The Inventor Of Modern Pop

[koganbot]

Moggy on MJ (Kids These Days): Except that this morning I've been listening to a 1Xtra tribute show and have realised a) my woeful lack of any kind of knowledge of his back-catalogue beyond a few very big hits and b) exactly how incredibly world-formingly important he was. It sounds pretty stupid but I had no idea that when people said he invented modern pop music, they actually meant he literally invented modern pop music.

Aptly enough, I was talking to my mother only a couple of hours before reading that, and she, having just heard some clips of Michael, said she couldn't hear in the music what was ever supposed to have been so innovative about it, so couldn't understand why he's considered to have invented modern pop music.

I said I was inclined to agree with her, since, while Michael synthesized elements in his work, you can't say that he invented any of its basic vocabulary.

Maybe this underestimates the inventive role of synthesis, but anyway, the story I would tell is this:

Michael reasserted the importance of gospel-based soul in the post-disco dancepop world (more the relatively smooth style of the gospel quartets and balladeers than that of the shouters and stompers, though his truncated yelps certainly drew on the latter), but he didn't create musical vocabulary in the way that, say, James Brown or Sly Stone or Miles Davis can be said to have created musical vocabulary. And postdisco dance music already used a whole hunk of gospel-based soul anyway, albeit more from the diva-shouter side (diva-shouter being another synthesis). The forward motion of music at the time of Thriller didn't seem to be Thriller but hip-hop and dancehall and electrofunk and techno and club music (other motions either had nothing to do with Michael, e.g. hair metal going glitter, or were so ongoingly pervasive that Thriller and Off The Wall can hardly have been said to be stimulating them or leading them: e.g., the integration of soul stylizations into countrypolitan and into Italianate and showbiz showoff pop and the integration of those types of music into soul/r&b; or e.g. the hard-rock guitar on "Beat It," which would only have been surprising to people who'd solidly ignored '70s funk). The actual task of working soul/r&b into that forward motion was undertaken by Prince in regard to synthpop and by Teddy Riley and the New Edition alums in regard to hip-hop. When Michael himself started working with Riley, he was playing catch up.

As I said, maybe this underestimates the role of his synthesis in "invention," and maybe without Michael having gone mega, r&b wouldn't be so pre-eminent today, but that's the work of a lot of hands, without Michael's necessarily being dominant.

Comments

[koganbot]

I recall at the time making the connection between "Beat it" and "Rock Box"

Except the obvious precursor to "Rock Box" was the Treacherous Three's "The Body Rock," which precedes "Beat It" (but wasn't a national hit or prominent outside of hip-hop, so maybe "Beat It" helps prepare the part of the general populace who hasn't heard Funkadelic et al. for "Rock Box" or "Walk This Way").

[sm-woods.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'm pretty sure I was familiar with "The Body Rock" before "Rock Box," but maybe the connection wasn't obvious enough for me. I mean, now that you mention it, I can hear the guitars in the former, but they never seemed like a big deal to me at the time, perhaps because they are used more subtly, not so much as central hooks but as padding. (I haven't heard the song in ages, so I could be way off here.)

[koganbot]

I think my basic point is that "Walk This Way" or something equivalent was going to occur regardless of Michael because hip-hop was taking up the rock-funk-punk mixtures that were happening everywhere they could in NY, and "Beat It" was hardly the template. LL (or Rick Rubin) isn't going to say to himself, "Oh, because of 'Beat It' I am inspired to sample 'Johnny B. Goode.'" It's not because of "Beat It" but because of Flash and Bambaataa and Funkadelic etc. etc. that sampling "Johnny B. Goode" is an obvious move.

(I always thought "Rock Box" was clumsy and kind of boring, and thought "Sucker MCs" rocked a lot harder, actually, despite the latter's not having a guitar.)

[sm-woods.livejournal.com]

Don't think I was claiming that "Beat It" was a template -- of course it's just one among many. Though I do think because it was so huge and in the air at the time (and I recall lots of talk at the time about how "revolutionary" an idea it was bringing Eddie Van Halen into the fold -- regardless of whether that WAS a revolutionary thing to do or not) it may have been more directly an inspiration than, say, Funkadelic or Flash or Bambaata (the latter two of whom I assume you list because of what they would play as DJs, moreso than what kind of records they made).

[koganbot]

And actually it may be specifically because of Chuck Eddy that Run-DMC does "Walk This Way" (Doug Simmons told me he was convinced of this, the Voice having printed Chuck's piece relating "Walk This Way" to hip-hop six months before the Run-DMC track came out, though Doug told me that Rick Rubin denied the connection; and I do recall Run-DMC talking of their love for Aerosmith back at the time of their first album).

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

My memory is that the initital press release came out just a few weeks after my Aerosmith Done With Mirrors review; John Leland reported (in the Voice and later in Spin I believe) that my review is where Rubin's idea came from, though right, I'm not sure whether Rubin ever admitted that. I also recall though that, while Run-DMC may have liked Aerosmith's music early on, they didn't even know the name of the band -- thought they were called Walk This Way. But they apparently did like the song and its beats, at least.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I never made that connection, either. Always like "Body Rock"; never thought of it as sounding "rock", even if it did. Though there were other rap singles incorporating hard rock guitars before "Rock Box" -- Adventure's "Phantasy Eyesland (What Is Your Phantasy)" on Sweet Mountain Records in 1981, for instance.

[koganbot]

Well, here it is, hard rock/hard funk, the guitar isn't as prominent as the bass but it was the guitar that jumped out at me as unexpected. The date of the single is 1980, not 1983 as the YouTuber claims. He's probably got a reissue.

In any event, this stuff, rather than "Beat It," is what's pointing the way to Run-DMC, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, etc.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

How many people heard "Body Rock" compared to "Beat It," though? Was it even a major r&b hit? Not at all clear why both songs couldn't have paved the way toward later rap/rock hybrids, and why "Beat It" might not even have been the bigger influence, given how inescapable it was in '82-'83.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

...and given that, in "Beat It" unlike in "Body Rock," the guitar is undeniably the prominent instrument (not to mention a big part of the story that people told about the song -- don't recall people making an issue of "Body Rock"'s guitar, though I could be wrong.)

[koganbot]

Btw, I'm not claiming that "Body Rock" is particularly important - I like it, but I wouldn't really know its importance, or what part of it kids in the South Bronx or Queens would be making a big deal of. It's more illustrative: rock going into hip-hop and vice versa is going to happen regardless of "Beat It." I guess I'm going by my ears here: the zeitgeist that gets Rubin and Beasties and Run-DMC and LL moving is already so pervasive that a "Beat It" hitting or not hitting isn't going to make a difference, esp. since "Beat It" doesn't sound a lot like the hip-hop rock hybrids that emerge.