It dawned on me recently that basically everybody in the mainstream music industry lacks either a) originality, b) talent, or c) both. Every song is about the same thing and there are no real musicians or artists left in the industry, it's all just copy and pasted garbage.
Michael Jackson was the last of his kind, the sole survivor of an endangered (now extinct) species. His species was that of The Entertainer. He had it all, the vocal talent, the dancing ability, the outfits, and originality. Michael lived to entertain, and entertain he did. He innovated many of the things that are now common, and more likely overused nowadays. He wasn't the first to wear the outlandish outfits (I feel that title belongs to Elvis with his tassel suit) but he did revive it, and like Elvis, he made whatever insane garb he dawned cool, because he wore it with style. such as the leather suit, after Michael rocked it, you know who else did? Eddie Murphy, in Raw, one of the most celebrated stand up performances of all time. He had the dancing talent, inventing many iconic dance moves, the most well known being the moonwalk. He obviously had the vocal talent, becoming a household name when still a child, and continuing to dominate the Billboard charts well into adulthood, and long before auto tuning. Most importantly, however, would be the content of his songs. They weren't just the same old recycled garbage that the pop stars today spew out over different beats, no, his reflected his time, and were inspired by things he enjoyed, such as the song Beat It, inspired by a scene in the movie Rebel Without A Cause, or Thriller, which reflected on the horror franchises that dominated the box offices of the 1980's (such as Halloween, Nightmare on Elm St, and Friday the 13th. though I'm not positive if they were the inspiration for this song), Smooth Criminal, Billy Jean, the list of his hits go on, and most of them are filled with original ideas, and most importantly, he had staying power.
Today's "artists" not only don't stack up, they don't even come close.
A list of the biggest pop stars in the past few years would probably look like this : Lady GaGa, Jason Derulo, Rihanna, Ke$ha, Usher, Chris Brown, and Katy Perry.
All of these artists might have a bit of Michael in them, but unfortunately they are all the same kind of cookie, they just had slightly different cutters.
This is how they stack up.
Katy Perry: I don't even know if she has talent, or if it is just her "visible talent" that has made her famous, because all her songs have some kind of digital effect on her voice, she doesn't really dance, and her outfits aren't really abnormal. Basically she is garbage and won't be remembered by the end of the decade.
Jason Derulo and Chris Brown: Jason Derulo is in the same boat as Katy Perry in the vocal talent pool, where as Chris Brown blatantly has none. They can both dance, however neither is innovative, or really original in their dances, and Jason is the only one of these two that could be considered to wear "weird" outfits, however, they are all eerily like Mike's. Plus Chris Brown has already dropped off the map, and Jason Derulo can't seem to crack the top 10, which is likely an indicator of his staying power.
Rihanna and Usher: Both can sing, both can dance, though they don't really do anything besides the same choreographed moves. Usher dresses normal, and Rihanna wears some weird ****, but she doesn't rock it, you don't see anybody the day after her concert wearing the outfit she wore onstage. Usher has been around for a while, but Rihanna is basically only still famous for getting beat up.
Lady GaGa and Ke$ha: If they were toys, Lady GaGa would be Transformers and Ke$ha would be GoBots, just a low quality ripoff of the original. Ke$ha is what you get if you take Lady GaGa, strip away the vocal talent, the dancing ability, and her mild attractiveness, she'll be gone by next year. basically Ke$ha sucks. Now Lady GaGa on the other hand, has talent and dancing ability, and she wears some ludicrous outfits and makes them cool, however, she doesn't inspire trends like Mike did. Nobody is running around with phones taped to their heads, her songs are also catchy, and replay-able, which gives a decent outlook on her being famous 10 years from now.
But here is the thing they all have in common, all there songs are all about the same four things: having sex, getting wasted, "love" and heartbreak. They are all the same recycled concepts that have been recycled and played out by pop music since even before Michael was a presence. They all lack, as Lupe Fiasco would call it, "The Cool," they just simply don't set trends or make anything iconic, and without this ability, they can't make themselves a permanent fixture on the landscape.
Originality and talent in the music industry died with Mike.