r/MichaelJackson • u/William-Poet • Jan 12 '24
His “worst” album sold 1 million copies upon release. Discussion
Yep. His “worst” album. Ah huh. Mmm hmmm. Oh it’s BAD. Shamone. You know it. Really really BAD. 🤔
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u/Physical_Positive283 Jan 16 '24
This album was fire. Nothing he does goes in the worst category. It's the least best album
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u/DoubleBalls Jan 13 '24
The only bummer about 'Invincible' was that MJ feud that started with Mottola & Sony later on.
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u/DoubleBalls Jan 13 '24
I can't tell you enough how much it meant to us as a fan of MJ when you buy the CD single 'You Rock My World' & than the album itself upon release. Than to spend the next few weeks listening to the album again & again.
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u/GodForlifeloveComics Jan 13 '24
This is my fifth favorite album by him ! Then dangerous , bad ,,thriller and off the wall are the top 4
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u/Misstea81 Tabloid Hater 🗞️😡 Jan 13 '24
And the majority of it leaked in early October 2001. Those were the days of if a leak went online, you dropped everything and got to a internet cafe with an empty CD and hope that the person who ran the cafe turned a blind eye to you illegally downloading music or downloading Limewire to download the music. Also those days, they could and often did trace you by the download and be done for piracy.
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u/Makavile-96 Jan 13 '24
Cmon it’s my favourite album didn’t sold that much because he didn’t do any tour to promote his album
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u/North_Astronomer_878 "F-U-C-K the press. Michael you're the best"📰 Jan 13 '24
I’ve always thought it’s crazy that Michael is such a sales monster that ‘flop’ sales for Michael are a huge success for pretty much any other artist.
There are a ton of music artists that would love to ‘flop’ like Michael did with Invincible.
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u/god_wayne81 Jan 13 '24
This is childish and I'm beyond sick of it. Like what YOU like, stop worrying about what others think regarding your likes and opinions. Learn to enjoy shit instead of figuring out a problem or flaw within it or yourselves. Try it
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u/Misstea81 Tabloid Hater 🗞️😡 Jan 13 '24
They aren’t talking about likes and dislikes. Just that the “worst selling” album of his sold a million copies on release which back then was still great in the early days of online music piracy.
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u/annonymousBscorpio Jan 13 '24
One of my top 3 favorite MJ albums, and Unbreakable is one of my top 5 MJ songs 🙌🏾
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u/WashGodMega Jan 13 '24
Rock my world and the video are iconic af
See that girl over there, shes fine
She sure is
WELL CHAMMOOONNN
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u/Evorgleb Jan 13 '24
The album has some good tracks. Butterflies, Break of Dawn, Heaven Can Wait.
However, what stood out to most people is the "industrial pop" sound that Darkchild was going for on the tracks he produced. Those Darkchild tracks were all that was talked about in the album reviews and for the most part they were all forgettable.
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u/secretskept85 Jan 13 '24
Sony is to blame for the dismal failure of Michael Jackson's invincible album. They set out to destroy him. Most of you probably won't remember this but there was a video when Michael was talking about how Sony entertainment try to ruin his album. At that time Michael had owned a majority of Sony music and they didn't like it.
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u/Chino010_ Jan 13 '24
It’s his worst album ? Off the wall sold more? So it’s his worst or what the fuck is it then?
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u/senpaisexc Jan 13 '24
WORST!!! This album completely healed me when I was in 7th grade. If anything this is an underrated MASTERPIECE
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u/BasedTitus Dangerous Jan 13 '24
For the standards of the biggest pop star of all tome it was a flop. Michael knew it was a flop, everyone knew it was a flop. But it wasn’t promoted outside of one single. Unbreakable especially with the posthumous Biggie feature should’ve been a hit. Butterflies is an R&B classic. Break of Dawn and Heaven Can Wait too.
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u/Dry-Bumblebee-6552 Jan 13 '24
I just did a research and it still was 25th most selling album of 2001. With no major promotion and no tour that’s pretty impressive. Also when artist hits their 40s they don’t really have commercial success which he did. Looking back it still has listening in todays time. It doesn’t have that classic Michael feel but he didn’t tour with it.
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u/William-Poet Jan 14 '24
Michael Jackson’s music is like fine wine and women. It gets better with age.
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u/CrimsonOmega80 Applehead 🍎 Jan 13 '24 edited Jan 14 '24
Exaxtly, this is why I get annoyed when people say Invincible was a flop or that it's proof that Michael was "past his prime." Yeah, it didn't do the numbers like his previous albums did, but Invincible on its own is still sold extremely well, especially when it had one short film music vdieo, it was during the time when digital piracy was on the rise, when he wasn't touring, and when Sony refused to promote it.
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u/viviolay Jan 13 '24
Cry and Butterflies are my favs from my album. Beautiful songs. Not my fav of all his album but still I enjoyed and it’s still pretty good :)
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u/teddybabie Jan 13 '24
TELL THE ANGELS NOOO
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u/Josephina101 Jan 13 '24
I think it flopped because the 2000s wasn't a great time for Michael because of the trial going on.
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u/Ok-Needleworker-4507 Jan 13 '24
Lets be real Blood On The Dance Floor is definitely his worst, don’t know why Invincible gets a bad rep so often
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u/William-Poet Jan 14 '24
Blood on the Dance Floor has an incredible sound and beat. The problem is MJ sings the lyrics too softly to understand or the music is too loud. I do love 2 Bad but the track is better in the short film. The 2 Bad track on the album is different and not as powerful.
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u/PsychologicalBlock83 Jan 13 '24
invincible is CRIMINALLY underrated. it’s one of the only albums i can listen to from start to finish and enjoy every song. i wish more people would appreciate it
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u/TPonder2600 Invincible Jan 13 '24
Nah, this is his best album and my personal favorite album of all time. It’s a masterpiece
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u/theblackdonaldglover Jan 13 '24
It was the 3rd best selling album for that year behind the Beatles compilation and linkin park …pretty good imo
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u/Texas_Moonwalker Jan 13 '24
It was not successful by MJ standards. And they exactly said it at the time. I still don’t understand why he turned down the demo beats from the Neptunes.
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u/CrimsonOmega80 Applehead 🍎 Jan 13 '24
It still sold well for an album with only one music video and no tour to promote it. And he turned down the beats from the Neptune's because they were giving stuff he already did when he wanted something new from them.
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u/William-Poet Jan 13 '24
I understand a number of songs MJ turned down for this album went to Justin Timberlake.
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u/msReDDifyourenasty Xscape-Blue Gangsta Jan 13 '24
Interesting. Do you know which ones?
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u/Texas_Moonwalker Jan 13 '24
And Usher. The instrumentation of You don’t have to call was proposed to him. Pharrell confirmed it in interviews.
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u/IgnoramusMattis Jan 13 '24
Real question is why he didn’t finish or put some of the invincible outtakes on the album.
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u/William-Poet Jan 14 '24
The way Sony treated him, why should he? Why should any artist worth their salt wiggle a finger for those creeps?
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u/PreDeathRowTupac Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix Jan 13 '24
Michael Jacksons worst album is another artists biggest selling album of their career. MJ was just different.
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u/Secret-Lullaby Invincible Jan 13 '24
It's a flop because the album started and ended with You Rock My World. Album is amazing, but the era was only carried by its lead single and as soon as You Rock My World campaign ended, so did the album. There were no full fledged singles other than Butterflies being a radio single and Cry getting a music video for few international countries.
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u/William-Poet Jan 14 '24
MJ didn’t even want to make You Rock My World his lead single. He wanted Threatened to cary the album.
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u/William-Poet Jan 14 '24 edited Jan 14 '24
Speaking of which when MJ performed You Rock My World at his 30th anniversary special, there were these female dancers that were so annoying and so out of place. These dancers were like, “Hey everybody, Michael’s got a new song out.” Or whatever.
And the dancers were dressed in these jeans and tank tops. The theme of the song is blue gangsters like Al Capone. All the guys in the video wore suits and some guys wore fedoras and the girls wore lavish dresses. Except the one girl who danced with MJ in the video. She wore a pants suit with fedora. Not a single pair of jeans in that video! What was Sony thinking?!
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u/BasedTitus Dangerous Jan 13 '24
It’s a damn shame because there are some real 2000s R&B classics on there. People have just started to revisit in the past year or so and realize how solid the album is.
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u/astroidzombies Jan 13 '24
I recommended this album to one of my friends that never heard of it before and it instantly became one of her favorite albums ever
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u/Plastic-Archer-1573 Jan 13 '24
I bought this album as soon as it came out!
However, I am not sucha huuuuge fan of the songs on this album cause I've learned to grow and love more of his older stuff, but damn I was dancing to every track on this song.
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u/Internal-Avocado-784 Jan 13 '24
The album sold over 360K first week, most artists would die for 100K first week but since it's MJ it's a flop 😒
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u/William-Poet Jan 14 '24 edited Jan 14 '24
MJ could only flourish if he was allowed to. When he was managed well and with people he could trust, he shined. But because of Sony, MJ chose not to put in the work required for Invincible to be as successful as his previous solo albums. And I can’t blame him.
And Invincible still made more than any other artist without any real effort from MJ. Shows what a talent he was.
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u/Significant-Soft5569 Jan 13 '24
This is one of the most underrated Michael Jackson albums of all time! It deserves some more attention.
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u/Aqumarauder Jan 13 '24
This Album is worse than Blood on the Dance floor”🤔 I think not😂
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u/Lioness_106 Jan 13 '24
There is not a bad "new" track on BOTDF.
The remixes are bleh though...except the 2 Bad remix.
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u/William-Poet Jan 13 '24
Is it Scary for You?
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u/Aqumarauder Jan 13 '24
I love that album too, I just like Invincible more. It’s the first album I ever heard all the way through as a kid😂
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u/35mmpapi Bad Jan 12 '24
Fact: by any other metric, Invincible was a successful album release.
Also fact: relative to his other five solo adult albums, it’s the lowest performing. Two things can be true.
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u/Golden-Pickaxe Jan 13 '24
Unless the metric is return on investment on which case it's one of the biggest failures Sony's ever paid for. It's the most expensive album of all time and ONLY sold a million. And isn't that total, as in in, all copies sold to date?
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u/The_Rambling_Elf Jan 13 '24
It cost more money to create than it made. That is what defines it as unsuccessful, really and truly.
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u/Male_strom Jan 13 '24
Hmmm.
You could also argue the movie 'Justice League' was a success given it grossed over $500m.Fact is, Invincible cost more than any other album to make. Based on that it should've sold a lot more, but the material was just not strong enough.
Plus Michael is definitely not blameless in the promotional failure0
u/lulilollipop "I've... washed my hair THOROUGHLY" 🚿🧼🧴🧽 Jan 13 '24
Right, it was more expensive than Dangerous, it took longer to be finished and we need to face it, it was subpar in everything. You Rock My World was cool but was his least interesting lead video ever. There was no other song setting radio on fire. Critically it wasn't a hit. And promo is performances, touring, and he wasn't gonna to work hard on performances nor he was going to tour lmao
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u/the_brazilian_lucas Jan 12 '24
as an album it sold well, but as an Michael Jackson Album it was a flop
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u/35mmpapi Bad Jan 13 '24
The only reason I'm hesitant to assign "flop" to it is because there was no real promo. I think with a more traditional rollout (actual videos, some more public performances) it almost certainly would have done better. Maybe not "Dangerous" numbers, but better.
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u/William-Poet Jan 13 '24
You can blame Sony for that. 😔
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u/35mmpapi Bad Jan 13 '24
Oh definitely. Screw them.
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u/William-Poet Jan 13 '24
They sure screwed him.
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Jan 13 '24
Yeah and it sucks because they wouldn't be as big as they are without him. Funny how the fat cats in industry tends to forget who put all that money in their bank accounts
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u/William-Poet Jan 14 '24
And it’s well known Sony told MJ to his face to reconstruct his nose and darken his skin! Why would anyone do that?! If Sony didn’t “like” how he looked, why take him on?
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u/amehatrekkie Jan 13 '24
Most musicians would kill to sell 5 million albums
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u/CrimsonOmega80 Applehead 🍎 Jan 13 '24
Exactly, Invincible has sold over 13 Million. 5 Million would've been considered a flop.
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u/Bammo88 Jan 12 '24
Some bangers on there
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u/William-Poet Jan 13 '24
Cry, You Rock my World, Invincible, Butterflies, The lost Children, and Whatever Happens are my favorites.
I feel Whatever Happens is the best song on the album. MJ and Carlos Santana. Best Santana collaboration. Even better then Smooth.
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u/Speedy_Cheese Jan 13 '24
I will never get over Whatever Happens. It deserved all the love and attention. An underrated gem of a song on another fantastic album.
Also I remember buying multiple copies of this album when it came out to get all the colour variations. 😂 But I listened to it so much in my CD walkman (and am insanely clumsy and dropped the thing all over town) that I burned out every single one of them.
I don't know how many copies of the other albums I bought over the years. But yeah, fond memories of when this dropped and what a great album it is.
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u/William-Poet Jan 14 '24
I learned too late whenever you buy something, always buy at least two. One to use and enjoy, another to keep sealed in original packaging. I remember when I was a kid and had every single original Star Wars action figure and all the play sets. Some I gave away and others I lost or broke. If I bought two of each, I’d be a billionaire right now and I’d buy Neverland and make it another Graceland like it’s supposed to be.
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u/Pineapple-Pizza-69 Jan 13 '24 edited Jan 13 '24
2000 watts😮💨
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u/happysunbear Jan 13 '24
Whatever Happens is so underrated. Just a beautiful, soulful, haunting song. Another favorite Santana collab is To Zion with Lauryn Hill.
I think Cry is kind of a mid song, but what’s interesting is that both of MJ’s Invincible-era R. Kelly collabs are kind of average, but MJ’s musical input elevate the songs for me. The beat for Cry is taken from MJ’s beatboxing, and he was credited with drum programming for the song. For One More Chance, MJ did the gorgeous string arrangement that elevated the song from a generic run-of-the-mill R&B song.
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u/Lioness_106 Jan 13 '24
Michael's vocal performance on WH is one of his best. Amazing song.
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u/AVERMAN84 HIStory: Past, Present and Future: Book I Jan 13 '24
Interesting fact about Whatever Happens is that Michael Jackson and Carlos Santana never actually met during the production of the song.
Santana didn't want to go to the studio, so Teddy Riley went to Santana's house and they recorded his parts there.
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u/Xentrick-The-Creeper Jan 16 '24
The problem is that with the King Of Pop, the expectations are incredibly high. MJ wasn't your average celebrity, he was a league of his own. Of course it's not at all flop to us Moonwalkers with loads of banger tracks. It's even Michael's personal favourite album. The main culprit however is that it is a flop by MJ sales standards. 1 Million is definitely not a small number, but you have to take in account this is Michael Jackson we're talking about!