Michael Jackson and the Pursuit of Perfection
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There was something about Michael Jackson that just captured me as a kid. And it went beyond this costume that I wore imitating him for Halloween nine years ago. I owned memorabilia from the '80s, my own sequin glove. Hell, my room was covered in his merchandise, and I bought a 33 DVD box set from China containing hundreds of the videos he was in. I made stupid drawings of his different clothing styles and dance moves. I just couldn't get enough of him. And seemingly, neither could the millions of fans he still has around the globe to this day. The reason for all of it, I think, lies in one word: perfection. Look up any music video, any performance, any picture of the man, and he's dressed in something different and unique. Different performances of Thriller meant different-colored jackets, different tours altogether meant different styles altogether, which, according to his costume designers, he would sketch out by hand during the setup for live performances. They had to be what his costume designer Michael Bush called "his second skin," performing on stage exactly just right as he did, accentuating the way he danced and the beat of his music. Two things he would also almost sketch out in making them.
1:00 He was in control of practically all of his choreography, often practicing with his choreographers for hours at a time to get his moves just right, and requiring all of his backup dancers to do the same.
"He's not easily satisfied. He's very demanding, and that he doesn't allow us to settle."
All of this in pursuit of becoming "a slave to the rhythm," something he incidentally wrote a song about, wherein he would become the sound, freeing himself of all of his thoughts.
"Thinking is the biggest mistake a dancer could make."
The moves were drawn from people like James Brown, Michael incorporating Brown's signature shuffling into his dances, bringing it together with the backslide of Boogaloo Shrimp and the pop-and-lock of Poppin' Taco in a spontaneous process of inspiration.
"He basically saw it. Basically what he wanted to do through me, through while I was doing it."
The end result was a performance that at once drew from the greats of African-Americana while bringing them together with the aesthetics of Charlie Chaplin, one of Michael's longtime idols, and Fred Astaire, all inspirations coming together to form something new and exactly as Jackson intended it.
2:00 "I do believe deeply in perfection. I'm never satisfied."
Perfection was exactly the way he wrote his songs, too, lyrics oftentimes coming to him at bizarre, offhanded moments. The lyrics to Billie Jean quote "dropping into his lap at once," forcing him to drive home and record on the microphone as soon as possible. He recorded bass melodies and chords the exact same way with his voice, overlaying them with a tape recorder, all without being able to read any music at all.
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It's a way of doing things that couldn't help but remind me of Plato's concept of the sea of beauty, the divine inspiration which brings man to birth gloriously beautiful ideas in unstinting love of wisdom. And it's exactly the way Jackson would describe writing his music.
"Something in the heavens has to say, 'Look, this is the time that this is going to be laid on you, and this is when I want you to have it.'"
3:00 Unfortunately, those inspired lyrics tell a tale of a man who wasn't entirely whole in doing so, his later albums focusing more and more on himself, his struggles, and his paranoia. Ongoing media criticism would lead to Leave Me Alone, Bad, Black or White, and Dangerous, and a plethora of songs in History slamming the tabloids, the prosecution which tried him in his sexual assault cases, and his broken childhood. He'd remark in interviews having to perform at nightclubs before the age of 10, oftentimes being beat by his father for failing to do so. Perfection meant internalizing that pain, oftentimes to his own detriment. His father's constant comments about his nose driving him to have it all but removed in an attempt to look like his younger self. The media would call it "Peter Pan syndrome," partially because he owned an estate called Neverland, and in many ways, it's the reason Michael became increasingly obsessed with children later in life.
"This is the Peter Pan story, roughly speaking. Is Peter Pan is this magical boy, and he's the boy that won't grow up. And he's magical. Well, that's because children are magical. They can be anything. They're nothing but potential."
4:00 "Peter Pan, to me, represents youth, childhood, never growing up, magic."
"You don't want to grow up."
"No, I am Peter Pan."
Him trying to recapture the childhood and the potential that he lost. Of course, none of that excuses or justifies allegations against him. I think it merely helps tell a story that allows us to better understand them. In that way, Jackson's story is a fable, I think. We all want perfection in some way. We all have inspirations, and we all attempt to shape the way others see us and think about us by creating what we will. Like Jackson, we'll be largely successful. We'll inspire others, and we'll make things that make other people happy. But taken too far, we also may be liable to fall into self-destruction, failing to remember that we can't control everything, and that not everything will be perfect. Because after all, that's human nature.
5:00 This is Mister Amazing. Thanks for watching.
If you're more interested in that human nature and the neurology of the creative insights which spurred Jackson's perfection, I recommend you check out CuriosityStream, the sponsor for this video, and their brief documentary entitled "Unraveling the Creative Mind." CuriosityStream is a subscription streaming service made for viewers like those of you in my audience who'd appreciate its library of 2,400 documentaries and non-fiction titles, featuring the likes of Stephen Hawking, Dr. Michio Kaku, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, and many more brilliant minds. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, the first 30 days being completely free if you sign up at the link in the description below or at curiositystream.com/mramazing, that's spelled out all one word, M-I-S-T-E-R-A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, and use promo code Mister Amazing, spelled the exact same way, when you sign up.
6:12 [Music]
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