Stars Are Not the Same

July Issue of HI Art, 2009

Michael Jackson died suddenly, leaving over so many fans all around the world. ‘Suddenly’: this is the most proper word for describing his death. In China there are also numerous pop stars and movie stars. They resign and then comeback; they often announce that they have come across natural and man-made disasters. However, they are still alive, and what are tortured are the public’s nerves. Maybe we fans will die earlier than them.

Michael Jackson, who has been entitled King of Pop for his incomparable talent, is the most influential western pop musician after Elvis, and his achievement has surpassed the latter. With his well-rounded talent in music, he has extremely succeeded in lyrics writing, composition, scene designing, singing, dancing and playing instruments. He, along with Elvis and Beatles, are the greatest and unfading symbols in the pop-history of the world. He has created modern MV which pushed pop music to its peak; he has integrated black blues with the unique MJ of white rock & roll. With unprecedentedly top-class quality, his Thriller is the top selling album in the world, with a sale of 104 million copies, and his legal albums have a total sale of 750 million copies: an incomparable progress. Besides, it is he who has independently supported 39 charities aid foundations, which made him the person who has made the most donations with individual name in the world.

Countless pop stars try to imitate his brilliant dance, and no Chinese singer can match him in musical creation and singing. He has created lyrics, music, dances and MVs for his 62 songs. The longest MV Ghost made by him is 35 minutes long, just like a mini-movie; and another one Scream cost more than 100 million yuan. He has purchased 50% of music copyright from SONY/ATV, including 100 songs by Beatles and most of classic music by Elvis; at the same time, Michael Jackson also has his own record company as well as the copyright of all of his songs. His global traveling show named HISTORY TOUR lasted 13 months, with 4.6 million audience and 82 performances, all songs during which were sung in live voice.

He is really famous and mighty. Here I just want to mention something happened in China. Sichuan people had planned to invite Michael Jackson to perform in Chengdu, and Bobby Taylor, his teacher and musical director, went there in March, 2009 for negotiation. However, all performance agents were frightened and frustrated by the astonishing cost: just the round trip would cost 1.5 million dollars, including the large charted plane, 6 luxury limousines, two stories in a 5-star hotel, as well as the all-day protection offered by 200 guardians, not to say the price of his performance. Even his blessing VCR alone is valued 500 thousand.

He has also created much news. He has spent huge sum of money in body bleaching, which made his nose sink frequently. He has got more than 500 million dollars through the divorce from two wives (one of them was Liza, Elvis daughter), and then spent 70 or 80 million dollars on his children. With a fortune of nearly a billion dollars, he has been qualified for creating news. When he was still alive, his only wish was to go shopping freely and casually, just like Chinese people going to Likelong, which is much cooler than those show off their experience on media that they have been to boutiques in Paris, Hong Kong and China World Shopping Mall.

Jackson’s death marks the end of a certain period of history, with which his outstanding style of a real star has also gone. What Chinese singers should learn from him is his high-standard creative and singing quality, rather than his news and other things. Otherwise, it is really a suffering for we audience to ‘enjoy’ their awkward performances.

Zhu Wei

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

你看人家

《HI艺术》2009年7月刊

Michael Jackson迈克尔·杰克逊说死嘎嘣儿就死了，撇下全世界老老少少这么多歌迷、粉丝、龙虾什么的，连哼都没哼一声。就一个字，脆。不像我们这儿这帮歌星、影星，一天到晚一会儿引退，一会儿复出，一会儿天灾，一会儿人祸，就是不见死，光折磨老百姓玩儿，歌迷、粉丝恨不得都死他们头里。

论实力，迈克尔·杰克逊被誉为世界流行音乐之王，是继猫王之后西方流行乐坛最具影响力的音乐家，其成就已超越猫王，是出色的音乐全才。在作词、作曲、场景制作、编曲、演唱、舞蹈、乐器演奏等等方面都有着卓越的成就。他与猫王、披头士乐队并列为世界流行音乐史上最伟大不朽的象征。他开创了现代MV，把流行音乐推向了巅峰。他融合了黑人节奏蓝调与白人摇滚的独特MJ乐风，空前绝后的高水准音乐制作，他拥有世界销量第一的专辑《THRILLER》，销量达1.04亿张，其正版专辑全球销量7.5亿张，史上无人能出其右。他一个人支持了世界上39个慈善救助基金会，是全世界以个人名义捐赠最多的人。

杰克逊魔鬼般的舞步让无数明星效仿，他的原创、真唱水准在中国根本找不出一个和他稍微能接近的。他为62首自己所唱的歌作词，作曲，编舞，制作MV。他制作了史上最长的MV《Ghost》，35分钟，赶上一小电影，还耗资一亿多人民币拍了一MV《Scream》。他购买了索尼唱片ATV50%的音乐版权，包括披头士乐队100首歌曲、猫王的大部分经典名曲。他同时还拥有自己的唱片公司和自己所有歌曲的版权。迈克尔·杰克逊的《HISTORY TOUR》全球巡回演出，为期13个月，观众460万人，82场演出没一首歌不是真唱的。

玩牛逼，远的不说，火爆热辣的四川人就想把杰克逊请到成都去演出。杰克逊的恩师音乐总监巴比·泰勒今年3月份就来蓉洽谈，结果是杰克逊的惊人身价彻底吓退了所有演出商，即使不唱歌，单来回行程也要150万美元，包括大型包机、6辆豪华加长轿车，包租两层五星级酒店，200名警卫人员全天候保护，就算本人不来，弄个祝福的VCR也得50万美元。

弄绯闻，杰克逊敢花重金全身漂白，鼻子经常塌陷。光和包括猫王之女丽莎在内的两任妻子离婚就分走5亿多美元的财产，打发几个孩子，又花去了七八千万。杰克逊近十亿美元的财产，谁的绯闻能玩得超过他老人家。杰克逊在世的时候唯一的一个遗憾是想痛痛快快的逛逛超市，就是想去趟利客隆的意思，这比我们的土星星动不动就在媒体上走露自己曾经在巴黎或香港或国贸的专卖店购物超前多了。

杰克逊的去世标志着一段历史的结束，也带走了一代明星人物的风范，我们该学的是人家高水准的原创和真唱，其他的少来，别弄得高的上不去，底的下不来，不三不四的，让人看了难受。

朱伟

2009年6月28日星期日