Michael Jackson was desperate to change ‘weirdo narrative’: new reveal
nypost.comdebuted on Amazon Music and Audible on Thursday — details how the King of Pop pored over market research in which people would make harsh comments about his looks and idiosyncrasies.“He wanted to know … I would take stacks of surveys, and some things that you or I would not be able to take as a human being — he took it all in,” said Dan Beck, who, as an executive at Epic Records, began working with Jackson right before the release of his 1991 album “Dangerous.”“At that time, some of the non-musical issues were surfacing, some of the tabloid stuff — you know, plastic surgery, all that stuff.
And we were very, very concerned about these things getting in the way of Michael’s music.”“There was a concern that pop radio would turn on Michael because he was just too weird to be a pop star,” added Jay Smooth, who co-hosts “Think Twice” with Leon Neyakh.As sales of “Dangerous” were plummeting — by his lofty standards — at the beginning of 1993, Jackson set out to change “the weirdo narrative,” as Smooth describes it.“Michael and his team wanted to wash all that away and replace it with the idea that he was not just a generational talent but a historic artist in a lineage with the greats,” said Smooth.As part of that concerted “myth-making campaign,” as Smooth describes it, Jackson gave high-profile performances at Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration gala and at the American Music Awards, where he was given the International Artist Award of Excellence — an honor that he personally negotiated for with the producers.
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