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Originally Posted by atlantaguy4470
Elvis clearly was a better musician/singer....hes out sold Jacko....he was the most influencial person in music history...as he was in fashion. He clearly is the KING OF ROCK-N-ROLL...while Jacko is just the King of POP.....sure you can have that...its like saying Elvis' the King of Sports and Jacko is the King of Hockey....its just facts
Yeah sure, it's a fact. How is it a fact? Black man invented ROCK-N-ROLL and BLUES and Elvis stole that shyt and packaged it for White folks. There were Black men like Jackie Wilson that could sing and dance rings around Elvis, but never had a modicum of the success. Elvis was a handsome, charismatic entertainer who clearly got his style and swagger from Black musicians. He's admits this, like many legendary White musicians. Elvis has the inherent advantage being a White guy who could sing and dance like a Black soul/blues artist, but had the looks and charisma to put legions of White women in a trance. This made the White guys want to emulate and be Elvis, as a result. Since, Whites were like 70-75% of the U.S population at the time of Elvis' reign, he had a clear institutionalized advantage. Michael had to cross and destroy racial barriers, that Elvis never had to deal with. Michael had to come out with an album and video on the level of "Thriller" to topple the racial barrier at burgeoning music video empire "MTV". Prior to Michael, only rock groups and white pop singers got play on MTV and BET hadn't been founded yet. Whites always talk about BET being a reverse-racist concept, but they fail to realize MTV showed little love to Black artists in the 80's. Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, RUN-DMC, Prince and a few other Black artists pushed thru, but most were getting no exposure until BET came along.
I'll think Elvis was half the talent of Michael Jackson. Michael has been a hit maker from childhood until his late 30's, when his career started to decline. Elvis had a smooth, distinct singing voice no doubt, but he never could sing a song with the raw emotion that Michael could, nor was he was the dancer or live entertainer that Michael was, even though Elvis was a great live showman in his own right. Nor did Elvis write songs that truly talked about the human condition. Go to Japan, China, Africa and the major Arab countries and ask everyone from 18-65 who they prefer and MJ would dominate those polls. Elvis could do lots of genres and so could Michael, so they were equal in that respect. If you include his hits while in the Jackson 5, Jacksons and as a solo artist, Elvis really couldn't fuch around. I can name MJ hits for days, whereas Elvis had about 8-10 solid hit records that I can think off. I even asked my father who is in his late 50's and he knew more MJ hits, than Elvis.
Atlantaguy4470, I doubt Elvis's record sales eclipsed Michael at the time of both of their deaths. To compare Elvis, whose been dead over 30 years and made into an American institution to Michael's present sales totals is idiotic. If MJ doesn't catch Elvis, it's only because rampant illegal music downloads and bootleg mixtapes have watered down record sales tremendously. Yet, in spite of this barrier and MJ being a Black man in a country still dominated by a White majority, I think he'll eclipse Elvis within 10 years. If you put Elvis and Michael Jackson on stage in their prime, Elvis would get schooled straight up. He couldn't deal with the power and intensity of Michael's voice and dancing ability at it's apex. Elvis was a bad boy no doubt, but he couldn't fuck around! Like the Republican party, primarily Whites from the Southern states are pulling this Elvis was a greater recording artist than Michael Jackson shyt.
Elvis couldn't hold Michael Jackson's artistic jockstrap when they were little boys and couldn't do it as a grown azz man. In terms of Elvis being a "real man", I'll give you that. Elvis was eccentric, whereas Michael was eccentric and self-hating, which caused him to be even more self destructive than Elvis, who became a fat druggie who was a shadow of his former self before his death. However, Michael was dealing with intense self-hatred of his Black skin and features and sought to change them due to whitewashing, that tends to happen to people of color living in a country in which all the best looking and hottest lists are always dominated by Whites, with some tokens sprinkled in. If Michael could have stopped with the eccentricities he had during "Thriller", he could have been a sex symbol in his own right, but his personal demons had other ideas. I heard Elvis would have a room full of women in his house, lecture out the Bible for hours, then leave them and go to bed, so he wasn't playing with a full deck either.
