Portions of this week’s U.S. album and single charts have been revealed by Billboard.com a day ahead of being officially released, and there’s some surprising yet telling information to be derived from the data regarding what the public wants in relation to Michael Jackson.
The official American chart week was kicked off by an Estate-funded hologram-style performance of the King of Pop’s previously-unreleased ‘Dangerous’ sessions outtake “Slave to the Rhythm” constructed from top-secret, high-definition, multi-angle footage of a Michael Jackson impersonator prancing around in an attempted to execute Jackson’s movements, gestures and likeness. The only problem was that, to many hardcore MJ fans the hologram looked, moved and felt nothing like the artist they knew, loved and had hoped to see. The performance was staged at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards in promotion of the ‘XSCAPE’ album and was later uploaded to the official Michael Jackson VEVO account.
“Our other goal is to use new and innovative ways to create entertainment on a grand scale that allows the world to experience Michael’s magic,” said the Estate in one of four statements issued to fans this past week, adding: “After all, [this] is what we all want – for the rest of the world to see and love Michael the way that we all do. The efforts of the last few weeks, and especially, the performance on the Billboard Awards is working… The illusion has put Michael back in the forefront of the entertainment world and helped promote Xscape… No one will ever replace Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. And certainly no one can dance like the greatest entertainer who ever lived – not even an illusion.”
As a result of the Billboard Awards hologram performance “Slave the the Rhythm” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #45 with 75% of its chart ranking credited to 3.9 million online streams in the U.S. – 2.2 million of which come from views of the the VEVO upload. This marks the 50th time a Michael Jackson song has charted on the prestigious Hot 100.
However, something far more impressive also happened this week in the world of Michael Jackson and the Billboard charts.
Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, which was originally released as a single in 1983 and topped the charts for seven weeks that year, has re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at the astonishing position of #14!
Seventeen-year-old Pitman High student Brett Nichols busted out an impressive dance tribute to the King of Pop’s historic Motown 25 “Billie Jean” performance during his school’s talent show in Turlock, California recently. A video of the performance was uploaded to YouTube and went completely viral online. The video has since been downloaded and re-uploaded dozens of times, featured on the website homepage and Twitter accounts of some of the world’s biggest online publications, and has been viewed tens of millions of times around the globe.
The video, which features the original audio sampled from Jackson’s 1982 ‘Thriller’ album, was view so many times that it out-ranked the Michael Jackson/Justin Timberlake duet “Love Never Felt So Good” (#16) on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with a total of 11.2 million streams in the United States alone, according to Nielsen BDS.
Now, both the “Slave to the Rhythm” hologram performance and the Brett Nichols “Billie Jean” performance were the work of Michael Jackson impersonators. However, one was misleadingly labelled as being “Michael Jackson” himself, complete with dance moves and costumes that Michael Jackson never executed or wore and topped with an instrumental track that the King of Pop never heard. The other featured a boy who in no way pretended in be Michael Jackson, yet executed all the classic dance moves Jackson himself made famous more than three decades ago, to the original audio track the King of Pop wrote, recorded and released.
The Estate of Michael Jackson, in one of their statements in defence of the hologram, said: “The best entertainment is that which evokes ‘suspended disbelief'; it’s about entertainment, not reality. When David Copperfield makes an airplane disappear, the illusion is no less compelling because it is not real.”
However, I tend to disagree. For me, the excitement, the wonder and the brilliance of Michael Jackson was all about the reality of it. The reality that a human being could seemingly execute a form of real-life, gravity-defying magic as he floated and glided around the stage under a single spotlight, all on his own, physically embodying the music while captivating and mesmerising his audience. That, for me, is the best kind of entertainment. It’s real. It’s authentic. It’s Michael Jackson.
Huffington Post journalist Charles Thomson hit the nail on the head with his commentary of the issue.
“The suggestion that Michael Jackson would somehow become ‘irrelevant’ or ‘forgotten’ if the Estate didn’t screen holograms of impersonators on awards shows has no basis in reality,” said Thomson. “There are artists who died decades ago and are still as famous and respected today as they were then, without holograms of impersonators, or old songs being tampered with by new producers. Jimi Hendrix. John Lennon. Marvin Gaye. All doing just fine. Michael has one of the greatest legacies and bodies of work in music history. He simply cannot and will not ever be forgotten – hologram or no hologram.”
The fact that a real-life dance tribute from a high school talent contest completely out-performed the high-tech projection of ‘Virtual Michael’ from a globally-broadcast awards show indicates, to me at least, that there is absolutely no need for fabricated or reimagined Michael Jackson material to be shoved down the throats of the public to generate interest in his artistry.
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I don’t even know why i’m commenting. I have absolutely nothing to add. Excellent piece as always Damien.
Very good comment from the Huffington Post journalist. However, hounger audiences received the Xscape project very well. This might reinforce the idea that “reimagining” MJ should be the way to go. Sadly.
The hologram/illusion was a disaster. Great article!
Agreed!
The High School Talent Show performance was brilliant. Probably a shy kid, getting up in front of everyone, and busting out some mean ass Michael Jackson moves from the most famous dance routine ever, dancing with passion and a fire inside to kick ass and winning the hell out of it. Awesome! The recent projected “Michael” performance was a great display of technology, but had no heart. It featured the body of an impersonator, not that of the king, and the head of a CG model, based on 1991 Michael, but sadly suffered the fate of many CGi humans – dead eyes and even to casual fans, not looking much like our Michael – the most photographed man on the planet. I’m so glad to see the Classic (and real) MJ in the charts of his own volition, from his own raw talent.
The estate has contacted this guy, and I wouldn’t be suprised if he ends up in a video for one of the songs off xscape. Hey, maybe they’ll paste MJ’s face on this guy next time… :I
The kid has a long lean body which is needed to impersonate Michael. There are other stellar dancers who can’t pull it off as well simply because they do not have the skinny torso, long limbs, & big hands- the figure of a mine.
*mime
Brett Nichols is pretty good for a kid, but theres some clumsiness in his movements and pose. sorta reminds me of the awkward clumsy movements of Chris Brown. he’s got alot of attention yeah, but not just because of how good he was, but because people didn’t like the hologram performance. it’s an either or situation and averyone is choosing or just because they don’t like either. I’m NOT trying to say I don’t appreciate this kids enthusiasm, reminds me of me in high school, but at some point i had to realize NOBODY can dance like Michael Jackson. Not me, not you, not a hologram, not an impersonator, not Brett Nichols. Michael Jackson’s own esscence as a human being is what came thorugh in his performances even when he was goofing off or not even trying we kept watching. Even if he made a mistake, or needed a microphone stand to help him stay on his toes in the later years we kept watching. It was his own unique energy, as unique as any fingerprint and will never be duplicated properly by anyone else.
I say Janet Jackson is the only performer to ever come close to that energy I like about Michael. I love watching her videos and performances. I love watching her and Michael dance alongside in Scream. Even without moonwalking or doing any of Michael’s trippier moves, Janet has it, more than anyone else. and she doesn’t really have a body of a “mime” either.
1. The new album is amazing. Don’t know what are you and that Charles Thompson guy are saying. This is the way they should release things in the future (new mixes for the radio and original versions for the fans). Great concept and the right way to go.
2. Fake hologram was a disaster, completely horrible BUT DO NOT LIE!!
“However, one was misleadingly labelled as being “Michael Jackson” himself.” – That is a LIE!
They never said it was Michael Jackson himself. They (the Estate) even said that there is no footage of Michael performing that song. The performance was labeled as “Michael Jackson Illusion” and “The King Of Pop Experience”, NOT Michael Jackson performance (no matter what Ludacris said). They said it was a computer generated character which it wasn’t – it was an impersonator like you said. They lied that it is completely created on computer but the fact is that they never claimed it is Michael Jackson either. The point is: computer generated character or an impersonator with CGI head = same thing = NOT MICHAEL JACKSON.
before the show the official mj social media accounts all blasted the graphic “MICHAEL JACKSON as you’ve never seen HIM before” as an advertisement… robin leach also said this was a performance by michael jackson and that no impersonators were used during the creation of the illusion… then after the show sony music also referred to it by saying “still cant believe this PERFORMANCE BY MICHAEL JACKSON was a hologram” so i think there are grounds to state that it was labelled as michael jackson.
Not by Michael Jackson’s Estate. Robin Leach created much confusion by reporting false informations. I agree that the pre-show hype that they were creating was misleading but they never said it was Michael Jackson’s actual performance! Robin Leach made that up and the rest of the media picked it up. It’s wrong that they lied after the show that the impersonator wasn’t used when it is so obvious that it was but still they never said (before or after the show) that the performer was Michael Jackson. Virtual Michael, Michael Jackson Experience (it’s still 100% MJ’s song) or Michael Jackson Illusion. But not Michael Jackson.
Also I don’t think that it can be done without actor/body double. I think it is impossible to create lifelike character with full CGI body using this technology. It is the exact same technology used for Tupac “hologram” performance and they also used body double.
At 2:38 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G1XGH0aaes
But it was much easier for them because Pac didn’t move that much, had the microphone over his mouth the whole time and also they had an actual performance of him performing the song so they could base the illusion on that performance. For MJ they had nothing. They had to create new choreography, new clothes, everything.
i dont mean to argue but yes by mj estate in their social media campaign they called it “MICHAEL JACKSON as you’ve never seen HIM before” here is the picture https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bn9QOARCcAAPHg0.jpg its not like they say illusion or experience or virtual michael or anything but they say its michael….
Get over urself. How he was labelled matters little. Everyone knew he was dead, leading to the logical conclusion that any ‘future’ performance by Jackson would be a body double and/or CGI. Recreating a CGI of Jackson, has to have been a piece of cake to the fine folks that brought you Avatar. The STTR performance was not a F##king hologram! It was a Pepper’s Ghost Projection. Get that straight.
I, for one, LOVE how they did the album XSCAPE, with the new and original versions. My only gripe being that they should at least keep all of the vical arrangments as is and not cut out anything that made it to the demo recording, ESPECIALLY if they are changing the music.
As for the hologram-thing, I really enjoyed it. I liked the routine, I like that it was done for the Xscape album. My only gripe (It could have loooked a but more like MJ and moved a bit less stiff). Now, if it was ALL computer created, I would totally understand, and that would mean they did a heck of a job, but if it’s an impersonator, who’s body they captured, they didn’t pick well at all.
In the end, I really liked the performance and routine… and wardrobe, etc.
Excellent piece as usual, Damien. The young man Brett Nichols was absolutely brilliant
I did not like, at all, the “illusion” of STTR, The moment I saw the face, that was the end for me. If that was MJ as “we have never seen him before”, quite frankly I do not want to see him again!!!
hey look at this..Michael used a double to stand in for his child self and just digitally altered his child face onto the double….WE SHOULD BE OUTRAGED!!! he could have used ACTUAL FOOTAGE of HIMSELF!!!! hahahaha
I’ll Be There
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpOYmeF8jWA
it’s cute how you intentionally picked one of the freeze frames that really don’t look like michael to prove your point. very Dianne Diamondish of you Damien. In fact both articles you’ve written about the hologram are very one sided. Many of us liked the tribute. They may have done some things wrong, but they did alot of things right too. Besides that, I have a feeling your “sources” about them straight up using an impersonator may be biased or lying. It looks like cgi to me. As a long time MJ fan anytime someone used “unnamed sources” I get suspicious. Just a few days ago I was agreeing with most of what you said. but over the past few days I have begun to sense that you have biases against the people running things that prevents you from just enjoying things for what they are. That hologram performance was really cool. no it wasn’t perfect. but it was really cool. go watch it again. It may not be as awesome as Michael Jackson alive and in the flesh, BUT IT IS AWESOME.
here’s one thing we should all ba able to appreciate…between the hologram, sucess of xscape, and Brett Nichol’s youtube video, if you Google “Michael Jackson” you don’t see any negative articles about the man himself untill you get to page 5 of results.
Haha… so all of those millions that the MJ Estate spent and they still got their asses kicked by a nobody, unpromoted nobody? Hahahaha
Priceless 
Think about it. Coorporate business men who care about nothing but monthly revenue sales figures trying to create magic and a fan dancing from his soul, however good or bad. Which would most people prefer.
look at the symbolism they used in the hologram performance. It’s not good. It’s really not good.
MJ is definitely the king. Whenever i listen his tracks i feel like he is still alive. Certainly one of the best music stars ever been born!
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I have always admired Damiens research. Very robust and detailed, something you could never ever get elsewhere. I’m not talking about private life spectulations, but his music. This opinion piece is quite harsh in its judgement, likely because the author, like some commentators here “hate Sony”. A rather immature standpoint. Now, did Damien watch the behind the scenes of the “hologram” as he calls it? No! At least not closely enough. The VFX Supervisor clearly digitally created an image of Jackson. He even said it himself. But you would too blinded by Sony hate to even notice. I nearly boiled over with rage at the Brett Nichols performance. There is nothing interesting about that performance, it is a f#:king copy of a classic. And Damien, remember while have more views than the Slave to the Rhythm, the majority are people who have a passing in Jackson, let’s not forget the Tabloid Junkies. The video went viral for one major reason. It was promoted by Tabloid Papers. It sickened me. Brett is a great dancer, but you are comparing a digital human recreation to an average joe rehashing a classic. Very unoriginal, compared to the STTR performance. When I realised you were another one of THOSE (impersonators), my heart sank. At least you don’t brag about it. You know it is very unoriginal and you are just another can in the assembly line. Why? That alone should be reason enough to feel terrified to impersonate. Wake up!! Fan is short for fanatic and honestly, we should return to that extension. It has become a cool thing, when it really is not. Fanatic = a deluded human who obesses over an object, person, place or thing. Damien, you’re one of them! When friends of mine, consistently beg for my blackslide performance I know how they will look upon me. As a circus clown, never have and never will give in to such demands. In summary, I’m glad ur tabloid junkies (the very customers that made your precious Michael Jackson, suffer HELL!) made Brett Nichols the star and not the digitally reconstructed MJ. Not bad for a Recon, ehhhh!
Of course I watched the puff-piece videos from behind the scenes of the Billboard Awards spectacle. I call them puff-pieces because they’re designed to make you think what they did was amazing while depriving you of all the facts. They only give you the info they want you to have. The truth is that the digital image you refer to the VFX Supervisor creating is based on taped footage of an impersonator – something they neglect to include in their video. That’s a fact. The great thing about facts is that they remain true whether you choose to believe them or not.