 hours ago, NeonSkeleton said:

‘Superfly Sister’ is also on this album.

screaming

3 hours ago, NeonSkeleton said:

And, if you think about it, a remix album is an invitation for other producers to think about ‘who is Michael Jackson?’ and present their own version of that. So with 'Scream Louder' and 'This Time Around' we get some added brass, some strings and 70s Clavinet, reminiscent of Off the Wall or Thriller, for example. And the new songs too are very interested in the question ‘who is Michael Jackson?’… but I’ll say more on that in the ceremony.

this is a very interesting point. I guess with MJ being who he is, the people who get involved with his work end up pretty much paying tribute to him. It's similar when he has rap features on some of his songs, they end up rapping about MJ references.. on an MJ song :ladyhaha: 

Side note, but this also reminded me of how Kanye was invited to remix Billie Jean for the Thriller re-release album and he barely made any changes at all because it was already perfect in his eyes.

3 hours ago, NeonSkeleton said:

But still. It’s great. It’s his greatest album. Until right now, I hadn’t quite realised that. All his albums are fantastic; he has the best discography of any musical artist, ever. But I honestly think Blood on the Dance Floor is my favourite. And I’m so excited that this forum is going to be discussing an album that I never see anybody talking about!

all tea. I'm happy you're excited for this, I was struggling to find an MJ outlet online that felt right for me and I feel like we're making a cute community here with the megarates and the fan base forum :heart:

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PartySick
6 hours ago, NeonSkeleton said:

‘Superfly Sister’ is also on this album.

angry paramount network GIF by Heathers

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Chromatislaps

I wish Family Thing was finished and part of "2Bad - Ghosts - Is It Scary?" :giveup:

 

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Cello
9 hours ago, Anveeroy said:

Can I steal your tag list, Ma'am? :hor:

Sure! 

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Cruelty
1 hour ago, Dirty Diana said:

I gave history lesson another listen for you, and you know what… you have a point @NeonSkeleton

KEEP MOVING (your score higher and higher up) :vegas:

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monster4life231

Thank you for the invitation! Apologies for not participating in recent Megarates, politics and campaigning has been consuming a lot of my time at the moment. I will participate in this though!

michael jackson 90s GIF

spread peace - #MJInnocent
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Cello

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