Michael Jackson's concert film is most certainly NOT it.
Given the music industry's propensity for milking every last drop out of relatively meagre artists, we can expect a flood of releases from the Jackson estate.
American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley released one album, Grace in 1994, before his death in 1997. Since then there have been eight albums. Fair enough, Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk was based on demos for a second album, but the others are mostly cobbled together from old EPs and live performances.
Slain rapper Tupac Shakur released five albums before his 1996 death, and has matched that number in the afterlife. Another release of late 80s studio work due next year will mean that, like Buckley, 2Pac is more productive in death than he was in life.
Buckley and Shakur are the classic examples of the music industry flogging dead horses, while Elvis Presley and John Lennon are others that have rained manna from heaven for record companies.
But Michael Jackson is poised to make the exploitation of those artists' legacy seem modest by comparison. But part of me can't really blame the music business, which has had its profits reined in by illegal downloading.
Last year, Jacko sold 600,000 records. In the four months since his death, a staggering 10 million records have been snapped up by music fans - many of them the 12 greatest hits compilations that have been released since Jackson issued his fifth and final studio album proper, Invincible, in 2001.
The latest compilation, the soundtrack for This Is It, features the "new" title track and a bunch of his big hits. Jacko's label Sony Music passed the song off as a recent work, but it soon emerged that it was co-written with, of all people, Paul Anka back in 1983.
Apparently more will come out of those sessions shortly.
But wait, there's more!
Jackson's manager Frank DiLeo revealed that the superstar left behind hard drives full of unreleased material - 100 songs from the 80s, plus more recent studio collaborations with the likes of Akon, will.i.am and Ne-Yo.
I predict that this vast vault of sonic treasure - or trinkets that can be polished up by top producers and passed off as gold - will keep the Jackson estate and Sony Music very, very busy for years to come.
There will be the Thriller Sessions CD, compilations with the obligatory "new" song issued for the fifth, 10th and 15th anniversary of his death and remixes a la Elvis' A Little Less Conversation.
Call me cynical, but as far as the recording industry is concerned, Jackson's death was a great career move.
Comments
I am puzzled as to why you say the title is misleading. I thought the movie was all about showing what the 'This is it' tour would have been like hence the title. Yep the record companies will make money because people want the product and we will buy it en masse, I do not see anything wrong with that.
Nov 2 09:11 pmBrian
@beecosm The title was based on Jacko's pronouncement at the press conference to announce the shows that this was the "final curtain". The finality it implies is what I am referring to. While I can't criticise record companies for servicing a desire among music buyers, the constant churning of existing songs into "new" products is creatively moribund.
Nov 3 09:00 amIn regards to your cynicism re "the final curtain"... I do believe that was in reference to touring. Are you suggesting that if a person retires from touring they are not permitted to work on any music ever again?
Nov 3 01:51 pmAlso, I don't see your point about the unreleased songs? So what? They will be new songs - the public want to buy them!
Oh by the way, in a different article you referred to Michael as a control freak... I think perfectionist was the term you were looking for.
absolutely correct recording labels will milk the cash cow for as much as it can.releasing recordings that when first done were not good enough or even crap but now if it has Micheal Jacksons name on it flog it to the suckers its called exploitation and has happened for years. Some will cry shame on the recording company but still rush out to buy the cd just as people denounce the paparazzi photograhers for hounding celebs but cant wait to buy the magazines with the pictures in it
Nov 3 10:17 pm@tam1976 The "new" songs that will undoubtedly be released are mostly offcuts from recording sessions in the 1980s, so they're hardly new. The "This Is It" finality is more implied by the marketeers behind the rehearsal film. And, yes, perfectionist might have worked equally well as "control freak", but wasn't as loaded...
Nov 5 11:08 am