Can Michael Jackson Make a Comeback?

[TheArsenal]

Unlikely. To overcome the considerable baggage of his personal life and the fact he is the default punchline for most pedophile jokes (deserved or not), he needs the scales to be tipped where people will buy what he puts out and shrug off the rest not directly related to the music (to a lesser degree, the way R. Kelly or Oasis fans are forced to do). To tip those scales he would have to produce something fairly spectacular. And from the bits and pieces of his music I've heard over the past decade or so, I don't know if he has that kind of work in him anymore.

 

[mrcoaster]

Haven't you guys seen the fork sticking out of his head? He's done! Hasn't done anything of much interest in quite a while and even if he did somehow come up with something, his reputation is terrible. The guy is really just a basket case at this point. He came through Disney a few times when I worked there and got to see him firsthand and how he was operating. The poor guy isn't in the same universe as the average human being. His perspective is so far removed, I think we will have warp technology before he could get his head on straight.

He was a hell of a talent, but no amount of talent can fix something that broken. My friend had a '67 'Stang that was a hell of a machine. Once it was totalled, however, it was a piece of junk. Didn't matter how awesome it was 20 years ago.

 

[melancholymecha]

I never thought he would be tried in a criminal court, the defense most likely would have had the parents take the stand and explain why they thought it was OK for a 40 something year old man to have "sleep overs" with young boys. It would bring into question their parenting and possibly raise enough doubt for acquittal or a mistrial. That's just my opinion

wasnt it discovered that the mother of the child from the 2nd charge was a bit of a scam artist?

 

[gblews]

If he does try, one thing he could do is rather than make new music (which is probably not going to sell anyway) he should start with a series of high-profile club performances, playing solely his old songs (maybe from the Jackson 5 days to Bad), in Las Vegas. If he gets good reviews and there's a sense that his old fans will come out to see him, then maybe he can consider a tour. At least he'd be making money.

As good a comeback plan as I've seen for Mike. Even without his legal problems, like most megastar pop music artists, there comes a point when you're no longer hot and the career needs to take on a different slant. So the chances of seeing any new hits from him are pretty slim, but that would be true even without the legal stuff.

Michael has a solid to spectacular musical legacy that is ripe to be explored ( hmm, wonder who owns his copyrights). But the timing has to be right, and it may yet be another few years before the timing IS right. In any case, I don't think his past legal problems will be much of a hindrance for him (as long as there are no new allegations or charges) when he does get serious about getting back to performing.

BTW, from what I've read, Michael still owns a minority share of the Beatles catalogue.

Justtoyourleft wrote:
Was Jacko actually convicted for molesting children? I don't seem to remember how that all ended.

No. He was charged by an overzealous D.A. in Santa Barbara, Ca. and tried. He was acqutted by a jury.