i dont understand. i said there were not really any crossover black artists the time mj hit it big. what do you think i dont know about history?
In that case MJ's crossover is irrelevant to the current generation. Jackson is a great dance innovator and entertainer, but he simply ain't the first crossover artist.
Are you suggesting that your generation was unaware that Tina Turner, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, or Prince were being listened to by while folks? I understand that he was the Elvis of your era, just perhaps not at all alone in crossover music.
I would suggest that MJ's crossover popularity had as much to do with the time he came along as anything. Many black artists who were very popular with white listeners have been pointed out in this thread, but they came along at a time when music was primarily a radio/record player medium. MJ hit it big in the MTV generation, when kids could turn on a TV at any time of the day and see him, not just on a few select programs over the course of the week. And MTV was even more important to MJ than it would have been to his predecessors, because the dance element was so important to his popularity.
All true, but he was not alone. I was in my 20's when MTV came out and I watched the hell out of it when it was wall-to-wall music videos instead of the game shows and reality crap that came along later. Tina Turner, Donna Summer, Eddie Grant, Prince, and Musical Youth all aired on MTV before Michael Jackson`s "Billie Jean", but he is probably the first black video artist to be played in "heavy rotation".
