(Manila is eagerly awaiting the Usher concert on July 9, 2010 at the SM Mall of Asia. Watching him live is a great way to find out if he really is a worthy heir to the King of Pop)

Written by

Jude Thaddeus L. Bautista

Before anything else, there will never be another Michael Jackson. What he achieved with his music and the level of performance will never be duplicated. The way that he moved, sang and wrote music made him unique. As the King of Pop however, he must have an heir in a sense that someone has to take over the title and rule the realm of the music world. A similar analogy is his Airness, Michael Jordan. There will never be another Michael Jordan, his moves on the basketball court were distinctly his own. Both Jordan and Jackson are known by their initials and are very definite measures of greatness. There was a term coined “Jordanesque”, meaning a level of achievement that cannot be reached.

It is almost unfair to compare ANYONE to Michael Jackson or Jordan. But doing so gives the fans of today and even the performer a long term perspective on who they are and what they can STILL hope achieve. Who knows maybe they can surpass their achievements? If you don’t compare them they won’t be able to learn from the lessons of both MJ’s.

In basketball and in Jordan’s case, we can look at concrete and specific achievements and say that someone like Kobe Bryant is comparable to his Airness. He’s not Michael Jordan per se or has duplicated the achievements but he’s getting there.  Bryant as you all know, recently won his 5^th NBA title in the recently concluded tough Finals series against Boston. Bryant has also taken over that ‘unstoppable’ scoring label in a very similar fashion to Jordan. You cannot stop Jordan, you can only hope to contain him. Kobe has also improved his defense and 3point shot the way His Airness did.  MJ lead the Bulls to a three peat that was repeated twice for a total of 6 rings.

Back to music, there are only a very few and short list of people that can even be compared to the achievements of Michael Jackson. The two skills or talent that a performer must have is the very high level of dancing and singing. In the current music scene, who are the nominees? NeYo, Akon, Craig David, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Jay Z, Chris Brown, Billy Crawford? In the current group of artists, Usher is the only one that can be realistically compared to Michael.

Music, Awards, Numbers from Wikipedia

In the numbers game it comes down to albums sold, no.1 hits and awards. Success as singer and songwriter can be quantified in this way. If you look at it purely from a numbers perspective Michael Jackson is completely untouchable to quote wikipedia: “Referred to as the King of Pop, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades…Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. His other records, includingOff the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world’s best-selling. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. Some of his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records; 13 Grammy Awards (as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award); 26 American Music Awards (more than any other artist, including the “Artist of the Century”); 13 number-one singles in the United States in his solo career (more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era); and the estimated sale of over 800 million records worldwide. Jackson won hundreds of awards, which have made him the most-awarded recording artist in the history of music. He was also a notable humanitarian and philanthropist, donating and raising hundreds of millions of dollars for beneficial causes and supporting more than 39 charities.

Because of the way that the music business has changed one can make the argument that the success that Jackson achieved could never be duplicated by anyone. But Usher being only 31 years of age can be compared as far as the wide reach of his success in terms of numbers AND awards. Again to quote wikipedia: “My Way has been certified 6 times platinum by the RIAA.^[1] 8701 has been certified 4 times platinum by the RIAA.^[1] Each album sold over 8 million copies worldwide.^[2] His success continued with Confessions (2004), which has sold over ten million copies in the United States, and been certified diamond by theRIAA. Confessions has the highest first week sales for an R&B artist in history,^[3] has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, and was named the best selling R&B album of the 2000s decade.^[4]His 2008 album Here I Stand has been certified platinum by the RIAA,^[5] and has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.^[6]

Usher has won numerous awards and accolades for his musical work. Including 5 Grammy Awards,^[7] 4 World Music Awards, 4 American Music Awards, 8 Soul Train Music Awards, and 19 Billboard Music Awards.^[8]

In 2008, Usher was ranked as the 21st most successful Hot 100 Singles Artist of all-time by Billboard magazine.^[9] The RIAA ranks Usher as one of the best-selling artists in American music history, having sold 22 million copies in the United States alone.^[10] Billboard Magazine ranked Usher the #1 Hot 100 artist of the 2000s decade.^[11] They also named him the most successful singer and second most successful artist of the 2000sdecade.^[12] His 2004 album Confessions was ranked as the top solo album and second most successful overall album of the last decade.^[13]

On March 30, 2010, Usher released his sixth studio album Raymond v. Raymond, which became his third consecutive album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart.^[14]Usher has achieved ten #1 singles worldwide, including nine on the Billboard Hot 100.^[15] He has also achieved fifteen Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, thirteen as a lead artist, two as a featured artist.^[16] In the UK he has achieved 11 Top 10 singles on the UK Singles Chart, as a lead artist.^[17] Usher is also the first artist to have a number-one single on the UK Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100 during the 1990s, 2000s, and the 2010s.”

Usher is the only artist in the current crop to expand his hits in three decades in a row: “OMG became his ninth number one in the United States, making him the first 2010s artist to collect number one singles in three consecutive decades, and only the fourth artist of all-time to achieve the feat.” He has not achieved the mind boggling numbers that Michael has but there’s good reason to believe that he’s getting there. Usher is after all just 31 years old, based on the success he’s already had he’s well on his way to possibly becoming a worthy heir to the ‘King of Pop’.

Dancing

The next talent is dancing who else comes closer to MJ with the current crop of stars? What made Michael unique was the ability to dance on the stage by himself and just completely mesmerize an audience. The 25^th anniversary of the BET awards where the moonwalk made its debut will forever be in the books of dance history. There are so many artists, like Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake who emulate MJ. And here it becomes a matter of opinion rather than numbers.

But anyone who watches Usher’s videos will notice that he has more solo dance numbers than anyone else out there. His ‘Yeah’ music video is a direct homage to MJ’s ‘Rock With You’. Even in the live performances of that song he’d have the stage by himself and just break it down with somewhat similar moves, the moonwalk, the kick, the robotic, strut that MJ made famous.

The MOST telling evidence would be the reunion concert with Michael and the Jackson Five and Usher comes out sharing the stage with him in ‘You Rock My World’. I remember Justin coming out that concert too and sort of faded with Michael doing his thing. Usher made a very good account of himself. MJ was just laughing when Chris Tucker did the kick at the end but was clearly dancing WITH Usher. The fact that Usher ended that concert with Michael was a huge statement, meaning Usher was the big finish as a guest of the King of Pop. For now, Usher may be the closest heir to Michael’s legacy.