This debate shouldn’t even be up for question. Anyone who actually reasons that Michael Jackson was a bigger influence on music than Elvis Presley has either been dead for the last 50 years or is just a complete loon. Michael Jackson never produced anything really original in his entire career. Sure he released music that was off the wall but it wasn’t original. Elvis made music that had never been done or seen before.
His music was based on the blues yes, blues singers like muddy waters and Bo Didley influenced him as he grew up, but all rock music is based on that. Whether there were more talented musicians and more gifted singers out there is undoubted, better musicians and singers did exist, the difference here is that nobody had ever delivered music to the public in the way Elvis did, and nobody has done it quite as convincingly since. They either outright copy him or imitate his persona in some way or another. You can see a little bit of Elvis in every popular music performer.
I am neither an Elvis Presley nor Michael Jackson fan, but even I can see there is just no comparison. Michael Jackson jumped on every pop music bandwagon and turned it to his advantage. Intelligent musical decision making maybe, but hardly musical genius or influential. Any type of music Michael Jackson ever performed had all been done before. I agree he was a man of unquestionable musical and showmanship talent, but it doesn’t take much effort to go with the flow in the musical genres of the moment.
First he would be singing Motown songs, a genre that had been in the public domain for years. When popularity for this died away he moved onto soul, which was already well established, then disco, then cheesy 80’s pop. All of which were well established when he decided to put his mark on them, Even the idea behind the Thriller album was nothing new. The idea of epic songs, storybook music and even massive arena light and effects stage shows had all been around since the prog rock days.
All that was done here was to bring this musical direction to pop, a money making stroke of genius it was, but hardly an original idea. And you could argue that Jackson was using the Elvis technique of performing to a certain extent, massive wham bam in your face performance, a technique basically invented by Elvis. Nobody is denying Jackson did what he did brilliantly and that he was very influential to his fans as people, but influential to the direction of music? No. There are millions of talented musicians out there so this doesn’t make him a trailblazer.
Elvis however, was new and fresh in everything he did until the mid seventies when he was obviously in decline physically and mentally. He was the first to bring many different aspects of popular music to public attention. His many films, although quite terrible in production were an extra dimention for his legions of fans to follow, also people who were not great fans of his music could enjoy these films in a tongue in cheek way.
He even made gospel music popular to millions of people who had never even heard of it before. Arguably the biggest band in the world, The Beatles, although detested by Elvis were heavily influenced by him, many other beat bands who went on to mega rock stardom ranging from CCR, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and hundreds of others, even the major rock and pop bands of today were all influenced by his music or the musical style he pioneered.
You can here the Elvis undertone in all of this music. This I am afraid, is what makes Elvis the clear winner here. You can here him in every rock, bebop, Mersey beat, blues, new age rock or riff based song, and also every love ballard, a style music and singing of which he was also a pioneer. When I hear popular music today, I do not hear any influences or echoes of what Michael Jackson has done whatsoever, only things that were present all along. Only artists who are clearly plagiarizing his material make it seem this way. Michael Jackson was good for music there is no doubt, he threw a log on the fire to keep popular music burning, but we must not forget one very important thing, it was Elvis Presley who lit that fire in the first place.