9 Later Day Musical Crimes Perpetuated By Great Artists
6. Michael Jackson - "Earth Song"
It’s important to be careful when talking about crimes and Michael Jackson, but if we’re focussing on the musical variety, the pomposity of “Earth Song” is hard to top. To say the King of Pop was in a turbulent period of his personal life would be to understate things somewhat, but it must have taken somewhat of a messiah complex to come out with something this lacking in self-awareness.
Jackson discovers environmentalism was the elevator pitch. The song is a near-seven minute(!) lecture from the star, who feels it’s his duty to give us all a dressing down for the reckless way we’ve abused the Earth and his natural resources. He illustrated this by shooting a video in four locations across three continents, which he presumably travelled between using some sort of aircraft.
As was his wont, Jackson works himself up into a frenzy over the course of the song, zealously shrieking at the fans to be more like him and to take the environment and animal welfare seriously (Jackson’s captive chimp Bubbles declined to comment). The song is perhaps most famous for Jarvis Cocker’s flatulent response to its performance at the 1996 Brit awards, echoing many a feeling across the world.