Michael Jackson's Kingdom: Music, Race, and the Sound of the Mainstream
Journal of Popular Music Studies, Volume 23, Issue 1, Pages 19–39 Michael Jackson’s Kingdom: Music, Race, and the Sound of the Mainstream Tamara Roberts University of California, Berkeley Using the grandiose title “King of Pop” to describe Michael Jackson’s impact on the past forty years of popular culture is quite possibly an understatement. The litany of statistics never seems to grow less staggering: Thriller as the largest selling album in the history of the recording industry, Guinness World Records recognition as the “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time” (“Bio”), and levels of unquantifiable stardom critics claim was previously the sole territory of Elvis (Werner 272). And there is hardly a contemporary megastar who does not count him among their influences. But what exactly is the musical monarchy over which Jackson reigns? What is this “pop” that artists such as Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Beyonce´ claim to emulate? As numerous radio and television stations replayed Jackson’s vast tome in the wake of his death, I realized that Jackson’s work sounds both unique and wholly familiar. Resonating with styles such as disco, R&B, and even New Wave, his music incorporates and exceeds these genre demarcations. And Jackson is somehow King of all and none.1 What exactly is pop? The general musicological conception of popular music is as a secular, accessible, “light” body of music enjoyed by a large portion of a given population (Grout and Palisca; Kerman; Manuel; Pen˜´ın; Sadie). The music is often enhanced by a star system,in which an artist’s popularity and success is determined by not only sound but elements such as their personality, private life, or fashion (Manuel 3).
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