Michael Jackson’s rise from child star to global King of Pop is well-trod ground. His iconic hits and dance moves, significant music history and evolving image have been exhaustively chronicled and analyzed throughout his life and after his 2009 death.
In this slim book, author Sherry L. Bryant acknowledges as much, giving credit to journalists, researchers and biographers who came before her. Her aim, she states, was to take a different path and “understand how he was experienced.” With a doctorate in adult education and educational psychology, Bryant uses her expertise in studying how people synthesize feelings and experiences to explore Jackson’s effect on audiences.
“Jackson developed a performance language that required no translation. Audiences across the world could feel it,” she writes, adding, “Rather than asking what happened in his life, I asked how the work functioned.”
This is an interesting thesis, and Bryant does a solid – albeit sanitized – job of tracing Jackson’s path from his early crossover appeal in The Jackson Five to his eventual emergence as a solo phenomenon, all while examining his impact on listeners. Discussing Thriller, for example, she notes that it “drew from horror cinema, narrative structure, and choreographed performance.” As such, it “invited participation. Audiences learned the movements. They entered the design.” Bryant discusses Jackson’s constant push towards dominance and his instinct to anticipate an audience’s expectation and then deliver.
Jackson’s other history – legal troubles, accusations of child sex abuse and growing isolation and probable depression – receives only cursory mention. That seems odd in an exploration of audience experience because although still wildly popular, Jackson suffered scrutiny and backlashes from these allegations.
Bryant writes well, with clarity and authority. Yet her conclusions remain speculative. Can she really extrapolate how millions of people experienced Jackson? The author acknowledges applying “human-centered artificial intelligence” to her work, raising its own set of methodological questions.
Bryant’s extensive bibliography reflects impressive research, but those seeking insight into the topic might wish for more.
Also available in hardcover and ebook.