The Seeds of Black or White and the Sub Theme of Parental Authority
Posted by: Raven on: January 8 2013
Lately my thoughts have been turning again to the Black or White video, and the Dangerous album in general. Much of this has been spurred by a recent link I saw to a 2011 Rolling Stone poll, a poll that practically gloated over the fact that Nirvana’s Nevermind album (voted the #1 album of the decade by Rolling Stone readers) bumped Dangerous from the number one position in early 1992. The poll then went on to list the “Top 10″ albums of the 90′s.
Not surprisingly, considering Rolling Stone’s narrow and indie-minded definition of what constitutes “real” music, no Michael Jackson album from the 90′s made the list. Not Dangerous-an album so commercially huge that it dominated the charts for a full two years, and despite receiving (at the time) a very favorable review from Rolling Stone, who gave it four out of five stars. (Heck, for Rolling Stone, it was actually a GUSHING review!). And not HIStory, which in addition to being one of the most politically charged albums of the decade, spawned several record breaking singles (Scream was the highest debuting single ever to chart on Billboard, until Michael topped his own record with You Are Not Alone; meanwhile, in the UK, Earth Song became his biggest selling single ever, dominating the number one spot for a mind-boggling seven weeks) and earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year to boot.
You see, the truth is that publications like Rolling Stone love angst, political protest, darkness and anger. It’s just that they didn’t love these things when they came from Michael Jackson.
If it’s any consolation, the complete dearth of albums on that list by any black artists should say everything about the typical tastes of Rolling Stone and its readership. Amazing that in the very decade which saw hip hop overtake rock’n'roll in the cultural mainstream, there are no rap albums whatsoever represented in this “Top 10.” Yet we find at the top of the list not one, but TWO grunge albums (Pearl Jam’s Ten being the other). Yes, grunge did overhaul the music scene in the early 90′s. But it was a trend that, at best, lasted six years, and in reality was only a very small part of a very musically diverse decade-and yes, this is coming from a grunge fan. I loved those bands; still do. The grunge years were an important part of my young adulthood. Perhaps that’s why I feel, now, that I can give a completely balanced and unbiased assessment of what this poll actually means.
...weiter im link..