Michael Jackson Music

BLOOD ON THE DANCE FLOOR: HISTORY IN THE MIX features eight remixed tracks from HISTORY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE along with five new songs.

It’s a declaration of self-confidence, and Jackson follows with feisty remixes of songs from HISTORY, including a version of “2 Bad” peppered with a sample of “Beat It,” and a Madonna-like disco mix of “Stranger In Moscow.”

After a lengthy gap of nearly five years, Jackson had to pull something out of the bag. BAD was, after all, a difficult act to follow, and the press were trying to prove he was bonkers.

This was a pretty decent attempt and fell in with the hard dance beat of the early 90s. “Heal The World” was much like the old melodic Jackson, and it became a major hit.

“Black Or White” was the best of the rest, a well-constructed song in which he attempted to repeat “Ebony And Ivory” in the context of 90s dance music.

The title might sound like hyperbole, but this two-disc collection is, in fact, a pretty fair summation of Michael Jackson’s career up to 2005.

Of course, it’s impossible for two discs to hold every hit single Michael Jackson has ever had, but THE ESSENTIAL MICHAEL JACKSON starts with the Jackson Five’s debut single, “I Want You Back,” and ends 38 tracks later with the 2001 comeback attempt “You Rock My World.”

In between is a chronological overview of some of the most significant pop music in the last three decades of the 20th century, climaxing with about two-thirds of THRILLER and half of OFF THE WALL, the album that in retrospect sounds even fresher and more exciting than its blockbuster follow-up.

Disc Two starts in 1987 with eight tracks from the underrated BAD, and its second half does the listener the handy service of compressing the second act of Michael Jackson’s life story (a time when the tabloid headlines were overshadowing his increasingly formulaic music) into nine entirely respectable, if not earth-shattering, singles.

Having spent most of the ’90s laying low, Michael Jackson spent much of the latter part of 2001 reintroducing himself to the public with a studio album (INVINCIBLE) and deluxe reissues of his Epic Records canon.

Also released was GREATEST HITS: HIStory VOL.1, essentially Disc 1 of the similarly named 2-CD 1995 anthology HIStory: PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE BOOK 1. Regardless of how obvious the strategy of flooding the market with past and present material may have been, there’s no denying how the contents of the GREATEST HITS package go a long way towards supporting the moniker of the self-proclaimed King Of Pop.

Michael Jackson’s monumental collection HISTORY BOOK 1 seeks to make two points. The first disc–chock full of hits spanning Jackson’s Epic Records solo career–tries to establish how the so-called King of Pop earned that nickname in the first place.

The second disc, featuring fifteen new, star-studded tracks, makes a case for him holding onto that royal moniker well into the next century. And though many may dismiss both directives as the product of Jackson camp hype, once the music begins it’s hard to deny him any title he wishes to bestow upon himself.

Six years since his last studio album, Michael Jackson releases Invincible, aptly-named for this enduring artist who demonstrates that his crown as king of pop still rests firmly upon his head, despite the many pretenders that have challenged him along the way. Includes the international smash hit single You Rock My World.