Michael Jackson’s Fame

The NY Times had a great article in Sunday’s paper about Michael Jackson and fame. The point of the article was that Michael Jackson will likely be one of the last superstars in this new age of fragmentation.

In the article, David Segal notes that Jackson reached worldwide fame and popularity in a simpler time. The album was still king. MTV was pretty much the only medium where teenagers watched music videos. And the record labels still had a strong hold on the music that made it to the record stores.

Contrast that with today’s artists. The album is no longer king. Jackson sold 100 million copies of just one of his albums – Thriller. Now, and artist is extremely lucky to sell just 1 million albums. MTV was huge for Jackson. Now, MTV rarely plays music videos and most people are watching videos on YouTube. And with the proliferation of the internet, the user now has control of the playlist instead of the radio station or record store.

Basically, the mass media outlets are being replaced by silos of taste. As noted above, the consumer makes the choice. This does not bode well for the superstars. Top artists will still make their way out of the fold through word of mouth, but I don’t think we will ever see another artist like Michael Jackson.

Stay tuned,
Erik
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