while on another board i came across a thread that asked why mike stopped touring in the u.s., personally i understand why and i dont blame him. most of america turned their backs on him so i guess he felt that he had no love in america(even though he was still loved by many in the u.s). back to my point, i found one interesting answer to the person's question:
(this is not my opinion btw):
1.MJ stopped touring the US after the 1993 allegations hit with the exception of 2 US dates on the History tour in Hawaii in 1997. He was advised about this by Sony, who told MJ that he did not have enough MAINSTREAM fan support in the US to have a tour and they advised aganist it*. Also, MJ had trouble finding a US tour sponsor after the allegations(Pepsi dropped MJ like a hot potato in the middle of the Dangerous tour as sponsor). Sony was wrong on a lot of its assumptions and its strategy in promoting MJ was always suspect after a certain point(ie, the huge catalog merger with Mj and Sony) and MJ had problems with Sony from about 1997 on in terms of his US promotion. These problems culminated in the "Mottola was a racist accusations" but Mj had some very valid points as Sony's advice and promotional efforts were actually the talk of the industry. Many could not figure out why Sony was doing what it was doing to MJ. They were deliberately not promoting records of a multiplatinum artist, asking for re-edits on videos, stopping commercial singles, etc. It was like Sony wanted his record sales to be low in the US**.
2.By mainstream support, I mean Mj did not have the support of much of the white US record buying public and white US radio stations; he maintained more popularity in the African American community to a large degree and it was this part of the popultion who were his dedicated and some of his most longtime fans. Soundscan info on his US Invincible sales,for instance, showed the sales coming heavily from black census tracks. Both songs cut from Invincible, Rock my world and Butterflies, charted higher on the R and B chart than the Hot 100 and Butterflies was a hit on black radio play alone(the white stations refused to play the record) as Sony declined to cut the single commercially(one of the decisions that had the industry ? why Sony was doing what it was doing). So MJ still had pockets of fan support in the US. His black US fans never completely abandoned him so when you condemn the US fans, be specific. It was the white record buying public and the predominately white media that turned on MJ--he was still revered by the black commnunity. Check out old Ebonys or Jets--MJ was always treated with respect in the black press.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind the MJ had love for all his fans white, black, asian, latino, you name it. so my anger isn't towards him, but i am fed up with the constant need for singers to always give into their mainstream fans or they have to prove themselves to them. MJ's P.R. team allegedly(im not sure about this and im not trying to start anything either) set him up with white women to not only appease his white fans but to make the media see that he was not gay(even if they had all the proof in the world the media still thought he was gay and they can suck it). but it isnt only MJ's P.R. team who does this, most artist fall prey to this type of publicity. i guess what im trying to say is what about us? are black fans supposed to sit around and treated like dirt just because they don't view our support and love as good enough? are black women supposed to believe we are loved by the artists when we are basically put aside because our affection for the artists aren't good enough. some of these big time superstars(not including MJ btw) seem to forget where they come from when they make it big, but what they forget is when they had nothing who was there to support them? who told them they'd love them no matter what happens with their careers? who was there when they had nothing?
I truly hope that i did not offend anyone(and if i did i will gladly have this thread deleted) and like i said before this is not directed toward michael at all because he never turned his back on anyone, im just talking about most celebrities in general. i am also not trying to start a race war. i just came to vent and basically say that im fed up with it all...
its all for love L.O.V.E
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