3 definitions by ArteFact
While many people are aware of Jackson’s tremendous commercial success in terms of units sold or concert attendance records broken, serious analysis of his art has perhaps been impeded by these very facts. The question goes something like this: is it possible for great art to be wildly popular, and embraced on such an enormous scale? Is it possible to be a serious artist, and also be the “King of Pop”?
Apparently it is. Efforts are now being made to understand both the meaning and the impact of Michael Jackson’s art. Examples in the past few years include symposia at Duke, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia College Chicago, Schomburg Center, the Louvre, Lincoln Center and other institutions of learning. Michael Jackson, as well as Beethoven, Franz Liszt, and Jimi Hendrix were discussed as part of a presentation about virtuosity in music at the Louvre. His music has received classical treatment by symphonies around the world. “Thriller” is the only music video to be selected for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, and Jackson himself is likely to remain the only pop star inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame--alongside other distinctive architects of American dance heritage like Astaire, Graham, and Balanchine.
Apparently it is. Efforts are now being made to understand both the meaning and the impact of Michael Jackson’s art. Examples in the past few years include symposia at Duke, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia College Chicago, Schomburg Center, the Louvre, Lincoln Center and other institutions of learning. Michael Jackson, as well as Beethoven, Franz Liszt, and Jimi Hendrix were discussed as part of a presentation about virtuosity in music at the Louvre. His music has received classical treatment by symphonies around the world. “Thriller” is the only music video to be selected for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, and Jackson himself is likely to remain the only pop star inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame--alongside other distinctive architects of American dance heritage like Astaire, Graham, and Balanchine.
Michael Jackson, unlike, say, the Beatles, is an American original and made a supreme contribution to popular music as high art.
by ArteFact December 11, 2012
Here's another good book about Michael Jackson:
Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles by Armond White (Resistance Works) is a series of contemporaneous critical essays focused on Jackson’s short films. Included is "The Gloved One Is Not a Chump," on the "Black Or White" video, which won the 25th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music criticism in 1992. White is renowned as an exacting critic with a supreme depth of knowledge about film history in cultural context with an unusual capacity to think for himself, which has sometimes made him a lightening rod for controversy. His question here is, “Has there been a more compelling cultural figure than Michael Jackson?” By the end of this series of essays, he passionately anoints Jackson as the most courageous and subtly subversive artist of his time.
Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles by Armond White (Resistance Works) is a series of contemporaneous critical essays focused on Jackson’s short films. Included is "The Gloved One Is Not a Chump," on the "Black Or White" video, which won the 25th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music criticism in 1992. White is renowned as an exacting critic with a supreme depth of knowledge about film history in cultural context with an unusual capacity to think for himself, which has sometimes made him a lightening rod for controversy. His question here is, “Has there been a more compelling cultural figure than Michael Jackson?” By the end of this series of essays, he passionately anoints Jackson as the most courageous and subtly subversive artist of his time.
by ArteFact December 11, 2012
Michael Jackson was one of the most gifted performing artists in history. His opus is that of an American original of unsurpassed musical genius and spans songwriting and recording to original choreography, film, iconography, and of course, virtuosity of performance. His creative gifts were so varied and prolific that the world has only lately learned of his additional skill in the studio arts of painting and drawing. In terms of brilliant innovation that defined but was not statically bound to an era, his art’s impact on our culture and the work of other artists makes for an extraordinary story.
by ArteFact December 11, 2012