History YMMV / MichaelJackson

* ProtectionFromEditors: Why ''Dangerous, ''[=HIStory=]'' and ''Invincible'' ended up how they did.

* {{Applicability}}: "Somewhere In The Dark," which was recorded exclusively for his audiobook recording of ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'', can easily be read as an analogy for internet-based relationships.

** Just before his death, Q magazine published an article questioning whether or not his fragile health could take the strain of another tour.

** "I liked him until he became white." It wasn't entirely his fault, since he bleached his skin to cover up vitiligo.

* TheWoobie: He never had a normal life, had an abusive dad, and had his public image ruined forever due to the false child molester claims, so many (if not most) of his fans and even some non-fans regard him as this.

* NeverLiveItDown: "I liked him until he became white." It wasn't entirely his fault, since he bleached his skin to cover up vitiligo.

* OvershadowedByControversy: To the point [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead only his death]] permitted his work to again be appreciated without remembering all the bad stuff MJ went through in his life.

* NeverLiveItDown:
** "I liked him until he became white." It wasn't entirely his fault, since he bleached his skin to cover up vitiligo.

* TheWoobie: He never had a normal life, had an abusive dad, and had his public image ruined forever due to the false child molester claims, so many (if not most) of his fans and even some non-fans regard him as this.

* .

* MemeticMolester: To those who believe him to be an unconvicted child molester.

** He is practically the poster-boy for plastic surgery gone bad.
** The child molestation accusations to non-fans.

* OvershadowedByControversy: To the point [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead only his death]] permitted his work to again be appreciated without remembering all the bad and weird stuff MJ went through in his life.

* UncannyValley: Michael's plastic surgeries steadily pushed him into this.
* VindicatedByHistory: ''Blood on the Dance Floor'' and some of his other later works were re-examined after his death and found to be actually quite good. Most critics came to the conclusion that they had been dismissed at their time of release because of Michael Jackson's increasingly bizarre behavior and the horrific allegations that had been thrown at him.

* {{Wangst}}: "Childhood" is just one example, and it comes complete with the lyrics "No one understands me"! Even his friends remember how prone he was to wangst.

** The song “Who Is It?” is about Michael trying to figure out who stole his girlfriend from him. At one point he asks, “Is it my brother?” Michael’s brother Jermaine actually married their brother Marlon’s long-time girlfriend soon after the two had broken up.

** "Morphine" especially was given a sudden burst of publicity and acclaim after the media spread that it was essentially an open confession of the drug use (right down to the name of the drug) that would later kill him. In reality, he never actually mentioned it seeing as Propofol is actually an anesthetic not a drug.

** "Morphine" especially was given a sudden burst of publicity and acclaim after word spread that it was essentially an open confession of the drug use (right down to the name of the drug) that would later kill him.

* TheWoobie: He never had a normal life, had an abusive dad, and had his public image ruined forever due to accusations that may have been false, so many (if not most) of his fans and even some non-fans regard him as this.

** The child molestation accusations to some, even though he was found not guilty.

** Bad rep aside, fans can't seem to decide whether ''Bad'', ''Dangerous'' or ''[=HIStory=]'' was Michael's last "good" album.

* [[http://yurikageyama.com/2013/09/why-the-japanese-love-michael-jackson-an-essay-by-yuri-kageyama/ This heartwarming essay on why Japan LOVES Michael Jackson to death]].

* [[http://yurikageyama.com/2013/09/why-the-japanese-love-michael-jackson-an-essay-by-yuri-kageyama/ This heartwarming essay on why Japan LOVES Michael Jackson to death]].

This essay gives an well-hought out analysis[[http://yurikageyama.com/2013/09/why-the-japanese-love-michael-jackson-an-essay-by-yuri-kageyama/on why Japan LOVES Michael Jackson so much]]

** He also did not invent the story-driven ConceptVideo; DavidBowie (who was doing them at the end of The Seventies) is just one artist who predates him in that area.

* PopularityPolynomial: Started to decay after ''Dangerous'' and by the TurnOfTheMillennium, only his most die-hard fans stood by him. Was beginning to go back into the spotlight prior to his farewell tour - only for the unfortunate AuthorExistenceFailure to ensure he remains popular and revered instead of a reviled freak.
* SequelDisplacement: As noted above, it's usually acknowledged that his solo career starts with ''Off the Wall'', which marks his departure from Motown to Epic Records.

** And of course, there's the fact that now he's actually dead, which has just launched roughly a billion or so of these moments, from the amount of parodies and jokes at his expense over the years. Of course, there's a limit to how much it applies, given that he's presently dead as opposed to undead like in the music video.

** Michael Jackson claiming "I'm not like other guys" in the music video of Thriller is very funny in the light of everything that happened to him next, to the point that it could be called Captain Obvious.

** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMQ3jwqH_lU He's also "falling" in this rarely known Whatzupwithu video with Eddie Murphy]

** A more specific example would be the infamous "Cascio Tracks" on his first posthumous album ''Michael'' [[note]]"Breaking News", "Monster" and "Keep Your Head High" along with several unreleased tracks all recorded by Eddie Cascio[[/note]]. Many fans, friends, former co-workers and even his relatives have denied that Michael actually sung those songs and insist they were sung by an impersonator, the most common candidate being an Italian-American R&B singer Jason Malachi, whose voice is very similar to Jackson's. It doesn't help that there has been no official proof that Jackson actually provided those vocals and that Malachi "confessed" to singing them on his Facebook page in 2011, later retracting the statement, claiming he was hacked. Whether you believe it's really Michael or not, it's probably best not to mention it.