The Greatest Night In Pop
2025-11-05 20:50:14.756808+01 by
Dan Lyke
2 comments
Charlene read Truly by Lionel Richie, and said it was good, so I'm reading it,
and quite enjoying it. From that, we got to talking about We Are The World,
which led to last night watching The Greatest Night In Pop (official trailer), and...
I know I have been dismissive about Michael Jackson before, and I think my understanding of
why people do what they do (and the pressures of performance and being a public figure) has
evolved quite a bit, but I think it's been with the development of my own voice that I've
started to really listen to vocal performers, and holy shit that cat could sing.
As could everyone else in that performance, each in their own distinct (and, with their
voices arranged to showcase those distinctions) way.
I may have to watch the thing again just to catch those places where people were singing in
isolation, and take careful notes about some of the things they were doing with
pronunciation and emphasis, and...
Anyway, really enjoyed the documentary. Probably helps if you've seen Quincy,
and some of the framing from reading Truly is also useful.
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comments in descending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: The Greatest Night In Pop made: 2025-11-10 17:29:12.792892+01 by:
Dan Lyke
Yeah, in the '80s I'd have self-described as "rock", and (for all of the problematic lyrics
and attitudes) I still like a whole lot of that, even as three or four guys in ripped jeans
and T-shirts morphed into hair metal glam.
But I think a lot of that came from attitudes and prejudices of my growing up, and learning
to really appreciate what goes into pop has helped me better understand it as, yes, perhaps
a more commercial reflection of the culture of the time, but also something that takes real
skill to produce.
And, from an "understanding the personal lives of people who look pretty fucked up from the
outside" standpoing, I think I'm also getting a better sense of both what the dynamics of
performance are, and the pressures of being always "on" and a public figure. Yeah, Michael
Jackson had a pretty fucked up personal life, but that was something imposed on him by his
father and society at large; there was no point in his life when he could just be a person.
Whatever weirdnesses we might ascribe to him are really better given to the social
pressures that gave him very few other directions...
#Comment Re: The Greatest Night In Pop made: 2025-11-08 16:23:17.772473+01 by:
Definitely Not a Bot
Last century I never sought out or felt connected in any way to pop music, including Lionel Richie. Jump to the present and I have a lot of piano sheet music compilations and fake books, and a few of his songs are in them. I've started playing some of them and ... they are really nice. (The same thing happened with a couple of Bee Gees ballads.)
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