r/interesting • u/Separate_Finance_183 • 1d ago
MISC. Michael Jackson was performing in Seoul in 1996 when a fan climbed up a crane to reach him. MJ held onto the fan securely to prevent him from falling, all while continuing his performance
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u/_Karrel 1d ago
Love how that dude is bathing in this moment while MJs only thought is "Will you fucking hold on to something?! I'm not hugging you, I'm not hugging you. Ffs at least get one arm inside the barrier!"
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u/DickBurns01 1d ago
Looks like he could've died and been completely happy with every life choice that brought him up a crane and briefly into Jacksons arms
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u/NewtAccomplished6022 1d ago edited 1d ago
The worst part is actually surviving that fall he would have been in pain and crippled
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u/Hmmm__You_dont_say 20h ago
Man 👍 I wish I had a fancier award for your comment. It made me laugh! 😂
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u/sarnian-missy 1d ago
I was a teenager when this made the headlines and even back then I wanted him to stop throwing his arms around and hold the fuck on.
I guess I hope this guy's kids and grandkids now scare the crap out of him on a regular basis.
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u/llort_tsoper 1d ago
Imagine how epic of a manic episode you have to be on for Michael freaking Jackson to be the calm rational one.
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u/Unfair-Concern4886 1d ago
He really liked his fans
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u/weightedbook 1d ago
Now do Adam Levine!
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u/Hmmm__You_dont_say 1d ago
Adam is such a jerk. I went to his concert in Japan. He was three hours late to the show. He only sang for an hour. There were so many people with signs, showing him love. They were calling for him to do an encore and he refused. I still like his music, but as a person he seems so entitled. I felt no love from him as a fan.
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u/themargarineoferror 12h ago
He's a total douche he was drinking in some of the bars my friends frequent when they were in my hometown, their guitarist is from here so they were kind of bouncing in and out of bars. The dude was surrounded with beautiful women and people kissing his a, but one dude yelling maroon 5sucks triggered him so badly he tried to start an entire a fist fight l o l
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u/rip93ford 1d ago
There is no musician on earth I would do this for
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u/mensrea 1d ago edited 1d ago
Me neither. But there’s never been a musician on earth like MJ not before or since. I don’t do hero worship or fandom at all. But the number of times somebody did something absolutely insane at a Michael Jackson concert up to and including mass hysteria was … always. Every show post Thriller.
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u/Starspiker 1d ago
The Beatles were really the only other comparable thing when it comes to the insanity of their fans. But that was four people, MJ was just MJ.
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u/YesPlease_VeryMuchSo 1d ago
I was going to say. Imagine being as big as he was PRE-internet days! The man grinded that worldwide fame without social media.
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u/meatystocks 1d ago
It may be harder to capture that world wide attention today due to social media.
The sheer amount of volume being produced makes it hard to capture and sustain that type of world wide cult following.
Our attention is being pulled in so many directions now vs then.
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u/tunachilimac 1d ago
Michael Jackson’s death is the only news event I know of that actually “broke the internet.” Major news sites crashed from the loads of people trying to check the story. Even Google had disruptions.
I remember a friend mentioned it and I tried to Google him and google redirected to a page saying they detected a virus or something on my PC and were temporarily blocking me. Then I tried a couple news sites which wouldn’t load. I spent the next couple hours trying to figure out what virus I’d got until news spread that Google got so many searches about MJ it triggered their DDOS protections and they flagged everyone that was searching for him.
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u/Annual_Drawer342 17h ago
Yeah I remember the day he died this alternative/indie rock station I used to listen to (that didn’t even have MJ in their playlist) played nothing but Michael Jackson songs for an entire hour out of respect for what a massive star he was and the impact he’s had on music over the years.
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u/Common_Chameleon 23h ago
My boyfriend heard about his death from other players on RuneScape 😭
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u/Normal_Opposite_9864 1d ago
Elvis had women having heart attacks just seeing him.
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u/mensrea 1d ago edited 1d ago
That was apocryphal. This is not: At Michael Jackson’s 1993 concert in Santiago, more than 120 fans required medical attention, with scores more fainting.
Edit: you can downvote the truth, or you can shore up your statement. Either way, it doesn’t matter to me. Falsehoods will always be false.
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u/Spiritual_Distance94 1d ago
Reminds me of the very first time the electric lute was played in public... An audience of 225 people, in which every single attendee, regardless of gender, became pregnant.
The resulting children mostly matched the carrier parent, but all possessed mohawks or long hair. Some were born wearing denim jean vests with no pants.
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u/Erroneous_Bonk 1d ago
Yup. After the performance, Paganini arose from the twelfth circle of hell to bow down and the whole audience clapped in perfect quintuplets
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u/Advanced-Base-5690 1d ago
I’m starting to only get like 20% of Reddit references.
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u/kfudge22 1d ago
Don’t forget at the time some of these countries had no internet or basic utilities but heard of this legend through the paper round
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u/GlassPomoerium 1d ago
My mom wasn’t allowed to listen to Elvis because my grandfather didn’t like the way he moved his hips. And mind you this was in France, so he wasn’t even on tv as often as in the US.
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u/Every-Action7918 1d ago
Yes and they stopped touring to avoid shit like this
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u/g4nd4lf2000 1d ago
They also had literal death threats from the KKK and others at the time. Lennon was worried that the cop protecting them at the concert could do nothing if a bullet was flying at them. How foolish. Clearly, that would never happen.
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u/dyingofdysentery 1d ago
Pink Floyd fans were so fanatical they would set fireworks off in the crowd during the shows. Waters got so mad at them making noise over the music he snapped at them. He wanted barriers between them and the audience.
One of the members said the fans were so fanatical they could toss a live grenade at them and the would dive on it because he had handled it.
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u/Rev_Biscuit 1d ago
He wanted barriers?...what...like a Wall?
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u/BodaciousBadongadonk 1d ago
He also wanted noone to have pudding before their meat
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u/mensrea 1d ago
Yeah, I don’t think there’s anybody comparable, but if you’re gonna be just naming other folks that are in the same vein, you could drop Elvis in there as well. I’m not a music historian, but the Beatles definitely seem to be the first to induce the kind of hysteria that we later saw with “the King” and “the King of Pop.”
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u/EyeHaveNoBanana 1d ago
Elvis came before the Beatles.
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u/mensrea 1d ago
I said I wasn’t a music historian. 😏
And being from Memphis, I probably shouldn’t have gotten that wrong. But in order to one up you, I will just note that, apparently, Sinatra was probably the literal first in the 40s, then Elvis in the 50s, then the Beatles.
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u/Garlador 1d ago
A documentary I recall pointed out how MJ was next-level in “the show must go on”. So many performers practice and do rehearsals and prepare for everything to be perfect. He prepared for failure and intrusions; the lights don’t work, the backup dancers miss their marks, someone rushes the stage, someone gets hurt, etc., and how to keep the show going without missing a beat.
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u/sentence-interruptio 1d ago
so that's what happens when perfectionism meets MJ. a great performance ensues.
but when perfectionism meets me, I use it as an excuse to do nothing. absolutely nothing.
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u/Cptn_Hook 1d ago edited 1d ago
I remember, as a child, seeing videos of people fainting at Michael Jackson concerts. It's one of the first things I remember being scared of, and I somehow came to the conclusion that was just something that could happen when you saw Michael Jackson. For months, I was terrified of the prospect of happening across Michael Jackson while I was anywhere outside the house.
Logic was flawed, but I might have landed on the right answer anyway.
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u/smellygooch18 1d ago
This dude looks so happy to be held by MJ. If you weren’t around for the craze, it’s hard to imagine what it was like. The dude was everywhere
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u/Jimmni 1d ago
I don’t think people who weren’t alive at the time truly appreciate how fucking massive a star he was. I really can’t think of anyone else who has reached such heights of stardom, even if there are artists today who sell more records than he did. I can’t think of another artist of my lifetime whose new music video would get the whole family to sit around the TV waiting for it to be aired like happened with Thriller. A mega-star amongst mega-stars.
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u/ADHD_DEEZ_NUTS 1d ago
MJ was a living legend and icon. Nobody can hold a candle to him.
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u/_i_read 1d ago
He also ruined the experience for so many people. Blocking their view, distracting them, etc Selfish and weird af
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u/timelessblur 1d ago
I disagree on ruining the experience as MJ made a point to make it look part of the show and keep everything running to keep the show going. A ruining would of been stopping everything and trying to figure out a reset.
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u/molrobocop 1d ago
Yeah, imagine if this dumbass fell off or intentionally jumped? That would fuck up the show even harder.
They might have been able to return the crane to home if this guy got violent. But this was probably the best way to handle it for everyone.
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u/ThePracticalEnd 1d ago
Then you just don’t understand the monoculture that was the 90s. He was the biggest person on the planet.
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u/Onslaughtsally 1d ago
I will never understand how a person could not feel like a total dumb ass in a moment like that. Ever. Im way too hyper aware of my surroundings to let a super star turn me into a super idiot.
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u/Swoly_Deadlift 1d ago
Celebrity worship was something else in the pre-internet era
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u/macguyver3000 1d ago
It’s not just that, though. It’s a huge sense of entitlement and lack of awareness.
He loved MJ so much that he climbed up on that stand. But then he stood and posed like the crowd loved him as well. Delusional.→ More replies (2)101
u/Fritzkier 1d ago
Ngl even in internet era, they're still crazy, especially in Asia. Just search up Sasaeng fan.
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u/Miami_Mice2087 1d ago edited 1d ago
yeah i think kpop fandom is the closest to michael fandom, but it was everyone, young and old, across races, creeds, and income levels. Worldwide.
Put it this way: There's a channel on Youtube called Trybals, where elder Beduin-type guys listen to pop music and watch videos. Their reactiosn are very thoughtful, artistically educated (bc an education in Islam includes poetry and language arts), and very kind.
So, these babas who live in tents and on camels, they don't have electricity, they're 65 and have never seen a movie theater - THEY know Michael. They love Michael. They say things like "a long time ago [the 80s] when I was a young man, I had to walk into the city to buy petrol, and in the store, Michael was on television." And that's what they remember. Not the miles of walking, the strangeness of city folk, the modern things, they remembered Michael.
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u/teamrocketcunt 1d ago
why was I expecting a story of one specific person and not a term for an entire type of fan 😵💫
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u/Fritzkier 1d ago
If you want example of how insane sasaengs are, look up kim jaejoong (TVXQ) sasaeng. One of the sasaeng literally broke into his apartment, and kiss him in his sleep.
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u/kimeki95 1d ago
The period blood letter Taecyeon from 2PM received, the glue orange juice in Yunho TVXQ's drink, the hidden camera in dolls received by many idols, and that's just to name a few. Insanity.
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u/I_am_the_darkness_99 1d ago
Plus, someone does something like this and everyone talks about it. Like school shooters or people who commit suicide. People see it gets them attention so they copy it and try to do something bigger.
I swear 99% of life for men from the ages of 14 to 24 is just doing the dumbest shit imaginable in order to get attention in the hopes that it will somehow translate into sex. Even when they don't realize that's what they're doing, it's what they're doing.
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u/mwishosimba 1d ago
Oh people still get crazy like that, but maybe not quite like it was for MJ. MJ was HIM pre-internet, and still dwarfs anyone post-internet. To be that famous pre-internet is insane to think about.
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u/Upper_Specialist_183 1d ago
It’s literally the same now
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u/BathroomAcademic5920 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not at all, now you have abundance of celebrities. Back then you had a 20 to choose from.
Further explanation: I mean, back then whole tribes of your friends, family or coworkers talked about the same celebrity you did perhaps. Now they are too many celebs, the only people you can share fandom with if at all is internet strangers probably, if you do at all about a certain celebrity or influencer. There is no real connection or fandom so to say, in the same way.9
u/Upper_Specialist_183 1d ago
Oh I meant the level of worship. People have always been nuts
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u/rainshowers_5_peace 1d ago
At least one man went to a Brooklyn toy store to harass employees and customers in Kelly Clarkson's name.
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u/-aurevoirshoshanna- 1d ago
He was very good at holding people so that they dont fall
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u/LuxNocte 1d ago
Worth it.
I wouldn't do this due to the incredible rudeness to MJ and everyone else, but any penalty I personally had to pay I would happily.
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u/Travel8095 1d ago
That baby he held over the balcony
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u/DevelopedLiss 1d ago
Wasn't the baby his son?
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u/El_Mister_Caracol 1d ago
He even grabs the arm of the guy and wraps it arround the handle
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u/New_Libran 1d ago
Massive security breach though. What if that guy had a knife?
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u/overwatch 1d ago
They would switch the track to Beat It, so Micheal would have the edge in the knife fight.
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u/TriptychTriquetra 1d ago
Damn the official Overwatch reddit account is wild.
*checks account*created 4th May 2006, over 20 years ago.
Your reddit account is older than most people on this site these days.
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u/overwatch 1d ago
And definitely older than the video game blizzard named after me.
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u/Orisara 1d ago
My mage alt in world of warcraft was Orisa.
For those not aware, there's a champion called Orisa in Overwatch.
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u/USSGoat 1d ago
There’s like 10 people in the world with enough security to make it near impossible to reach them.
As long as you pick your opportunity, you’ll get to them
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u/InsuranceClean8068 1d ago
bro its not like he made an aerial attack
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u/YesterShill 1d ago
What a dick move by the fan. Ruin the artists performance and the fan experience, and act like he accomplished something.
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u/ihatetopology69 1d ago
tbf this ended up becoming one of the most iconic Michael Jackson moments so while still an asshole move if the goal of the performance was entertainment it def was not ruined.
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u/gord1to 1d ago
Yeah and you best believe screenshots of this video become blown up and framed on his family’s walls lol
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u/DepressedDynamo 1d ago
Thinking about what the timespan is between this moment and when they would be able to access a video stream to screencap it is sending me down a rabbit hole, and this is all your fault
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u/Schmooto 15h ago
Right? The other fans are there to see MJ, not this rando doofus getting in the way and standing in front of him. Major Main Character Syndrome.
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u/Washburn201961 1d ago
That bastard sounded the same live as he did on records. Never misses a note. Ever.
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u/another_jackhole 1d ago edited 1d ago
Insane. I didn't get it until now but he must've have been majestic to see live. Raw emotion in his voice. So much feeling and intensity. It's incredible.
Edit - I remember being in school and my music teacher talking about him in 2000? Just about. Not 10 years later and he's left this world. It's surreal.
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u/Washburn201961 1d ago
Back in his prime everyone would have liked to see him live. The thriller years.
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u/MrsMondoJohnson 1d ago
I remember the video debut for Thriller in 5th grade at a youth group pizza party.
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u/RupeThereItIs 1d ago
I remember running upstairs & hiding from the Thriller video when it would come on.
I was like 5 years old & it was scary.
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u/eamus_catuli_ 1d ago
Saw him live. Was majestic. Only wish I was a few years older so the memories really stuck.
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u/I_am_the_darkness_99 1d ago
My first concert was a Christian metal band with the church youth group. Stryper or something like that. I didn't get to go to good concerts until I had my own car and money.
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u/bannedbrengol 1d ago
He did but he usually used playback during this song and other songs that were supposed to be more story-driven rather than being music-focused when doing live
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u/MyDickIs3cm 1d ago
Well there's also the wind going 75mph during the song so that also would have ruined it.
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u/FuManBoobs 1d ago
He did have a lot of fans.
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u/ANakedCowboy 1d ago
I read this then immediately left the thread and had to come back and upvote you once it registered a half second later
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u/Desperate_Damage4632 1d ago
I mean, he is lip syncing in this video.
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u/joshTheGoods 1d ago
Right which may explain why he was so committed to continuing the show. If he doesn't it breaks the illusion for thousands on that day and millions over time. Look how many people in here think that was him singing live...
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u/Elegant-Principl 1d ago
Its usually the case when performers are dancing. It takes a lot to sing and dance and sound that perfect.
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u/joshTheGoods 1d ago
Yea, it definitely makes sense. I don't know how they did it back in the 90's, but nowadays high level performers will switch between recorded vocals and actual singing. I bet MJ did similar, and this part of the song was one of the sections they chose to use pre-recorded for.
There are some interesting case studies here ... I'd call out Beyonce because she's legit legendary for singing and dancing at the same time. She still has strategically placed sections where she's just marking or lip syncing to catch her breath, but she's still mostly actually singing in her shows. Pink, same thing. I think she basically sings all of her sets even when she's doing circus shit.
There are a bunch of videos out there where people compare waveforms between shows and prove out what is recorded and what is sung ... definitely an interesting 1 day rabbit hole. Here's a good starter.
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u/Robou_ 1d ago
Yeah it's so obvious, he adjusts his mic and there's 0 difference in sound
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u/Real-Macaron-9392 1d ago
Not only that, but you see the kid yelling mouth wide open probably as loud as he can like 4 inches away from MJ's mic and it picks up none of it?
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u/Porkhole-Santookus 1d ago
It's also not picking up any of the wind noise from the stage fans, and there should be a ton of it with the amount of air he's got moving around him.
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u/GuyWithGusto 1d ago edited 1d ago
uhhh everyone in this chain has no idea how microphones and audio processing works. There are hundreds of variations of microphones and most that are used in live performances like this can block out most noise and only pick up noise from directly in front of it hence why the mic is very close to his mouth(yes there will still be some mic bleed, but that is removed with a noise gate google it if you don't know what that is). Even if this was a performance with a hand held microphone that in combination with an noise gate that only outputs when Michael speaks you can get very good sound and keep in mind Michael is one of the biggest pop stars ever he sure as hell had world class sound engineers working on these live shows.
And yeah this isn't live at least in some moments. SO many people don't realize how important Front of house sound engineers are for stuff like this. Most of the time like in this scenario Michael may have been singing live. and at the sound board they are running the recorded backing track and vocal track. the vocal track being level matched with Michaels live vocals( they do this during sound checks) and when Michael is singing everyone is hearing his live vocals and the pre recorded instrument tracks etc... and the pre recorded vocal is muted and on stand buy. Now the Engineer sees a fan running up the crane and you bet your ass the Engineer at some point(between vocal breaks) switches to the pre recorded vocal track and mutes his live vocal just so things go smoothly and after the fan is dealt with or until the next song he switches back to the live Michael to be heard. As the stereo type goes sound guys are not appreciated enough haha
also bonus info: this is why rehearsal is recorded with all the same things like the fans blowing up at him in this video and everything running. Because if the engineer wanted to swap from the live vocal to a normal cleaner recorded vocal it would obviously sound off or different from how it did before because that clean vocal wasn't recorded with all the external factors of a live performance (like the fans blowing etc... That's why there are pre recorded "live" vocals so the switch from pre recorded "live" and actual live vocals can be indistinguishable when a switch is made.
i mean geez anyone with a gaming headset that uses discord is essentally doing the same thing to elimante room noise using discords sound gate....
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u/Porkhole-Santookus 1d ago
Even though microphones have pickup patterns, they don't completely isolate sound. There's no microphone and engineer on the planet that can cleanly pick up vocals in a wind tunnel.
I'm a musician that performs live with a band, and I personally own about a dozen microphones of different types and pickup patterns.
Regardless of the microphone's pickup pattern, not a single one I own would be able to cleanly pick up and isolate vocals with that much air movement directly into his face while he's turning his head in different directions with his shirt constantly flapping inches from the microphone.
It doesn't matter how directional the microphone is when it's in a vortex. This specific performance is pre-recorded vocal playback with a live band.
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u/narf_hots 1d ago
That would be because of lip syncing. There are some live recordings where he actually sings to be fair and he sounds great.
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u/JerkyChew 1d ago
Yeah, cynical me assumes he continued his performance because he had to, otherwise we would have gotten a Milli Vanilli / Ashlee Simpson moment.
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u/YesNoIDKtbh 1d ago
Watch his performances from the Bad tour, he sang everything live then and it was fantastic.
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u/toothpasteonyaface 1d ago
That's because this is lip sync.
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u/Salty-Manner7001 1d ago
Right? When the kid got on the crane, it looked like he was screaming, but we didn't hear him in the mike.
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u/Cool-matt1 1d ago
But why didn’t they bring the crane down immediately
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u/LuxNocte 1d ago
Everything is timed. If you bring the crane down early it might hit something else or MJ might lose his balance. Safer to just continue.
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u/ElaHasReddit 1d ago
This is the real answer. Even at the end when you see they do try to break the timed crane it drops down quickly
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u/labellavita1985 1d ago
Because the show has to go on. That was Michael Jackson's philosophy. Like, no matter what, basically.
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u/Concrete_Jesus 1d ago
The microphone gets pulled away from his mouth and the volume of his singing does not change. Michael was known for lip syncing at concerts. Take for example his Super Bowl halftime show. I don't think he was singing this live. That's not to say he wasn't insanely talented at singing. I think he just wanted to focus on the spectacle of the performance at times.
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u/GrapefruitPrimary186 1d ago
The superbowl doesnt allow anyone to perform live. Artists are required to lip sync because the superbowl doesnt want possible sound delays to get in the way of the football game.
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u/Yourneighbourmorgan 1d ago
Lady gaga sang live, you can tell because she’s nearly running out of breath during the piano part and she’s offbeat slightly during bad romance, granted the part on the roof was entirely pre recorded and she just descended from somewhere half way up the stadium
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u/Brightsidedown 1d ago
Imho, her halftime performance was one of the best.
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u/ethanlan 1d ago
That entire show was perfect. Really shows who we are as a country and I dont see how people couldnt find that anything less than beautiful
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u/shwiggy 1d ago
I imagine they can't let anyone spout anti-nfl aligned political statements either on that stage.
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u/GrapefruitPrimary186 1d ago
I didnt even consider an artist going rogue like when JT pulled down Janet Jackson's top.
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u/acaudill317 1d ago
At the Super Bowl vocal mics are typically live, but none of the instruments are. It's just not feasible in the short amount of time they have to mix everything live.
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u/DrSpaceman575 1d ago
They have a mix of backing tracks and live - Alicia Keys had a little slip up live in 2024. Also the Weeknd just sounded bad enough it couldn't have been prerecorded
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u/Smart-Firefighter87 1d ago
I wonder where that guy is now…
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u/furthemor 1d ago
Putting everything else aside how did he get up there so quickly. It looks like MJ had been rising for quite some time before he pounced.
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u/Haggis-in-wonderland 1d ago
Serious main character syndrome. Nobody paid to see that on stage
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u/gthing 1d ago
I'm certain MJ cared about the welfare of his fan, but I'm also certain he cared about the liability involved of having his fan fall off a crane at his show and get hurt.
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u/Nukemarine 21h ago
I'm very, VERY, sure in that moment all Michael cared about was keeping that kid safe just because that was the right thing to do.
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u/Upper_Specialist_183 1d ago
Everyone acts like this was so cool of Michael. This would have frightening tbh. You have no idea was some lunatic might do.
Also, how unbelievably selfish to try and insert yourself into a performance. Grow up
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u/sandysnail 1d ago
This would have frightening tbh.
yeah thats why its impressive he keeps preforming while he helps the crazy person not die
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u/Pantim 1d ago
Yes, Michael was problematic in a lot of ways. Also, I'm very sure he made sure to check in with the fan to make sure he was okay and that security didn't treat him poorly.
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u/copperblood 1d ago
Chris Rock once said, “people like Michael Jackson so much they let the first kid slide.”
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u/CabbageStockExchange 1d ago
I don’t think the world will ever see someone with that level of fame and cultural relevance ever again.
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u/TarArov 1d ago
It is amazing how great Michael Jackson was with his fans, but ironically his extreme kindness always forced his security guards to act like absolute savages just to keep the chaotic crowd from turning into a literal riot.
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u/a_solid_6 1d ago
What was he supposed to do, drop the kid?
Also, that's why celebrities have security-- so they can smile politely while the security guards keep people in line. They're paid to be the bad guys and let the star keep their image.
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u/Negative_Ad2121 1d ago
Wait how did the guy go up there tho if MJ was already up the crane?
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u/StBernardMississippi 1d ago
Could they not have brought the crane down immediately?
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u/organicgolden 1d ago
Could have been programmed. I doubt there’s a guy with a joystick manually moving MJ around
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u/ToolTimeT 1d ago
To this day, that guy tells his family that was the most worthwhile night he spent in jail in his life.
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u/stinkingcheese 1d ago
Bet that guy had a story to tell his grand kids.
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u/Desperate_Damage4632 1d ago
He lip-synced his shows?
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u/Micromize 1d ago
Yes many times. This is well known. He was also dancing his ass of. Not all songs though.
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u/mjohnson280 1d ago
This is important and probably a tradeoff he considered. I'd go to an MJ concert to watch him dance to the songs we love, not necessarily sing them. I wouldn't want him to reduce the dancing to sound better. Unique to Michael thought, IMO.
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u/Euphoric_Present8838 1d ago
Was wondering the same. That entitled main character fan was screaming but you couldn’t hear it through the mic.
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u/Spedicanto 1d ago
This is the late 90s, Michael was dealing with a lot of health issues and laryngitis was one of them.
He lip synced most of the HIStory tour because his voice was completely gone, there is audio that came out recently of his actual vocals behind the backing track during those performances and it’s quite bad.
Since Michael started singing as a child all the way through 1993, almost all of his performances were sung completely live, with the exception of a couple songs like Smooth Criminal (dependent on the specific concert), BAD (same), and the first half of Man In The Mirror.
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u/mwishosimba 1d ago
If things sound crisp while a pop star is moving, it's probably lip synced. Dancing/moving while singing is extremely strenuous. MJ and many others did/do a blend.
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u/Automatic_Art_4469 1d ago
More than likely he’s singing along with the backing track. People do it all the time, performing live take endurance and sometimes you need to take a breathe in the wrong spot.
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u/Tiny_Animal9496 1d ago
I just listened to a podcast on MJ, and if I’m not wrong at this point in his career he was battling allegations and essentially a pariah in the US- on top of doing stints completely away from media spotlight / not performing.
He was probably actually terrified that one of the few places still coming to watch him play could have a reason to criticize him / take away another venue when he was at the time essentially bankrupt from staying out of the spotlight.
Certainly there’s someone out there who knows more than me about this, but it may put some perspective on his mindset in the moment.
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u/sk3pt1c 1d ago
Or, you know, he was a human being like the rest of us and was worried the other human being might fall and die?
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u/bigretardbaby 1d ago
Thanks for allowing me to empathize with someone who probably lived a very misunderstood life.
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u/No-Fig69 1d ago
I never get why people idolize celebrities
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u/kelzero 1d ago
Same. Same with prophets, great scientists, presidents, heroes, whoever. Look up, sure. But idolize to this point of hysteria? Why.
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