Who's the biggest popstar ever: Michael Jackson or Taylor Swift?

[MicroBrew]

50 or 100 years from now who is going to be the most remembered: MJ or Swift?

I'll go with MJ.

 

[mozfonky]

I agree, they were very different. Michael was for everyone, Prince was mainly for musical snobs. But alas, the comparisons were fair. They were both vying for the same territory (larger than life popstars who were also Black males). What you call an "unfair comparison" I call a mismatch: Prince got left in the dust because he wasn't on that level. There was a little tussle for a few years, but when the dust settled MJ emerged as the King of Pop, the GOAT.

and here you are asking if Taylor Swift is bigger, ok.

 

[mozfonky]

MJ built an empire being flat broke, and coming from Gary, Indiana.Taylor Swift came from elite money, and has a great marketing campaign. Take away the money and politics, Swift doesn't even become a pop star.

Michael did have arguably the greatest record company ever that backed him, that has to count for something. Times were so different too, you can't even force a kid to work like that anymore and especially under the threat of physical abuse. Prince also had a fairly harsh upbringing, kicked out on the streets by his dad at 12 or so. It worked for both in that they knew they'd have to work their asses off. I happen to think MJ got tired of the grind (understandably) earlier in his years than Prince did because he was doing the shit since he was a baby. He looked to just be going through the motions in the This Is It footage, even though, like Elvis, he could pretty much turn it on at will.

As far as Taylor, I don't know a damned thing about her roots, poor/rich, whatever. I've only seen the briefest of snippets and she seems to be a good person, which is pretty much unheard of in that business, so, give her props for that.

 

[mozfonky]

People knew MJ in the same way they knew backstreet boys. Everybody knew them, because you had no choice. There was no internet. Even if you hid under the glacier in the north pole, some Eskimo would come and mention MJ to you.
Today you have zillion of musical choices and in those regards, Taylor Swift is more famous than MJ.

There is just so much crap out here these days, even, being a musician, there is just too goddamned much music. The era of anyone being able to put out music has made an already glutted market ridiculously crammed. It used to be there was no avoiding hearing someone's music unless you just were a total shut in, now, there is just so much music out here that not only is it harder to get a bead on any of it (yes, I know it's easy to find, not what I'm saying) there are just soo many jackasses out here trying to get your attention and make a name for themselves and most of them have nothing worth really listening to.

 

[SCTwins]

MJ was so big that people to this day still completely excuse his, at the very least, wildly inappropriate relationships with multiple children.

Not sure Taylor could pull off openly admitting to letting little kids sleep in her bed.

 

[Streeter]

Unsure Swift is in top 5

Elvis
MJ
Madonna
Garth Brooks
Paul McCartney

Would rank higher imo p4p

 

[Mangar]

Lot's of recency bias in the responses here. Michael Jackson is probably the most popular artist ever (if not him then maybe Elvis). Swift is maybe 10% as popular as Jackson was at his peak. I've never even heard a Taylor Swift song lol

 

[heavy_hands]

Taylor is the devil, so her

 

[TeTe]

For those of you that mentioned the Beatles being bigger pop stars that Swift (including myself) Rick Beato posted an excellent video today based off of the NYT posing that question.

He makes a lot of good points about Swift's music.. namely in that she's more of a content creator than anything. That her stardom lies in reinventing herself more than anything. She had different songwriters write all of her top songs.. like 12 of them, whereas the Beatles wrote all of their material. Not to mention much of Taylor's music is sung to a track bed.

 

[Pliny Pete]

For those of you that mentioned the Beatles being bigger pop stars that Swift (including myself) Rick Beato posted an excellent video today based off of the NYT posing that question.

He makes a lot of good points about Swift's music.. namely in that she's more of a content creator than anything. That her stardom lies in reinventing herself more than anything. She had different songwriters write all of her top songs.. like 12 of them, whereas the Beatles wrote all of their material. Not to mention much of Taylor's music is sung to a track bed.

The argument isnt who's a better songwriter or even who's a better more legit musician, though, its who's a bigger star
Taylor KO1 all these druggie weirdos people keep bringing up

 

[TeTe]

The argument isnt who's a better songwriter or even who's a better more legit musician, though, its who's a bigger star
Taylor KO1 all these druggie weirdos people keep bringing up

True Pete... but to be fair, he did show a chart comparing both of their number 1 hits. He didn't include any of her country music either, just song that fell under the pop category.

 

[jeff7b9]

Elvis or MJ.

Taylor is not even in the conversation in my opinion.

Elvis is still instantly recognizable worldwide and he has been dead for 45+ years.

I don't think there will be any superstars that approach the level of fame Elvis and Michael Jackson had in this current era of society. There is just too much barrage of information and choices.

When Elvis came out there was no internet, there was barely even TV.

There was mainly just radio and he dominated radio. So EVERYONE hear Elvis and knew all about him, like it or not, and there weren't a million other music genres or options to stand in the way.

Michael Jackson same basic thing, slightly different era, but he was a famous singer by age 11 and a household name and by 20-25 he was hands down the biggest star in the entire world.

 

[William Huggins]

MJ was a special individual......... Taylor is a pikey name ......... There nothing remotely interesting about Taylor Swift, she's played it safe.... Like a fucking corporate robot..... MJ dangled baby blanket out a window and was best friends with an animal!!!!

 

[Striderxdj]

Taylor is huge but her music is niche by comparison to Michael.

Id say the average person knows who she is and what she looks like, and may be able to name 1-3 songs at best; but if you intermixed a bunch of her songs with some other radio hits from other female artists that don't have instantly recognizable voices, most people wouldn't even know if it was her song or not.

Michael was huge and his music is so iconic and recognizable, you can play a few seconds of nearly a dozen different songs (without lyrics) and most people will know the song, that it's MJ, and some or most of the lyrics to it as well.