When Was Michael Jackson's peak/prime?

[CrimsonTider]

Wrong, but there is no set definition that everybody agrees on so it's all good...

Your prime is how long your music was elite. Your peak is the absolute top of your stardom and height of your artistic dominance. Seeing as he dominated the entire 80s, that was his peak...



Horrible take...

The nose, the skin, the scandal, his white kids, blanket

MJ was butt of all jokes that time

 

[Busby]

87-95. Even when the allegations came out he was still by far the most popular artist in the world. After “Blood On The Dance Floor” in 96 thats when he went into exile until “Invincible” dropped in 01.

 

[Busby]

music prime- Destiny to dangerous
performance prime- The dangerous era

Agree

 

[murksiderock]

I view Prime and Peak as two different things. Peak is his apex (highest point). That’s ‘Thriller’ (for me). Prime is the time period he was at his best. That’s probably ‘Off the Wall’ to ‘Dangerous’.

There’s little to no drop off during that point, though I wouldn’t be mad at someone saying his prime ended circa ‘Bad’. I don’t put ‘Dangerous’ on the level of the previous 3, but it’s still very good. And he WAS Michael Jackson, so he gets the benefit of the doubt. Musically, anyways.

I think with musicians you have to take into account their superstardom as well. Mike was still the biggest artist of the 90s, hands down, so even though he wasn't at his 80s peak, that was such a high that stepping down from it meant he was still playing on a higher level than anyone else...

Also, HIStory is a bounce back from Dangerous, HIStory is fukking outstanding and the fact that, that late in his career he was showing that skillset, 40 years into his performing career, and was doing it with an artistic bounce back and no drop off as the #1 entertainer on the planet, doing all that amid the press and allegations, it's kinda fukked up to think he wasn't still in his prime until 97 or 98...

He was still selling out, he was still the top performer, still #1 albums, quality of HIStory is legend shyt, etc. Otherwise I have the exact same definition of "prime" and "peak" that you have, I just think his prime was justifiably longer...

 

[K.O.N.Y]

Exactly, 79-98 is the best answer. This dude really had an 18-19 year prime, and probably a decade-long peak. Plenty of other people have had respectably long runs, but Mike set the bar so high I honestly don't know who can reach it....

Dudes biggest knock on his artistry is Dangerous, which for sure, by Mike standards, wasn't all that. Everything else he dropped was fukking spectacular in that window, his performances are completely iconic with no doubts at all, he basically popularized the music video with some of the coldest videos ever, there was nothing he couldn't do. He could sing, his videos proved he could act, choreographed, wrote a lot of his own music and wrote for others, he could really sing, his music was emotional and dexterous, etc...

There was literally nothing he couldn't do. When people say someone was a total package, they talking about Mike...

 

[murksiderock]

The nose, the skin, the scandal, his white kids, blanket

MJ was butt of all jokes that time

I'm talking strictly about the artistry, superstardom, and skillset, he was still way ahead of everyone else...

 

[patscorpio]

mj's peak was from We Are The World to Captain EO, 85/86

he was still riding the thriller wave and people genuinely thought he was still "normal"
but shortly after this, those elephant man bones/hyperbaric chamber/elizabeth taylor tabloid stories started to become a thing
and then he started walking around with the surgical masks as his change of appearance became far more drastic

everything after this point (shortly before the bad era) was spectacle
as i said before on here, he was starting to become popular for the wrong reasons

agreed

 

[darryl]

Lol yall got it all wrong in here. I understand alot of yall are fanboys in here and love Michael to no end and think he could do no wrong, but yall bias is clearly showing.



Lol yall got it all wrong in here. I understand alot of yall are fanboys in here and love Michael to no end and think he could do no wrong, but yall bias is clearly showing.

Peak/prime basically means when you were at YOUR ABSOLUTE HIGHEST POINT.
Going by that, his peak/prime Was Thriller/Bad.
People are mentioning history? Seriously?
Bad Sold 2 million copies in its first week of release.
History sold 391,000 in its first week of release...

That right there says it all. Like someone else said, mj was a laughingstock by black people and white people alike in the mid 90s, and most of his fans and sales by that point were from his overseas audience.
Bad/thriller, everybody loved him.

 

[Techniec]

I view Prime and Peak as two different things. Peak is his apex (highest point). That’s ‘Thriller’ (for me). Prime is the time period he was at his best. That’s probably ‘Off the Wall’ to ‘Dangerous’.

There’s little to no drop off during that point, though I wouldn’t be mad at someone saying his prime ended circa ‘Bad’. I don’t put ‘Dangerous’ on the level of the previous 3, but it’s still very good. And he WAS Michael Jackson, so he gets the benefit of the doubt. Musically, anyways.

I agree with your first paragraph

As for the second, it's tough to narrow down..
Was Dangerous a step down from Bad? Maybe...but if it was, Bad was just as much of a step down from Thriller

79-91 is MJs run to me...Dangerous was still an amazing album

Truth be told I play it just as much as Bad..I actually find Dangerous to be a more consistent album than Bad. But Bads best songs might be better than Dangerous best songs

 

[Derekjackson2]

What years do you feel was Michael Jackson at his peak/prime?

@thedevilyouknow

@KnickstapeCity

@Black_Panther_JS

@El Jefe

@tremonthustler1

@MikeStamina

@THEREALBRAND

@Ashtrey

@Ziggiy

@spliz

@murksiderock

@Trav

@Budda

@How Sway?

@semicko82

@Michael's Black Son

@Third Kind

@Derekjackson2

@JustCKing

@Deltron

@Jordan>>LeFrozen

@NormanConnors

@Kaydigi

@Suzie

@^c^tXwn^°

@Keengcong

@Ziploc

@LauderdaleBoss

@xCivicx

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@Piff Perkins



If you haven't read this book you should check it out:

off the wall to bad

 

[Dynamite James]

Michael Jackson at his prime 1979-91. His peak I would say is the bad era 87-89. This MTV promo sums it up .

 

[Suzie]

What years do you feel was Michael Jackson at his peak/prime?

@thedevilyouknow

@KnickstapeCity

@Black_Panther_JS

@El Jefe

@tremonthustler1

@MikeStamina

@THEREALBRAND

@Ashtrey

@Ziggiy

@spliz

@murksiderock

@Trav

@Budda

@How Sway?

@semicko82

@Michael's Black Son

@Third Kind

@Derekjackson2

@JustCKing

@Deltron

@Jordan>>LeFrozen

@NormanConnors

@Kaydigi

@Suzie

@^c^tXwn^°

@Keengcong

@Ziploc

@LauderdaleBoss

@xCivicx

@Complexion

@Piff Perkins



If you haven't read this book you should check it out:

The first edition of that book yes but nothing past bad era.

Jermaibes book is really good for the early years through Thriller. The bodyguards book is really good for his final years.

MJ had a few careers but his ‘peak’ range is from OTW- Dangerous. OTW he was rising and Dangerous he was on the downturn. I guess that would make Thriller-Bad his peak years.

 

[Suzie]

My favorite era is the Thriller era and a little after, like 82-85. His vocals were perfect and he made classics incorporating a lot of different sounds, Rock, R&B, Pop, Disco, Funk, etc...

People sleep on MJs thriller era vocals. He was a beast during those years

 

[Ziggiy]

Lol yall got it all wrong in here. I understand alot of yall are fanboys in here and love Michael to no end and think he could do no wrong, but yall bias is clearly showing.



Lol yall got it all wrong in here. I understand alot of yall are fanboys in here and love Michael to no end and think he could do no wrong, but yall bias is clearly showing.

Peak/prime basically means when you were at YOUR ABSOLUTE HIGHEST POINT.
Going by that, his peak/prime Was Thriller/Bad.
People are mentioning history? Seriously?
Bad Sold 2 million copies in its first week of release.
History sold 391,000 in its first week of release...

That right there says it all. Like someone else said, mj was a laughingstock by black people and white people alike in the mid 90s, and most of his fans and sales by that point were from his overseas audience.
Bad/thriller, everybody loved him.

Get the fukk outta here.


HIStory is the BIGGEST selling double album of ALL TIME and the HIStory tour was the highest grossing tour of the 90’s. PERIOD.

You don’t achieve ANY of that by being a laughing stock.

 

[Ziggiy]

He wasn't as consistent album wise when he was a kid but he has a lot of fire, Got to Be There is 1 of my favorite Mike albums

He wasn’t writing his own stuff as a kid. Young Mike was basically a genius in a cage when he became a teen, really that was true for his brothers as well. They were all top tier musicians at a young age and probably could have been producing and writing their own material by the time Dancing Machine dropped.